Game One

[dre22era]

I am fine with this game being 1 of 16 games total being played Thursday. 

I believe it gave us a few more eyeballs. If this game was on Saturday A program pretty much restarting playing a FCS would a got swallowed by everything else going on especially when the featured football game in the country is 125 miles south in Columbus. 

The field crew and overall pace of the game is usually to blame for the excessive commercial breaks in regards to the amount of stoppage during the game. 

 

My only gripe is that the field still looks dark and worn on tv and with the amount of rubber or whatever they have in the turf it even has a muddy look at times when they show field surface camera angles. 

Edited September 2, 2022 by dre22era

[Sergeant Zip]

7 hours ago, LoyalZIP said:

 

Right, a problem nobody could see coming for nearly a decade. 

 

[Hilltopper]

3 minutes ago, Sergeant Zip said:

 

Like I said...

 

[dre22era]

7 minutes ago, Sergeant Zip said:

 

[3rd&twenty]

11 minutes ago, Sergeant Zip said:

 

Please "enhance" the music by NOT playing a "song" with the N word in it.

[Captain Kangaroo]

I volunteer to perform an in-stadium puppet show reenactment any exciting plays immediately following the play's conclusion. If the Section 208 railing is obscured, people within the stadium can livestream it on their phones. ZipsWin! will work the camera. Best I can offer since we apparently opted out of the "fire and theft" clause in our scoreboard insurance policy.

 

If you would like to support the Zips Replay Puppet Show, please bring cereal boxes, paper plates, Elmer's glue and construction paper to Lot 9. Oh, and plastic scissors would be great too.

 

Daniel George was my first attempt (below). They'll get more realistic as time goes on.

[NWAkron]

 

8 hours ago, LoyalZIP said:

Some more focused thoughts on the game last night. It's a much longer road ahead than I was expecting, but I shouldn't be surprised. Last night was a good wake up call for sure, but it's great to come out with the win. If these guys get slaughtered in all three of these buy games, I will have a bad, bad feeling about any bowl chances, which is fine. It's a marathon, not a sprint.

 

Xavior Gray was not good at all at LT. Once Daniels got put there, things got a little better. I also recall far too many passing plays where either the center or LG was immediately stood up and pushed back a few yards on the snap. Imagine what that will look like next week, or the week after. The thing I'm most looking forward to for the future is the Moorhead recurits getting in and making an impact here. And the playcalling was okay, but three straight runs up the middle for a 3-and-out made me want to pull my hair out. I thought DJ had a decent game, and actually threw a few really nice deep balls that were defended well. It's just so hard when the pocket collapses almost immediately. 

 

Defensively, I saw an improved DB unit from the past few years, but still a long way to go there. There were a few instances on QB rollouts where things opened up, but I'm rather pleased overall with them, considering I was expecting much worse. There still isn't much of a pass rush, though the front 7 actually began to make a few plays once they stopped blitzing every damn play. That was driving me bonkers. 

 

And special teams. Punt and kick coverage was great, but a blocked PAT and missed 39 yard field goal are mistakes this team can't afford to make as the season moves on. If it nearly costs you the game against St. Francis, it will cost you the games against BG and Ohio. Also, Gettman punted pretty well, losing Slike was big and he did a fine job. 47 average, long of 62!

 

The post game presser is on YouTube. I caught it before bed last night, and it put me to sleep in a much better mood. Zero coach speak and a lot of honesty from Joe. And George asked him some good questions. There is hope to be had with this program, it will just take patience.

 

And as for the game experience, it flat out sucked. That was no fun at all. The music sucked, the pre game video didn't work, the music didn't work most of the time, no third down bell, none of the familiar noises and sounds that help give that stadium life from time to time, and the VIDEO BOARD SHOWED NO VIDEO. Pathetic. If I didn't love Akron football, there's no way I'd go back to a game this season. It was almost awkward sitting in the stands through all of the silence and dead air. No more Pritt Entertainment Group, a company made up of alumni that love doing what they do to make those games palatable. Imagine if last night had been a blow-out, just how painful that would've been. This is a massive failure by the AD and athletic department. I've been to better produced Akron Public games at InfoCision. That was not a D1 experience last night and they should be ashamed of themselves. It's year two of this new regime, and this is the time to gut everything and totally take the fan experience away? What could have been a great opportunity to showcase the program, showcase the stadium, showcase the Akron football experience, fell COMPLETELY flat and I am embarrassed. I'm glad the PA announcer told us what the electrifying play of the day was, if only I could have actually watched the clip. PATHETIC. 

 

The next home game will be homecoming against BG. If they don't get their heads out of their you-know-where by then, we're going to have yet another batch of disappointed alumni that come to a game never to return again. Think small, be small.

