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This is so cool.

That kid has transformed himself and in turn become an important piece of the success of the team as opposed to the part-time role player many of us envisioned him to be.

There it is.

I renewed and upgarded season tickets today. I'm frustrated about the post-season ban and the academic failure that led to it, but I love my alma mater and want to continue my support. I hope to see you all at InfoCision for the Wyoming game.

I think this season will be remembered as the Mahaffey brothers season Eric is going to be legit and his brother is the glue guy of the team. I’m starting to think both Start! With Tavari Lyes and Scott

Im losing interest by the minute.

Add another match against a top team for the Zips this fall. Akron will play at home against West Virginia on August 29. Last season, West Virginia finished 13-2-7, won the Sun Belt tournament , and lost in the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament to UVA. They ended at 16 in RPI and 16 in most national polls. Another opportunity for the Zips against a top out of conference opponent. https://wvusports.com/news/2025/6/13/mens-soccer-announces-2025-schedule.aspx

This is actually a move up for Camden. At Akron his main job was development(fundraising). This new position is better suited to what he showed after Charles departed. External operations is more about the day to day operations of the department. It also reunites him with his former coworker who is the AD at Omaha. It's also much closer to where he grew up in Missouri.

Terence Thomas has been added back to the roster as well. Assuming all the freshmen make it in, that’s 85 scholarships by my count.

She's going to be at the hospital with the cafeteria bowls balanced on her foot, rolling the wheelchair back and forth as she prepares to flip the bowls onto her head with her nonbroken extremity.

Football roster has been updated. Looks like everyone is accounted for except the incoming freshmen and JUCO DT Nehemiah Musika, who may just be enrolling later. Also, it seems former UNC LB CJ Murphy has filled the open LB spot.

Looks like we have our first Sun Belt matchup in place - James Madison. Nice home game for the schedule.

I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere yet, but big congratulations to Malik on making his MLS debut last night!

QB: Finley Johnson (TP) - Finley is the starter barring injury. He hit his stride over the final four games of the season, throwing for 1,027 yards, 8 touchdowns, and just 1 interception during that stretch. If he can pick up where he left off, he’ll be All-MAC in 2025. Bullock left via the portal, with Syracuse transfer Michael Johnson stepping in as his replacement. True freshman Cibastian Broughton is dynamic and should find his way onto the field somewhere during his first year. RB: Gant (TP) Patrick - Tennessee State transfer Jordan Gant will split reps with redshirt freshman Sean Patrick. Both backs showed flashes in their limited spring game action. Colgate transfer Chris Gee and ULM transfer Taven Curry are built similarly—bigger backs by our standards—who can also catch the ball out of the backfield. They’re solid change-of-pace options. I think this year’s group has four guys who can legitimately contribute. WR: Mason Walker Adams Hills (TP) Polk Davis - I’m already a Kyan Mason fan and think he’s in line for a huge season. The redshirt freshman was explosive during the spring game and easily looked like our best receiver. It’ll be good to see Adams back on the field, even if he’s not quite the all-conference player he was a few seasons ago. Polk should build on the development we saw late last year. We might’ve lost our biggest playmaker in Norton, but I actually think this year’s group has more quality depth. TE: Newell Cravaack - I strongly believe we’ll have the best tight end duo in the MAC this year. Since they’ll be splitting snaps much of the time, it’s possible neither gets all-conference recognition, but both have the ability to produce at a high level. Redshirt freshman Khalil Witherspoon is one to watch in the coming seasons. He still needs to add some mass to be more effective as an in-line blocker, but he has all kinds of length and could develop into a weapon in the passing game. LT: D. Johnson (TP) Shor LG: K. Davis Archer (TP) C Morris Fox RG: A. Jones (TP) Lyons RT: J. Moore (TP) Motley-Simmons (TP) - The OL will play a major role in determining how potent this year’s offense is. We’ve got plenty of size, length, and athleticism up front—probably the most we’ve had as a unit during Moorhead’s tenure. That’s the good news. The bad news is we’re seriously lacking guys with experience at the G5 level. It might take some time to find the right combination before this group really clicks. This isn’t one of those positions you want to enter a season still figuring out. The talent is there—but how long will it take to gel? DE: Durham (TP) Cheatom DT: Hull Laventure (JUCO) DT: Murphy Madden DE: Dall J. Frazier - From what I saw in the spring game, only Durham, Hull, and Dall look like they have spots locked down. Every other position on the depth chart feels wide open. With a new position coach and so many players moving on, this was the group I had the most concern about during the offseason. I like the film on some of the incoming transfers and JUCOs, but we won’t really know what we have until the season kicks off. Will we luck out and find another Nunnally-type on the DL, or will they end up more like the rest of our JUCO DL signees under Moorhead—rotational guys and backups? Our pass rush was anemic at times in 2024, and I’m not yet convinced it’ll be drastically better in 2025. I’d love to be proven wrong. LB: Summers Benenge LB: Cooper Spriggs - The linebacking corps should be solid in 2025, even with the losses of McCoy and Fish. When given the opportunity, Summers showed he’s a tackling machine—just like he was in JUCO—and Cooper returns from injury. We definitely missed Cooper last year; he brings a pass-rushing element the other LBs don’t. Spriggs and Benenge should be ready for bigger roles after seeing snaps in 2024. Redshirt freshman Jason Hocker and true freshman Markus Boswell both passed the eye test in the spring game, despite not being allowed to tackle anyone. CB: Reed DeWalt CB: Jarmon Kamara (TP) - From a length and athleticism standpoint, this should be the best cornerback group we’ve had. Reed started the WMU game and never gave the job back. DeWalt is an athletic specimen but needs to find more consistency. Jarmon and Kamara both looked good in the spring game, and redshirt sophomore Catrell White should be ready to contribute as well. If the front seven can generate a decent pass rush, this unit will produce in 2025. NB: Greenwood A. Branch (TP) S: David Flowers (TP) S: Anderson Hunter - I’m including nickelback with safety since there’s plenty of crossover in Tibesar’s scheme. The Lewis’ have moved on, leaving a production void in the secondary. Greenwood was a backup and will likely grab a starting spot. I expect Kent State transfer Alex Branch to push for playing time in the backfield as well. If David is healthy, he’ll probably reclaim a starting safety spot—he was lost for the season during the Rutgers game in 2024 and missed the 2025 spring game. Anderson held down the other safety spot and did a solid job. Penn State transfer Mahki Flowers, a former 4-star, could make some noise too. On paper, we seem to have enough depth this year, and with a new safeties coach in the mix, we’ll see how this group comes together. K: Wiley Samaha (TP) P: Castle Schramm LS: Dennis Rhoades (TP) - We lost all of our starting specialists after the season ended. That said, if the spring game is any indication, Wiley and Castle look ready to take over placekicking and punting duties, respectively. Michigan transfer Adam Samaha will be in the mix too. I’m curious to see if we bring in another punter just to add some competition.

