Week 6 (NIU) Thoughts

[catdaddyp]

The environment was the best I’ve seen out of my handful of trips to Akron games and it’s a shame the performance on the field did not match. From what I could see, it was a solid crowd and in general people seemed excited about the matchup. The band was great too, but that’s about where the positives end.

 

NIU’s off balance sets and motions gave the defense major issues in both alignment and pursuit angles.

 

McCoy was put in a tough spot on the counter runs to the boundary and found it difficult to make the tackle. The MIKE LB usually took on the lead blocker, which left either the safety or WILL LB to make the play. NIU often used a WR or TE to seal the safety inside.

 

Not that it made much of a difference, but Gathings’ body language was poor in the first half and gave away whether it was a run or pass pre-snap.

 

The OL struggled in one on one pass protection. In-particular the right side of the OL had a rough day in pass pro. OL in general had a tough time maintaining their blocks in the run game.

 

The offense has felt like it was forcing round pegs into squares holes the entire season. Tonight, I thought the run heavy approach was the right idea, but once the game was out of hand that idea was basically tossed out the window. 

 

Bullock certainly has the arm strength to send the ball anywhere he wants. However, accuracy leaves something to be desired. Hopefully that improves as he receives more reps. Also, he needs to be careful about scrambling to his left. Rarely do good things happen for right handed QBs when scrambling to their left.

 

Freshman OL Delvin Morris may not have a clue what he’s doing out there yet, but he’s extremely athletic, aggressive, and is going to be really good.

 

A lot of young guys got some PT in garbage time tonight.

 

Curious to see how the team responds after this performance.

 

I did not see DT Kyle Thomas out there and noticed he is no longer listed on the official roster.

 

QB - Bullock

RB - Lingard (D. Anderson) (Kellom)

WR - Gathings (Norton)

WR - George (Anderson)

WR - Golden (Walker)

TE - Banks (Ognenovic)

LT - Chambers (Morris)

LG - Frank (Kilbane)

C - T. Williams (Georges)

RG - Davis (Kilbane) (Lyons)

RT - Williams (James)

 

DE - Nunnally (Smith)

DT - Jones (Robinson) (Carter)

DT - Lavea (Murphy) 

DT - Adler (Moore) (Richards)

DE - Jackson (Adler) (Cheatom)

LB - Fish (Griffin) 

LB - McCoy (Cooper) (Harris)

(NB) - Lewis

CB - Durant (Hunter)

S - C. Thomas (Martin)

S - Martin (Thompson)

CB - Tallandier (Golden-Nelson) (Threatt)

Edited October 8, 2023 by catdaddyp

[Blue & Gold]

9 hours ago, catdaddyp said:

The environment was the best I’ve seen out of my handful of trips to Akron games and it’s a shame the performance on the field did not match. From what I could see, it was a solid crowd and in general people seemed excited about the matchup. The band was great too, but that’s about where the positives end.

 

 

[Blue & Gold]

Like all Zips fans I'm demoralized.  Deeply.  Demoralized.  And I have been since the 2nd half of the Temple game and only beating a 1-4 FCS (🤮🤮🤮) Morgan State by a stroke of luck and the skin of our teeth.

 

But I still have faith in JoeMo. He's undoubtedly improved the talent level on the team & I still  feel we're only a legit QB away from being 4-2 on the year.

 

But we're not.  And I'm still confused how JoeMo & Co. could have possibly thought a gimpy, injury-prone, post-surgery DJ Irons, Undercuffler, and/or Tahj were the QB's we needed to turn this ship around?  So I put this season's debacle on the coaching staff for not brining in the plug-in-and-play transfer QB we so obviously and desperately needed.  

 

JoeMo's recruiting is light years better than his predecessor.. so how on earth is the product on the field still essentially the same?!  My giving credit to JoeMo for his recruiting cuts both ways when the on-the-field product is still so poor.  Idk, I'm frustrated, confused, disappointed, and even downright angry.... not a good time for me to be posting.

 

Frustrated, confused, disappointed, angry. The annual experience of every Zips football fan.  [sigh]

 

[Ham]

If we take away 4 rushing plays, we held Brown to way under 100 yards!

[GP1]

9 minutes ago, Blue & Gold said:

But I still have faith in JoeMo. He's undoubtedly improved the talent level on the team & I still  feel we're only a legit QB away from being 4-2 on the year.

Good post. And a kicker who could make an easy game winning FG. The coach is the easiest person to blame because analyzing one person is easier than entire team. Player performance has lost Akron three games they should have never lost, but blame the coach. 

