2025 Football Season

[Let'sGoZips94]

2025 MAC Schedule is out.

 

 

- 6 homes games for Akron. Cannot remember the last time that happened.

- No Ohio. 

- Love the Duquesne game as a "break" between OOC & MAC schedules. 

- Wyoming, @ Nebraska, @ UAB, Duquesne is the best OOC schedule we've had in some time.

- Kent on a Tuesday night is still crap.

- 6 MAC wins minimum on this schedule. 

- No excuse to not go bowling this year at the very least. On you, JoeMo.

Edited Wednesday at 04:16 PM by Let'sGoZips94

[ziptrumpet87]

Only a couple days to prepare for PCCC

[Captain Kangaroo]

1 hour ago, ziptrumpet87 said:

Only a couple days to prepare for PCCC

7?

[zippy5]

This is what our schedule needs to look like every year. The opportunity is there for a good start and to create momentum. No excuses, they need to perform this year. Bowl eligibility or bust

[ZippyRulz]

Kinda glad no NIU (barring another MACC meetup which would be ok 😀)

 

Welcome, UMass.

 

OU is already missing us. They are playing Ohio State.

 

Akron 2025 Football Schedule
8/28 vs. Wyoming
9/6 at Nebraska
9/13 at UAB
9/20 vs. Duquesne
9/27 at Toledo
10/4 vs. CMU
10/11 vs. Miami (OH)
10/18 at Ball State
10/25 at Buffalo
11/4 vs. UMASS
11/11 vs. Kent State
11/18 at Bowling Green

 

 

Edited Thursday at 02:25 AM by ZippyRulz

[GP1]

This is very good schedule.

[Hilltopper]

3 hours ago, GP1 said:

This is very good schedule.

You can thank Guthrie. The MAC still sucks for making us play Kent on a weeknight.

[GP1]

4 hours ago, Hilltopper said:

You can thank Guthrie. The MAC still sucks for making us play Kent on a weeknight.

Congratulations to Mr. Guthrie on meeting the minimum standard for good job performance. A schedule like this should be the norm, not a pleasant surprise.

 

Imagine not having to play on Tuesday nights. It's shaping up to be a season in which the Zips have meaningful games in November, and they will be playing those game in an empty stadium on the weeknights. Degenerate gamblers around the country with have something to do though. God knows that is what football has become about. MACtion is a piece of insanity the league will need to deal with eventually. 

 

I also like not having a bye week and having the season over before Thanksgiving. The players will like that. A peaceful weekend with family is important. 

 

If the Zips can't pull off a good season with this schedule, then when?

[Hilltopper]

5 hours ago, GP1 said:

Congratulations to Mr. Guthrie on meeting the minimum standard for good job performance. A schedule like this should be the norm, not a pleasant surprise.

 

Meeting a minimum standard is difficult when your bosses are demanding that your football program needs to be a cash cow to appease those who want to abolish the whole thing.

[clarkwgriswold]

Speaking of Brimfield, they travel to Texas Tech, Florida State and Oklahoma.

[LZIp]

1 hour ago, clarkwgriswold said:

Speaking of Brimfield, they travel to Texas Tech, Florida State and Oklahoma.

Ohio may have the toughest OOC this year. Rutgers, WVU (at home), and OSU.

[LZIp]

2 hours ago, Hilltopper said:

Meeting a minimum standard is difficult when your bosses are demanding that your football program needs to be a cash cow to appease those who want to abolish the whole thing.

Hopefully that will change now with Nemer.
Also, wasn’t Guthrie basically Miller’s handpicked AD who he worked with in the past?

Edited Thursday at 04:49 PM by LZIp

[kreed5120]

1 hour ago, clarkwgriswold said:

Speaking of Brimfield, they travel to Texas Tech, Florida State and Oklahoma.

 

Believe it or not that's probably a softer OOC schedule than they have many years.

[ZipsBBjunkie]

52 minutes ago, LZIp said:

Hopefully that will change now with Nemer.
Also, wasn’t Guthrie basically Miller’s handpicked AD who he worked with in the past?

LZIp the '25 football schedule is the first that has Miller, Guthrie and Moorhead's fingerprints all over it.

