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I was able to attend today's scrimmage. It was offense (blue)/defense (white), just like last week. Below are some notes and pics - #15 Ben Finley continues to impress. Had a couple nice TD tosses. Zips fans will find this kid an absolute breath of fresh air. Unflappable...doesn't get rattled after a bad pass or a WR drop. Accurate. A different level of QB than we've seen in an Akron uniform for a while. You will all love him. Ben can run if needed...but we gotta keep this kid healthy. Ben zips one over the middle. Tahj started the scrimmage. Other than a couple spot appearances by Wassel and Ruggow towards the end of practice, he and Ben split the reps. In the right situations, Tahj is dangerous. He was wearing the "can't hit me" green jersey today, so rushing attempts aren't all that informative...but he obviously is a handful for a defense when he decides to use his feet. Steele got only a series or two, but did toss a TD. Ruggow got one series. He'll definitely benefit from a redshirt. Not a knock on him...he's just got a lot to learn. #22 Charles Kellom had a great day. He looks like he will definitely contribute this year. Two receiving TD's! (this one off a Finley swing pass). Nice TD celebration by Charles & Co. #22 pulled in a 35 yard TD on a 3rd and 18 from Ben Finley. This was Steele's 5 yard TD toss to Adrian Norton. At the 5 yard line, lined up behind redshirt Fr. TE Aiden Diaz, Hester scampered around the left tackle for a rushing TD. Hester had 2 TDs today, and the OL lifted the diminutive RB to the sky. #17 Justin Campbell, a Ball State transfer, had a couple nice grabs, including this one over the middle from Tahj. The defense made some big plays today. Here, #11 Davonte Golden-Nelson jars the ball loose for a turnover. Here you go, @taylormade28 🦾 Big Ben meets with Soph. WR Paul Davis and Charles Kellom after Kellom's long TD reception. Steele Wasel had the "best hair award" last week. Hester nabs the honor this week. Great day for Blake. He got a lot of opportunities, and delivered the goods with a couple TDs. This OL sat out todays scrimmage. A familiar face is again prowling the Akron sideline. The scrimmage concluded with a pick six of Tahj Bullock by #13 Freshman Rodrick Hunter! Joe was as positive as I've ever heard an Akron coach after the practice. He emphasized he felt they got better today. He told the team they should be very pleased with how they executed. Pleased, but not satisfied.

Everything you need to know about TP and Fear The Roo Collective. https://on.soundcloud.com/6HFv9

Would hope this means Groce isn't planning to go anywhere anytime soon

Other info from the scrimmage - Kellom was the starting RB. #9 Jordon Simmons (Sr. Michigan State transfer) was the second RB, and broke a nice 35 yard run early in the game. He also started the 2nd half. Blake Hester broke a 30 yarder in addition to his 2 TDs. Starting OL was: TE: Newell LT: James Jayvin LG: Keon Kindred (Maryland transfer) Center: Tyhler Williams RG: Colin Lyons RT: Josh Blanchard (USF Sr. transfer) Next OL was: LT: Nick Stopiak LG: Keylan Davis Center: Max Mobley RG: Jerrod Burrell RT: Jonas Mann Starting 3-man front: Edge: Jon'Trell Mixon Edge: Andre Proffitt Nose: Nathan Kapongo 4-man front #1: Edge: Bennett Adler Interior: Marcus Moore Interior: Lama Lavea Edge: CJ Nunnally 4-man front #2: Edge: Bennett Adler Interior: Andre Proffitt Interior: Lama Lavea Edge: CJ Nunnally Perez missed a 35 yarder. Wiley was on kick offs and was the PK in the second half

Sounds like the crap Arth did. Lame. Give the fans something to be excited about.

That's 2 per quarter. Let's run everyone out of the gym!

I realize that this is the college sports world we live in but I am not a fan. That's by no means a criticism of Bud Wentz. I appreciate all he does for the program. I was a believer of the basic principle that a college athlete should be able to make some pocket money by doing things like doing autographs or showing up for a business outing but it has become the wild west in the the absence of any meaningful regulation. It's really refreshing to get some inside insight into the program. I wish this was a weekly show.

