The series
- The last time we lost to Akron was 11 years ago. Akron beat us in 2006 on the phantom offensive pass interference penalty.
- We've beaten them 8 straight times (did not play in 2010 or 2011)
- Last year, Akron was the first conference win and first win of a three game win streak against lower MAC East teams
- As a team, Akron is rushing for about 120 yards per game.
- Last week, we played MTSU who entered the game with 198 rush yards in 3 games. They rushed for 234 on us.
- I bet I know what Akron plans to do.
- The leading rusher is Ohio State transfer Warren Bell. Senior back, big strong guy at 6-1 225. Averages 4.5 per carry, 325 and 4 TDs on the season.
- He had a good game against Troy, running for 112 and a TD.
- For a big guy, he's got some good speed too.
- The second leading rusher is junior RB Van Edwards. There's a major dropoff in production as Ball is clearly the #1 back.
- Edwards has 63 yards and a TD on the season.
- The offensive line has an utter monster at RT in Jovann Letuli. 6'5 345. The rest of the line is 300 and below.
- It's a bit hard to guage the running game. Akron's played Penn State and Iowa State where they were clearly overmatched, and Arkansas Pine Bluff who was clearly overmatched.
- So the performance against Troy is significant. Ball's stats above were effectively the entire run game. The guy is their workhorse.
- Our run D is struggling. We've already almost allowed 1000 yards on the ground, over 5 per carry and 11 TDs. That's got to clean up. You can't win games giving up that kind of yardage.
- Thomas Woodson seems to have been around forever. The first year I was doing these previews was 2014, his freshman year, and I wrote a bunch on his stats for that preview. Time has flown.
- Woodson has yet to have a good game against BG. I bet he's ready to go out strong as a senior.
- For the season, Woodson is completing 58% of his passes for 745 yards, 4 TDs / 4 interceptions. 2 of those picks came last week against Troy.
- Against Troy, Woodson went 20 / 40, 268, 1 TD / 2 ints. His only day with a high completion percentage was against Arkansas Pine Bluff.
- We have allowed every QB to complete a lot of passes. We're not going to win games until we quit allowing so many easy completions.
- Woodson early in his career was a dual threat type. He since has become more of a pocket passer.
- The leading receiver is junior Kwadarrius Smith. 13 catches for 240, averaging 18.5 a catch, 2 TDs. He's caught a 40+ in each of the last two games.
- Smith is a small quick guy at 5-9 165.
- Next up is senior A.J. Coney. 11 for 151 and a TD. Also a smaller guy.
- Third up is a guy we've seen a lot of. Tra'Von Chapman. 20 for 148, only averaging 7.4 per reception and no TDs. Good sized body at 6'1 215.
- If I remember correctly, Chapman came in at QB against us last year. I think he was the one that rallied Akron to a tie in the fourth. He's a good athlete.
- I've seen in recent years cases where Akron's pass attack is humming. It doesn't seem to be there yet this year. I sure hope it doesn't all click against us because that MTSU backup QB sure figured us out quickly for his first good game.
- Akron has given up 10 sacks so far. Shannon Smith is out the first half of the game due to targeting. Hopefully even man down on the line we can generate a pass rush.
- Our pass D is comparitively better than the run D but this is a far cry from the 2012-13 defenses. So far we've allowed 8 TDs to only 1 interception.
- I'm hoping I can chalk up defensive struggles so far to the schedule and maybe the defense will find some chemistry in conference play. We've played some really good offenses. Problem is there's good offenses in the pipeline.
- Akron is giving up 164 yards per game on the ground. Teams have scored 9 rushing TDs so far.
- Our ground game has not really gotten going consistently yet. Cleveland is almost at 200, and he's rushed our only TD so far.
- Beyond him, nobody's reached 100 yards rushing yet. We've rushed for 325 on the season in four games, and there are teams that have rushed more yards in single games.
- Akron's TFL leader is DE Jamal Davis. 5 TFLs so far.
- By the stats, it looks like a whole lot of run plays make it into the secondary. While the leading tackler is an OLB, tacklers 2 - 4 are safeties.
- Normally I go over tackling stats but first half of the season those stats can be awfully deceiving.
- The defensive line is small, like perhaps smaller than ours. Nobody near 300 on the line.
- Point is this. Akron is struggling against the run, just not as much as we are. We are struggling running the ball as our O line is not generating enough of a push.
