Leaderboard

I am not sure how it plays out. He was on a roster then dropped during the season. Looks like he didn't play in a game last year. From Twitter: @ThadSnod1: Thank the university of akron for the opportunity to continue my football career #zipsup http://www.courier-journal.com/story/sports/college/kentucky/2015/10/21/uk-wr-thaddeus-snodgrass-transfer/74345352/

It's a smart way to prepare themselves to face Akron later in the season. Find out where you stand against top-level opponents, and watch us play those same opponents.

Speaking of RPI ... Kudos to WVU for taking part in this weekend's tournament at Akron. Great boost to MAC RPI for WVU to be playing Seattle and Georgetown.

Action Counteraction: Will Akron sustain Its minimalist magic? It was nice to read a little higher quality article.

I absolutely love this tweet from Zarek......Darren, Ben, Darlington and Zarek are rocking the scarves great to see former zips supporting the team.... I saw that Wil Trapp also tweeted that he was loving listening to Robbie Derschang on the live feed

great student crowd. very good to see the interim president and AD Larry Williams in the crowd Akron was the better team and deserved the win. The veterans...Victor, Adam, Sam, Danilo and Brad all really had outstanding games

Whatever you want to call it, "Built in Akron" or "The State of Akron," there is merit to building a winning culture around local talent. Look at what Lee Owens did in the late 90s (or Dennison before him, but that's before my time). Owens inherited a losing team that was still in its D1 infancy and was recruiting to the Rubber Bowl and built it into a program that in a seven-year period between 1999-2005 had five winning seasons and a MAC championship (Yes, I know Owens was canned in 03 after a 7-5 season, nonetheless, but the 04 and 05 Zips were majority his guys.) I remember going to a couple of those team photo days 2002 (albeit not a good year) and 2003. At the end, the team would split up for photos. ... The Summit County guys would pose for one; the Stark County guys would pose for another; the Cuyahoga County guys for another. The team was built around NEO talent and they were winning at a pace that if the current bowl system was around, would've led to three more bowls for the program. Of course, Lee Owens was canned before he was able to recruit to the indoor facility that he pushed so hard for and J.D. Brookhart inherited his talent and went on to win a MAC title, but then floundered when his "great" recruiting classes came aboard ... Didn't he land back-to-back No. 1 classes in the MAC by the "experts" by going more regional/national? Ianello was then 10 times worse, completely wiping out the program at the time it should've been taking the next step. But Bowden gets it. Northeast Ohio has some of the best talent in the country in its backyard. Yeah, he isn't stealing the OSU/Michigan/ND kids, but even that second and even third tier of local recruits is better than a lot of states' tier 1. Then you mix in the Florida ties, along with the facilities, and you are seeing the transformation. Win again this year, and I believe this program will take another big jump forward. The local talent (Akron-Canton) is already starting to buy in. Another 8-plus win season could cement it ... why go to a middling B10/ACC program when we could play in front of family and friends, win more games, have just a good of a shot to be drafted and help build something special in our backyard? Bowden has it right: NEO/Florida/transfers. You can win big with that combination. How big can you win with just NEO as your top area?: 2006: Ohio State had 17 of their top 44 (roughly 40 percent) players from NEO, including both top RBs (Beanie Wells and Antonio Pittman, Akron guys) and the top 6 WRs (for the people who only think Ohio produces lumbering LBers and offensive linemen). That team nearly went wire-to-wire as No. 1 before being blasted by Florida in the national title game ... hmm, Florida, we are getting kids from there, too. 2014: Ohio State had 8 of its top 44 from NEO (roughly 20 percent) on a team that steamrolled its way to national championship. 2015: As been pointed out, 8 of Akron's 22 starters (not two-deep) went 8-5 and beat a western team, out west, who a month or so earlier embarrassed Boise State. Final was 52-26, but Utah State was winning that game 45-10 at halftime. OK, maybe that was a down Boise State team, but Boise did go on to beat Northern Illinois 55-7 in a bowl game. ... Not trying to do transitive property, just saying.

Nice Welcome to Newcastle United FC...