 

P A T H E T I C.

No video board.  No Keith Kennedy.  That to me is a win.  Frankly, I didn't notice the board working or not working.  I mean I might have looked over if they played the ending of 1912 Zips/Marshall game for the 1000th time.  The commercial breaks were horrible, and I do think they zapped the Zips momentum at one point.  My tickets didn't download on to my phone, so they let me head on in.  I thought everything was good otherwise.  Noticed the cheerleaders are the last to get re-branded.  The band was good and it was a beautiful night.  Also, thought Moorehead managed the game well.  The team didn't panic and seemed to be enthused throughout.  The two sportsmanship penalties were the only downers for me.

[LZIp]

1 hour ago, dre22era said:

 

 

My only gripe is that the field still looks dark and worn on tv 

I thought the same in person. 

[ewbrooman1]

2 hours ago, Sergeant Zip said:

 

Thanks for late info, but that could have been discussed in the long message the AD sent out a day or two before the game. Maybe it was too much to add to acknowledging the new digital ticket system problems and the lack of new A merchandise? Doesn't really 

explains all the action I missed on the monitors while standing in line at the concession stand. Not sure what that has to do with a bad scoreboard. Oh well, baby steps I guess. We're obviously suffering from a lack of financial support the past few years.

 

Edited September 2, 2022 by ewbrooman1

[Blue & Gold]

I appreciated the email, as it means they're listening to their customers.  If the team had performed better we probably wouldn't have been as aggravated as we were about the poor audio/visual experience.  The lackluster play on the field coupled with the awful game day experience really was a deflating double whammy. 😅

 

On the bright side we won the game, the fireworks were great and I found my e-tickets exceedingly simple and convenient to use.

 

As of now I'm keeping my signature. Still hoping to be able to change it someday soon.

[Blue & Gold]

 

[ZippyRulz]

15 hours ago, LZIp said:

Is that really the line? I'd buy up to 49 if so just to be safe, but still like it.

 

I was half kidding but it will probably be close to 40 and I wouldn't touch it. that said, I expect much improvement throughout the season.

[ZippyRulz]

4 hours ago, ewbrooman1 said:

Thanks for late info, but that could have been discussed in the long message the AD sent out a day or two before the game. Maybe it was too much to add to acknowledging the new digital ticket system problems and the lack of new A merchandise? Doesn't really 

explains all the action I missed on the monitors while standing in line at the concession stand. Not sure what that has to do with a bad scoreboard. Oh well, baby steps I guess. We're obviously suffering from a lack of financial support the past few years.

 

 

right? lots of content here for the next episode of Bad News with Gary.

[MangoZip]

Anyone subscribe to Pro Football Focus? It would be interesting to see how everyone graded out - especially Irons

[Z.I.P.]

On 9/2/2022 at 10:19 AM, Sergeant Zip said:

 

Did anyone notice what I noticed?  There's no signature attached to this apology.  No one wants to accept responsibility! SO Akron!

[Football grandma]

I also noticed this letter wasn't proofread very well for subject-verb agreement. Unacceptable mistake for a university publication.

[GoZips86]

I was thoroughly disappointed with the game day experience. I thought with JoeMo being hired,  the excitement would have been ramped up. It was the exact opposite. I was sitting low and at one point he tried to get the crowd involved and looked disappointed.

 

Akron needs help in this department. I wish they could get more fans (I hope that will come with winning...), but they need to have a D1 feel for the fans who do show up. Sadly, my wife turned to me and said she felt more excitement at her high school games than Thursday night. So, yeah.

 

Glad for a W on the field though, even if it was ugly. 

[Zipmeister]

12 hours ago, Football grandma said:

I also noticed this letter wasn't proofread very well for subject-verb agreement. Unacceptable mistake for a university publication.

 

Substitute one "is" for an "are" and the letter is perfectly acceptable. Compared to most communications that come out of athletic departments, the letter is Catcher in the Rye caliber. My congratulations to the unknown author who is obviously a frequent poster on this board.

[Lee Adams]

On 9/2/2022 at 1:42 PM, InTheZone said:

Irons has a lot of physical tools. That's about the only good thing I can say about him at this point.

 

Kid needs coaching I was hoping he would get with the new staff.  Maybe he's beyond help.

Was at the game. What I saw was not that much different from last season. Starting with QB play, Irons end of game numbers are deceiving. He still misses too many open receivers. He still holds too long. He is not accurate with intermediate passes. He got locked in on one receiver too much. I was surprised Moorehead didn't option him more, let him use his legs. Wouldn't be surprised if at the end of the season things are not going well, Moorehead will play one of 'his' recruits if it doesn't mean burning a redshirt season.

