LoyalZIP

Most miserable game I've ever been to. Zips should have won by 20+ over those bums. It was a very good preview of the title game that year, which was actually more miserable. And before that, Kent snapping our 30+ home win streak was pretty miserable too. So was losing to 12-seed Miami on senior day. Damn, what a heartbreaking season! That year tarnished Zips basketball in a way that I've had trouble shaking for almost 5 years now. We need to go back to the tournament. It's criminal how few times Akron has been over the last 15 years. In Groce we trust.

Groce has used today to put a few wonky lineups out there and toughen up Aziz. He also threw out a lot of presses in the first half with emphasis on not letting the offense catch the ball. He was getting very into it. Next week the real fun starts.

He was upset he didn't play more and didn't believe the staff when they said this was the year he would contribute. I was bummed, he could have been a really good player in this program. He transferred down and is gonna play more and be happier, I wish him well.

You know it!

Apparently Fields and Metheny are still there, just injured at this time

BG getting destroyed by the Buckeyes. 73-35 with 8:00 to go. It’s been as bad as 40.

Amazing, time to make a run!

Not surprising. I’m always very skeptical when I see Zac Jackson’s name attached to Akron news. He stopped caring and putting effort into covering Akron when Dambrot left. I think the only time he’s been back since then was during Buffalo’s dominant run in MBB.

His name was thrown around last time as well. He would be a home run, but I don’t see him having much interest. I think Campbell may be on his way out there as they’ve lost their magic, and with the NFL experience Manning has, I’m sure he would go with Campbell to the NFL if that’s where he ended up.

You meant to say one good half

I bet Wynn transfers to open up a spot

A lot of good things obviously, which was helped by playing a pretty awful team. But the Zips made the awful team look awful, which is always nice. I think Castaneda’s shooting is the best thing we can take away from this one. He was pulling up, spotting up, right at the line, a few feet behind the line. Swish swish swish. Reminded me of a good Trimble game. Speaking of, he threw a bunch up there again but I think he took better ones tonight, which is good. Freeman made a 7’ center look stupid all night. Aziz is definitely a work in progress, he needs to bulk up a bit more and play to his size. Agree Dawson’s leadership and attitude and play were awesome. I love the student section so far. They showed up and we’re LOUD. I missed that feeling in the JAR. That may have been the biggest student crowd I’ve ever seen for a non conference game, especially against a lower division team. Hopefully once this team gets rolling they keep showing up and made life tough for the visitors. Hopefully the general public fans come back out too. Go Zips!

Thought the crowd would be a bit smaller. Nice to see. Students really into it. Zips guarding well, starting to shoot better.

Fair enough, but I think there are also deeper problems. It makes no sense to me that in the third season with Feeney at the helm, the defense can be in a position where a Buffalo TE can catch a drag route at the 40 yard line and run in a wide open field with not a single Akron defender appearing in the camera frame until he gets to the 10 yard line. I would say the defensive backfield has improved, but far too often things like that happen on coverages. That goes beyond personnel. As a poster said in another thread on the WMU game winning TD, sure he was covered, but the safety, I can't remember who, used the totally incorrect technique by attempting to undercut the route and the throw went over the top and was caught. It's easy for me to say, but the obvious thing to do it stay high and keep the receiver from catching it instead of trying to pick it off or whatever it is he was doing. To me, the ineptitude of the defensive backfield is far more scheming than it is talent. Up front, it's talent and size all day long. A Rodney Coe-like transfer would have been awesome this season.

Man, I wish Arth had done the same at some point this year, or after last year. Speaking of Arth, that guy was Arth's DC at Chattanooga for a year. What a fun coincidence.

It’s a a start on the beer. I’ve been suggesting it to the marketing people for years. Make it fun. Bring local companies in. There’s a different Akron area brewery for every home game on the schedule for crying out loud. It’s so obvious!!!

He seemed to hesitate early on Tuesday evening and then I think built up his confidence once he saw a few more shots fall. His outside shot has come a long way since he got here. He’s such a tough kid that flies under the radar, his explosion at Ball State last year was amazing and took a ton of people in the league by surprise. Not Zips fans. He’s a cool story and we’re lucky to have him here.

When he transferred, KD and Groce were both fully expecting him to come to Akron. Then one day, everyone got the notification that he committed to Kent and it shocked both UA and Doo-Cane. The kid can play, but he is a bit of a wild card. I wish we got him, but I like our personnel plenty good.

If you added a 3 & D guy like Banks to this roster, Akron would win 25+ games. I'm liking the way Trimble is trending, he just becomes much more of a liability when the misses add up. If he keeps up the hard D, he will earn himself good looks on offense and he will eventually knock them down. Basketball to him seems like such a mental game, hopefully a more normal season helps him out greatly.

Northern Illinois, who hired their head coach at the same time as Akron and had a worse record than Akron last year, is 7-3 (5-1 MAC) after defeating Ball State. They’re in the driver’s seat for the West and control their own destiny. They have 80+ freshman. Arth was 3-24. Wonder how many local media folks will talk about this? Just ask Dustin Fox, he thinks Arth was just turning the corner. Loser.