 

Hilltoppers got me on my horse as I sit cursing Punxsutawney Phil and taking my lunch. I was going to pipe in with the same sentiment as Hilltopper when the schedule came out but knew the reaction it would get and thought why bother. On second thought, why not.

 

Like clockwork, whenever someone on this board simply attempts to give some credit where credit may actually be due, out come the ‘Chucklers.’ Soon good ‘Ol staples on this same ‘ol wagon will layer on I'm sure: good scheduling strategy doesn’t take away from his gross self-promotion and arrogance, he’s still a clown. Look how things are taking off now that he's gone! We really dodged a bullet! The Chucklers keep at it as though Chuckles stole their first-born child.

 

Some may say, as GP1 has, scheduling is part of AD 101. Why give the guy any flowers when this is what every capable AD is expected to do. It’s just Hilltopper giving Guthrie a boost as usual.

 

I disagree with you GP1 as informed as you may be – I wouldn’t call successful strategic scheduling meeting the minimum standard — I would call this exploiting a competitive advantage. I would call this passion for winning from an AD trying to help move the needle off the field where they can potentially make a difference. I would call this trying to move the boulder that is losing, pathetic Akron football uphill. I don't know, but it could be one big reason why Miller and Guthrie were shown the door and why it could be tough to keep a coach like Moorhead long term. New administration often means different vision on things like budget e.g. money games that are funding the program - unless the new administration cares enough about what it takes to win football games more than the bottom line like Miller did? We shall see. I’m holding out hope and giving Nemer the benefit of the doubt until we see otherwise.

 

My inside reference is baseball as that’s where my occasional insights into the going ons of UA are sourced. What I get from that channel and staff is that scheduling IS an area Guthrie had a heavy hand in - working with coaches directly and helping strategically improve program schedules particularly non-conference to build momentum and wins going into MAC (or Big East) play. On this topic in particular, my opinions go beyond baseball into the longer history that is UA, the wellbeing of the program as a whole, and the struggles that lie everywhere in keeping a program afloat in this environment other than basketball where a culture of winning, coaching consistency, and a guy named Wentz have kept that ship steady.

 

Strategic scheduling is not something all ADs bother themselves with or are willing to go to bat for when it can: hurt their own overall dept budget, upset those in charge and who they report to and who have come to rely on the big payday to get them off the hook from funding the program appropriately, or takes away time that could be spent say, self-promoting. 

 

I've been told by coaches including current bb staff at Akron that navigating scheduling nuances for the benefit of the team can be extremely time consuming. It may be one of the most unappreciated keys to winning for coaches and in some cases ADs. Many ADs leave it up to coaches and sports supervisors. Depending on how an AD runs the department, sports supervisors could be any slew of people in the department with no sense of how critically important scheduling can be. If allowed, sports supervisors often serve to take daily paperwork off the plate of the AD and are at the behest of the coach they actually supervise. Believe it or not, sports supervisors with less experience than even those on this board who clearly know the ins and out of AD 101, can heavily influence schedules if an AD is lazy or incompetent and lets them.

 

Others may say-isn’t scheduling the coach’s job, the AD should stay out of it. For example, only an AD as arrogant as Guthrie would get involved in a coach's business likely come the jabs from Clark, Capt K, Zippy Claws and the like—-as we know, there must be reasons all the UA coaches hate Guthrie and not one would ever consider following him! Could it be his heavy handed, micro managing on scheduling perhaps? A quip, clown or chuckles reference sure as the setting sun. Cue my yawn.

 

I digress, back to scheduling, why a competent AD stays involved in scheduling, because often it’s the coach’s ego ‘we can compete and show them we mean business right out of the gate’ that can get in the way of strong non-conference scheduling, or a fellow buddy in the coaching ranks they are doing a favor for by giving them a game or series for ‘old times sake’, or a game or series in a warm location they want to go during miserable Akron Dec, Jan and Feb…March, April. Scheduling can be a point of major contention for all programs, coaches and ADs. Good scheduling takes strong relationships between coaches and administration. 

