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Let's say those rankings are weighted towards Freshmen recruits, and don't do a good job of taking into account traditional transfers, grad transfers and JUCO recruits? If that were true, it would probably affect the Zips "ranking" pretty dramatically? The programs ZipGrad listed as above would get waxed by 40+ if they came to Infocision. That alone shows the "rankings" have no bearing on the quality of the Zips recruiting class. I think this class is excellent. It addressed all our needs...as best as is possible in one class. As has been the case for a couple years, there will also be another couple impact signees over the next few months too. Bowden always holds a few back for the Coe's and Monroe's that inevitably come across the waiver wire. If Bowden came in and signed 24 freshmen in each of his first four classes, he'd have won a handful of games, and Larry Williams first major move would have been to fire him. Bowden's not stupid. He knew he had to win, and JUCO's and P5 transfers are a way to become competitive quickly. No one waits 5 years for a coach to turn a team around now-a-days. Some may ask - "But when will we start getting classes that are only Freshmen, so we can get higher recruiting rankings?" Who cares. If we have 30...40...or even 50 percent of a given class being transfers, and we win...and there are no excessive police blotter appearances...who cares? Give me a 5th year kid from Wisconsin over a project from Hoban any day of the week. Several months ago ZipGrad posted an article from a newspaper stating North Alabama had stopped taking transfers. It mentioned that North Alabama had a reputation for accepting D1 transfers, and they were getting calls from 70+ kids looking to transfer to NA because of their reputation. Seems like a bold move by NA, but they're winning 9+ games per year. For a decade+. Dating back to his North Alabama days, Bowden has a reputation for welcoming transfers. And he gets the call when a lot of the better ones are looking for a new school. Especially ones with Florida roots. It's a huge benefit to the Zips that he has those connections. And it was a big benefit to Zips fans too, as it gave us 8 wins, including a bowl win last season. You need to be creative to go from 1-11 to 8-5 in three years. Bowden accomplished it. I look forward to what the next 3 years will bring. I guarantee it's a hell of a lot better than what Samford, Lamar, Bethune-Cookman, Yale, Columbia, Austin Peay, Harvard, Sam Houston state, Abilene Christian, UC Davis will do. Any ranking that lists those shit schools in front of the Zips is a joke.

I suppose I'll throw in my 2 cents since this conversation is picking up steam. Would I like a bigger and better freshman signing class? Hell yes I would. I think the staff still has a way to go in that regard, and I think that is something that will come with more winning and more time. However, when you compare this years class to classes of year's past, I like this freshman class the best! All but 2 I believe had at least another D1 offer. It hasn't been like that in previous years. More importantly, I think all of these guys can play and contribute a the D1 level. I haven't thought that before. I would like more top end talent, sure, but if we aren't wasting scholly's (in my eyes), then I cant complain. I've watched the film on all of these guys with exception to maybe a few lineman, and I like what I see. Look at Shawn Featherstone's film (somebody nobody is talking about) and Tyler Gilchrist and try to tell me you think these guys can't be ballers at our level. When you look at transfers, which nobody does, this class all of the sudden looks a lot better.

http://www.gozips.com/sports/msoc/2015-16/releases/20160204q0ymc6 I thought that I would start a new topic for this official news release "This is an extremely talented class," Embick commented. "Leo Chappel and Ger Coppinger have done a great job in putting this class together. They possess all the attributes we seek in Akron Zip soccer players; technical ability, soccer IQ, speed and power. These players are proven winners and show a great desire to be the best and they will bring that competitive fire to our team from their first session." "I believe that our dedicated fans will love watching these young players mesh with the returners. As a coach, it is exciting to know that I have even more weapons to use, more line-up combinations and tactical variety to attack our opponents with. We brought these players in to play our attacking brand of soccer, to help us get back to the College Cup, and ultimately to help win our 2nd star."

