LoyalZIP

Did Irons leave the game Saturday because he was hurt? I certainly didn't notice that. But if he is out, that would explain the line and I would expect the Zips to lose big. And if he were to miss extended time, then I think Arth would ultimately be done. Now this is all I'll be able to think about all week. Great.

I used to fight back against this idea, until about 5 years ago. The Western Michigan Broncos in 2016 were the best MAC team to ever take the field. They beat two Big Ten teams in nonconference and destroyed every single MAC team they faced. How were they rewarded? A trip to the Cotton Bowl for a fancy exhibition game in which they lost to Wisconsin by 8. Never even a whiff of a national championship or playoff of any kind. Now would I LOVE for Akron to miraculously be that good some day? Absolutely! But when you are perfect and unbeatable for 13 games and your reward is essentially just another bowl game, I start to question what the point is. I understand there is a somewhat valid exposure argument, plus money gained through TV contracts. However, how do you weigh having a legendary football team going on a run vs. the basketball program going on a similar run? I am very curious to know which is more "worth it" if you're successful, being big time G5 football, or being a top mid-major basketball program that wins in the NCAA tournament.

A rivalry is renewed as the 0-4 Ohio Bobcats come to town for Homecoming weekend, fresh off of a 35-6 loss @ Northwestern in which a 55-yard TD run by Ohio's Armani Rogers as the clock expired kept them from being shut out. A familiar name leads the Kitten offensive attack, as former Bobcat QB terror Nathan Rourke's younger brother Kurtis now has the reigns. He leads an offense that puts up just under 14 points per game while the defense has surrenders around 35 a game. They opened the year with a very disappointing 29-9 loss at home to Syracuse, followed by a Gardner-Webbian catastrophic loss to the mighty Duquesne Dukes (not basketball) by a 28-26 final. Former Zip punter Jonah Wieland has been dynamite for the Bobcats. Nobody will ever forget the 37-34 triumph over Ohio in November of 2017. That's Akron's only win over the Bobcats since 2007, which is still mind blowing. Do yourself a favor and do NOT look at the box score from this game in 2019. I care about you, don't do it. The Zips open as 9-point home underdogs. I was quite surprised. That's a lot of points. But I also wouldn't be surprised to see Akron lose 35-10. Hope for the best.....GO ZIPS!

I would enjoy a trip to Notre Dame. They’ve shown some vulnerability over the years. Also, Miami doesn’t belong on that list. Toledo and CMU have given them scares recently and they haven’t really been relevant in like 20 years. Other than that, it’s hard to disagree. It’s nice to see Indiana and Kentucky (coming to Infocision at some point) on the upcoming schedules. A Purdue would be nice to see, a West Virginia trip would be fun. Kansas would be perfect. Multiple MAC schools have even done home-and-homes with them. If I were an AD, putting together a schedule would be one of the most fun parts of the job where you can put a unique and strategic spin on things.

That’s the first touchdown Akron has scored against Ohio State in over 20 years, so that’s cool! Other than that, I saw about what I expected to see. The defense actually made a couple of plays and forced a turnover, I couldn’t believe it. And the TD drive to take the brief lead was a lot of fun. I guess all you can really take away from this is the $1.8M. Oh, and Irons continues to look the part. If he wills us to a couple of MAC wins, he may save Arth’s rear end. He a tough, tough guy and I’m glad he wears the blue & gold. Onto Ohio. If we drop this one, it’s not looking good for Arth. Guthrie won’t put up with 1-11 in year three. No way in hell. Nor should he.

What does a "successful" game for Akron look like tomorrow? That's what I've been trying to figure out this week. Is it covering? No, not necessarily. Is it keeping it close? Yes, but I don't see that as a remote possibility. After thinking it through, I just want to see competence by both sides of the ball to make plays that Division I FBS football players make. Defensively, Ohio State will get open and they'll break tackles and out run you. But I don't want to watch a repeat of the Auburn game where every play seemed to be 25+ yards with open receivers down field. A few deflections and maybe, by miracle, a turnover would be nice to see. Force maybe 2 punts before the fourth quarter. Make at least one tackle in the backfield before the fourth quarter. All of that could end up resulting in 63 points for Ohio State, but at this point, the defensive leadership is so pathetic that's where I have to put the bar at this point. Offensively? Move the ball a little bit. Get a first down or 2 on each drive. In 2007 in this game, JD Brookhart sent out Jon Stec to punt 14 times. If Slike is sent out fewer times than that, I will be surprised. As other posters have said, keep the clock running and get out of there if that's what you need to do. Irons will be under a lot of pressure so I am hoping that when he does tuck it and run, he's a lot more careful about taking hits. He's been leaving it all out there, don't get me wrong I love the effort, but him going down would officially end any hope this team has. I don't expect this game to be pretty at all. Just get it over with and don't get hurt. This isn't the year for this game.