Pretty much agree here. OL and DL are definitely the biggest question marks. I think we did a good job filling the OL holes. Not so sure about DL. I’m not too excited about the JUCO guys, but who knows - could be another CJ Nunnally in there. Hope more of the young guys are ready to contribute.

Just a heads up—I likely won’t be updating recruiting threads much anymore. On3 bought out Rivals and the transition kicks off in a few days. I’ve already stepped back from writing quite a bit, so the timing actually works out. I’ll still be around and talking ball as always, just won’t have much insider recruiting info going forward.

It’s the Zips combining. Cross from Royer, flick by Stefan, finish by Buebendorf. Hope for about 20 of these in the fall…… https://www.instagram.com/reel/DLX2CKaAUXK/?igsh=dGpzeDJnaTFibDl5

I'm really looking forward to seeing what we have in Eric Mahaffey. I'd heard that he was so good in the preseason last year that he was going to see some time and be a contributor as a freshman. Now, it is clear he is doing the off the court work in the off-season. He could develop into a fine Nate replacement.

Speaking of Vermont, their soccer team is going to Germany in June.... very good article....about the We Five......greatly helped Vermont mens soccer https://uvmathletics.com/news/2025/6/24/peter-bernhardt-72-champions-global-experience-for-mens-soccer-national-champions.aspx

6'5" G/F from St. Ignatius. Love seeing the NEO kid stay home. Much like the Columbus duo, not a whole lot out there about RJ in terms of other offers.

RB from UL Monroe (Terry Bowden's former stomping grounds).

Looks like we got our first verbal for '26. Yeboa Cobbold, Jr. An athlete from Philly. In his bio he listed his positions as DB/WR/QB. I'm gonna go ahead and list him as a DB in post #1.

2 more wins and Riq gets a ring

A good marketing team would figure out how to capitalize off of this

Not academically eligible sounds more like our football team's recruiting strategy.

I agree with you. New AD’s always bring in “their guys.” If you are a Guthrie underling your resume and profile was updated the day he bolted for Fordham. i thought the guy had potential. It’ll be interesting to follow his career over the next several years.

I think that the Zips alternate years on Big East Eastern Division opponents...(always play the 5 other teams in Big East Mid west and 3 games against Big East Eastern teams) in 2023, the Zips played Connecticut, St. John's and Seton Hall Those 3 teams have already released their 2025 schedules and the Zips play all 3 teams in 2025. In 2024, the Zips played Georgetown, Providence and Villanova. Villanova announced their schedule today and the Zips are not on their schedule. 3 big east Midwest teams ..(Xavier, Butler and Marquette) have released their schedules.... so....of the 10 games announced so far, 6 of the games are conference games. The 2 remaining Big East conference games....will be against Midwest foes Creighton and DePaul. I would anticipate that it will be a while before DePaul releases their schedule. DePaul had to announce a tragic event yesterday involving a player that started in 16 games for them last year. I am sure that all of us in the Akron zips soccer community want to extend our deepest sympathy to the family of this young man and to the coaches and the players of the DePaul Men's soccer community. https://depaulbluedemons.com/news/2025/6/2/athletics-depaul-university-mourns-the-loss-of-student-athlete-chase-stegall

The Zips announced their full home schedule for 2025. Some quality opponents coming to First Energy this fall.

https://www.riverhounds.com/news/2025/06/18/ydrach-world-cup-feature-puerto-rico/

https://gocreighton.com/news/2025/6/16/mens-soccer-unveils-2025-schedule

6'1" 225 LB from Pickerington North w/ 6 D1 offers By his X feed it was difficult to tell who offered but it looked like us, Ohio, Miami, Toledo, KSUcks, YSU, and Gardner Webb. That's 7 so one of those schools didn't offer.

