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I talked to Chad Welker today at the golf outing and the web cam should up and running in the next day or two.

for those inquiring minds:

Had a chance to chat with JoMo at the golf outing today. Irons is the #1 QB out of spring practice, but that is subject to change. He likens his preference at qb to be like a point guard. He wants the QB to distribute the ball to the play makers all over the field. He values good decision making and no turnovers over splashy individual play making.

Looks just about done. I'm sure we'll get some better shots of the finished field soon.

The Spartans are coming. Michigan State at Akron on September 5 https://msuspartans.com/news/2022/6/2/spartan-mens-soccer-announces-2022-schedule.aspx

Wait till you see the rest of the schedule.💪

Western Kentucky and then winner of LSU/Illinois State if we win. Very nice

Dealing with NIL, on E. Market near the Arlington/Buchtel intersection I saw Garvin Clarke on a billboard for mental health/anxiety awareness. Maybe Groce & JoeMo should have a large catered dinner (maybe in the John S. Knight Center?) for Akron-area businesses/business owners and simply explain the new NIL landscape and ask that they work UA football & basketball players into their marketing?

Maybe they don't want their field to look like it belongs in a high school stadium.

Bigjim, this is new territory that not many people know about outside of the athletics departments themselves. If you’re not satisfied with my response, I suggest you contact Akron athletics or the NCAA directly for your answer. Unfortunately, you won’t receive a 100% positive answer here or on any other message board. I used to be a high school AD so I was in the loop, but not anymore. Now I write for a sports media outlet. The information I just gave you is as close as you’ll find without contacting the departments I mentioned above.

Felt like 40-0 due to inflation adjustment.😂

Soccer recruiting has changed greatly since the Porter years. Akron used to get a decent amount of top 25 to top 50 recruits from 2007 to 2010. Now, with MLS and MLS Next and foreign leagues. probably 30 out of the top 35 ranked recruits turn pro and do not go to college. Signing the 53th ranked player is an outstanding coup for zips recruiting. In the fall 2022 recruiting class, I believe that Stefan Dobrijevic and Levi Stephens are the 2 highest rated recruits. They are in the range of 89 to 92. For the fall 2021 recruiting class, I think that GK Mitchell Budler was the highest ranked recruit. Mitchell was ranked in the high 50's. I am sure that Joshua Hardin participates in many national soccer events. It would be tremendous if young Mr. Hardin could convince some other top 100 recruits to come to Akron.

Just finished watching this YouTube interview. Wow! Coach Joe has hired some fantastic staff. I defy anyone to watch this interview and not come away thinking our program is destined for excellence. I want to do everything I can to keep Joe and his staff here for as long as possible. I can't wait for the fall. we will not win 'em all, but this team will make us proud. In Joe We Trust!

https://www.audacy.com/wqam/podcasts/south-florida-high-school-sports-radio-141/coach-joe-moorehead-with-larry-blustein-06-01-22-1444046924

Please have Butler on the schedule!

Pete Nance is headed to North Carolina.

The turf got sad with all of the losing. Winning is the cure. It's scientific.

No doubt. Will be interesting to see what the improvement to the class is after we win the MAC. 😉

Your speculation is other people’s educated opinion. Be grateful they share it with you. If you want 100% rock solid info, go down to the Stiles Center and ask the coach. This isn’t Ohio State . He’d be happy to speak with you.

No Saturday home games. Makes it more difficult for us out-of-towners. Ugh.

Seems like an upper-tier MAC-caliber player. Could fellow Syracuse transfer Curtis Harper and Coach Reno Ferri convince him to be a Zip?

Up and coming!! 😂

Let’s just be honest. He was a complete joke. Zero relationship with the players. All the best ones left and won elsewhere. It was cool to have a household name, but you can’t go home to Florida for months at a time and kill it in college sports. Kids today don’t have a damn clue who players from the 80s and 90s are. Go hire a college baseball coach. Not some “name”.

Totally in over his head from the jump, as would just about anyone. The entire strategy of bringing back baseball and adding WLAX was a total cluster*** by Larry Williams & Co. Thank goodness for the Skeeles family for donating the funds to at least give us a D1 facility. But UA baseball is not currently setup to even be average in the MAC. UA half-assed the revival to this point. Big opportunity here for Guthrie to right the ship.

