Which HS Player Do YOU think the Zips Should Recruit?

[Blue & Gold]

29 minutes ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:

Anybody know if Noah Willig (Norton HS) is getting any legitimate D1 interest, or if this is a walk-on type visit? I played little league baseball with his late older brother, who was a year behind me in grade school. 

 

 

I’m going to bet it’s a walk-on opportunity.

[zippy-claws]

7 minutes ago, Blue & Gold said:

I’m going to bet it’s a walk-on opportunity.

Watched him vs. my grandson's terrible HS team while we were in town, and he was very average at best.  He was basically their whole team, pass, run, punt, but I'd be surprised if he has a shot at a solid D2 team.

[LZIp]

How does Lamar Sperling only have one offer, and that offer being from Buffalo? Guy is a beast.

[LoyalZIP]

2 hours ago, LZIp said:

How does Lamar Sperling only have one offer, and that offer being from Buffalo? Guy is a beast.

Yeah he looks the part. The one is inexplicable to me. He’ll tear it up in that offense. 

[Blue & Gold]

Lamar stood out to me as a sophomore when he was Victor Dawson's backup. He's a true beast. Idk why on earth we didn't offer him. We should have been walking the halls of Hoban on a daily basis to sign Lamar. I love JoeMo, but I am confused and a little aggravated over that seemingly obvious and huge oversight in recruiting.

[94zipgrad]

1 hour ago, Blue & Gold said:

Lamar stood out to me as a sophomore when he was Victor Dawson's backup. He's a true beast. Idk why on earth we didn't offer him. We should have been walking the halls of Hoban on a daily basis to sign Lamar. I love JoeMo, but I am confused and a little aggravated over that seemingly obvious and huge oversight in recruiting.

Lamar is a beast, I think him only getting 1 offer comes down to measurable’s, he is considerably undersized for a college running back 

[94zipgrad]

So you guys are saying he should get another chance, Be Interesting with Cincinnati heading to Big 12, has name recognition for recruiting

[mes102]

On 12/9/2021 at 12:27 AM, mes102 said:

Does anyone remember walk-on TJ DeShields from like a year or two ago? Apparently he has a younger brother, Dru DeShields, that's a dual threat QB at West Branch High School. He just completed his junior season and was named to the Division IV All-Ohio first team. Someone I know follows West Branch & Warren Harding programs fairly closely. They told me that Dru Deshields is the closest player they've seen to Lynn Bowden in terms of skill, dual threat QB, and production. Bowden ended up going to Kentucky before landing with the Mami Dolphins in the NFL. I think he would fit in this offense. 

 

Here are some highlights he posted along with some youtube clips I found: 

 

 

 

Here's highlights from a game late in the regular season(October 23rd / Week 10)

 

 

I don't like the camera angles but here's the whole game (starts at 17:30 min mark into the video) :

 

 

The last one talks about Dru Deshields primarily in the video starting around the three minute mark. 

 

 

The full game

 

https://www.wkbn.com/sports/game-of-the-week/high-scoring-west-branch-welcomes-poland-for-this-fridays-game-of-the-week/

 

Well, that escalated quickly. In late summer, Dru DeShields verbally committed to Eastern Illinois. Then, about a few weeks ago, he received an offer from Can't State. 

 

For his high school career (junior and senior seasons), he had these stats:

 

545 completions

828 attempts

7,836 passing yards

89 passing Touchdowns, 10 interceptions 

262 carries

1,874 rushing yards

29 rushing touchdowns

 

Obviously, I believe he would have been better off at Eastern Illinois. 

Edited December 1, 2022 by mes102

[Blue & Gold]

Still completely flabbergasted, aggravated, confused and down right angry we didn't pursue Lamar Sperling. Why even call ourselves The University of Akron if we don't pursue this Akronite? The painful, inexplicable, egregious, so obvious it's like being hit in the head with a cinder block recruiting oversight is infuriating enough to justify throwing furniture around the room and glassware against the wall.  

 

I knew without a shadow of a doubt to go hard after Lamar when he was only a sophomore. Now, Hoban's RB, a school less than 5 minutes from campus, is Ohio's Mr. Football and is heading to... Buffalo. 

