Akron Week Notes featuring Greg Blair, Malcolm Murray, Bill Koch Thoughts and More
It's Akron week, and boy oh boy are the people going crazy with anticipation for this game. I've seen #BeatAkron hashtags everywhere. It's the most anticipated game of our times. Oh wait, it's not that at all. Akron has scored 3 points in the first 2 games of the season. They have given up 42 and 41 points to Ohio State and Temple respectively. That's why most of the news about the Bearcats this week, has been about the Bearcats. Let's get to it, sexy people.
Bad news, Malcolm Murray, who had people like Deven Drane tweet for us to pray for him, was officially ruled out for the year with a torn ACL. I figured something was wrong when everyone was wishing him the best, and he said he wouldn't wish this on his worst enemy. I stupidly asked Drane what happened, and of course he wouldn't tell me, because why would he? Sorry for asking, D. That's why Murray wasn't out there against UT.
While Murray is out, Greg Blair Jr appears to be in. Last night, he tweeted that he was on the way to Cincinnati. When I asked if he was gonna be eligible, he said: "Greg Blair Jr. RT @_geezy45: “@BearcatsBlog @_geezy45 are you gonna be eligible for this year?” I'm now eligible."
If you are worried about Akron, see this:
"The Zips were better statistically than in their season opener against Ohio State, but they were still far from competitive on the scoreboard as they were routed by Temple 41-3 in their home and MAC opener at InfoCision Stadium. Quarterback Clayton Moore completed 12-of-21 passes for 192 yards but was sacked eight times. Redshirt freshman RB Jawon Chisholm rushed for 63 yards. Junior LB Brian Wagner leads the MAC in tackles with 22 (13 solo)."
And this:
Is there a team in the country worse than Akron? Well, Florida Atlantic is close but the Owls are off this week.
"The Zips are 118th in scoring with 1.5 points per game and 118th in total offense averaging 179.5 yards per game. Their first defeat came at the hands of Ohio State but the country witnessed the Buckeyes' troubles last Saturday against Toledo so the 42-0 loss looks even worse than it did back in week one. Akron followed up that effort with a 41-3 pounding at the hands of Temple."
And this from the great Andrea Adelson:
"The Bearcats are not going to face as big a test against Akron as they did against Tennessee."
Instead, a lot of the talk this week has been about the defense. No shit. Butch Jones said this in his presser:
“It’s very young in the season. Everyone around here wants to push that big, red button that says ‘panic.’ There is no panic here. I think it’s continuing to develop. We have to get some things cleared up. I expect us to be a much more matured team on defense, much more physical football team. We have some players who played a lot of football here. That’s where I was disappointed – we lacked the maturity to overcome and persevere on a number of things. It’s not the NFL. I love our players. We’re going to continue to develop our players. That’s the fundamentals of tackling. It’s getting the guy down, we miss a tackle, and there are 15 more extra yards. It’s missing tackles on special teams. It’s generating a pass rush. To the naked eye, everyone wants to point to the back end of our defense. Rightfully so. But they threw the ball 40 times and we had three hits on the quarterback. They did a great job of eight-man protections. It’s hard to get home. I talked about it with the quarterback launch points and the amount of three-step and the things they do. There is a sense of urgency and I expect us to be better. You just have to keep working and keep the ball in your center field. You can’t get off target. You just have to keep working, and we’ll do that.”
Wasn't part of UC not getting pressure was because Tennessee was blocking 8 and UC was rushing 4 or 5? Wasn't everyone screaming for UC to blitz? Whatever.
While I just whatevered the coach, Matt from Down the Drive and I agree on his point that's it too early to fire Butch Jones. It's the 3rd game of the second season. Let's chill out a little crazy people. His point about the salary is the most meaningless one, because I don't think the new AD would hesitate to fire Jones if UC went 1-whatever. But that would be after the season. As we just learned with Louisville, you have to turn the page on a Kragging as fast as possible. Even in the poor Big East, you can go from dominating, going to the Gator Bowl, going to the Orange Bowl, to going 6-6 to bottoming out and being the worst team in the league in 4 years. I'm not saying that Jones is going to pull that trick, because Cincinnati wasn't going to win the Big East 100 years in a row, but overmatched coach from a smaller conference just happened. I think Jones will absolutely be back for a 3rd season. But maybe with a new defensive staff.
I single out the defensive staff mainly because of this Koch piece. Look at how many the times the words mental and fundamental are used.
