Leaderboard

Now that most of the portal chaos has settled down, I figured I’d take my usual shot at projecting the spring depth chart. QB: Poffenbarger Roggow This is the most talented quarterback room since Moorhead’s arrival when you look at it purely from a potential standpoint. Unfortunately, that doesn’t guarantee a worthwhile starter, especially since no one has proven production at the FBS level. It’d be easy to lump Poffenbarger in with Undercuffler for obvious reasons, but after watching some of Poffenbarger’s Albany film on YouTube, I think he shows much better touch than Undercuffler and seems to read the field better as well. Of course, that was a few years ago and at the FCS level, so we’ll see if Poffenbarger can reproduce that here. I also wouldn’t rule out Roggow, Broughton, or Beals getting meaningful playing time. The position should be wide open, and higher production from this spot would make a huge impact on the offense. Somehow, the best quarterback in this system has been one the staff inherited in DJ Irons. The 2022 offense averaged 26.6 PPG and 408.1 yards per game. Since then, the offense has averaged 20.5 PPG and 329.5 yards per game (conference stats only). For anyone wondering, that’s fewer points and yards than Arth’s final season. RB: Gant Patrick Somehow, in the NIL era, every scholarship running back from last season is back. I’m not sure Gant will be able to reproduce another 1,000-yard season with what is basically a brand-new offensive line and a new quarterback who’ll be reading the defense and deciding whether to give or keep on RPOs. Also, I expect Patrick to step into a larger role and create a bigger impact. Gee and Curry are more power-type backs who could contribute if they stay healthy. 2025 was the best rushing year under this staff. I’ve been pretty vocal about the need to run the ball more. In most cases, teams with a strong running game tend to win. The Zips averaged 124 rushing yards per game last season, which is decent, but only good enough for ninth in the MAC. For comparison, Ohio and Western Michigan both averaged over 200 yards per game on the ground. WR: Ma. Williams Sivon WR: Mason Louis WR: Monteiro Myers Outside of Williams and Mason, almost any receiver could be penciled into the depth chart at this point. I don’t know which of the incoming players will work their way to the forefront, but I do think this room has as much talented depth as any other year. 2022 might’ve had the best group of starters, but the 2026 group has a chance to be one of the deepest from top to bottom. If the drops can be limited, the passing game has a chance to be one of the best in the MAC again. TE: Cravaack Hook Cravaack took over TE1 duties last season and steadily got better as the year went on. I have to assume that played at least some role in Newell transferring to Toledo. Incoming Michigan State transfer Hook and JUCO addition Alexander will provide depth. The fewest amount of passes in the Moorhead era went to the tight ends last year. I’d think there’ll be more of an effort to get them involved in the passing game in 2026. OL: Honestly, it’s anyone’s guess who’ll be starting in 2026. I’m sure Lyons and A. Jones can be penciled in, but outside of that, I don’t know. The spring game should give a better indication. Coach JRod has improved offensive line play each year he’s been here, though he’ll definitely have his work cut out for him this coming season. There’s some ability in the room, but I can’t say this group is any more talented than last year’s squad. I’d actually say it’s a bit less, although that doesn’t mean they can’t outperform if the right combination can build early cohesion. DE: Durham J. Frazier DT: Hull E. Davis DT: Highland Mixon DE: Waye D. Frazier Similar to the offensive line, I can’t say this is a more talented unit with the losses of Laventure and Dall. The defense was the best it’s been during the current staff’s tenure in multiple MAC categories, including points per game (26.6), sacks (20), interceptions(8), and forced fumbles (7). Durham and Hull return as starters, so that’s a positive. Waye is an edge player from the portal who looks a little raw but has some physical talent. Highland looks like a really good pickup on the interior, even if he’s more of a run stuffer. This unit still needs a few more additions, as the backups produced next to nothing last season and the starting group doesn’t currently look as strong on paper. This time last year I was concerned about the DL, but the addition of Laventure after spring ball made a huge difference. Hopefully something similar happens this year, even though I do feel better going into 2026 than I did during the spring of 2025. LB: Hocker Jones I’m taking a shot in the dark projecting the linebacker depth chart. I’m frustrated, but not surprised, that Spriggs hit the portal. He was finally coming into his own and would have almost certainly been all-conference this coming season. That said, I’m not overly concerned about the position. Tibesar has consistently done a good job year over year getting production out of whoever is on the field. Talent isn’t the question — productivity is. Right now, nobody in the room has any meaningful FBS experience. If the spring “game” looks anything like last year, we probably won’t learn much more than we already know, which is that these guys are athletic and can get downhill in a hurry. Realistically, it’s probably going to take until game one before we have any real idea where things actually stand. CB: White McNeil CB: T. Thomas Hobson NB: AL. Branch AI. Branch S: David Somerville S: Flowers Hunter I’d expect the starters and backups from last year’s secondary to at least open spring as starters or newly elevated starters. After that, though, things could shift pretty quickly. The new cornerbacks coach clearly emphasized speed this offseason, and now he’ll have his own recruits in the room to start molding. Both nickelbacks are back, and there’s a solid group of safeties returning too — a unit that definitely had its share of highs and lows. With a year of legit FBS experience under their belts, I’d expect the safeties to be a lot more consistent in 2026. ST: I assume Schramm and Castle will kick things off as starters, but this room does not seem complete. Hills should have plenty of competition at kick returner as well. To wrap up, I want to touch on recruiting. I think this year’s class probably lands somewhere in the middle of the MAC. That said, if a home run was hit at quarterback, it could make this class look a lot better than it actually is. High-end quarterback play usually means more points and, more often than not, more wins. Until the NIL pool is competitive with the rest of the conference, I doubt there will be many, if any, years where Akron can realistically claim the top class in the MAC. On the flip side, there’s a lot of young talent on this roster — way more than during the Arth years — and honestly it’s mostly in line with the rest of the conference. So I don’t want to make it sound like not landing a top class means you can’t win. If it’s paired with strong coaching, winning seasons are still very much on the table.