To the people on here complaining about the amount of money raised by MBB on the day of giving, I will say the following. You can be part of the problem or you can be part of the solution. Every donation, no matter how big or small will help further the program. Put your money where your mouth is.

I'm curious how much of our high school recruiting strategy is based on making contact with players who we know are not going to come to Akron out of high school, but will potentially be in the portal in a year or two and we want them to already be familiar with Akron.

Huge moves by Akron after the Gray commitment.

For anyone who hates Akron's new A logo, it could be worse...

Conner Groce is joining the team as well, per his instagram

I don't want to get too excited, but how can you keep calm with this type of personnel infusion. Bud said the goal was to build a program that could consistently go into the second round of NCAA playoffs. I am not saying we are there, yet we do see a glimmer of what may lie ahead one day, however soon that may be.

I also had limited sympathy for the players when they (the ones primarily in the rich programs) said they needed a piece of the revenue pie. When you look at it players get a full ride covering absolutely everything = $120,000 over four years. On top of that they get tutors, gear, nutritionists, medical care and counseling without waiting for an appointment like the rest of the student body. They get cost of living allowances on average about $2,000 per year. On top of that if they come from disadvantaged backgrounds they can get a Pell Grant up to $9,000 per year. I realize the demand on their time is huge, but so is working two jobs to get thru school like I did while playing soccer. NIL needs some sanity. Is the star running back really worth $000K when the linemen blocking for him get little? The very nature of NIL works against teamwork and everyman counts.

Offense and defense both made big plays. Best the Zips have looked in recent memory. Finally showing some depth, experience and talent.

I'm hearing that the president of the Memphis NIL collective, Wilson was instrumental in landing the FedEx investment. He is well known for being a passionate fan of beach volleyball and swimming.

Two things. First, I don't enjoy going to games as much either. They are too long and too much dead time. Second, and worst of all, the people who run college athletics don't care if I go or not or not as long as more commercials are sold catering to degenerate gamblers and drunks. My question is this. Do the people at universities know they are killing the sport? There was a time in the past 80 years when professional boxing was the number one sport in the USA. Then it became a gross representation of a sport and is an afterthought. Is that where college athletics are going?

I have been a HUGE Zips football fan for about 30 years but I don't enjoy attending the games nearly as much as I used to. A 1-hour game shouldn't take 3&1/2 hours to complete. Of course winning would probably help more than anything. lol