 

I'll be all over Joe next year if he doesn't bring in a high quality QB after 3 recruiting seasons. But right now I see player performance as our major problem. Heck, they had an entire defense not show up yesterday. Every one of those guys should be embarrassed. 

[Blue & Gold]

12 minutes ago, GP1 said:

Good post. And a kicker who could make an easy game winning FG. The coach is the easiest person to blame because analyzing one person is easier than entire team. Player performance has lost Akron three games they should have never lost, but blame the coach. 

 

I'll be all over Joe next year if he doesn't bring in a high quality QB after 3 recruiting seasons. But right now I see player performance as our major problem. Heck, they had an entire defense not show up yesterday. Every one of those guys should be embarrassed. 

💯💯 

 

(Out of Likes but wanted to acknowledge your post.)

[Blue & Gold]

 

[Blue & Gold]

In this 👇 article JoeMo explains why he went with Tahj as opposed to Undercuffler.

 

[catdaddyp]

2 hours ago, Blue & Gold said:

Like all Zips fans I'm demoralized.  Deeply.  Demoralized.  And I have been since the 2nd half of the Temple game and only beating a 1-4 FCS (🤮🤮🤮) Morgan State by a stroke of luck and the skin of our teeth.

 

But I still have faith in JoeMo. He's undoubtedly improved the talent level on the team & I still  feel we're only a legit QB away from being 4-2 on the year.

 

But we're not.  And I'm still confused how JoeMo & Co. could have possibly thought a gimpy, injury-prone, post-surgery DJ Irons, Undercuffler, and/or Tahj were the QB's we needed to turn this ship around?  So I put this season's debacle on the coaching staff for not brining in the plug-in-and-play transfer QB we so obviously and desperately needed.  

 

JoeMo's recruiting is light years better than his predecessor.. so how on earth is the product on the field still essentially the same?!  My giving credit to JoeMo for his recruiting cuts both ways when the on-the-field product is still so poor.  Idk, I'm frustrated, confused, disappointed, and even downright angry.... not a good time for me to be posting.

 

Frustrated, confused, disappointed, angry. The annual experience of every Zips football fan.  [sigh]

 

That’s probably my biggest frustration of the season. The talent level is much improved everywhere, but the offense has been incredibly inefficient due to poor QB play. The one game QB play was good enough (Indiana) it still wasn’t great due to the turnovers. Moorhead’s past offenses have been able to adjust to the strengths of the quarterbacks. Seems we are finally to the point to where the staff is willing to lean on the RBs and the legs of Bullock, then the defense decides to take a hiatus. 
 

I’m still 100% certain Moorhead will turn this ship around, but it’s incredibly frustrating the results have not shown up in the win column. I doubt we see anything like we saw last night again in Moorhead’s tenure.

Edited October 8, 2023 by catdaddyp

[72 Roo]

10 hours ago, Blue & Gold said:

Like all Zips fans I'm demoralized.  Deeply.  Demoralized.  And I have been since the 2nd half of the Temple game and only beating a 1-4 FCS (🤮🤮🤮) Morgan State by a stroke of luck and the skin of our teeth.

 

But I still have faith in JoeMo. He's undoubtedly improved the talent level on the team & I still  feel we're only a legit QB away from being 4-2 on the year.

 

But we're not.  And I'm still confused how JoeMo & Co. could have possibly thought a gimpy, injury-prone, post-surgery DJ Irons, Undercuffler, and/or Tahj were the QB's we needed to turn this ship around?  So I put this season's debacle on the coaching staff for not brining in the plug-in-and-play transfer QB we so obviously and desperately needed.  

 

JoeMo's recruiting is light years better than his predecessor.. so how on earth is the product on the field still essentially the same?!  My giving credit to JoeMo for his recruiting cuts both ways when the on-the-field product is still so poor.  Idk, I'm frustrated, confused, disappointed, and even downright angry.... not a good time for me to be posting.

 

Frustrated, confused, disappointed, angry. The annual experience of every Zips football fan.  [sigh]

 

Right now I'm in pain. What Zip football fan would't be? I've been trying to get my brain together to capture the right words following this loss. B & G beat me to it. Well done my friend! I still believe Joe will turn this round. I believe he has been a fantastic hire. I support him and his staff in the long journey in turning this around.