I was surprised Moorehead didn't run more. Seemed Wiley was starting to get into a groove and the O-line still can't pass block. A little puzzling with the lay calling. Saint-Louis seems like the real deal though.

The defense is still the defense. Little pass rush,can't handle a running QB,poor tackling and DB's out of position. But, it made a big play to save the game!

Too bad the next three weeks are going to be well....you know. As I said pre-season, I want to see a better team in November than in September. Its going to take the coaching satff a while to figure out who can play at this level and who can't.

But, at least my wife enjoyed the game!

 

[MDZip]

For those of you asking about numbers for Irons he finished 66th in passing efficiency amongst FBS QB's for the week. Not the best but far far from the worst. 

[catdaddyp]

2 hours ago, Lee Adams said:

Was at the game. What I saw was not that much different from last season. Starting with QB play, Irons end of game numbers are deceiving. He still misses too many open receivers. He still holds too long. He is not accurate with intermediate passes. He got locked in on one receiver too much. I was surprised Moorehead didn't option him more, let him use his legs. Wouldn't be surprised if at the end of the season things are not going well, Moorehead will play one of 'his' recruits if it doesn't mean burning a redshirt season.

I was surprised Moorehead didn't run more. Seemed Wiley was starting to get into a groove and the O-line still can't pass block. A little puzzling with the lay calling. Saint-Louis seems like the real deal though.

The defense is still the defense. Little pass rush,can't handle a running QB,poor tackling and DB's out of position. But, it made a big play to save the game!

Too bad the next three weeks are going to be well....you know. As I said pre-season, I want to see a better team in November than in September. Its going to take the coaching satff a while to figure out who can play at this level and who can't.

But, at least my wife enjoyed the game!

 

While I agree with Irons having issues and not running him more as bewildering, I think last year’s team would have lost this game.
 

I saw improvement along the defensive line and linebackers. In particular Jones, Wilson, and Harper at DL. Bubba and Terry at LB. Their fits were mostly on point and they flowed to the football. Fish also flashed a ton of potential. 
 

The secondary is a concern outside of Golden-Nelson, JKP, and Lewis. Those 3 were strong.

 

Offensively, we have a strong WR corps and TEs. Whigan and Williams were very good along the OL, but the rest need work. Too bad I can’t say much about RBs as we only saw Wiley tote the ball and Price give up a sack.

 

Glad your wife enjoyed the game!

[LZIp]

58 minutes ago, MDZip said:

For those of you asking about numbers for Irons he finished 66th in passing efficiency amongst FBS QB's for the week. Not the best but far far from the worst. 

Yes. We would all like him to play a little more consistent, but I found other issues on the team to be a bigger problem. We'll get a taste of Undercuffler against MSU and Tenn I'm sure, so we'll get a better feel of who the QB should be going forward based on how both perform.

 

I would like to see some more designed runs for DJ as well, but I think its reasonable that the OL failing to provide adequate pass protection more often than not played a part in the performance.

[zipsfan33]

The team shop had a number of shirts and hats with the new logo.   I was going to buy a hoodie until I saw $65.   That to me, is a little high.   Hats with the new logo were $35, I'd say maybe 5-10 bucks overpriced.  The one looked like a throwback, I really like it.  They had a section of clearance merch with the older logos as well. I was only in the shop for maybe 3 minutes, I'll take a better look at homecoming. 

[Spin]

On 9/2/2022 at 6:22 AM, GoZips88 said:

 

It certainly does take Jimmys and Joes.

 

I know it's only game 1 but that OL play didn't look much different from what we were treated to under Arth. I expected MUCH-improved coaching staff + better players = noticeable improvement, especially against an FCS opponent (don't care if they are decent FCS).

 

TOTALLY onboard with Joe and staff (thrilled to have them here) and just have to accept they need time to coach this current group of young men up and recruit more of what they're looking for in the coming years.

 

Building a football roster, basically from scratch at several positions, is not going to happen overnight. Especially where the new coaching staff and scouting staff have to come together with a short calendar compared to the 127 other FCS programs who had months longer to recruit, sign, and play the transfer portal. This is NOT going to be an easy season. 

 

That said, with camp and practices and games under their feet, adjustments made, we should be knocking off MAC fodder by the end of the season. And have a crystal clear vision going into the next recruiting cycle, which has just started.

Edited September 5, 2022 by Spin

[Blue & Gold]

Basically I was underwhelmed by our line play. I think our poor line play, as one would expect, made everything else look bad. FBS -v- FCS, I was expecting to dominate the LOS both offensively and defensively. I'm still surprised we did neither. DJ could be better, but he was under a lot of pressure all night. Our OL, especially, needs to kick things up several notches or it's going to be a long, disappointing year.