Yes. Simply because this team will most likely have a true PG and be able to shoot at a much higher clip. "Bigs" Okonkwo will most likely be Freeman-lite; a little bit bigger, maybe more athletic, but not as versatile (no outside shot to my knowledge). Lyles is hopefully able to take that next step. He has the size and I think he has the athleticism. The question for me is can he become more decisive and make quicker decisions? We will see. Baker is a versatile post player. He's maybe a bit bigger than Freeman was, but he has a jump shot like Freeman IIRC. He was nominated to be a McDonald's All American in high school IIRC and had a nice offer list after being a 1st Team All State player and top 10 prospect in the senior class for the state of Illinois. He'll push Lyles for solid PT this year after his redshirt year last season. Brisco is a redshirt candidate for me. He's Freeman size, but listed as a Center on his recruiting profiles. He had offers from TCU & Nebraska in high school, with additional interest from Pitt, Penn State, Pitino's Iona, etc. (no idea if he was offered). There isn't much out there on him except some nice dunk highlights. He's strong but looks to be still growing into his body. A year of development for him could really make him a formidable "big" as a redshirt freshman. If he doesn't redshirt, I could see Amani Lyles type minutes for him. Forwards Josiah Harris will lead the group of forwards in production this year most likely. A high percentage 3P shooter with good size (6'7"), he is our Ali Ali replacement and very similar to Xeryius Williams (better shooter most likely). He was also WVU's rebounds per game leader last season (4+ RPG - and people wonder why WVU was 9-23 last season haha). Legitimately expecting 15 PPG from Mr. Harris. Musiime-Kamali will be an interesting player to watch. There isn't much out there on him, but he looked quite good in his summer AAU highlights. Someone who has seen him practice can probably provide a more realistic analysis and expectation for him, but he has the potential to be a solid contributor. Athletic with potentially a jump shot? 6'6" and long. Played against really good competition in high school/AAU and averaged double digits. Guards Loaded group. Sharron Young is who I believe will be the starting PG this upcoming season. The entire WVU transfer class revolves around Sharron coming to Akron. This kid is special and can do it all. Look for him to be in the running for MAC Freshman of the Year and All MAC in general. Tavari is most likely his direct backup. Tavari needs to make great strides in his game this offseason. He needs to lock in his shot, defense, and decision making. He could be a very special guard, but mental defenses and a lack of effort have held him back. Seth will most likely be the starting SG. His off-the-ball shooting percentage is much much better than his on-ball production. He's big, plays good defense (comes from Huggins' system so of course), and will be a leader on this team. Shammah is going to be one of the first off the bench most likely. There's a chance he pushes for PG minutes, too, but we saw him mostly in off-the-ball guard situations last year. He needs to lock in his shot more, but he really came in at the end of this last season. Nate is most likely our starting 3G/SF. Really looking forward to having Nate healthy all season. If his shot is as good as it was before he got hurt last season, look out. Nate has All MAC potential. Prather Jr is the lone sophomore on this team, and I'm looking forward to seeing him healthy this year. He was held back by the early season injuries last year, but when he eventually played, he flashed moments of being a great shooter. His defense will need to improve, but he could become a better-shooting Chanel Banks. Mahaffey is the other redshirt candidate for me on this roster. Quite frankly, we're just loaded at guard. I think a year to develop after his recent growth spurt would also be good for him. By my count, there are 7-8 guys on this roster that should be able to shoot the ball quite well. There were maybe 5-6 guys last year that shot decently well, and even less that us fans actually wanted to shoot the ball. We also lacked a true PG, which we'll have at least one, hopefully 2+ (Tavari's development being key) next season. We had 3 players averaging double digit scoring last season; I think there's a chance 4-5 guys average 10+ PPG. I think our bench is deeper next season, especially from a scoring perspective. The scoring floor with this team should be higher than last season. Defensively, all 3 transfers were recruited by Huggins - defense shouldn't be a problem next season. This team is very much built like Groce's 2010 & 2012 Ohio teams. We know what happened at the end of those seasons. Just saying. Really really excited for next year.

I thought this was interesting

The “controlled scrimmage” is fine. Full contact. Offense vs. Defense. I enjoyed the last two Saturdays. Hardly any difference from a split squad scrimmage.

Fine, but can he please be a 7 foot 3pt assassin/spot up shooter?

So let it be written, so let it be done. Hilltopper has spoken.

I have PTSD on St John's transfers

I don't think Prather is a great loss but I will give that kid credit. He went from being Wilson's bench neighbor to playing meaningful minutes on his practice effort.

If I waited an entire season to play, expecting to get substantial PT in 2024-25...and then found out my team just recruited a bunch of upperclassman...and, I can transfer elsewhere without sitting out...I would be moving on to greener pastures faster than a rolled up tee shirt to NW Akron's skull. Tribble, Freeman and Ali were complete dinosaurs, graduating as seniors from the same school they began their college careers. In today's NIL/Portal era no kid is going to wait his turn for playing time. As Chris Rock once said - "You're only as faithful as your options". Kid's options are endless today. I'm ecstatic with the caliber of talent and experience Groce has signed in the past week. He had to do it, because today's AD's don't have the patience of AD's from even just 5 or 6 years ago. It's a business on both ends now...the kids can pack their bags and leave as they please...and coach's can eschew player development by bringing in bucketloads of new, seasoned talent before they can even sweep up the confetti from the previous squad's conference championship.

Well he speaks coherently so that disqualifies him from the current White House. Good things are happening with the basketball program. 3 P5 guys are coming here and a 4th player that chose us over P5s and high mid-majors. Clearly there's, at the very least, some truth to what Wentz is saying. He's also putting his money where his mouth his and heavily financing these endeavors. Why do you feel the need to 💩 all over it?

Kinda used the wrong stock photo of the stadium. ...

