LoyalZIP

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Preview from Hustle Belt https://www.hustlebelt.com/2022/10/13/23402850/central-michigan-chippewas-at-akron-zips-football-game-preview-week-7-2022

That's a great perspective to have. The tin lining of the last 3 years is that we won't be seeing football nearly that bad anymore. On top of that, when 2020 robbed us of a shot at a MAC tournament title in basketball and the chance to be at Infocision in the fall, I come to appreciate each game more and more for the sole fact that I love Akron and I'm lucky to watch my alma mater play in one of the nicest facilities in the country for really cheap. And no matter how many beatdowns and losses we've seen at Infocision, there's still no place I'd rather be on a beautiful fall Saturday. Just imagine how it would feel if there was a nice crowd and consistent winning over MAC competition!

Happy Gameday Eve! How does everyone feel about the noon start? I'm not really picky either way when it comes to kick times, but getting to the stadium early in the morning has always felt a little strange to me. I'm a big fan of 2:00pm, early enough to be out of there in time to get settled in to watch the late games but late enough to get a decent night of sleep AND a nice long tailgate. Anyway, I'm going back and forth on this game. I truly believe that Akron can and should be in it for 60 minutes and have a chance to win the game at the end (much like BG), but like Vegas, I'm a lot higher on CMU than I probably should be. CMU, outside of that 2018 season (again, the last FBS team that Zips fans saw Akron beat at home), has been one of the most consistently successful MAC programs over the last 25 years. Akron has only beaten them once since 2003, which was also the last time Akron won in Mt. P. (I know, not relevant this week). Even the 2005 Chips came to the Rubber Bowl with Brian Kelly and spanked the Zips. I look at this year's CMU team the same way I'm looking at Oklahoma--They can't be that bad, right? But sometimes, they are. Unfortunately, the Zips in most cases are indeed that bad. With that said, Akron looks like a Division 1 football team once again. I thought the Liberty game may have been a fluke, but after a couple MAC games now, you can see they are far more competitive and match up with the opponent physically so much more. And while the defense has been bad for much of the year, it has shown flashes of being able to make plays, and like many others I feel they're put in position to be successful more often than not, they just aren't where they need to be skill-wise. The turnover numbers are what show this the most. As I said earlier this week, turnovers aren't luck, they're about position and effort, and then making the play. KJ Martin's pick against BG was just that--he played through the play and they were able to capitalize on a rare miss by the BG QB. I'm ready to admit that Akron has a good MAC offense. With that said, it can be one dimensional. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but establishing a true rushing attack is something that will need to be done in order to consistently compete and win football games. Any good MAC team over however many years has been good because they can run the ball. Even offenses like BG in 2015 or Kent the last few years that identify as throwing teams have rushing attacks to add a dynamic that makes them essentially unstoppable*. I like Price's development so far, he seems to have gotten over the dropsies, but I would like to see the line come together to get a better push and create some holes in the middle. Maybe some option with Irons too. Either way, I am confident that the offense can move the ball. They just need to be consistent and score TDs in the red zone far more often. So, CMU has a new OC that their fans hate, lost a couple stud O-linemen, and have a QB that is good-not-great to pair with one of the best backs in the country, who hasn't gotten much going. I would love to see Akron force CMU to win through the air. Richardson is no Rourke after all. And I want to see the DBs step it up. I like the defensive front and feel they are able to stop the run, but if they fail to stuff it early, I expect a very long afternoon at Infocision. I am looking forward to the matchup on the field and the duel between the two proven head coaches, that's going to be cool thing to see! At the very least, it feels great to have a head coach that isn't obviously in over his head. I grew to resent the previous coach because he sounded like he didn't know what he was talking about, and that's exactly what it looked like on the field. That's not the case anymore, and that itself at least makes me feel better. Go Zips!

YES!

https://fb.watch/g8obzDE3fu/ Tonight’s edition of Zips Live. Coach is just a joy to listen to, even when not talking Xs and Os.

Zips behind the mic on the Akron Zips Facebook page @ 6p as well

I needed a little pick-me-up earlier today and scrolled through the MAC tournament thread on here. Man, it was a party that night! This board was hopping, and the liquor in my house was F L O W I N G

Nope. Iowa State went on to have a very good year when they came to visit in 2017, and that fan base traveled very well. They even bussed their band 10+ hours to Akron! WMU in 2016 was ranked when they came in and destroyed Akron 41-0. Marshall was ranked in the Leftwich game in 2002. Ranked OOC coming to Akron? I don't think that has ever happened at the FBS/1A level.