That explains why I'm not up to speed on the Summit Circle. I chose not to join X when it benefits a self-absorbed billionaire like Musk.

Yesterday OSU announced how it intends to spend its $20.5 M in paying its athletes. $18M will go to four sports: football, men's basketball, women's basketball and women's volleyball. 75% of that will go to football. The remaining 25% will be allocated to the three remaining sports. The $2.5 M left from the total $20.5 M allowed will be used to support 90 new scholarships that will be allocated amongst the remaining 32 varsity sports as needed. OSU expects the money paid to athletes to grow as the NCAA has said the $20.5 M in revenue sharing will grow in succeeding years. What is next? Athletes unionizing? Payment is considered income? Athletes employ professional advisors ala agents? College sports continue on a slow but steady decline in the eyes of the average fan because their favorite school cannot compete or even have the illusion of competing. I see the top 30 schools doing well. The rest will not survive as we know it today.

Looks to me like former Zips LB great under Bowden and NFL LB Justin March is now a member of our staff. Good move.

Solid debut!

I think the schedule is done. Traditionally, Jared has steered the ship. The official announcements vary by school, but Akron generally announces first week of July.

Not necessarily NIL, but scholarship money available. All schools are now allowed, but not required, to have all men’s players on the roster receive full scholarships up to 28. Prior to this change, mens soccer teams were limited to the equivalent of 9.5 to divide across the players. I’m sure the Zips gained very little, if any $$ to allocate to men’s soccer. On the other hand, I’m confident schools like OSU did and can leverage a “full ride” deal for transfer players from schools that aren’t opted in. Even an increase to 15 scholarships could be a massive difference to the construction of a roster.

I would love to know how you got your information and who from? It sounds like your meeting with him he fed you the smoothie he tried feeding everyone else on campus at the beginning. My thoughts vary a little... Firstly Guthrie biggest mistake was moving on many great Akron people. He moved on Paul Hammond, Anne Jorgensen and arguably our greatest coach in Dennis Mitchell. There is nearly 100 years of work at Akron in those 3 people alone. He then went and outsourced everything he possibly could such as parking, dorms and probably other things I am unaware of. Why? Anyone defending his hires is crazy. Our track team isn’t as good as it once was. Our football team have more issues off the field as they have on it; and that’s saying something. His womens soccer coach got fired for doing whatever it is she did. His administration seemed useless apart from maybe Camden Stockden. And the marketing for athletics on campus was non existent. As mentioned here already; the games towards the end of mens basketball season were promoted best of the year and he was no longer in the job!! Guthrie was known in athletics for spending school money to look great for donors. His bills racked up over and over costing the department thousands of dollars. Any possible event he could go to he did. His twitter showed us fans this. Masters golf, Browns games, conventions, Bowl games, anything he could get himself to, he was there. He is still doing the same at Fordham. I must unfollow him actually. Guthrie lied about more things than he spoke the truth on. Multiple lies to Moorehead on budgets, NIL money and academic standards. Their relationship was non existent when he left. He has not hidden his hatred for Charles. Many donors, me included were tired of his sh1t by the time he left. It was all talk and no action. Guthrie also lied to so many coaches about contracts, and then hid the contract offers and extensions from the public. Peresie signed a new contract. Reimer Gonzales signed a new contract. Embick signed a new contract. All coaches were told to sign the line, or move on. Peresie and Embick are proven winning coaches and Guthrie was fine moving them on to save money and spend the extra money any which way he wanted. I have always been against the rebranding and introduction of the Arbys A. How can a school who is so financially unstable change everything from Adidas to Nike and Z to A and expect to not be in more debt?

Having the bodies alone should be enough to get us over the hump in some of those close games we didn’t have the depth to pull out last season. Let’s hope the squad has a solid summer to gel as we go into year 3 of the Gensler era. Feel like this will be a very telling season on the direction of the program.

Camden seemed to be a pretty big part of the renewed energy around basketball last season.

Seems like price gouging to me. So it's either a carton of eggs or a Zips home game? Highway robbery.

I'm pleased that the Nebraska game is at night. I'll be able to drive 3 hours; tailgate all afternoon; then enjoy the game. I have a room booked at the Marriot (tailgate central). Down town Lincoln is a fun place on game days. It's a short walk to the stadium. If you are planning a road trip this season, Nebraska would be a great choice.