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2019 February National Signing Day


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Hats off to the media team for putting together these awesome recruiting graphics. Talk about catching up to speed with trends. Every player I believe had their own graphic to share. Very, very cool. Between that and the photo shoot these guys had during the snowstorm, I'm sure that helped a lot with the appeal of Akron, as odd as that is to say. 

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7 minutes ago, Section210Zip said:

 

I never read any press releases from previous classes, but this is a classic example of why Arth has a good rapport with high school coaches. Every single bio states the name of the high school & coach the respective player played for. 

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Dr. Z and I were able to attend the Signing Day press conference held earlier today. I think this is the 20th one I've attended, dating back to the Lee Owens days.

 

There were no player videos...I guess there's not much need for those anymore, with all the information that's available on the internet. But it would have been nice to hear the coach walk through each individual player and provide thoughts.

 

Only Coach Arth was present. None of the other staff members attended. Nor were there any players. No TV cameras. Nor was Elton Alexander present.

 

I jotted down some of the comments from the Coach that I thought were interesting -

 

Regarding the difficulty of recruiting on such a short time frame, he said: In the past (pre-2018 class), if you were hired in December every potential player was, in theory, still available.  Now, more than half of them are committed. I believe the actual number is around 70%?  It was easy to find great kids who weren't at the FBS talent level...and it was easy to find kids with FBS talent, who had issues with grades or other problems, but it was tough finding great kids with FBS-level talent.

 

He said the turning point where the staff knew they could assemble a great class was after the first official visit weekend. The way he described it, it was the equivalent of holding a party, with no idea if anyone would show up. It ended up they received eight or nine commitments that weekend, and that was really the first time the staff thought "I think we're gonna be alright." He also mentioned that the kids who committed from that first weekend were instrumental in getting the remainder of the class signed. They really helped in the recruiting process. He specifically mentioned Zach Gibson stepping up and leading the "recruit-recruiting" process, as you'd hope a 4-year high school starter quarterback would. 

 

Coach Arth mentioned Peter Hayes-Patrick would be expected to vie for playing time immediately. I thought this was interesting, as Hayes-Patrick's commitment tweet mentioned playing for the Zips for "3-4 years." You could have taken the "3" to mean grades might be an issue. Apparently not. 

 

The Spring Game will be held April 13th at noon. 

 

Not all 2019 scholarships were used. There are a few "reserved for future use."

 

On Xavior Gray, he loved the fact that he was never knocked down in any of the film he viewed. That was really impressive for someone so tall (6' 9").

 

On Demetrick Watts, he gave a neat story - - Humboldt State apparently disbanded their football team. Demetrick needed a team, and one of the present Zips player's father (I'll guess Bryce Peterson's, but I could be wrong) tipped the staff off regarding his availability. He came highly recommended. The staff originally thought he was a little on the small side and wasn't going to offer him. Apparently when a couple Zips coaches were recruiting other players in California, Demetrick tracked them down and introduced himself. In real life he was a lot bigger than they saw from his tape...and they ultimately offered him. They're very high on his potential.

 

The strong presence of kids from the south in Arth's initial class, specifically Georgia, is a result of relationships the staff has in that region, and recruiting there will not be a one-shot deal. They expect to take advantage of those relationships in the future, especially when it comes to recruiting skill position players. 

 

That's the best I could do. I'm guessing UA will probably put the presser YouTube at some point? 

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I will say, I'm still on the fence about how I feel about Arth.  But this class was a pretty big class for not having much time to recruit; and certainly adds some bodies to the depth chart if nothing else; which had been lacking in the Bowden years.

Of course, we have to wait 2-years to see how this class is panning out.  But it's nice to see 23 recruits in a class verses the sub-20 we regularly saw in the Bowden years.

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I feel an interesting piece of information that I heard from the video, but wasn't include in Captains breakdown is that we only had 5 scholarships DBs before this recruiting class. I see we signed 7 DBs to scholarships in this class so now we're at 12 total. That still doesn't seem like a whole lot of depth, especially if you account for the fact a couple of the incoming freshmen might not be ready to play this year. Captain mentioned we still have some scholarships left for future use. I wonder if we're exploring the possibility of adding a grad transfer to the defensive backfield. 

Edited by kreed5120
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The staff can not mention names if they are not signed, so there are no specifics. But coach Arth did mention they will explore grad transfers if it is a fit. It was also mentioned there are more walk-ons that will be added, only paperwork was holding up officially announcing them. Stay tuned...

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11 hours ago, Balsy said:

I will say, I'm still on the fence about how I feel about Arth.  But this class was a pretty big class for not having much time to recruit; and certainly adds some bodies to the depth chart if nothing else; which had been lacking in the Bowden years.

Of course, we have to wait 2-years to see how this class is panning out.  But it's nice to see 23 recruits in a class verses the sub-20 we regularly saw in the Bowden years.

At least.

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Looks like everything on 247 is updated, at least for us.

 

Notes: Class ended up ranked 112th in the nation, 9th in the MAC, and an average star of .7924. There was never a higher year in the Bowden era either in the nation or average star. Bowden did finish higher in the MAC (8th) in 2014, but about 1/3 of those recruits never made it on the team, including the highest-ranked infamous Anthony Clark out of Buchtel.

 

247 adjusted Corey Thomas' and Peter Hayes-Patrick's rankings. Corey Thomas is now the highest rated recruit in the class. Thomas and Hayes Patrick are now rated the 6th and 7th highest rated recruits all time (as opposed to 6th and 8th).

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I hope it brings some W’s but at our level I’m not as worried about stars as people, I want good players that will be eligible & willing to work.  I’m not close to Ohio & this could be a wrong statement but it seems to recruit the working class & they seem to make it work 

 

From what I’m hearing Arth May be very similar, I have heard rumors that some kids have left, team is held accountable for school, workouts, community, get suspended if they don’t do what is expected & some have quit

Edited by 94zipgrad
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I know its early and the signing period has just recently closed.  But, are there any rumors on grad transfers or other transfers that might be joining the team this year?  The spring game is less than 2 months away, but I need some Zips football news.  Especially if that news says that some good DL players will be on the team next fall.  That is the area that needs some help, at least on paper.  Go Zips. 

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On 2/16/2019 at 9:40 AM, LZIp said:

Looks like everything on 247 is updated, at least for us.

 

Notes: Class ended up ranked 112th in the nation, 9th in the MAC, and an average star of .7924. There was never a higher year in the Bowden era either in the nation or average star. Bowden did finish higher in the MAC (8th) in 2014, but about 1/3 of those recruits never made it on the team, including the highest-ranked infamous Anthony Clark out of Buchtel.

 

247 adjusted Corey Thomas' and Peter Hayes-Patrick's rankings. Corey Thomas is now the highest rated recruit in the class. Thomas and Hayes Patrick are now rated the 6th and 7th highest rated recruits all time (as opposed to 6th and 8th).

DANG, we are going to be gooooood.  Star ratings range from 5 to maybe 0 (but Ive never seen anything lower than 2) and our average rating is 0.7924!!!!!!

Look out Clemson, here we come..

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