 

You mention hoping all will be well now under Nemer. I join you in hoping and praying the schedule of football money games doesn’t return swiftly back to the norm under the new leadership. Unless Moorhead is done saving children from burning buses and was able to hold them off. Personally, I’m betting the demands have already begun to return for the payday model. In fact, interim AD Juravich said as much in his obviously self-promoting Crain’s article back in December. At least we know he navigated his snowy drive ok while navigating how to fund the program. Did we really need to know about his challenging driving conditions, how about we give him a nickname and call him Juravich the Joker, what an arrogant, self-promoting b*tard! 

 

To be clear, I’m taking a page out of GP1 book and feeling sarcastic today, but just in case you’re unsure, I’m being sarcastic!

 

In all seriousness, I hope Moorhead has a strong enough voice to make it known that this strategic scheduling will pay off, is being celebrated by his program as well as by Zips fans and donors, and most importantly, is a contingency to him sticking around. Hopefully, those in charge care.

[ZippyRulz]

1 hour ago, kreed5120 said:

 

Believe it or not that's probably a softer OOC schedule than they have many years.

 

And softer than ours last year.

[LZIp]

1 hour ago, kreed5120 said:

 

Believe it or not that's probably a softer OOC schedule than they have many years.

Yep. TT is mid, and Oklahoma and FSU are coming off their worst seasons in quite some time.

[GP1]

5 hours ago, Hilltopper said:

Meeting a minimum standard is difficult when your bosses are demanding that your football program needs to be a cash cow to appease those who want to abolish the whole thing.

Who are these people, by name?

[clarkwgriswold]

2 hours ago, ZipsBBjunkie said:

Others may say-isn’t scheduling the coach’s job, the AD should stay out of it. For example, only an AD as arrogant as Guthrie would get involved in a coach's business likely come the jabs from Clark, Capt K, Zippy Claws and the like—

 

Ummmmmmmm, what????

[zippy5]

20 minutes ago, clarkwgriswold said:

 

Ummmmmmmm, what????

sounds like something a Chuckler would say

[clarkwgriswold]

4 minutes ago, zippy5 said:

sounds like something a Chuckler would say

I'm just perplexed as how I fell into that 1000+ word post.  I've never much commented on scheduling with the exception of referencing Groce's acknowledgement of Ford's had work on the basketball schedule.   🤷‍♂️

[LZIp]

Guthrie’s hands were definitely all over the double dip of taking the buyout from Kentucky and replacing them with *checks notes* national champion Ohio State.

[Captain Kangaroo]

5 hours ago, LZIp said:

Guthrie’s hands were definitely all over the double dip of taking the buyout from Kentucky and replacing them with *checks notes* national champion Ohio State.

Ok, Clark Jr…😀

[catdaddyp]

My only issue with this year’s schedule is our 2nd bye is on the final week of conference play. Outside of that, great schedule. 

 

Miami and Toledo probably have the most overall talent…again. 
 

4 of our MAC opponents will have new head coaches. I doubt that many of them will be situations like Lembo’s first year with Buffalo.

 

We still have some areas that need addressing on the roster, but this program is far ahead from when Moorhead took over. 6 wins minimum has to be the expectation this season. And who knows when we’ll have a schedule this manageable again.

 

Edited Friday at 11:04 AM by catdaddyp

[72 Roo]

There is genuine optimism when you look at this schedule. But the MAC has got to have its head examined to have put one of the best rivalries in the conference on November 11, a Tuesday night. You would think that they could learn from the basketball rivalry and put this game in mid-October so it could be allowed to grow. Before you get all excited and jump on me for UA and Kent being two dismal programs I get your skepticism. Yet despite two poor teams the game is well attended, the rivalry is intense, these are two big alumni bases and the Wagon Wheel trophy is the best in the MAC. What I'm saying is that this game has greater upside than most traditional rivalries in the MAC. Give it a chance with a better date. That's not too much to ask.

[GP1]

5 hours ago, catdaddyp said:

My only issue with this year’s schedule is our 2nd bye is on the final week of conference play. Outside of that, great schedule. 

 

Miami and Toledo probably have the most overall talent…again. 
 

4 of our MAC opponents will have new head coaches. I doubt that many of them will be situations like Lembo’s first year with Buffalo.

 

We still have some areas that need addressing on the roster, but this program is far ahead from when Moorhead took over. 6 wins minimum has to be the expectation this season. And who knows when we’ll have a schedule this manageable again.

 

We don't really have a bye week. It's just a lag between Saturday and weeknight games.