 

Did anyone else see his other-worldly performance against Toledo Central Catholic last night?  He is literally the best high school running back I've ever seen and being from Akron I've seen some spectacular HS RB's.  Beanie Wells, Tyrell Sutton, Delonte Carter, Tyson Gulley, Todd Sibley, DeaMonte Trayanum, Antonio Pittman, this is just off the top of my head... and let me also add Marcus Sanders (Ravenna), E.J. Lilley (Alliance), and Morgan Williams and Demarlo Rozier (McKinley).

 

Because I love JoeMo, and know he's going to turn us around, I HATE feeling this way. I'm angry to the point where I'm not even very excited about today's season finale. Anyone who's been on this board for more than 2 days knows I'm not like this.  I just had to vent and get this off my chest. I hope this is therapeutic and helps.  But I'm absolutely confused and pissed at such... arrogance? Incompetence? I'm crossing my fingers that this egregious, inexcusable oversight is neither arrogance nor incompetence, but in fact wisdom 10 miles above my pay grade.  But just wait and see what Lamar does at Buffalo. 🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮

[catdaddyp]

1 hour ago, Blue & Gold said:

Still completely flabbergasted, aggravated, confused and down right angry we didn't pursue Lamar Sperling. Why even call ourselves The University of Akron if we don't pursue this Akronite? The painful, inexplicable, egregious, so obvious it's like being hit in the head with a cinder block recruiting oversight is infuriating enough to justify throwing furniture around the room and glassware against the wall.  

 

I knew without a shadow of a doubt to go hard after Lamar when he was only a sophomore. Now, Hoban's RB, a school less than 5 minutes from campus, is Ohio's Mr. Football and is heading to... Buffalo. 

 

Did anyone else see his other-worldly performance against Toledo Central Catholic last night?  He is literally the best high school running back I've ever seen and being from Akron I've seen some spectacular HS RB's.  Beanie Wells, Tyrell Sutton, Delonte Carter, Tyson Gulley, Todd Sibley, DeaMonte Trayanum, Antonio Pittman, this is just off the top of my head... and let me also add Marcus Sanders (Ravenna), E.J. Lilley (Alliance), and Morgan Williams and Demarlo Rozier (McKinley).

 

Because I love JoeMo, and know he's going to turn us around, I HATE feeling this way. I'm angry to the point where I'm not even very excited about today's season finale. Anyone who's been on this board for more than 2 days knows I'm not like this.  I just had to vent and get this off my chest. I hope this is therapeutic and helps.  But I'm absolutely confused and pissed at such... arrogance? Incompetence? I'm crossing my fingers that this egregious, inexcusable oversight is neither arrogance nor incompetence, but in fact wisdom 10 miles above my pay grade.  But just wait and see what Lamar does at Buffalo. 🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮

No idea why the staff did not offer, but it could be a multitude of reasons. Possible he said he wasn’t interested in Akron and did not want to be recruited by the staff. Or a host of other reasons. 

 

I had a kid that played QB for me and was being recruited by a number of schools as a TE. LSU came in to visit and I told him to tell the recruiter that he’d play any position they asked. Come to find out, my kid told the recruiter he was only willing to play QB in college and so LSU did not offer. Not saying that happened in Sterling’s case as I’m sure he’ll play RB, but pointing that out because you never know what the conversations were.

 

Or maybe the staff is just flat out whiffing on this one?

 

 

Edited December 2, 2022 by catdaddyp

[Blue & Gold]

20 minutes ago, catdaddyp said:

No idea why the staff did not offer, but it could be a multitude of reasons. Possible he said he wasn’t interested in Akron and did not want to be recruited by the staff. Or a host of other reasons. 

 

I had a kid that played QB for me and was being recruited by a number of schools as a TE. LSU came in to visit and I told him to tell the recruiter that he’d play any position they asked. Come to find out, my kid told the recruiter he was only willing to play QB in college and so LSU did not offer. Not saying that happened in Sterling’s case as I’m sure he’ll play RB, but pointing that out because you never know what the conversations were.