I just bought my ticket for the Kent game on stubhub. I just printed the ticket and I will be sitting with the Kent fans since it is a season holder ticket. I did the same thing about 5 years ago wearing my Akron hat and a Kent season ticket holder told me I was sitting in the wrong section. I told him I was in the right seat. He yelled for the usher to check my ticket. A young college student usher came over and meekly stated he did not want to do this but asked to see my ticket. I showed him my ticket and the usher thanked me. I then suggested that he check the ticket of the guy who complained and we both laughed. Looking forward to tonights game.

I feel you could make a decent fan committee from just this forum. We have people from all walks of life. Some former players. Many die-hard 30+ year fans. Some more recent grads. Many Akron alumni and a few who weren't that still want to support the local team. Just take 10 people from this board and mix in 2-3 current students and there you go, you have your committee. No need to do a further search.

I've watched parts of a few of the Sun Belt games over the past several days. Game attendance has varied between ~600-2,500 thus far. We give the MAC a lot of crap, but let's take a moment to at least acknowledge the one thing they have done right is the MAC tournament. They put on quite the show. We're easily hitting above our weight class when you see the attendance figures we put up compared to other relative conferences and even some, like the AAC, that you would expect much more out of.

This is the most interesting season the MAC has had in years and Miami and Akron are the reasons why.

Just a quick update on our signees. RJ Jones, playing at Cle St Ignacius is averaging 17,5 ppg and 6.3 RB. Jashawn Ladd plays for Ben Davis HS in Indianapolis and is averaging 14.7 ppg, and 3 RB, and Devan Christian at Clark HS in Las Vegas is averaging 20.4 ppg and 10 boards.

I think this is great. I hope they go undefeated and we take them out for 2 bids. I hope they keep Steele and we keep progressing, and UMass joins that tier with Kent, Toledo and OU right behind. The wheels are in place for a very good mid major conference with multiple bids, if the schools invest and keep these coaches..

If someone broke the microphone of the woman who does the Zips on-court MC-ing, would the fine be similar? Asking for a friend.

I’m done buying Zips gear until the Fordham AD’s fast food logo is crumpled up and tossed in the dumpster. Which would be criminal to do to any dumpster, but sometimes it sucks to be a dumpster.

First practice is Tuesday, March 17. Spring game will be Friday, April 24.

Akron Zips Men's Soccer.

Some talk about donating in other threads and it probably deserves its own spot - it's very easy to setup a recurring donation. I encourage everyone to support however they are able. It all adds up and our program deserves the support. FTR Collective https://www.feartheroocollective.com/contribute-zipsmensbasketball UA Men's Basketball Fund https://fundraise.givesmart.com/vf/CompExFundNIL/team/MBB

Sounds like they'll be well rested to whack the crap out of Skaljac's hand/wrist.

