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2018 Spring Football


CDMac

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1 hour ago, LZIp said:

Looked like MTB was held out, hopefully for just precautionary reasons.

Yes, only precautionary. I got to speak with him for a bit, he is feeling great, and was in great spirits. His attitude is infectious. 

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Was that the best weather for an Akron spring game in a while? Beautiful day to be at the Info. 

 

This program is in good hands with Ramart backing up Kato at the very least. Kato made a beautiful deep throw, but still looks a bit indecisive at times when it comes to running or passing. Ramart makes pretty quick decisions, and is accurate (minus his deep ball interception). I'm hoping Ramart either pushes Kato to improve, or wins the job. Either way, I think we're fine at QB. 

 

Our WRs have a good mix of big and small guys, and I can't remember the last time we were this tall at WR; here's to hoping they have hands. :cheers:

 

Our OL depth is insane, considering the freshman weren't even on the roster sheet, yet half the sheet was OL. We're BIG, too. Again, like WR, size isn't necessarily everything but it helps. 

 

Very cool seeing Reggie Corner Jr. on the roster/team. Classic name from the glory days! 

 

This team will be fine this year. Compete in the P5 games (maybe steal one?) and win in the MAC. Get to Detroit, and let's see what happens. Go Zips!

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22 minutes ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:

This team will be fine this year. Compete in the P5 games (maybe steal one?) and win in the MAC. Get to Detroit, and let's see what happens. Go Zips!

That's my general thinking as well. Hope to come out of OOC 2-2, win the MAC East, and see what happens in Detroit. Though it will be tough this year as Ohio should be about the same and Miami and Buffalo seem to be on the rise.

 

Defense should be pretty darn stout. I was thinking during the game about how stacked we are at LB. Looks like we have 7 guys that can play quality minutes - Gilbert, Bell, Lloyd, King, Bubba, Lako, and even Ward.

 

Something to keep in mind - our offense was likely playing without our top WR in MTB (maybe top 2 as I'm high on McGriff..if he's even on the team), top RB in Sands (maybe top 2 RBs if you include Keyondre), top 2 guys at H Back (though Wolfley could surpass them), and we were playing touch. Many of those sacks on Kato would not have ended that way in a real game.

 

The only guy I remember getting injured was Sampson. Hopefully it was nothing serious.

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1 minute ago, LZIp said:

That's my general thinking as well. Hope to come out of OOC 2-2, win the MAC East, and see what happens in Detroit. Though it will be tough this year as Ohio should be about the same and Miami and Buffalo seem to be on the rise.

 

Defense should be pretty darn stout. I was thinking during the game about how stacked we are at LB. Looks like we have 7 guys that can play quality minutes - Gilbert, Bell, Lloyd, King, Bubba, Lako, and even Ward.

 

Something to keep in mind - our offense was likely playing without our top WR in MTB (maybe top 2 as I'm high on McGriff..if he's even on the team), top RB in Sands (maybe top 2 RBs if you include Keyondre), top 2 guys at H Back (though Wolfley could surpass them), and we were playing touch. Many of those sacks on Kato would not have ended that way in a real game.

 

The only guy I remember getting injured was Sampson. Hopefully it was nothing serious.

 

This is a great point. The spring game (one-handed touch football for the QB) really isn't the best arena for Kato to showcase and grow his abilities. 

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2 hours ago, LZIp said:

The only guy I remember getting injured was Sampson. Hopefully it was nothing serious.

You never know with injuries, but when coach gathered the team after the game, he stated there were no injuries. Fingers crossed. 

 

Random thoughts. Saturday reiterated my excitement for Jamal Davis. He seems to have multiple effective moves to get seperation from his man. Among other plays, I saw a great inside stunt that would have been quarterback chaos in normal game play....Speaking with an anonymous coach "I'm not sure how you are going to keep Wolfley off the field", he responded "you're right, he is pushing every day." Speaking of that position, I saw Darryl Long being more vocal than I have ever noticed before, I'm wondering if that is going to translate to some more playing time...Rob Kelly, told me his labrum surgery went well, and he is looking forward to getting back at it during the summer. He was very positive and excited about the QB group...Bubba Arslanian is going to make Zip fans happy he plays for their team. He seems to be one of those linebackers that has good anticipation, and always ends up near the ball...I thought the offensive line showed well on run plays. I need to take a game and concentrate on what is going on up front, and see who is doing what. I focused on Trevor Brown a few times. He disguised a couple of misdirection plays pretty well. Enough to fool me. I feel short changed (other than Van), that I didn't get to see the elite RBs. A few players told me that Van had a great spring....Multiple coaches expressed their enthusiasm about the depth of this team. One coach in particular was extremely excited about the future of the team because of the young talent already pushing the veterans. Look for a ZipsNation™ article on the defense coming soon. 

