GP1

Joe should get one more season for financial reasons alone. Akron has a sane OOC next season with a chance to gain momentum for a good season. A new coach would be less able to exploit this opportunity and Akron would suffer. Knowing this and with my experience as a Zips fan, I predict Akron will fire Joe after this season, start the endless building process over and miss out on exploiting a favorable schedule next year.

I bought a Nike golf shirt with the new logo on it and the word AKRON under it. The shirt itself is really nice. I found it interesting that they had to tell you what the logo meant underneath of the logo itself. People are supposed to know what the logo means without being told. It never says NIKE under the swoosh. BTW, the logo was very creative......for Arby's.

Good. I had hopes for him, but the lazy decision to schedule OSU on the road after Kentucky paid us $1.0 million to get out of a game was the turning point for me. It was the least creative thing he could have done. Akron needs someone who can get money into the revenue stream some way other than whoring out the football program and make that program better.

He's a retired 66 year old with zero hours logged as an AD. I think it's a little late for him to pick up a new trade.

Looking back, you are correct. I think it was more than willpower.... The University didn't have a single person in it who had any idea what it would take to jump a level. The weight room was in the basement of the basketball arena. The NCAA basically begged Akron not to make the jump by restricting scholarships. Dennison was never the person we needed as AD. There was zero money. The Rubber Bowl was already a mess in 1987. This is a question I would love to have answered. Who was the first person at the University to think hiring Faust and moving up was a good idea? My follow up question would be, who did that person run the idea by and what was was the response? I guess that's two more questions. There had to be a core group of people who thought it was a good idea. Who were they? I wonder if guys like Joe Dunn or Steve French would know this.

I get it. It's plainly obvious to me. The way the program is viewed and managed from the Athletic Director up to and including the President level is not designed to win. They treat the football program as the fundraising arm of the athletic department.

There were hundreds of guys like him working at MAClike schools across the country back then.

I would prefer they focus on scholarship so I prefer the programs such as joint MBA and JD programs. While I think online MBA programs are a joke, corporate America is unnecessary driving it. Most corporate jobs mid level managers and below don't need mbas.

I got mine in 1993 and remember almost nothing. It did help me get jobs in my younger years. I also got a full scholarship so it was very affordable. One of the best hoops I've ever jumped through.

Don't forget low value. Look, I have a masters degree back from when they weren't required. Today, people have them to trick the AI in Workday so your resume moves forward. For universities, masters programs are little more than money grabs adapted to the changing work requirements.

I don't know if I'm coming around, just observing. I'm starting to think that Zips fans are becoming more and more like Browns fans. I realize there are crossovers. I remember when the Browns just weren't good, they were World Championship contenders. They had great players all over the field. They were a play or two from going to the Super Bowl with a level of talent to win it all, but that was 2-3 generations now. I'm old enough to remember when the Zips were good. They weren't great like Marshall, NIU and Miami back in the day, but they were close. In fact, they were close enough to win the MAC once. Akron has had lots of very good players....I can't believe I forgot to name Matt Cherry and Butchie Washington above...shame on me, but there are lots of good players I probably forgot or the list is too long to name them all. Want to feel old and realize how long ago that was? Charlie Frye and Luke Getsy are now 43 and 40 respectively. For those of you who are old enough to remember them and watch the Zips now, can you say with a straight face that what you watched Saturday is the same level of ability to compete in the MAC for four quarters as back then? To me, the talent isn't nearly the same. The ability to compete physically and mentally isn't the same. Before anyone starts leaving stats again, I'll leave you with your crutch. I know what I see and it isn't good.

What level all MAC. Historically, the ability to fog up a mirror can get a guy on the all MAC team. Seriously, where are the high quality players we used to have?