 

Or maybe the staff is just flat out whiffing on this one?

 

 

Thanks!  I need the dialogue on this one; it's like sitting on a psychiatrists couch. Lol.

I just wish there was more information coming at us about this one. Anything. Bread crumbs.  It's confusing and there has been zero smoke or word on the street about why Akron didn't offer him a scholarship opportunity. Neither did Kent State. I wish there was just something out there as to why, other than just Zero Dark Thirty silence on the subject.  It's aggravating to those of us who love to follow both Zips recruiting and local recruiting, and then to have radio silence on the subject when it seems obvious that the Vin Diagram circles are overlapping. 😂

[GJGood]

I love watching the OHSAA high school state championship games every year.

 

I watched the Toledo Central Catholic -Hoban game last night and plan on watching the games today and tomorrow (around the Zips-Bulls game of course).

 

Do the Zips have any commitments playing in these games? Who that is playing are they actively recruiting/ offered? Who would you like to see them offer? If you had to recruit one player from each of the seven games (or even each of the 14 teams) to come to Akron, who would it be?

[LZIp]

Sperling does seem really good, but if there's any silver lining, every other school in the nation besides Buffalo is apparently whiffing on him, not just Akron. I would think there is more to it, but we'll never know for sure most likely. He's the furthest thing from an under the radar prospect winning Mr. Ohio for one of the top programs in the state.

Edited December 2, 2022 by LZIp

[Blue & Gold]

20 minutes ago, GJGood said:

I love watching the OHSAA high school state championship games every year.

 

I watched the Toledo Central Catholic -Hoban game last night and plan on watching the games today and tomorrow (around the Zips-Bulls game of course).

 

Do the Zips have any commitments playing in these games? Who that is playing are they actively recruiting/ offered? Who would you like to see them offer? If you had to recruit one player from each of the seven games (or even each of the 14 teams) to come to Akron, who would it be?

I thought Toledo CC's RB also looked very good. No Sperling, but he could play for us.  Their S/WR named Awl is a UT commit.  UT recruited him as a safety.

 

I wonder if Hoban's Javion Crable is being looked at as a WR? This is his first year playing the position & he's such a great all-around athlete he's made the transition very well. I believe he's 6'2" 215.

 

Hoban has a few juniors I hope we're looking at in DE's Devin Bell & Jordan Pritchard-Sewell and LB Ricky Williams. I hope we're also looking at Soph. LB Eli Lee.

 

St. Ed's Jr. QB is a good one. Maybe worth giving a walk-on opportunity.

 

They're not in the finals, but I hope we're looking at Massillon Jr. LB Dorian Pringle (Copley).  Massillon's Sr. RB Wiltrell Hartson was also good - maybe a step slow for D-1 college.

Edited December 2, 2022 by Blue & Gold

[bigjim]

15 minutes ago, Blue & Gold said:

Thanks!  I need the dialogue on this one; it's like sitting on a psychiatrists couch. Lol.

I just wish there was more information coming at us about this one. Anything. Bread crumbs.  It's confusing and there has been zero smoke or word on the street about why Akron didn't offer him a scholarship opportunity. Neither did Kent State. I wish there was just something out there as to why, other than just Zero Dark Thirty silence on the subject.  It's aggravating to those of us who love to follow both Zips recruiting and local recruiting, and then to have radio silence on the subject when it seems obvious that the Vin Diagram circles are overlapping. 😂

I never saw this kid play, so I do not have an opinion on how good he is as a RB.  However, I know that we have Kellom who has red shirted, and I am very happy with him.  If I remember correctly, he was first team Ohio D1 his senior season.  He ran for over 1900 yards and that included sitting out 6 second half's of games since his team was up so big and they pulled the starters.  Imagine the number of yards he would have gotten if he played full games.  A lot of kids want to go away, so I do not know what happened here.  It does seem odd that no P5 schools came calling.  