One more Koch thing, I swear to god that the man Paul Dehner wrote about Isaiah Pead busting his first carry of the first 2 games of a TD, and then Koch does it. Why the man isn't writing for the Cincinnati.com website, and that hack is, I don't know. What's the last original thing Koch wrote? If UC gave me access, I wouldn't just copy and paste quotes from coaches and call it a day like the defense piece. It sucks so much that he's the biggest voice in town for UC sports. I think with Paul now being at Go Bearcats, and Matt from Down the Drive doing his thing, and Chris from whatever his site is called, Bearcat something, the voices are out there and the narrative is changing from the boring and bland, to the fun and new. Let me tell you a story. The day Cincinnati beat Pittsburgh I was fucking pumped. I wanted to share my happiness with other Bearcat fans. There were not any anywhere. The only place I had to turn to read about the game that wasn't an AP post was Koch. That made me want to start my own site, so people could talk about the Bearcats and enjoy the times good and bad. I'm sure Matt thought the same thing. Let's finish this out on a positive jam.
The Cincinnati ladies soccer team is 4-2-2, and won the Charleston Cup. Here's the whole blurb:
Cincinnati (4-2-2; 0-0-0 Big East; Last Week’s Record: 2-0-0)...Cincinnati went 2-0-0 in the College of Charleston Cup last weekend in Mt. Pleasant, S.C. The Bearcats beat the College of Charleston 3-2 in double overtime on Sept. 9 and knocked off Coastal Carolina 4-0 on Sept. 11....Freshman Mackenzie Grause scored three goals and had two assists in two games....Senior Emily Hebbeler scored one goal and had two assists during the tournament, while sophomore Jazmine Rhodes scored the game winning goal in double overtime against the College of Charleston....The Bearcats have outshot their opponents in all but one match this season. For the year Cincinnati has outshot its opponents 138-78....Four Bearcats (freshman Kristina Utley, Rhodes, Hebbeler and Grause) were selected to the all tournament team.
Bad news, Malcolm Murray, who had people like Deven Drane tweet for us to pray for him, was officially ruled out for the year with a torn ACL. I figured something was wrong when everyone was wishing him the best, and he said he wouldn't wish this on his worst enemy. I stupidly asked Drane what happened, and of course he wouldn't tell me, because why would he? Sorry for asking, D. That's why Murray wasn't out there against UT. While Murray is out, Greg Blair Jr appears to be in. Last night, he tweeted that he was on the way to Cincinnati. When I asked if he was gonna be eligible, he said: "Greg Blair Jr. RT If you are worried about Akron, see this: "The Zips were better statistically than in their season opener against Ohio State, but they were still far from competitive on the scoreboard as they were routed by Temple 41-3 in their home and MAC opener at InfoCision Stadium. Quarterback Clayton Moore completed 12-of-21 passes for 192 yards but was sacked eight times. Redshirt freshman RB Jawon Chisholm rushed for 63 yards. Junior LB Brian Wagner leads the MAC in tackles with 22 (13 solo)."
And this:
Is there a team in the country worse than Akron? Well, Florida Atlantic is close but the Owls are off this week.
"The Zips are 118th in scoring with 1.5 points per game and 118th in total offense averaging 179.5 yards per game. Their first defeat came at the hands of Ohio State but the country witnessed the Buckeyes' troubles last Saturday against Toledo so the 42-0 loss looks even worse than it did back in week one. Akron followed up that effort with a 41-3 pounding at the hands of Temple."
And this from the great Andrea Adelson:
"The Bearcats are not going to face as big a test against Akron as they did against Tennessee."
Instead, a lot of the talk this week has been about the defense. No shit. Butch Jones said this in his presser: “It’s very young in the season. Everyone around here wants to push that big, red button that says ‘panic.’ There is no panic here. I think it’s continuing to develop. We have to get some things cleared up. I expect us to be a much more matured team on defense, much more physical football team. We have some players who played a lot of football here. That’s where I was disappointed – we lacked the maturity to overcome and persevere on a number of things. It’s not the NFL. I love our players. We’re going to continue to develop our players. That’s the fundamentals of tackling. It’s getting the guy down, we miss a tackle, and there are 15 more extra yards. It’s missing tackles on special teams. It’s generating a pass rush. To the naked eye, everyone wants to point to the back end of our defense. Rightfully so. But they threw the ball 40 times and we had three hits on the quarterback. They did a great job of eight-man protections. It’s hard to get home. I talked about it with the quarterback launch points and the amount of three-step and the things they do. There is a sense of urgency and I expect us to be better. You just have to keep working and keep the ball in your center field. You can’t get off target. You just have to keep working, and we’ll do that.”