 

I also want accountability and responsibility. That falls squarely at Joe's feet. The most important position in all of sports, a football QB, has been blown by him and his staff. Fix it and put a better product on the field. I'm ready to celebrate a winning team with Joe. 

[eggs]

If I remember right, freshman can play in 4 games without losing their redshirt. How many games until we see Wasel get his feet wet in preparation for the next 4 years?

[LZIp]

7 minutes ago, eggs said:

If I remember right, freshman can play in 4 games without losing their redshirt. How many games until we see Wasel get his feet wet in preparation for the next 4 years?

Correct.  Yesterday was Bullock’s first real playing action in his career. I think they give him a fairly long leash to improve and gain experience throughout the rest of the season. I think any Wasel time will be limited and preserving a redshirt is a lot less of a concern in today’s transfer portal age. 

[GP1]

10 hours ago, LZIp said:

Wasel time will be limited and preserving a redshirt is a lot less of a concern in today’s transfer portal age. 

Your post brings up a good point people have to keep in mind in relation to TP and the outdated idea of redshirting. The transfer portal cuts both ways. 

 

If a coach wastes a year of a really good player as a redshirt, he may only be developing that player for another team if the player uses the TP to go to a P5 school later in his career after he develops more. A redshirt player is close to being a failed recruit in 2023. 

[KangarooJake]

Probably the unpopular opinion here, and I'm sure this gets brought up every conversation. But I'm younger, and don't really know the ins and outs of athletic departments as much as probably some of you here.

 

Is there a solid reason why we field a football team at this point? We could leave the MAC and join the Big East in all sports like basketball, soccer, and even perhaps add a men's lacrosse program that competes in a high caliber conference which would help build a program with recruiting.

We could get in the big dance every year in men's hoops. I'm tired of seeing us win 20-25 games year and sit home because we lose a close game to an equally good opponent in the final.

 

We could invest in sports that bring us in wins and traditions. We somehow have gotten worse as the years go on in football. I remember being a kid and going to the Rubber Bowl 2-3 times a year and while Akron wasn't a powerhouse, they were winning at least 3-4, sometimes 5-6 games a year.

 

It just seems so hopeless at this point. I disappointedly thought we would lose another close game to a 1-4 NIU squad something like 17-13. Wow, FCS school Southern Illinois held these guys to 11 points and we gave up 55? on Homecoming? Is this really the best we can do? 

 

At this point our last resort seems like if Joe doesn't work out (why did we even give him an extension after going 2-10), to beg someone like Frye or Taylor to come in and try. Try. We'll probably still lose, but at least one of our guys will be leading the sinking ship.

 

We have state of the art facilities, arguably the best in the MAC, we are within an hour of St. Edwards, St. Ignatius, Hoban, STVM, Hoover, Jackson, Massillon, McKinley, Hudson and many other regular OHSAA powerhouses and cannot bring in anything.

 

End rant, someone please tell me why I'm wrong so I can hold on to the sliver of hope lol

[1981 grad]

I heard the coach on post game that when things go bad he expects somebody to step up and make some plays and nobody did that on Saturday.  I just wonder if the transfer portal has a flaw in that when you have so many players from bigger programs transfer down to Akron that they thought this would be easy at a lower level school and when things go bad they tend to give up rather than play harder.  And things have gone bad this entire season.  I knew JD Brookhart and he told me after he was fired his only regret was bringing in players who thought they were too good to play at Akron and it killed the locker room.    When you look at Akron basketball you have had 2 coaches in 25 years and you have a tradition of a winning program and players who want to be here and support their teammates.  Same thing with our winning soccer program.  For better or worse, we need to keep this coach and hope that his recruits whose first choice was Akron can mature and build a winning program.  

[LoyalZIP]

This week's advanced box score: https://collegefootballdata.com/boxscore/401532418

 

No surprises at all. Total domination. The run defense went from a proud strength of the team to a laughing stock in one afternoon. I'm sure teams will hammer the right side from here on out.

 

One thing that did stand out to me, was that Akron got the ball inside the 40 on 5 different occasions. It didn't feel like that many in game. It's funny, if not for the hold on George on our second drive, we were looking like we were going to punch it in with ease again. Would a 14-7 lead have made any difference? Probably not in the long run of that game, but that just goes to show you the importance of attention to detail and finishing. Put the ball in the end zone so you don't have to worry about getting stops on every drive defensively. 

 

My concern on the absence of Alex Adams is growing. He's dressed, but not playing. He is the most pro-ready receiver in the entire league, and now he is missing for one reason or another.