 

For reference: 2018 Akron Spring Football Awards

 

Offense                                                                                                                                             

MVP– Senior RB Van Edwards

Most Improved– Senior TE Darryl Long & Sophomore OL Brandon Council

Unsung Hero– Redshirt Freshman TE Maverick Wolfley

 

Defense                                                                                                                                            

MVP– Senior CB Kyron Brown & Senior LB Ulysees Gilbert III

Most Improved– Senior S Shawn Featherstone & Senior LB Brian Bell

Unsung Hero– Senior CB Denzel Butler

 

Weight Room Awards                                                                                                                    

Offensive MVP– Senior OL Kyle Ritz

Defensive MVP– Senior CB Kyron Brown

Most Improved– Redshirt Freshman LB Bubba Arslanian

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I saw Brett Ekkins our OL coach a day after the spring game. We had a great conversation. We started talking about the spring game but progressed into the future of Zip football. I'm really impressed with him. His enthusiasm is infectious. He seems to be a guy who is in love with his job and more importantly loves being at Akron. I like having that attitude on our coaching staff.

 

I told him i wasn't impressed with the run blocking in the game. he offered that they did not want to show anything but he felt good about our run game. He said he loved the bigger backs we have coming in like White and Alce (sp ?). Our line is evolving to more athletic guys which will allow us to run wider, something we haven't done much in the past. Coach E said the quality of our recruiting has improved so much because 1) players love our facilities, 2) they see the coaching staff as men who enjoy Bowden, each other, and are here for the long run, and 3) recruits feel Akron will win soon. I asked coach about RJ Kelly from Hoban. Specifically wondering how we beat out Minnesota and other power 5 schools for him. Coach said Kelly really appreciated what Akron could do for him in academics i.e. business school and the future opportunity to play for conference championships. Most of all he liked the culture that is building in Akron football.  

 

Finally coach said he has been assigned Columbus for recruiting. The feeling is that too many good players are coming out of there and we need to get our share. I also thought back to ex Pres Wilson when he remarked that we should cut scholarship/recruiting expenses by focusing on more Ohio recruits. Perhaps this is an outgrowth of that. I say fine as long as we are getting the quality we need to excel. I'm tired of losing.

 

No breaking news here, but I thought some of you might enjoy hearing more about football.

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Thanks for taking the time to post @72 Roo. Great information! :thumb: You had the running backs name spelled correctly, Abraham Alce @boss_abraham. 

 

 

Below are some quotes from coach Bowden (in case you missed) about players you mention above.

Info extracted from the recruiting article @Captain Kangaroo wrote back in February. 

 

RJ Kelly―Toughness is the first word that came to mind when describing RJ Kelly, the offensive lineman from Akron Hoban. “Tough, tough kid. Good student. He got looks from a lot of Power 5 schools. But when it came down to choosing between MAC-level programs I think Coach Boykin did a great job convincing him to come to Akron. He and Fonte...those are the two local linemen we were after, and they’re absolutely huge for us.”

 

Keyondre White―The Zips staff felt the need to develop a bigger, more physical presence at the running back position. Keyondre White fits the bill. “At 231 lbs, Keyondre is a big guy. We haven’t signed a big back like that since we’ve been here. Now we’ve got Devanier Floyd, Abraham Alce and Keyondre. He enrolled early, and I can’t wait to watch him in the spring. He looks a little heavy right now, but I don’t want him to lose any weight until we see how he runs. He runs real low, and carriesa big punch. He’s got enough speed to break a long one, but he’s also apunishing runner. If he can’t run around a safety, he can run over him.”

 

Abraham Alce―“Great story. He’s a six foot one, two hundred fiftypound running back He played on a great high school team that lost in the state championship game. He’s just a big back that can run. We (Coach Eric Hickson – now at Kansas State) recruited him heavily, early- on. You know we really didn’t think he’d be available past December. But when he decided he didn’t want to play on the defensive side of the ball, we got back into the picture. He had a lot of offers to ‘mid-Power5’ type schools. We’re really excited to have him.”

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