Wasn't part of UC not getting pressure was because Tennessee was blocking 8 and UC was rushing 4 or 5? Wasn't everyone screaming for UC to blitz? Whatever.
While I just whatevered the coach, Matt from Down the Drive and I agree on his point that's it too early to fire Butch Jones. It's the 3rd game of the second season. Let's chill out a little crazy people. His point about the salary is the most meaningless one, because I don't think the new AD would hesitate to fire Jones if UC went 1-whatever. But that would be after the season. As we just learned with Louisville, you have to turn the page on a Kragging as fast as possible. Even in the poor Big East, you can go from dominating, going to the Gator Bowl, going to the Orange Bowl, to going 6-6 to bottoming out and being the worst team in the league in 4 years. I'm not saying that Jones is going to pull that trick, because Cincinnati wasn't going to win the Big East 100 years in a row, but overmatched coach from a smaller conference just happened. I think Jones will absolutely be back for a 3rd season. But maybe with a new defensive staff. I single out the defensive staff mainly because of this Koch piece. Look at how many the times the words mental and fundamental are used. - The poor performance turned in Saturday at Tennessee by the University of Cincinnati defense was not due to missed assignments or a lack of ability, defensive coordinator Tim Banks said. It was simply a matter of poor fundamentals.
- Coach Butch Jones blamed mental errors and poor tackling for the performance. “We turned a guy Scott-free in man coverage and it’s by a player who’s always right there consistently,” Jones said. “He got caught up and his eyes were watching the quarterback."
- “Those are all the fundamental details that we’ve got to zero in on. They know where their mistakes occurred. They can tell you why they made the mistakes and I think that’s part of becoming better. Now we just have to take it to the field.” - Jones
- “We don’t have the luxury where if he doesn’t make the play, bring the next guy in,” Jones said. “We don’t have that luxury in our program right now. We have to do a better job of coaching the fundamentals.”
- “It was about making game-speed decisions,” Jones said. Obviously from week one (against Austin Peay) to week two, the game sped up. We sat in this room and they looked at it and I think they gained confidence because a lot of the errors sometimes weren’t physical errors. They were mental errors.”
One more Koch thing, I swear to god that the man Paul Dehner wrote about Isaiah Pead busting his first carry of the first 2 games of a TD, and then Koch does it. Why the man isn't writing for the Cincinnati.com website, and that hack is, I don't know. What's the last original thing Koch wrote? If UC gave me access, I wouldn't just copy and paste quotes from coaches and call it a day like the defense piece. It sucks so much that he's the biggest voice in town for UC sports. I think with Paul now being at Go Bearcats, and Matt from Down the Drive doing his thing, and Chris from whatever his site is called, Bearcat something, the voices are out there and the narrative is changing from the boring and bland, to the fun and new. Let me tell you a story. The day Cincinnati beat Pittsburgh I was fucking pumped. I wanted to share my happiness with other Bearcat fans. There were not any anywhere. The only place I had to turn to read about the game that wasn't an AP post was Koch. That made me want to start my own site, so people could talk about the Bearcats and enjoy the times good and bad. I'm sure Matt thought the same thing. Let's finish this out on a positive jam.The Cincinnati ladies soccer team is 4-2-2, and won the Charleston Cup. Here's the whole blurb:Cincinnati (4-2-2; 0-0-0 Big East; Last Week’s Record: 2-0-0)...Cincinnati went 2-0-0 in the College of Charleston Cup last weekend in Mt. Pleasant, S.C. The Bearcats beat the College of Charleston 3-2 in double overtime on Sept. 9 and knocked off Coastal Carolina 4-0 on Sept. 11....Freshman Mackenzie Grause scored three goals and had two assists in two games....Senior Emily Hebbeler scored one goal and had two assists during the tournament, while sophomore Jazmine Rhodes scored the game winning goal in double overtime against the College of Charleston....The Bearcats have outshot their opponents in all but one match this season. For the year Cincinnati has outshot its opponents 138-78....Four Bearcats (freshman Kristina Utley, Rhodes, Hebbeler and Grause) were selected to the all tournament team.