- I hope this is the week the run game gets going. This is probably the smallest and least active defensive line we've faced all year.
- I have to say, Jarrett Doege looked pretty good in his first start. He looked crisp early, then struggled some late. He looked better than most true freshmen given that the whole offense was placed on his shoulders.
- Goal number one this week. No bad snaps. There were four bad snaps last week.
- Given the criticism of Jinks, I don't take saying this lightly. Bad snaps are a high school team problem. Four bad snaps in a game is not even expected at the high school level. This should be an easy fix.
- Akron is giving up 270 passing yards per game, 5 TDs to 3 interceptions. Akron has faced several run first teams, though we are the second straight pass-first team they've seen.
- The three interceptions are by safety Zach Guiser, OLB Ulysees Gilbert III, and backup MLB John Lako.
- Guiser is questionable for the game.
- I want to see improvement in the pass game. Against MTSU, we definitely saw improvement over previous games. Doege was more accurate than Morgan and he stood better in the pocket.
- The receivers need to do more. Guyton is doing a good job getting open deep. Miller has found some nice openings over the middle. Now all the receivers need to step up more.
- New QB means new potential. I have a feeling Doege at some point this year is going to explode. It seems he has the arm to excel in such an offense.
- The offensive line needs to hold him up. Akron has 6 sacks on the season with the whole defensive line getting in on the fun. Meanwhile we've given up 11 sacks. MTSU sacked Doege three times.
- Our pass offense has potential. Akron is not exactly a great pass defense, though we have zero room for criticism. Maybe this is the week the pass offense comes to life. Better now than later.
- Akron generally has good special teams. They won the field position battle with Troy, making the Troy offense earn the win.
- Statistically the one thing I want to point out is Akron has given up a PR TD to Penn State. Beyond the Penn State game, their return defense has been good on both punts and kicks.
- All around fine special teams.
- I hope Suder keeps up his perfection this week. He's been a nice surprise.
- Akron has not been great. They were blown out by Iowa State and Penn State (predictable) and they blew out Arkansas Pine Bluff (predictable).
- Against Troy, Akron briefly led late but lost a close one. Troy passed for over 300.
- Troy outgained Akron significantly but only won by 5 because Akron pinned Troy deep often.
- Troy's game winning drive was a 90+ yard drive. Along the way they had two other long drives that ended without points.
- 6:00 kickoff at the Doyt
- High of 66, 10% chance of rain, so probably as nice of weather as you can get for an evening late September game in Bowling Green.
- Akron is a slight favorite. All in all they are the most similar team to us we've played this year and our best chance at a win.
- We've beaten Akron like a drum recently and I bet it has not gone unnoticed among their players. I hope our guys are fired up for this one.
- Neither team has found any real success this season and both were expected to improve this year. Akron has a win, we don't.
- Our squad is looking for a fresh start in conference season. Guarantee that Akron is too. Remember, Miami went 0-6 to start last year and wound up in a bowl game, so I bet both coaches are preaching to keep going.
- I came away from the MTSU game mostly disappointed. I'll lay out my reasons for excitement followed by disappointment here.
- Reasons for optimism
- Doege looked good
- Best passing game of the year so far
- Defense held a high scoring offense to 3 second half points
- Defense tackled better in the second half
- Reasons for disappointment
- MTSU ran for more yards against BG than they had the previous three opponents combined
- A backup QB who had struggled consistently was quite good and at one point late in the first half was completing 90% of his passes
- The offense made all new mistakes with missed snaps
- The run game was non-existent
- A big play to Miller aside, the offense rarely found rhythm
- What bugs me most about this team is they fix one mistake just to make two new ones. The bad snaps hurt the team in crucial times last week, killing drives and scoring opportunities. It's like the team is afraid of success.
- Our offensive line has struggled and has taken the run game with them. Akron presents the best chance to get some success in the trenches. Perhaps Akron is coming at the best possible time.
- If the offensive line play improves, the whole offense will improve. There's good talent at the skill positions.
- Defensively, key in on that running back Ball. If we don't give them easy gains on first down and make the pass offense beat us, we've got a chance.
- If we lose this one, it would have a real "end of our run" feel. We haven't lost to Akron in over a decade. After all the other "haven't lost to in x many years" that we've lost recently, this one might have the worst sting because the streak is so long.
- Just beat these guys. I'd be as thrilled with a 43-42 win as I would be a 3-2 win.