Mid season report cards for the league. A good read, especially if you haven't been able to follow the rest of the league as much as you would like. https://www.hustlebelt.com/2022/10/12/23397960/2022-mac-fb-midseason-report-cards-akron-ball-st-bgsu-buffalo-cmu-emu-kent-miami-ohio-niu-toledo-wmu

I was actually watching the game this past Saturday where he was put in. The starter got hurt during OT and they put in Gibson. He immediately jumped while throwing the ball like he did here a couple times. Left a terrible coaching staff to join another, and they won!

In 2017, Joe Moorhead was the best offensive coordinator in college football with Penn State, and Jim McElwain was on his way out as head coach at Florida. On Saturday, they face off at Infocision Stadium in Akron, OH as head coaches of 1-5 (0-2 MAC) MAC teams. It's one of the more interesting storylines of the college football week, that most people are totally oblivious to. While CMU has been disappointing this year, McElwain was a tremendous hire and took the Chips fro 1-11 to MAC West champs in 2019. He's got a pretty stable roster, but they've struggled big time this year, especially early in ball games (sound familiar?). Daniel Richardson is one of the better QBs in the league, and RB Lew Nichols is probably the best returning overall player in the MAC from last year, they've vastly underperformed so far. Remember, they spanked Wazzu in their bowl game last year, a rare impressive bowl performance by a MAC team. A look at their early-game struggles: Week 1 @ Oklahoma State: Trailed 37-7 in the 2nd quarter before rallying back in the 4th quarter to lose 58-44 Week 2 vs. South Alabama: Gave up an early TD (missed PAT) then scored to take a 7-6 lead. Wound up giving up 25-unanswered points to take a 31-10 deficit into the locker room Week 3 vs. Buckenll: Really bad, currently winless FCS team. They won 41-0 and covered the 40.5pt. spread! But it was knotted up at 0-0 until a CMU TD pass with 4 minutes before half Week 4: @ Penn State: Actually not a bad performance overall. But they trailed 14-0 mid way thru the 1st quarter before scoring a couple times to make it 14-all. Ended up losing 33-14. Week 5: @ Toledo: The Chips score first! 3-0 after a Marshall Meeder FG (more on him later). Then Toledo ties it up, and then scores 4 unanswered TDs to end the half with a 31-3 lead. Week 6: vs. Ball State: No early struggles in this one, for the most part. They led 10-0 before a BSU TD in the 2nd quarter. They lose at home 17-16, giving up just 236 yards of offense. The aforementioned kicking game has been an unmitigated disaster. Meeder and Josh Rolston are a combined 11-14 on XPs, and 3-9 (!!!!!!!!!) on Field goals. They're a combined 3-5 on 40-49 yarders and haven't made one from 30-39. Rolston hit a 44-yarder in the loss to Ball State last week. Coming into this season, I would have picked CMU as a top 3 MAC team. They brought back a lot of guys from a really good team. As we know, that doesn't necessarily always mean success, just ask the 2021 Ball State Cardinals, who brought back nearly the entire 2020 championship team, including Justin Hall, one of the best players in league history. They thing that sticks out to me is CMU's inability to run the ball with consistency. I thought that would be the thing to give them a chance to win this league, but Lew Nichols, who gained nearly 2,000 yards last year, is averaging just 3.6 yards per carry. This team has struggled mightily. I'm talking about CMU. And Akron. Both teams know who their opponent is. I would say everyone on the CMU sideline feels and knows they're better than they are, and certainly better than Akron. I would happen to agree with them. But as Joe has said, it's a new era here, and I don't expect the Zips to roll over and play dead. The line opened at CMU -13. The metrics must really like CMU, because that seems like a no-brainer to take the points. With that said, the growing pains will continue in some way or another. And OU may have exposed the defense to the rest of the league, showing them how to beat the Zips. However, Akron will have the better receivers, and maybe even the better QB as Joe has made DJ into one of the most efficient QBs in the league, which is hard to believe. This is a winnable game for Akron. I don't expect them to win it, but I wouldn't be surprised if they're in it for 60 minutes and have a chance at the end. Now with that Jinx, CMU will open up with 3-straight TDs out the gate and hit 5 field goals of 50+ 😂 Go Zips!