Getting the players is the job of the coach. By now, Akron should have better players across the offensive line and they don't. Buffalo had better talent across their defensive line. I couldn't wait to see improved Akron defense everyone talked about. What I saw was a defence lacking in talent get pushed around the field and out worked. Some of their guys were physically impressive in a way Akron's aren't. Where is Chase Blackburn, Hixon, Getsy, Biggs, Frye, Dwight Smith, Andy Alleman, etc.? I could go on all day about it. Even the no name players aren't as good today as in the past. Good grief, am I the only person who sees this? Akron reminds me of a slightly worse version of 2024 Wake Forest in the ACC. I've seen Wake teams go to the ACC Championship and 3-4 win Wake teams. The coach is the same and perfect for their program. The talent is the difference. I saw them play Mississippi and Clemson this year and lost to both teams by around 35 points. I've seen Wake beat both of these teams in the past when Wake has better talent and they had less. If the opponents wanted to beat them by 60 they could have easily run up the score because the talent disparity was so extreme. They also barely beat UConn and Stanford, who are both historically bad programs and the base talent between the teams was similar. They lost to Louisiana, a G5 team, and will miss out on a bowl because of it. Wake's talent level has dropped in the past two years in a way that coaching can't make up for. Talent is everything in college football. It's why recruiting is so emphasized. My biggest criticism of Joe has always been not bringing in his guy as a QB. By doing so he would have had someone others might want to take a chance on Akron and play with. Joe's recruiting is bad. Arth's recruiting was bad. Bowen's recruiting was lazy. I Coach was a buffoon and brought in bad players. Players want to win. Akron needs to organize it's program in a way that prioritizes easy wins then build the recruiting from there. Playing three P4 teams isn't prioritizing winning. Akron is losing on purpose.

It's more than a place for higher learning. It's a taxpayer supported public institution. As such, it needs to be responsible with the taxpayers of Ohio money. I find it disheartening that only one in three employees are full time faculty. The scandal is not the cutting. The scandal is the poor management of universities throughout the country. This mismanagement has resulted in students having to pay an enormous amount in tuition and fees to support a bunch of people nobody can exactly figure out what they do for a living, or what their value is to the students. These additional fees have largely been paid for with student loans that harm both the student and society long term.

I love the quote. After Chuck Noll's first year with the Steelers, and a really bad year at that, said something at his year end press conference along the lines of.... The bad news is we don't have many good players. The good news is over half of these guys won't be back next year.

Why would we want a group of players this bad? If they have this little commitment to Akron, they should pack their crap up and go help another program fail.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paulweinstein/2023/08/28/administrative-bloat-at-us-colleges-is-skyrocketing/ The growth of non faculty staff in recent years isn't isolated to Akron. They need to focus on non faculty and prioritize the cuts there.

I don't feel bad for them in the NIL era. They made their beds. The first sentence is the most important. I agree, there a a few good players. That's the problem. A college football team needs a lot of good players, not a few. Weaknesses are observable and exploitable. All it takes is one quarter. Akron didn't just make mistakes. Buffalo used their superior players to turn mistakes into points. They also turned mistakes into points in a very easy manner. The game was over at the end of Q1. My posts on this board tend to center around the state of college athletics and generally Akron football. Since I don't see many games, I cannot comment on details. Today, I watched the entire game. I was taken back regarding the lack of talent and poor play. Akron is a very, very, very bad program. There is no there, there. If Akron fires Joe, solving the talent problem is a monumental task.

Most programs don't have Akron level expectations.

Am I the only person who saw the more talented Buffalo defensive line destroy the Zips slappy offensive line in critical situations?

Am I the only person who saw the talent of buffalo easily turn the Zips mistakes into a win? Is there something I missed?

Talent is both physical and mental.

Facts aren't reasons. Buffalo had bigger and faster players across the board. I hate to say it, but our starting QB is trash. I don't care where he came from. The first interception was inexcusable. The fumble was predictable. Nothing good happens around him. The Zips are way worse than I thought.

I want better than Arth.

I want better than Bowden. Apparently, you don't.