He’s not hurt or anything, and we know his abilities. His defense is very valuable and he’s a great athlete. I have a feeling it’s an attitude/teamism thing. Wynn loves him some Wynn, and that’s not the kind of guy Groce wants in there. Hopefully they’re working on it.

And AJ Milwee got hired at Alabama and Texas after he was the worst offensive coordinator that Akron has ever had. Those moves don't suggest anything to me that any of them are worth a damn. If you ever talk to people in the game, you know that people who suck get hired all of the time because they either lie or kiss the you know what of who's looking to get a new guy. Scott Aligo has had a different job nearly every year for the last 8-9 years. I think he was a scout for the Browns a couple of years before they wound up going 0-16. Oh, and he's a massive D-bag. John Cooley, who Akron stole from the mighty 2-10 Kent State Golden Flashes, was hired by his buddy Staley. Wonder where I've heard of Staley wanting an incompetent Akron coach he's buddies with before? Jayden Everett came to Akron after coaching RBs for 1-11 CMU. Now he's with Tulsa who sucks. Felton was fresh out of high school coaching when Arth gave him a raise from his coffee-go-getter job at Tennessee, who also sucked. A majority of these clowns share the same resume as Arth. Where'd they start and get their most success? John Carroll. And they're riding those relationships as far as they can go. They went 0-12 playing in the worst division top to bottom in the FBS, and 11 of the games were utter embarrassments. I don't want to hear about how wonderful that staff was.

In all of the suck that this current staff has brought us in the last three years, I’m just now reminded of that initial staff, a few of which are still around. I believe 2 were poached from a horrid 2-10 Kent team and then Zagorski doesn’t belong in D1. Don’t get me started on Feeney. Gasser, Rodriguez, and the RB coach who left after a couple weeks for Troy whose name escapes me are the only ones who belonged out of the entire staff. Alex Kline is supposed to be the greatest young football mind in college football and he’s a joke. Anyone around this group from the very early stages could see this was a disaster from the start. Too many arrogant John Carroll guys. D3 and arrogant is not a winning combo.

Often, next to zero. Big upsets, midweek games, and coaching news will catch their eye. Nothing else. What were they saying in the Temple ass-kicking? Bryant atrocity? Ohio embarrassment? BG win? Miami and Buffalo blowouts? They see the results and come to a very quick and ill-informed conclusion. There are a few media guys who are "Akron guys" and they consider themselves Akron experts and their followers are made up of Ohio State Browns fans who look to them for their UA and MAC takes, when in reality they've seen a few snaps of a few games over decades. The death of the newspaper is hitting mid-majors harder than anyone, and I get it. Their isn't enough interest in UA for the BJ or any other local outlet to properly report on and analyze Akron. In turn, you get blowhards on Twitter going "Man, they shoulda never let that guy go!" The local media was SALIVATING when Akron hired Arth. Quite hilarious. They then killed Akron for being such an embarrassment during the 0-12 season and called Akron football "invisible." Now Akron has two close should-have-been-wins after losing to Buffalo in embarrassing fashion, looking like a high school team. Now we're getting slapped in the face constantly with KEHRES!!!!!!! not because they know he will be a good fit at Akron, but because it's an easy name to suggest as it's the only one they know. That's also how a high school coach's name gets thrown around. That game last night could have just as easily been 59-21 based on the talent gap alone. What did these media guys have to say about WMU beating Kent by 30+? None of them even know that ever happened. WMU is streaky, Akron tends to play hard. There's not much more you can say beyond that. Akron loses that game 9/10 times they play it. Same with the Ball State game and so on. 3-24 speaks for itself, of course they were getting a little better, it was damn near impossible not to. Vegas had the Zips being 27 points worse than WMU for a reason. The point still stands, it was time to move on.

Caught this one on the radio but I hope to see some highlights in the AM. What the hell is going on with this team? They just put up 40 points for the first time since Morgan State in 2018 if my memory is serving me right. When was the last Zip kick return TD? Did you ever think that the first turnover we force in what feels like 8 years would be a DL pick 6? Just insanity. Weirdness always happens when the Zips go to Waldo, that is certain. I’m hoping at least a few guys in this offensive core stick around with the new coach, I would assume at this point everyone might transfer, but the prospect of a new coach getting 3 more years of Zach Gibson could make this job the slightest bit more attractive. He’s come a very long way as a 3rd year Freshman and he has played his tail off for the Zips this season. Feeney should have been gone lone before Arth. I think Arth could have saved himself if he had gotten rid of him last year, but that ship has sailed. Too bad. I haven’t seen the final TD yet, but I can’t imagine many Zips fans had much faith they could hold on there at the end, just when you get your hopes up…Eleby strikes. 2-8 with 2 to go. Kent is going to come into Infocision with a goal of absolute annihilation. That’s how Lewis is. But I can see tonight that the group is still motivated to prove themselves, and I love that. Beating Kent with the year they’ve had compared to the year we’ve had would make it one of my all-time favorite wins over them. I definitely don’t see it happening as that would require at least 5-6 stops by the defense depending on how we move the ball. But I’ll save my thoughts on that one for a few days. What a wild run of games for Akron Zips Athletics. I can taste the wins for football and basketball. I’m ready. Go Zips!