 

After half the season, I have concluded that QB play and OL play are what have cost this team the most. The line is improved, but still is not a strength of the team. They allow far too many sacks and often no time to throw. That's part of the reason TB gives us the best chance to win right now, which isn't a good feeling at all. I will say, he looks more confident than the other two have at any point in time. I'm glad Joe is sticking with him and giving him a chance. NIU has a great defense, and the opening drive was cause for some optimism. The more reps, the better he will be. Hopefully.

 

Anyway, the QB play has been bad. A competent QB gives us wins vs. Buffalo and Temple for sure, a competent kicker or WR to catch a perfect deep ball and we beat Indiana. It pretty much always comes back to the QB.

 

With that said, the transfer portal is a tricky thing. Many people seem to think, moreso for basketball but now also football, that you can just change the filter on the Portal search engine and type in what and who you want and boom, you recruit them and get them. In reality, the list of players who enter the portal and are ever going to even take a call from Akron is short, and then from there you take out the players who aren't good enough to play at this level, and the list gets even shorter. Typically, portal pickups come from previous relationships that players have with coaches on the staff. So in Joe's case, the likelihood of a competent/good QB who is in the portal and also would fall to Akron is not great.

 

For this reason, I would focus on Bullock and Wasel as the future. Bullock is still unproven as a thrower, and Wasel a true freshman, but as of right now, he is the only freshman prospect QB this staff has brought in. Jennings could be the guy at some point, but he was also a holdover from the early signing period when he was signed, so who knows how much he was being recruited at the time Joe brought him in. I have a feeling that Fessler and Moorhead are putting a lot of chips in on Wasel. It's more likely that the QB of the future comes through your system as a freshman than a guy from the portal.

 

In the MAC we have Finn, Gabbert, and Rourke as the top 3 QBs in the league. All of them have been at their respective schools for many years now. NIU's Lombardi is a transfer, but he's been there for 3 years now, and almost never beats anyone with his arm. There is a lot of bad QB play in the MAC this year, and the teams with competent QBs are beginning to rise to the top. 

[Lee Adams]

5 hours ago, 1981 grad said:

I heard the coach on post game that when things go bad he expects somebody to step up and make some plays and nobody did that on Saturday.  I just wonder if the transfer portal has a flaw in that when you have so many players from bigger programs transfer down to Akron that they thought this would be easy at a lower level school and when things go bad they tend to give up rather than play harder.  And things have gone bad this entire season.  I knew JD Brookhart and he told me after he was fired his only regret was bringing in players who thought they were too good to play at Akron and it killed the locker room.    When you look at Akron basketball you have had 2 coaches in 25 years and you have a tradition of a winning program and players who want to be here and support their teammates.  Same thing with our winning soccer program.  For better or worse, we need to keep this coach and hope that his recruits whose first choice was Akron can mature and build a winning program.  

Think David Harvey. Special Teams All-American during Brookhart's time. I watched that guy lay out on more plays as a WR. Great physical talent. Bad citizen. Probably why he ended up at Akron. Didn't last long.

[ZippyRulz]

5 hours ago, LoyalZIP said:

This week's advanced box score: https://collegefootballdata.com/boxscore/401532418

 

No surprises at all. Total domination. The run defense went from a proud strength of the team to a laughing stock in one afternoon. I'm sure teams will hammer the right side from here on out.

 

One thing that did stand out to me, was that Akron got the ball inside the 40 on 5 different occasions. It didn't feel like that many in game. It's funny, if not for the hold on George on our second drive, we were looking like we were going to punch it in with ease again. Would a 14-7 lead have made any difference? Probably not in the long run of that game, but that just goes to show you the importance of attention to detail and finishing. Put the ball in the end zone so you don't have to worry about getting stops on every drive defensively. 

 

My concern on the absence of Alex Adams is growing. He's dressed, but not playing. He is the most pro-ready receiver in the entire league, and now he is missing for one reason or another.

 

After half the season, I have concluded that QB play and OL play are what have cost this team the most. The line is improved, but still is not a strength of the team. They allow far too many sacks and often no time to throw. That's part of the reason TB gives us the best chance to win right now, which isn't a good feeling at all. I will say, he looks more confident than the other two have at any point in time. I'm glad Joe is sticking with him and giving him a chance. NIU has a great defense, and the opening drive was cause for some optimism. The more reps, the better he will be. Hopefully.

 

Anyway, the QB play has been bad. A competent QB gives us wins vs. Buffalo and Temple for sure, a competent kicker or WR to catch a perfect deep ball and we beat Indiana. It pretty much always comes back to the QB.

