LoyalZIP

Zips live again tonight at 6:00p. I’m very excited to hear Joe’s thoughts with the rivalry just a couple days away!

Narrated by the DL coach too. Gimme a brick wall to run through!!!!!!!

Woooooooooooooahhhhh buddy the goosebumps from this hype video featuring the guys at the Rubber Bowl!!!!!! I remember the 2017 team intro video was filmed there, so damn cool! GO ZIPS!!!!

I personally am not trying to get too worked up too early in the week @Blue & Gold 😂 This one is an interesting matchup. Both head coaches are considered offensive geniuses in very different ways. JoeMo is far more tactical, while Lewis' offense is much more simple and plays up tempo. This is not the Kent offense of the last 2 seasons, but it's still one of the best in the league. Schlee is an above average MAC QB. He's no Dustin Crum and has not mastered that system yet, but he is a formidable opponent. RB Marquez Cooper is the real X-factor, as in the RPO-up-tempo offense, he is a lightning quick runner who is also very strong and can break some tackles at the second level. I may take a shot to predict Akron to win, but this offense vs. our defense is something I am having trouble talking myself into. With that said, on paper in MAC play, these teams aren't so far apart. Scoring Offense in MAC play: AKRON--27.7ppg KENT--28.7ppg Scoring Defense in MAC play: AKRON--38ppg KENT--34.3ppg Each team has played a pair of one-score games and has a 21-point loss. Kent racked up 700+ yards, but fumbled 5 times in a 31-24 OT win over Ohio, they had a comeback fall short at Miami to lose 27-24, and they blew a 21-0 lead 5 minutes into the game, to be outscored 52-10 the final 55 minutes. Pretty wild number right there. DJ Irons, who is apparently better suited as a RB, is currently 2nd in the MAC in passing offense, averaging 299ypg, completing at a 70% clip. He is also the most sacked QB in the league, which is compounded by both his tendency to hold the ball a second too long, and the offensive line being inconsistent, and now really banged up. I'm very worried about how this game could look if we don't get a couple of those guys back. Considering these team's respective offenses, from QB, to RB (clear advantage to Kent, but I like Price), to WR, there's quite a bit of skill to go around. Dante Cephas is one of the better receivers in the country, and Devontez Walker has come along nicely for them. Akron's three-headed transfer monster may actually have the upper hand at this position, especially when you throw in Brank and Banks who were used beautifully on Saturday. It really is a damn shame that the fumble happened and they blew that chance, because the 2nd half offense was a thing of beauty. Both coaches hate the other team. It feels good to say that again. Tom Arth famously considered Kent just another game on the schedule, and didn't even like to use the word rivalry. Joe Dunn has now said a couple of times and I tend to agree--it's almost a blessing that Kent is up next on the schedule after a disastrous loss like that. It's something to shift your focus and emotion to instead of dwelling on the past week. Maybe he's wrong, but it makes sense to me. And when we watch the Joe Moorhead Akron Football Dynasty Documentary™ in 20 years that details how he made Akron into a G5 power (you never know 😂), what better way to pick up your first FBS win, first MAC win, and truly kick start a winning-not-losing culture than to roll into the Dicks Dump out in the sticks as huge underdogs with not a soul in the country believing you, and coming out of there with the Wagon Wheel back in your possession? It's a picture-perfect storybook entry into this awesome rivalry, but maybe it's just too early in this process and too good to be true. We'll have to wait to see. Either way, I'm looking forward to some morning beers before the sun rises over there in Portage County, and I can't wait to watch this football program that I love play another game. Go Zips!!!!!

Saturday is a “white out” at the Dicks Dump. Kent will be wearing their light blue jerseys (not a school color, also not white), with white helmets and white pants. Akron, the visiting team, will be wearing white jerseys. Whole lotta geniuses over in Portage County.

Nice post-game write-up. The author sums up the season pretty nicely at the end. https://www.hustlebelt.com/2022/10/18/23409737/central-michigan-chippewas-akron-zips-football-game-analysis-week-6-2022

The ignore user function is a beautiful thing

Great question. Maybe give Adam a ring at the ticket office and see what he has to say? He's the best.

Had some chances, too bad.

Both head coaches place a ton of value on winning the rivalry game. This one will be intense. A few weeks ago, Kent bought a billboard that overlooks Infocision over at the 76-77 interchange. I found it funny, as this is the same athletic department who had a profane locker room diss track video leak, which preceded a 20-point loss in the MAC basketball championship game. You would think something like that would help you realize it's best to focus on yourself instead of being obsessed with your underdog rival, much like a young, stupid child would. A win here for the Zips would be up there with the sweetest of victories over Kent in the history of the program. Gonna be a fun morning over at the Dix Dump.

Nice work, thank you very much for putting this together @LZIp . I’m very much looking forward to the few weeks following the season when the portal carousel starts to spin. And the QB competition with Irons, Jennings, and Wasel will be fun to watch for next year. I hope Wasel can come in for the spring so we can get an earlier look at him. I’ve got a feeling the staff has their eyes locked in on him for the future of this program.