[Blue & Gold]

5 minutes ago, bigjim said:

I never saw this kid play, so I do not have an opinion on how good he is as a RB.  However, I know that we have Kellom who has red shirted, and I am very happy with him.  If I remember correctly, he was first team Ohio D1 his senior season.  He ran for over 1900 yards and that included sitting out 6 second half's of games since his team was up so big and they pulled the starters.  Imagine the number of yards he would have gotten if he played full games.  A lot of kids want to go away, so I do not know what happened here.  It does seem odd that no P5 schools came calling.  

And you're right on Kellom. He only got, what, 3 carries last week? But in those 3 carries you could easily see his potential. Quick, fast, shifty, hits the hole quickly. I really can't wait to see what he can do after putting on 10 pounds of muscle this offseason!

 

Go Zips!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[GJGood]

In today’s D-III game I believe there is an Akron offered lineman playing for Bloom-Carroll and a committed player to our archrival... I just remember hearing that at some point. Since they are playing a northeast Ohio school in Canfield I wonder if there will be Zips recruiting targets on both sides in that game.

[Blue & Gold]

1 minute ago, GJGood said:

In today’s D-III game I believe there is an Akron offered lineman playing for Bloom-Carroll and a committed player to our archrival... I just remember hearing that at some point. Since they are playing a northeast Ohio school in Canfield I wonder if there will be Zips recruiting targets on both sides in that game.

I heard somewhere that Canfield's safety is a real stud. I think he's a junior?  

[mes102]

Canfield's QB (and I think he plays safety as well) is a senior and is committed to Indiana. Watching the D5 State Championship game and our QB woes, I wouldn't mind giving South Range's QB #17 (Skripac last name?) a chance. 

[mes102]

Looking at 247 Sports, this is what I could find right now concerning prospects that Akron has either offered (and might not have any shot at getting) and/or appear to be somewhat interested


Hoban #50 William Satterwhite - 6'5, 290 - IOL
Hoban #1 Tysen Campbell - 5'11, 170 - Safety
Toledo Central Catholic #55 Mark Nave - 6'4, 325 - IOL


Bloom-Carroll #72 Jaden Ball - 6'4, 285 - IOL


St. Edward #71 Devontae Armstrong - 6'5, 283 - OT
St. Edward #74 Deontae Armstrong - 6'7, 270 - OT
(Yes, they're twins)
St. Edward #76 Ben Roebuck - 6'7, 320 - OT (most likely going to Ann Arbor)

Glenville #2 Bryce West - 5'11, 177 - CB (most likely going to Columbus)
Glenville #19 Damarion Witten - 6'4, 215 - ATH (most likely going to Columbus)
Glenville #17 Jermaine Agee - 6'0, 175 - Safety

 

[GJGood]

1 hour ago, mes102 said:

Canfield's QB (and I think he plays safety as well) is a senior and is committed to Indiana. Watching the D5 State Championship game and our QB woes, I wouldn't mind giving South Range's QB #17 (Skripac last name?) a chance. 

South Range’s QB looked pretty decent but I don’t know that he would surpass what we should already have in the QB room. 
People are raving about Steele Wasel and I watched Dijon Jennings in high school and was pretty impressed with his athleticism. He was a difference maker at Reynoldsburg, there really wasn’t a ton of talent around him and he led them to middle to good seasons in a powerful league full of Power Five prospects.

 

Jaden Ball is the OL at Bloom-Carroll offered by Akron. I think he may fill a need when it comes to run blocking. I didn’t realize he was class of 2024 though.

Edited December 2, 2022 by GJGood

[mes102]

Sperling might not be going to Buffalo now: 

 

 

[catdaddyp]

28 minutes ago, mes102 said:

Sperling might not be going to Buffalo now: 

 

 

Kentucky has had some tough luck with their running back commitments/targets this cycle. Congrats to Sperling on the offer.

[GJGood]

In this era of the transfer portal if the Zips start to get this program turned around and Sperling or his college team struggle... you never know

[GJGood]

Division VI Ohio championship game, Marion Local vs. Kirtland... stellar defenses for powerhouse small school programs. Marion Local hasn’t even given up a TD in nine weeks but how could the talent at these types of schools translate to the college game?

We all know the Zips need some defensive upgrades.