Now that we have a full roster, I am incredibly intrigued by which players get redshirted. We're too full. This is the deepest Zips roster that I can ever remember. A Snapshot - 4 incoming freshman - 2 guards: one is an all state player in Illinois (Johnson); the other is 6'5" and received offers from Wichita State, Rhode Island, etc (Prather Jr). - 2 stretch 4s: one was 1st team all state in Ohio for DII (arguably the best basketball division in Ohio), averaged 20+ ppg, and played for one of the most prominent AAU programs in Ohio (Lyles); the other has outstanding tape and looks like he could be Ali Ali or better (Prince). - 2 transfers - 1 guard with double digit scoring potential, plays D, and has quite a bit of experience (Hankerson) - 1 forward, who looks more like a PF and comes from a P5 program (Hunter) - 2 redshirt freshman guards will make their true collegiate debuts this year. Both were prolific scorers in high school, and seem to possess solid size (Mitchell & Johnson). - For returning guards, we have X and Clarke at the Point, with Tribble and Dawson playing the 2 Guard/3&D roles. - Returning fowards is the one and only Enrique Freeman, who will have his jersey in the rafters at some point. This is the shortest team we will have seen Akron put on the court since Groce's first year, and then maybe prior to Dambrot? But it will undoubtedly be the most athletic we have seen. I am fascinated to see who gets redshirted. I am fascinated to see the rotations. I am fascinated to see the offense.

On Scarborough's front yard.

Yeah forget the Guardians, I want as much money going to the Zips as possible. Kaulig is a smart man, though. If he invested in baseball there is money to be made.

Brecksville HS PG. Listed anywhere between 5-11 to 6-2. Shooter.

Skilled, big-bodied 6-3 guard.

I created and updated Rivals prospect profiles with size, offers, and linked hudl video. Once I did that, the national reporters responded fairly quickly and now everyone but Lester Miller has a ranking. Looks like they forgot to give Bowen his 5.2-5.4 rating, but he is listed as a 2 star. I’ll continue to update their profiles as the year goes along, which will probably get a few of them ratings bump if they receive more offers. If anyone notices the players receiving more offers, please let me know. Due to the updates, Akron is listed as having the 67th best class for 2023. https://n.rivals.com/team_rankings/2023/all-teams/football Wasel = 5.6 - 3 star https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2023/steele-wasel-261890 Long = 5.3 - 2 star https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2023/maurice-long-294374 Mann = 5.4 - 2 star https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2023/jonas-mann-285528 Cravaack = 5.4 - 2 star https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2023/conner-cravaack-279676 Moore = 5.4 - 2 star https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2023/marcus-moore-280680 Bowen = ? - 2 star https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2023/joshua-bowen-241562 Louis = 5.3 - 2 star https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2023/jean-louis-iii-280349 White = 5.3 - 2 star https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2023/catrell-white-276218 Lang-Taylor = 5.4 - 2 star https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2023/zayden-laing-taylor-285125 Miller = NR - NR https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2023/lester-miller-284649 Norton = 5.4 - 2 star https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2023/adrian-norton-276321

The fact that our coach has announced her arrival at a new job before anyone knew she had left her previous one...DOH! 🤦‍♀️ and that we are talking about hiring high school coaches says much about the free fall of the Akron women's soccer program. There is just over a month to go before the players return to prepare for the 2022 season, so it will be near impossible to make a long-term hire, and we may end up with another "interim" label on whoever steps in. No matter what you think about the overall value of UA WSoc vis-a-vis the rest of the MAC, you have to realize this situation is an embarrassment and shows the leadership is asleep at the switch!

You never know with Akron Marketing…

Wadsworth & future Zips LHP John Allen is the Cleveland.com baseball POY.

Chris pitched 8 scoreless innings tonight giving up 3 hits and 0 runs striking out 7 to help the Mets beat the Brewers 4-0. He's 5-4 with a 3.89 ERA with 81 K's and a 1.17 WHIP.

Looks like a good pickup. I like it when there is interest from other schools. B&G, looks like you are getting tardy updating page 1 of the Verbal Commit lists for 22 and 23. I am just kidding 🙂 . You do such a fantastic job for Zips Nation. Thank you 100 times. Go Zips!!!

I'm expecting vast improvement by this defense. Not only due to the influx of higher level talent, but a much higher level of coaching. Our last defensive staff seemed pretty inept most of the time.

I love the way this staff is attacking the defense. So much versatility on the defensive line.

https://247sports.com/Recruitment/Kyle-Thomas-102431/RecruitInterests/ + Liberty and Kent St for his initial offers in HS. Looks like only other FBS offer this time around is LA Tech. Apparently a July grad so I'm sure that limited his interest.

I can't prove it, but my guess is we have never had recruits from this many states in a single class before.

Let’s not look down our noses at MAC MSOC until we have our boots firmly on their throats.

Dang, Ball Coach JoeMo!! So, who's picking the Zippers to win the MAC this year?

Five MAC teams went to NCAA last year. BGSU, NIU, WMU all have tasted the exposure this brings. And they want it again. Year in year out, at least one of those three will challenge Zips for MAC. Let’s return to always beating these teams every time before we complain about the quality of the MAC.

Well, maybe he's going to be completely happy at Akron and stay for a long, long time. JoeMo likely learned from his Miss St. days that maybe bigger is not always better. I don't know, just always rubs me the wrong way these people always like to be so doom-and-gloom for fans of smaller schools. Like hey, you have a great coach, but don't get too excited. Blah.