Coach Joe Rumor Page

[Let'sGoZips94]

On 12/2/2025 at 3:32 PM, ZippyDoo said:

Serious question for all the Joe haters, if joe leaves what are your expectations?  for the first three to four years you can't possibly expect to win more than two or three games a season and how much time are you going to give the new coach before you start calling for his removal?

 

The issue with Zips football is not coaching it is not being able to compete financially with other institutions. Football players at akron get 91$ a month, big 10 football freshman players 35k a year. how do u compete with that?

 

1) My expectations are to find a coach who loves football so much that he doesn't give a damn about the excuses. 

 

2) If a football coach is worth their paycheck, they find a way to win 2-3 games within the first couple of years, then push .500 or better in years 3 or 4 - especially in the MAC. Terry Bowden went 1-11 in his first year, then 5-7 in each of his next 2 before going 8-5 in year 4. Sean Lewis at Kent went 2-10 in year 1 and went 7-6 with a bowl win in year 2. 

 

3) What are we doing comparing Akron football to the Big Ten? Nobody is asking Joe to compete against P4 schools. 

 

4) Joe is in year 4 at Akron. He faced 4 new HCs this year and a 5th who got canned weeks after our game vs. them. Joe's record in those games: 2-3, including a loss to our rival who had only won 1 game the previous 2 seasons. This schedule had 8 wins on it. Joe found a way to lose 4 of those and stole one vs. Buffalo. 

 

5) The eye test of the discipline (or lack thereof) and X's & O's on the field aren't meeting expectations. Those two categories are completely independent of any financial troubles that allegedly plague this program. The play calling and execution sucks. The stupid penalties and mistakes we consistently see suck. Money isn't fixing that. 1 more practice a week isn't fixing that. If the 1 extra practice is a big deal, maybe someone should've raised Hell when the NCAA decided to only punish Akron despite several other schools in the same time period also failing the stupid APR metric. Once the program decided to roll over and accept the punishment, that can no longer be an excuse. 

 

 

As fans, if we continue to allow the program to use all of the excuses as crutches for their shortcomings, they will continue to fall short. 

Edited 12 minutes ago by Let'sGoZips94

[a-zip]

Nick Saban might have won one more game with the resources (or lack there of) JoeMo has been given.  One other thing I left out.....if we had an undefeated season or a winning season....we couldn't even go to a bowl game.  How in the f##k do you recruit with that?  How do you motivate a team?  A new coach is the LAST THING this administration should be looking at!!!!  

Just look at what schools like High Point or James Madison have done.  Slow, steady, thoughtful, strategic, methodical decisions.

[zippy5]

6 minutes ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:

 

 

 

2) If a football coach is worth their paycheck, they find a way to win 2-3 games within the first couple of years, then push .500 or better in years 3 or 4 - especially in the MAC. Terry Bowden went 1-11 in his first year, then 5-7 in each of his next 2 before going 8-5 in year 4. Sean Lewis at Kent went 2-10 in year 1 and went 7-6 with a bowl win in year 2. 

 

Joe won 5 games last year - next year is bowl or bust. Why would we be okay setting expectations back to 2-3 wins next year? 

[Let'sGoZips94]

2 minutes ago, zippy5 said:

Joe won 5 games last year - next year is bowl or bust. Why would we be okay setting expectations back to 2-3 wins next year? 

 

Joe won 4 last year with a schedule that included 3 P4s. The 5 wins this years with 1 P4 on the schedule is actually a step back in my eyes. I don't see the program progressing under Joe, so taking 1 step back to 2-3 wins to take multiple steps forward with hopefully a better coach is worth it in my eyes. 

 

We're going to lose however many players in the Portal and have a new QB. It's not like we can expect the same group of guys to grow together and hit that next milestone, and I don't see Joe as the guy to pick up all the pieces again and progress this program any further. 

[kreed5120]

30 minutes ago, Zippy87 said:

 

Do you truly believe Joe Moorhead can lead you to a MAC Championship at some point? If yes, you keep him. But if no, I would rather take the shot at someone else, even knowing the risk. I don't ever want to just settle for mediocrity, which is where we are right now. 

 

I don't think anyone short of maybe 74 year old Nick Saban could lead us to a MAC championship. The funding gap between us and the top of the MAC is absurd.

 

The reality is under the new landscape of college athletics most G5s are going to have to pick between football or basketball as the costs to compete at a high level at both really isn't obtainable.

 

We have Bud already in place on the basketball side and have a proven coach in Groce. It makes sense to throw whatever limited resources we have at basketball while we have an open window of opportunity. Bud and Groce won't be here forever. 

[Zippy87]

34 minutes ago, exit322 said:

 

Are we?

 

Mediocrity is "the quality of being ordinary or average"

 

2024: 4-8 (3-5), 126 in FPI

2025: 5-7 (4-4), 128 in FPI

 

So yes. 

 

 

[exit322]

Just now, Zippy87 said:

 

Mediocrity is "the quality of being ordinary or average"

 

2024: 4-8 (3-5), 126 in FPI

2025: 5-7 (4-4), 128 in FPI

 

So yes. 

 

 

Average would indicate that there's seasons above those number that get you to that 6-6 range (I won't blame for a 3-digit FPI, we're a MAC school).