I believe that I have welcomed most of the new players...except for a few... Welcome to Jackson Crawford, Jeremy Pollard and Jonathan Lewis. This looks like a phenomenal class. Great job by Jared, Leo Chappel and Ger Coppinger. When Jared received his contract extension, Anthony Ampaipitakwong (AMPAI) tweeted something to the effect ......"offensive genius"....smart move by Akron. I have to agree wholeheartedly with Ampai. Akron soccer is in excellent shape.....with this coaching staff and the returning players and these exciting additions. Go zips. WE ARE AKRON.

Nice article. Little has changed from CMU's point of view. We make a living on dribble penetration and we expect to keep it going tonight. We have three guards who can dribble penetrate and finish at the rim or pull up for mid range jumpers or dump it off to one of our bigs with bounce passes or lobs up high or pick up a foul and shoot free throws. Lots of options with this offense. If all that doesn't work we have five guys who can shoot the three. But the biggest difference in the past several games is the fact that we have really picked it up on the defensive end. I will repeat what I said earlier, CMU is finally starting to play like the team that was picked to win it all and when this team is on I don't think anyone in this league can beat them. The problem is I have also watched them when they were not on and that concerns me about this game. Again, as I have already said, Akron has been a tough place for us to play. I think we have only had one win at the JAR in more years than I can remember. That does not bode well for CMU. In any event it should be a good one and I'm looking forward to it. I hope you have a nice crowd. The conference needs that with the game being on national TV.

If you are a Buckeye fan, the rankings mean something. If you are a Zips fan, they mean nothing.

Same discussion every year. Not worth the time to get into the debate for the umpteenth time, but all I know is that we had the most wins in D1 history and our first ever bowl win last season so I'll keep my mouth shut and let the cards fall where they may.

Why can't the local paper give us good articles like this? (I know ... its because this has a positive spin. I hate the Anti-Akron Beacon.)

Hey, remember all those bowl games we went to when Brookhart's "top ranked" recruiting classes came of age?? Yeah, neither do I. I'll take winning on the field over winning on Rivals.com.

Before the signing day press conference, Bowden was on the radio with Joe Dunn. I don't have the audio, but he said something along the lines of "everybody knows what a 4 or 5 Star kid looks like. Nobody knows what a 2 or 3 Star kid looks like. Once you get past the top 100 or so kids, there's thousands of kids rated 2 or 3 stars or not rated at all, and they mostly look the same on film. So we just go out and get the guys we want, and the ratings don't really come into it." Remember, Bowden worked for Rivals. He knows how recruiting rankings work better than anybody on this board.

I feel recruiting rankings carry more weight at the top and become more meaningless the further down you go. It's kind of easy to pick out those blue chip studs that everyone is salivating over. It's much harder separating the 150th corner from the 200th corner. Half of Akron's recruits weren't even scouted enough to be given grades. Whose to say some of those guys aren't 2* or 3* players that just happened to be overlooked? Edit: Let's hold off judging this class until we actually see some of these guys take the field.

Recruiting rankings mean absolutely nothing. We had one of the worst recruiting classes last year...13 people? And yet we got to the BEST record we've ever had in D-I and the program's first Bowl win ever. If that's what we get with a terrible class, I can't wait to see what we do with a less than "terrible" class. What a joke.

two tweets from top drawer soccer writer Travis Clark.....today 2nd tweet Not sure of his next step, but obviously looking to turn pro. Question is where. Travis Clark ‏@travismclark 5h5 hours ago Lost in the Signing Day shuffle, I've been told that @ZipsMSoc midfielder Adam Najem won't be back for his senior season. my comments- I would have loved to see Adam back in the fall...but I wish him much success in the pros. Thank you, Adam for 3 great years as a Zip.

Little late to this thread. Coach Dambrot getting the crowd fired up after the technical did seem reminiscent of Hurley's recent ejection at ASU. There's a fine line between a coach being combative and just being obnoxious. As seen below, Hipsher, who is on his 9th coaching life, still hasn't learned the difference. And I just hated having him on the bench. Yelled and screamed for its own sake. I doubt I would enjoy Hurley's antics if he were the Zips coach. My thought is that Coach Dambrot strikes the right balance. http://collegebasketball.nbcsports.com/2014/01/31/utpa-head-coach-dan-hipsher-suspended-one-game-for-violating-wac-sportsmanship-policy/