This week's advanced box score: https://collegefootballdata.com/boxscore/401416616 (Added glossary for reference on some of the metrics): https://collegefootballdata.com/glossary It certainly doesn't feel like it when the defense is such a sieve and playing from behind the entire game, but the offense really was impressive on Saturday. They were very explosive. The Zips got the ball inside the OU 40-yard line on their first 5 drives, cashing in with a pair of field goals and a pair of TDs. They were moving the ball well on their first drive, but failed on 4th & 2. I wasn't a fan of the play call there, and the double reverse whatever the hell that resulted in a big loss at another point in the first half. The Zips move too slow on these plays and with that, the D can see what's going on and get a step ahead. You can see that with some of the WR screens and swings, just slow developing, too much thinking going on instead of just making the throw and making the play. With time this year and in the future, those should iron themselves out a bit. The Zips had 33 first downs! Wow! However, there were a few situations, a couple down on the goal line, where they were unable to get what they needed to. The Zips regressed to 3-10 on third down. On both drives that resulted in FGs, the Zips had either 1st & Goal or 1st & 10 inside the 15, and they either went backwards or didn't get close to the end zone. This goes back to what we've seen most of the season, in an inability to spread it out and run the routes these receivers are good at running. I'd like to see Banks and Brank more involved down here. The trick play Joe ran against SFU with Brank lining up at tackle is one I'm surprised we haven't seen more of. The best defenses in college football have trouble with that one. Defensively, wow. Just so, so bad. I'm fine if teams make nice plays and just beat you, but Ohio did things in the secondary with ease. On the perimeter, they weren't getting a ton of success, but once they ran over the middle of the field, it was like playing Madden on Rookie difficulty for Rourke. DB is probably the toughest position on the field other than QB, as there's a very thin margin for error. And these guys weren't making anything tough for OU. Just a recipe for disaster. In a couple of weeks, Kent will feast on these guys. On top of that, even when the D does make stops, it feels as though they get lucky more than anything. Perhaps the opponent has a bad play call or misses something, but the Zips do not create opportunities on defense. Against BG, the pick they got was a nice play, but more as a result of a bad throw. The pick @ Liberty was beautiful, opportunistic defense to get pressure on the QB and give the secondary a chance to make a play. With no pressure and no push, teams are going to be able to do what they want. It's not helpful to say "GO GET TURNOVERS!!!!" because there's so much more that goes into it. Actually forcing the QB or pass-catchers or ball-carriers to be uncomfortable can make good things happen. The bottom line is, one of these days the Zips will have to come out of the gate on top and take momentum. For 6 straight games, they've come out flat (SFU) or just shot themselves in the foot before all of the fans have even made it into the stadium. Ideally, it would be nice to start a game with the ball, have a nice, long scoring drive to set the tone, and give the defense a lead to play with. Maybe that will help with playing more loosely. To me, this is overall a much improved team and program, but they really, REALLY, do not know how to win football games. CMU coming in this week has had similar troubles. They're more talented than the Zips, but have dug themselves in holes early in ball games, and find themselves having a disappointing and difficult year. The last FBS team that fans saw the Zips beat at Infocision....the Central Michigan Chippewas in 2018.

Always spot on, thank you very much for making this board better every week!

Always a beautiful day when Kent loses. I guess playing Georgia close doesn’t help when you have to face Miami’s backup QB.

Agreed. I was hoping to flirt with bowl eligibility, but realistically, it’s nearly impossible to turn over the worst roster in FBS into something that’s legitimately good. Akron is really bad, but certainly improved in some areas. And three games in a row, they’ve taken some early punches and rallied a little bit to put themselves in position in the second half. Now today of course they were blown out at one point in the second half, but if the defense had simply been bad on that final series, you’re looking at a one-score deficit going into the half and getting the ball. Much like if the punt catastrophe didn’t happen last week. Alas, they continued to move the ball with consistency, just couldn’t turn early drives into TDs or this would’ve been a close game to the end. Ifs and buts and candies and nuts or whatever. This program still has a long way to go, and there’s no arguing that. It feels great to have a coach who cares like this guy does, and it’s awfully fun to watch the offense at times. All eyes on CMU.

He’s officially out of Saul recruits too carry the team

Lots and lots of growing pains. Blech. On to CMU! Go Guards!!!!!

No reason to even engage with the stupidity. In Arth’s first year, Kato Nelson was 1/14 for 14 yards against Ohio.

Ugh 😂

D forcing the offense to be perfect just like the offense was forcing the D to be perfect @ Liberty

Slooooooow defense. Reminds me of the 2012 D.