 

With that said, the transfer portal is a tricky thing. Many people seem to think, moreso for basketball but now also football, that you can just change the filter on the Portal search engine and type in what and who you want and boom, you recruit them and get them. In reality, the list of players who enter the portal and are ever going to even take a call from Akron is short, and then from there you take out the players who aren't good enough to play at this level, and the list gets even shorter. Typically, portal pickups come from previous relationships that players have with coaches on the staff. So in Joe's case, the likelihood of a competent/good QB who is in the portal and also would fall to Akron is not great.

 

For this reason, I would focus on Bullock and Wasel as the future. Bullock is still unproven as a thrower, and Wasel a true freshman, but as of right now, he is the only freshman prospect QB this staff has brought in. Jennings could be the guy at some point, but he was also a holdover from the early signing period when he was signed, so who knows how much he was being recruited at the time Joe brought him in. I have a feeling that Fessler and Moorhead are putting a lot of chips in on Wasel. It's more likely that the QB of the future comes through your system as a freshman than a guy from the portal.

 

In the MAC we have Finn, Gabbert, and Rourke as the top 3 QBs in the league. All of them have been at their respective schools for many years now. NIU's Lombardi is a transfer, but he's been there for 3 years now, and almost never beats anyone with his arm. There is a lot of bad QB play in the MAC this year, and the teams with competent QBs are beginning to rise to the top. 

 

Good points. I don't believe we saw Alex Adams sustain a sports injury on the field(?) Everything points to a personal issue or "internal medicine" issue. I hope he's OK and can come back. He is listed as questionable again for the CMU game. Speaking of the CMU game, thank goodness we are going on the road again where we seem to play better, thus escaping the Infocision death trap [/snarknotsnark]. I agree on QB/O-line... JM can either outrecruit and outcoach Albin, Martin and Linguist or he can't, we'll see. One third (29) of our roster consists of true freshmen, only a few of which have played this season. Hopefully many of them will develop into quality MAC players sooner than later. I would think he will look for another transfer QB for next season. The QB room is very young other than JU who has pick-6'ed his way to the bench. Also a 40-yard FG kicker. I also agree the portal is tricky: a lot of players who aren't panning out at other schools and just because they were recruited by P5's doesn't mean they will be successful at G5's. I too would rather focus on getting good high schoolers and playing the long game which seems to be JM's modus operandi.

 

 

Edited October 9, 2023 by ZippyRulz

[Zipsfan10]

9 hours ago, 1981 grad said:

I heard the coach on post game that when things go bad he expects somebody to step up and make some plays and nobody did that on Saturday.  I just wonder if the transfer portal has a flaw in that when you have so many players from bigger programs transfer down to Akron that they thought this would be easy at a lower level school and when things go bad they tend to give up rather than play harder.  And things have gone bad this entire season.  I knew JD Brookhart and he told me after he was fired his only regret was bringing in players who thought they were too good to play at Akron and it killed the locker room.    When you look at Akron basketball you have had 2 coaches in 25 years and you have a tradition of a winning program and players who want to be here and support their teammates.  Same thing with our winning soccer program.  For better or worse, we need to keep this coach and hope that his recruits whose first choice was Akron can mature and build a winning program.  

“Recruits whose first CHOICE was Akron” 

Great points.  

 

[Hilltopper]

16 hours ago, ZippyRulz said:

 

Good points. I don't believe we saw Alex Adams sustain a sports injury on the field(?) Everything points to a personal issue or "internal medicine" issue. I hope he's OK and can come back. He is listed as questionable again for the CMU game. Speaking of the CMU game, thank goodness we are going on the road again where we seem to play better, thus escaping the Infocision death trap [/snarknotsnark]. I agree on QB/O-line... JM can either outrecruit and outcoach Albin, Martin and Linguist or he can't, we'll see. One third (29) of our roster consists of true freshmen, only a few of which have played this season. Hopefully many of them will develop into quality MAC players sooner than later. I would think he will look for another transfer QB for next season. The QB room is very young other than JU who has pick-6'ed his way to the bench. Also a 40-yard FG kicker. I also agree the portal is tricky: a lot of players who aren't panning out at other schools and just because they were recruited by P5's doesn't mean they will be successful at G5's. I too would rather focus on getting good high schoolers and playing the long game which seems to be JM's modus operandi.

 

 

Adams is injured. He will return when he is able bodied.