Thank you for your hard work and thank you for sharing!

A home game against a decent FCS game then three near guarantee losses on the road. Brutal. At least Tennessee is a cool trip.

Coming off of the Michigan game, everyone around the program was so fired up for this game. I believe a 6pm kick, I kind of miss those evening environments when the games were exciting. The Zips had a real good chance to win but ULL's QB Terrance Broadway was as clutch as any QB to play a game in Infocision. That was a good season that could have been a hell of a lot better had they pulled that one out. Edit: This also happened. Mad respect to that kicker, that may have sealed the deal.

Irons unsurprisingly named MAC East offensive player of the week. East/West Special Teams POTW were punters from Ohio and Ball State, who were both blown out by G5 nonconference opponents. If that doesn't tell you how bad this league has become, I don't know what will. Also, former Zip punter Jonah Wieland won those honors for the Bobcats. I had no idea he transferred to Ohio, and I have no idea why Ohio needed a punter who averaged 37.7 yards per punt.

I'd be content with 56-10. Sigh.

I was there too. 1-19 since the beginning of the 2019 season will do that to a fan base. I'm surprised as many showed up as they did. And Zips fans are a long-suffering bunch. 14-14 with a terrible FCS team going into the 4th quarter is nearly impossible to get excited for. If the coaches were good motivators, you wouldn't need to care about Joe Akron in the stands keeping track of the Ohio State game play for play on the ESPN app. If the coaches had those boys motivated like, say Sean Lewis does with his, that game would have been over after 1 quarter.

As appalling as most of that game was, it was still a nice feeling to win and I hope everyone celebrated accordingly! Yes, we are at that point unfortunately, but there was no repeat of Gardner-Webb, so thank the good Lord. The biggest issue yesterday was very clearly the inability to finish drives on both sides of the ball. The defense only gave up 146 yards and the offense gained 514. If you had told me before the game we'd see those numbers, I would have predicted something like a 42-7 victory. Instead, the defense gave up 5-11 third downs and often couldn't get off the field when a MAC defense against that caliber team should be shutting the opposition down. Offensively, they failed to convert on any points deep in Bryant territory I believe 3 times. Unacceptable. Despite the 300+ difference in yardage, Time of Possession was just about equal. That explains why this game was up in the air for 2 quarters too long. If DJ Irons wasn't pulling a Michael Vick impression, I think Arth would have been fired this coming Monday. The offensive line is so bad, and the receivers, who I think are decent, couldn't get open, so he was forced to put his body on the line more than he should have needed to. Plus, his arm looked real good. The frozen rope to Mathison on the first score was an excellent ball. I'm not one to pile on to referees much, especially in a sport like football where I believe the structure of the officiating crew can eliminate a lot of error. But that crew was not good. At all. The botched fumble call at the end of the first half was absolutely infuriating. It's not an excuse for Akron to fail to put the ball in the end zone when deep in the territory like they did a couple of times, but that was clear and obvious that it wasn't a fumble. How the replay official didn't kill the game right there and overturn that call is one of the most puzzling things I've seen by a crew. Either somebody was asleep at the wheel or they had Bryant +14. I couldn't believe my eyes, I'm sure that crew will get a nice talking to. And as for the penalty on Arth, that could have very well been the nail in his coffin at that time. And he was right to complain, as for the penalty, it was probably deserved. But it sure was nice to see some fire. One final thing off that last point, yesterday showed me that Arth and this staff are simply terrible motivators. It wasn't until the Irons rescue TD run that the entire team seemed to believe in themselves. They even forced a damn turnover! I couldn't believe it! If they came out of the gate with that energy and maintained it when things don't go their way, this team would be much better. And that starts at the top. With that said, I would be pleasantly surprised if this team does win another game. I don't trust the staff and I haven't seen enough from the defense as a whole and the offensive line to make me feel good about beating any beatable team. That's a sad fact. I don't see Guthrie putting up with that either, with his personality I'm sure he's collecting money right now for whatever buyouts he may need to cover. Go Zips!

Akron, Ohio, Miami, and Bowling Green are a combined 0-9 heading into the third Saturday of the season. Kent's route to a MAC East title will never be easier than it is this year. Meanwhile, there are more winnable games on the schedule for the Zips, but I have a bad feeling not only about Saturday, but the first couple of MAC games.

This is tremendous!!! Well done!! 😂

Tough loss.