This might be sacrilegious to say, but I don't think Suder should even be the 2nd choice. Gillespie IMO was the 2nd best player in the MAC this season. I can see Suder at #3.

Word is that as of last week there has been record ticket sales for the tournament. In the neighborhood of a 50% increase over total sales from last year with a week still to go. Rocket Mortgage is going to be rocking!

Our second Sunbelt opponent, Troy, wins their league tournament.

I wouldn't get caught up in trying to keep up with the Jones's. Infocision has financially hamstrung the football department. If you add in what we're spending on the stadium to what we're spending on everything else football related (coach, staff, recruiting, etc) we're near the top of the MAC. The problem is we can't both make debt service payments on the stadium while still having an upper tier G5 budget. That's why we just lost an assistant to Marshall. IMO NIL is a great equalizer for a program like Akron. Facility upgrades are immensely costly and don't correlate directly to success. Two of our G5 peers in the Sun Belt built new arenas in the last 5 years. This season they went a combined 15-21 in conference play. What matters for success and notoriety is players. We already have the training facility and fantastic locker rooms that are in the upper echelon of the MAC. IMO every dollar you spend in NIL equates to $10, $20, maybe more in facilities. You get a greater ROI in NIL.

Bracketology trends as regular season winds down We've reached the final weekend of the regular season in men's college basketball, and conference tournaments are nearly finished on the women's side. It's only March 6, but the madness is already here. Few things this time of year are as important as momentum, and while some teams are improving their NCAA Tournament stock each time they step onto the court, others are slipping down seed lines and putting themselves in danger of missing the dance altogether. We took the temperature of 19 teams in our bracketology stock watch. Trending up: Florida, Michigan State, Saint Mary's, Ohio State, Georgia, Cincinnati, TCU, South Florida, Akron Trending down: SMU, BYU, NC State, Clemson, Iowa State, Kansas, Louisville, Iowa, Purdue, San Diego State You'll be hearing a lot of bubble talk over the next week. Anxiety levels are high for at-large teams teetering on the edge of the bracket. In addition to taking care of business, they also need to root against potential bid stealers. Our model projects the MAC as the likeliest conference to produce one of those thieves. David Cobb explains. Cobb: "It's Akron -- not Miami (Ohio) -- that our model views as the favorite to win the MAC Tournament. The Zips have won 15 straight league games since taking a loss to the RedHawks early in league play. Akron also rates better in predictive metrics than Miami, but Miami will have a strong at-large case if it fails to win the league tournament."

Not sure if this has been posted anywhere, but Fear the Roo Collective has a new hoodie. Just ordered mine. The vest I bought last year is top notch so I'm excited for the hoodie which is a New Era base. Pretty solid price, too, at $40. Go Zips!

I have been a member of this board for years and in the past we would always have discussions about whether Akron could get an at large bid. We would then lose on the road to a terrible MAC team and end of discussion. But this week Akron had been mentioned numerous times in relationship to March madness in the national media. Why, because the discussion revolves around whether Miami, the only undefeated team in the nation, should get an at large bid if they do not win the conference championship. And the argument set forth by national commentators is that they are not even the best team in the MAC because the Zips had a better schedule and have been blowing out teams in the MAC. Lets enjoy the national attention!!!

OMG their president is wearing a bunny costume out of the Christmas story movie. There is so much wrong with that place.

Saturday night, the card shop I work for on the weekends had a huge trade night. Afterwards, the owner thanked all the employees by gifting a box of 2024-25 Panini Obsidian Basketball cards to each employee. 1 pack, 7 cards per. 1 of my 7 cards? Enrique Freeman Rookie Patch Auto /75. Gotta love how Enrique keeps representing Akron.

Great to see he's still the same humble goofy kid he was as a Zip.

Might actually eclipse 1000 a couple times. Looks like their record is 1700, hit last year against a team from Cleveland. Certainly it's not exactly going to fill the place up, but it's also going to bring a few people out that haven't been to the stadium before, at no real cost to the University, so it's still a win and I'm glad they're trying things.

In my wish world, Akron takes on unbeaten Miami in the MAC final and beats them on a banked three pointer with no time left on the clock.