Interesting read here on Isaiah... Looks like Akron beat out some serious competition https://247sports.com/college/nevada/article/minnesota-basketball-portal-profile-cornell-guard-isaiah-gray-229799153/amp/

I'm with you on this one. A couple years ago Chris Spielman was complaining how, back in the 80's he was eating ramen noodles as a staple. But when he went into the stadium on a Saturday he saw giant posters of himself, and stands filled with his #36 jersey and he wasn't allowed to take a penny as the University raked in piles of cash...all for the cost of an in-state scholarship. Chris had a very valid point. But Akron, and most other programs were strapped for cash before the NIL was instituted. Now they have to come up with an additional few hundred thousand dollars (or more) every year to pay the players who're already getting all the benefits you listed above? I hate the portal. I hate the NIL program. I miss the "You play for the name on the front of the jersey, not the back of the jersey" mentality. The "old way" wasn't perfect. But it had a lot more plusses, and "team-ism", than today's game. It didn't need to undergo such a drastic abomination.

For those of you that aren't able to get around to listen, I'll list a few takeaways. - Bud says Akron is still looking to add 1, maybe 2 players. - Akron is taking a moneyball approach relying on algorithms to determine players value and who to target. - They are working on developing a system for one-time, quarterly, and monthly donations reoccurring donations. There will be different tiers where you can get t-shirts, hats, courtside seats, attend a practice, etc based off donation size. - Football collective was just recently started with a large donation. I'm sure there are other things that I might have missed.

see ya'll Saturday

Ignore the quote.

I guess they saw everybody complaining about the 4 hour college football games last year and decided to make them 4 and a half hours!

thought that this might interest a few people.... https://www.soccerwire.com/news/substitution-rule-changes-approved-for-ncaa-division-i-mens-soccer/

I think there is a psychological aspect to shooting and it’s the reason Groce doesn’t like to talk about it. Talking about it raises doubt and that leads to a spiraling lack of confidence. I think even our good shooters struggled because the pressure to help out Freeman was so intense. Hopefully the additions of Harris and Wilson will lift that pressure and the others can play more carefree and better as a result. Even though this last team was flawed and peaked early they had heart and determination. They grinded their way to that tournament championship. It wasn’t pretty, but they earned it. And even though I agree that Sharron Young is a major draw for the WV transfers, winning the MAC tournament was likely a prerequisite to this rebuild happening. So kudos to the Ali, Freeman and Tribble class of Zips for continuing our upward projection. Future is still bright.

Found it!!

Some of the most unwatchable offensive Zips basketball ever.

Thanks for the update. That’s really disappointing to hear. Spring games are steadily dissolving across college football.

I guess it's not safe to get excited until a player starts getting some meaningful minutes. And then you have the Dawson situation where his productivity fell off and left. And then the situation where Aziz Bandaogo leaves for a bigger school. So basically, it's just not safe to get excited. Who am I kidding. I'm still excited. Go Zips!!

Earlier this year there was a video posted somewhere of an interview w/ Enrique. He was asked who he thought had a bright future among the underclassmen & he mentioned MMK... but didn't mention Baker. At the time I thought it was just a mental slip as he was speaking off the top of his head. But now it looks like there was more to it than that.

Nice. I might attend this year. Not worth the drive to Michigan, but Canton is a different story.

Looks like Groce & Co. are really putting together a tough squad!! I'm already impatiently awaiting next season 😂

Using the moneyball approach in college sports is even more proof that it's no different than Major League Baseball. The only difference is that every athlete is on a one-year contract and is free to jump onto the Yankees or Dodgers whenever they want. Our only hope is that we can gather enough 7-9 hitters, back of the rotation or AAA guys from those teams to compete. I was against paying players for this exact reason. I always felt like getting a full ride, 6-figure scholarship should be enough payment. If athletes wanted to get paid they should have given them those funds in cash and let them use it as they'd like. But now we have a free-for-all with no "salary" cap.

It's been mentioned by others, but I wish we still did this.

They did say in the interview that Okonkwo wasn't who they were initially targeting. He became suddenly available and was too good to pass up. I wouldn't be surprised if Harris and Wilson played a part in recruiting him.

Holy information. I LOVE Bud Wentz as a spokesperson for the program. He's tremendous. I HIGHLY recommend listening to it. We're not done in the Portal, according to Wentz, and some announcements should be made soon.