It appears the Zips are on the attack in 2H, just haven't found the net yet.

1-0 OSU

Agreed. Kicking game is great! What's not great? The Kick Off Specialist had to make 2 tackles last week. That guy is a Zip all-timer, but he shouldn't have to be making tackles, especially when his kicks are so good.

A must win. And a must win by a lot. And a must win by a lot and never have any doubts. I just want to celebrate a damn win again.

I've heard this as well. I have heard that he expects them to be bowl eligible, this year. As a fan, before the season I came up with the pathway to bowl eligibility, with an emphasis on the Temple game, assuming Bryant is a win, that would make Akron 2-2 heading into the conference season. While Akron did get a very difficult MAC west draw, they still open MAC play with Ohio and BG, who appear to be in the MAC East basement with Akron. If all goes well there, you're 4-2. And I'd be lying if I said that picture wasn't playing in my head after it was 14-0 this week. 4-2 with 6 to play, I think every Zips fan would take that. And it doesn't always mean bowl eligibility (as we're too familiar with), but now it seems we may be lucky to be 2-4 with 6 to play. After the first two MAC games, it's hard to see another game where this team can truly have a chance to win. Maybe they compete in more games this year than the previous two. But Akron is fortunate to play in what is possibly the weakest division in the FBS, and it has been for a long time now. I don't even want to think about what might happen on November 20. This division is terrible, and even in Akron's state, they should at the very least still be in the running for a division title by the time mid/late October comes around. But I fear Temple was a preview of what we'll see in winnable games. Perhaps not to that catastrophic extreme, but as Arth said in his presser, it seemed like everyone knew what was happening during that sequence. What has plagued Akron football since 2014 is coach stubbornness. I am looking to Guthrie to address this situation carefully as the season goes on and we get into the offseason. Perhaps it's too early to have this discussion, but I find it interesting. You don't necessarily want a meddling AD that doesn't respect his/her coaches, but I think we can all agree that an AD can become a valuable mediator in a situation where he can step into Arth's office at the end of the season and tell him that it's not good enough and he needs to make serious changes, even if it means hurting a buddy's feelings. It would be even better if Arth could do what the previous staff refused to do in cutting off dead weight, that would at least prove to me that he cares about this job and cares about Akron. If this trend continues and Matt Feeney is leading this defense going into 2022, that is a massive failure.

I love that analogy, LZip. Feeney is Milwee. The head coach's boy who is under qualified and isn't making any progress after a few seasons. I have a hard time believing that our defensive personnel are actually as bad as they seem. There are some great athletes out there. However, they aren't put in any position to be successful. I've never seen a zone defense that allows for so many pass catchers to be open underneath with nobody within 5-10 yards. I feel like I'm watching Rob Senderoff basketball of trying to stick a square peg in a round hole. It's not working. Make some changes. Own that you were wrong and admit it. At this point, that may be the only way to keep a shred of respect from the fan base. Akron dominated that first half outside of 3-4 plays, which just goes to show you the difference between being good and bad in this sport. Catastrophic sequences like that have plagued this program for a long time, and unfortunately much like previous coaching staffs, they lack the ability to lead and motivate. The Irons pick 6 was pathetic, why is that play in the playbook and why would you run it at that point in the game? And I get he's young, but why is he trying to make that throw? That was when I knew right there. I might as well have left. One other thing. In the second half before the game was completely out of reach, Akron was driving somewhat deep into Temple territory. On third down, Irons got rushed and took a bad sack that knocked Akron out of field goal range. I believe a TD would have made it a one-score game. After the play, Temple received a taunting penalty. Great! First and ten at the 20, right?!?! NOPE!!!!! Joey Marousek, Akron's 9th string QB with a headset, said something and ran out onto the field, making the fouls offset, giving Akron a 4th and a mile out of field goal range, leading to a turnover-on-downs. P A T H E T I C. With that said, for my own good and sanity, I'm looking forward to the win next week, as meaningless as it will be. And then we open MAC play with two seemingly similarly bad conference opponents, so I look forward to talking myself into a couple of wins there haha.

Fearless/Hopeful Forecast: Kato starts and gets pulled after 2 drives. Edit: Hopeful that he plays really well and doesn't need to get pulled/Hopeful the leash is short.

All in all, Kato has only had a handful of good halves as an Akron QB and we're 6 years into this experience. That 1st half against Ohio in 2017 influenced so much of my view of him and the potential he had as a RS-Fr. But here we are 4 years later and I don't think he looks much different. From what I can see, he's grown as a teammate and a leader--he was a disaster in this area back then. But maybe he needs to be a Josh McCown/Case Keenum type role on this team.