I was a college housemate (Sumner and Gage Streets) of Jack Patterson’s son John. I’m still very good friends with him today. I attended Jack’s funeral, and John’s eulogy he told a neat story about his dad. John’s team made the intramural finals at Stow high school. They couldn’t break a press, so he asked his dad for help. Jack was the beat writer for Ohio State at the time. During a road game trip Jack pulled OSU coach Eldon Miller aside in a hotel lobby and asked him how to break a press. Eldon took Jack’s notepad and drew it out. John’s team won the game. Not sure if they were pressed at any point, but they were prepared. 😊

Kansas State won their first game without Tang. Nate put up a stat line of 33/9/5.

When I looked at the stats this morning, I noticed that in the last 6 games the Zips have not shot 40% from the 3 point line. In our lost to Troy and our narrow win st Eastern Michigan we shot the 3 point ball around 27% for those games. Earlier in the season against good out of conference teams including Perdue we were averaging well over 40% from 3. I even commented that this might be Groce's best 3 point shooting team. I hate that our three point shooting in trending downward at the end of the season. Not sure what is the cause except the grind of a long season. Also, Groce has been playing some players long minutes and there has been a greater emphasis on defense. In our loss to Miami we only shot 25% from 3. Hoping that we can regain our outside shooting touch in the remaining games.

Yes, I feel realization is setting in for him that he can't elevate Kent's program to where Akron is currently. His only hope is Akron regressing. I actually thought he coached Kent well and had a solid game plan to disrupt Akron offensively yesterday. Jack's and Joe's just beat X's and O's.

Had the Freeman jersey on at the card shop again today. Several more comments from people saying they like the jersey and are rooting for Akron to win the tourney. Fans: Wear your Akron gear. Akron: Offer more affordable gear for fans to wear.

What a butt kicking. Seniors got to walk off the court to a standing ovation with 5:00 minutes left.

Akron's 34-2 record in MAC play is the best record in MAC history over a 2 year span.

I'd prefer to think that it is more like five to go!

You rang?! And I'll have you know that CK is at least a year or 2 older than me. Whitlock should be calling the Toledo Blade .. with Elton retired, that's where I'd start with a historian. Go Zips!

I sure hope there's a large appreciative crowd tonight. These kids deserve it after the seasons of joy they have brought to Zips fans.

Lots and lots of attention being focused on the MAC right now. I love it, especially because everybody is talking about Akron really being the team people should be paying attention to. CBS Sports discussion on Miami's at large chances since they think Akron will win the tournament. And an article on bid stealers since they make the argument if Akron beats Miami, Miami might still be an at-large team so that would be a bid stealer. Although that's not a huge upset because Akron's pretty damn close to being tournament worthy on their own. Zips are the face of the article.

The seniors are going to be overshadowed by the celebration of this being our last ever conference game vs. NIU!

Let's get the excitement building for this very (not at all) meaningful game! In all seriousness though, looking forward to the senior day ceremony as we have a great class playing their last game at the JAR.

Mr. Joe Dunn.

Bruce Pearl name drops Akron. I had a Miami OH honk on X get his sweater in a tizzy because he set up a GoFundMe to cover Steele's fine and I said it was an absurd thing to do. Very early in the exchange, he said that Akron wishes they were getting half the publicity that Miami OH's getting. I told him that almost every single conversation regarding Miami OH typically involves someone mentioning that Akron is probably the best team in the MAC, so thanks for the free publicity lol.

We've received a waiver to be eligible for postseason next year. https://www.espn.com/contributor/pete-thamel/b9ef17c2cb182

25-5 is akron's best start to a season ever.

This is the difference between good and great teams though. Great teams are multi-dimensional and struggling in one area does not doom them to a loss. If we had an alternative way to generate offense against Troy and Miami, we would have won those games, and we would be having a great season, not just a good one.

What a laughable good deal in favor of MAC schools. Anyone else out there this desperate to get to the FBS level? The MAC is open for business!

I would say quite considerably. I know the practice gym is outfitted with equipment that allows it to track player performance with advanced analytics. It even provides numbers on what lineups provide the most optimization. Groce has said in the past that some of those lineups he has been surprised by in the past. Add in the Zips are one of the heaviest volume shooting from 3 teams in NCAA. I know many gray hairs are against it, but I feel it's something that if you aren't utilizing, you're falling behind.

The new Ball Sac rivalry will be worth every penny