Since 2010, Zip coaches in their first season are a combined 3-40. Joe is so obviously in over his head. They’re losing games the same way Arth did in his first year. No progress. Just had an RB set the single game completions record and throw for 400 yards. I mean what is this guy doing? Put the 6’6” dude at RB you dummy!!!! Look, nobody on this board has sugar coated anything about what they see on the field this year. @catdaddyp isn’t some lifelong Zip die hard cheerleader. The dude just loves football and has picked the Zips, freaking awesome. And folks are clowning him for saying the team has made immense progress from last year and the prior couple years. As for myself, I have numerous times for weeks noted that Akron is still a bad football team, and I had higher hopes for 2022. But reality set in quickly, as similar mistakes from the past have been mixed in with some very efficient and impressive performances here and there. It hasn’t hit the win column, and it’s frustrating as hell. But as someone who has been to every single game at Infocision for over a decade, the steps forward are obvious. How soon the blowout home losses to Temple, Ohio, Buffalo, and Kent just last year alone are forgotten. Sure, almost doesn’t count. But not getting embarrassed and being in a position to win for 75% of the games against G5 teams this year is a pretty damn clear step forward to me. If we’re at this 1-6 point come next year, concerns will be had. But it’s just mind-numbingly stupid to me that someone would be out on THIS coach and THIS team after THESE 7 games. The same way how many people were “out” on Groce after 2 years of underwhelming when it was also painfully obvious that the program was improving and would take more than 5 minutes to build into something worth a s***.

Clearly he doesn’t. He needs to run the touchdown play more often and run the stop the touchdown plays on defense more often. These close losses show that he is completely lost, and lackluster QB and WR play have resulted in an offense that doesn’t move the ball and doesn’t score any points at all. It’s very disappointing to see, and things are more bleak now than under Arth, Ianello, and the bad Bowden years. Time to quit now. Pack up and go home. Time to buy some Golden Flashes tickets and move on from this now loser program and coach.

Excellent as always. Thanks @catdaddypand glad you enjoyed the game. It sure was a great day at the yard, and would’ve been perfect with a win! Maybe more thoughts from me tomorrow, but I really don’t want to have to think about this one too much more. Bottom line is, if DJ & Price complete the transfer one way or another, the talk of this game isn’t about mistakes, bad running game, losing on top of losing, etc. Like other posters say, the margin for error when you lack talent is razor thin. With that said, DJ stepped up and made some big throws today. Took far too many sacks, with the pass blocking taking a step back due to personnel issues, and CMU has a hell of a defense. After all, Ball State was 0-13 on 3rd downs against them last week. And Ball State is far better than Akron. Defensively, more bend-don’t-break, with just a bit too much break. The Bubba blitz was awesome though, a big time play I want to see more of. And they were so close to getting a big fumble recovery on the sack on the CMU drive after Akron tied it. Once again by Morton. If the Zips recover that, again we may be having a whole different discussion. The room for error is so damn thin, it’s amazing to think about and to watch every week. Damn it. So here we are. 1-6, 0-3 in the league. Lost 3 of the last 4 by single digits, had two straight home losses by a score while having the ball with a chance to win in the dying minutes. The Zips have comfortably graduated to “bad” on the college football spectrum. As much as I grew to resent everything about the Bowden experience, Joe quoted him today on the lose big—> win big thing. And his teams never consistently followed that mold and I find it to be kind of a silly philosophy. However, while many folks had higher expectations for this team in 2022, I really like the steps being taken. Though I just had to step back and laugh at that unbelievable way to lose today, I don’t feel apathy. I’m absolutely fired up. I can understand how some posters and Zips fans are upset and disappointed and checked out. But I’ve had a lot of fun watching the last handful of Akron games, which is far more than I could say the last few years. It will be an interesting week at practice. I’m not sure there can be a more hungry group of student athletes after what these guys have been through. What better time to put it all together and come out on top? You never know.

Kent went up 21-0 6 minutes into the game @ Toledo. Right after the Zips’ heartbreaker. Man, I couldn’t believe how bad the day was going. Then had a few beers and found peace in the result at Info, and see Kent wound up losing 52-31! Always a beautiful day when those a-holes go down, especially like that.

This is the frame of the play right before the fumble. DJ keeps—10+ yard gain up the middle or a TD. Handoff to Price—easy TD or go down before you get into the end zone to avoid a Browns-Jets situation. Man, what a colossal mistake. Sucks sucks sucks.

Got zero words for that. Just gotta laugh.

I’m curious to hear @catdaddyp’s thoughts on the Zips run D and what all is going wrong that’s gone so well this year so far. Seems like the front is getting manhandled, and the Zips aren’t finishing tackles at the second level, even when they’ve got a few guys on the runner. Frustrating as hell.

CMU kicking woes continue. They make up for it with a nice stop, the kid made a great open field tackle on DJ on second down. This offense takes an unbelievable amount of sacks every week. I wonder what Joe does to try to mitigate them. Got a chance, but it’s slipping away with every unsuccessful drive.

Game saving answer there. Not sure what either teams strategy is kicking off that direction. Need a stop or this ones about over.

Saving the win for next week I see…. Ugh ugh ugh

Still don’t have a kicker either. F!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No reason to QB draw right there. They’ve eaten it up since the TD, and now we get Undercuffler 🤦‍♂️

So frustrating. Don’t know how to win.

Putrid performance outside of the TD and maybe 1-2 more plays on offense. Coming up empty after the turnover is unacceptable, the sack DJ took is completely unacceptable, still so many kinks. Lucky to be tied.