[Zippy87]

31 minutes ago, a-zip said:

Nick Saban might have won one more game with the resources (or lack there of) JoeMo has been given.  

 

Not at all true.

 

31 minutes ago, a-zip said:

One other thing I left out.....if we had an undefeated season or a winning season....we couldn't even go to a bowl game.  How in the f##k do you recruit with that?  How do you motivate a team?

 

It was the worst kept secret that Akron planned to appeal the decision if they became bowl-eligible and expected to win that appeal. The players knew if they beat Kent and BG, they'd likely go bowling. 

 

 

[Let'sGoZips94]

33 minutes ago, a-zip said:

Nick Saban might have won one more game with the resources (or lack there of) JoeMo has been given.  One other thing I left out.....if we had an undefeated season or a winning season....we couldn't even go to a bowl game.  How in the f##k do you recruit with that?  How do you motivate a team?  A new coach is the LAST THING this administration should be looking at!!!!  

Just look at what schools like High Point or James Madison have done.  Slow, steady, thoughtful, strategic, methodical decisions.

 

Curt Cignetti went 11-1 win JMU in 2023. They were in their 2nd year of FBS and not eligible for any bowl games. The NCAA ultimately removed that restriction due to national pressure at the end of the season, but I'm not sure how Cignetti was able to recruit, motivate, and win under those conditions (he also went 8-3 in his first season). 

[a-zip]

54 minutes ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:

 

Curt Cignetti went 11-1 win JMU in 2023. They were in their 2nd year of FBS and not eligible for any bowl games. The NCAA ultimately removed that restriction due to national pressure at the end of the season, but I'm not sure how Cignetti was able to recruit, motivate, and win under those conditions (he also went 8-3 in his first season). 

Do you really think we could apply National Pressure? 🙃  With what?  The 2-3K people that go to our games.

JMU is not a school in debt.  They average over 25K per game.  They can feed their players.  They actually have an NIL Collective.  They are very close to moving to the AAC Conference.  Their enrollment is going up.

 

We were actually ahead of JMU at one point in football.  High Point is a juggernaut!  They were a tiny little school outside of the NC Triangle nobody heard of 15 years ago. 

JMU has BUILT a passionate fan base   

 

What do we do.......change logos every other year.

 

 

They raised money and then built!!  They didn't blindly borrow.

Edited 3 hours ago by a-zip

[Let'sGoZips94]

16 minutes ago, a-zip said:

Do you really think we could apply National Pressure? 🙃  With what?  The 2-3K people that go to our games.

JMU is not a school in debt.  They average over 25K per game.  They can feed their players.  They actually have an NIL Collective.  They are very close to moving to the AAC Conference.  Their enrollment is going up.

 

We were actually ahead of JMU at one point in football.  High Point is a juggernaut!  They were a tiny little school outside of the NC Triangle nobody heard of 15 years ago. 

JMU has BUILT a passionate fan base   

 

What do we do.......change logos every other year.

 

 

They raised money and then built!!  They didn't blindly borrow.

 

Yes because the publicity from the sanctions was already quite public and large. Had Akron won 6 games, the NCAA would've been forced to drop the sanctions due to public pressure and lawsuit fears. 

 

You can have issues with how Akron has done things all you want. I think it's silly to waste time hashing out those details. Fact of the matter is, you asked a question, I answered. You made another comment that completely contradicted itself, and I pointed that out. 

 

I don't care if I get called a Joe hater or whatever. I want Akron football to be successful, I believe it can be successful, and I'm tired of hearing about all the excuses as to why Akron can't win while I watch other programs in similar situations actually win. Coaching matters, and I don't believe we have a winner at HC. Period.

Edited 3 hours ago by Let'sGoZips94

[exit322]

1 hour ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:

 

Curt Cignetti went 11-1 win JMU in 2023. They were in their 2nd year of FBS and not eligible for any bowl games. The NCAA ultimately removed that restriction due to national pressure at the end of the season, but I'm not sure how Cignetti was able to recruit, motivate, and win under those conditions (he also went 8-3 in his first season). 

Basically the same waiver that Akron would likely have gotten if they won any of the winnable games they didn't.

[ZippyRulz]

OC is open at Tosu. Easy access to Pittsburgh via I-70..

 

[lance99]

3 hours ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:

 

Yes because the publicity from the sanctions was already quite public and large. Had Akron won 6 games, the NCAA would've been forced to drop the sanctions due to public pressure and lawsuit fears. 

 

 

IDK about that. IIRC, The last team that was put into that position was LSU, and if that was the case. The MAC does not have the Juice that the SEC has. The NCAA would have made Akron an example, unless there was no other options left.....

[Let'sGoZips94]

2 minutes ago, lance99 said:

IDK about that. IIRC, The last team that was put into that position was LSU, and if that was the case. The MAC does not have the Juice that the SEC has. The NCAA would have made Akron an example, unless there was no other options left.....

 

If Akron would've won 6+ games, they easily would've won a lawsuit vs. the NCAA due to the NIL environment (preventing earnings/future earnings for players). They punished Akron thinking Akron wouldn't win 6+ games. 

[AkronAlumnus]

AD Goodrich is another variable we have going in our favor rn - he's smart, savy and hungry.