Leaderboard

Maybe it's just me, but since he's not the coach of the Zips, I don't give a rat's @$$ who Dambrot's recruiting.

I don't know crap about IMG but I'm not sure what is so hard for skip to understand. Go to JUCO and start your eligibility clock. Go to prep school and put it off one more year. Seems like an easy decision to me.

Who? Obviously, I'm talking about the player that we are discussing. He did play for the past year, just not at a collegiate level. Another great example is LePear Toles, whom Akron offered in high school and multiple posters on this forum have been drooling over. Players generally go the route of a year of prep school, because they feel that they are better than their scholarship offers, it can be because they had a severe injury in high school, went to a small school and didn't have a high level of opposition, or many other things. In Mark's case, it seems that he had a pretty bad ankle injury and he feels that it affected who recruited him. He may or may not have gotten offers, I really can't find any official offers myself, but I have seen stories about significant interest from Dayton, Kent, Wright State, Northern Kentucky, and Toledo while he was in high school. It is not like IMG is a nobody. They are a well respected, national program. It is not even new phenomenon. Here is a story from 7 years ago about players choosing to go to prep schools: http://www.ctpost.com/basketball/article/Prep-schools-can-provide-avenue-to-college-512963.php

2017/6-11/C/Mark Kostelac from Bradenton, FL (IMG) committed to Akron, per a close source. @VerbalCommits

Jamal Davis is still with the team. He was just a little banged up so they held him out of the Spring Game. Idk why he's not currently on the roster. He's gonna be our starting MLB & will play DE in some packages. Our starting LB's have the potential to be pretty amazing.

"What Kevin Dambrot did in 13 seasons with the Zips made the head coaching job very appealing to John Groce." lol

Without waiving my right to not give a $h!+ about Duquesne recruiting- Dear Keith- wrong Weathers.

I think the kid show promise and I wish only the best for him and the Zips, but please, please, please don't forget, what we are seeing are his HIGHLIGHT VIDEOS.

He WAS MAC POY and that is fact so I don't know what you are disputing? If you want to argue Big Dog wouldn't have won MAC POY under a different coach, I'm not going to argue hypotheticals. It still doesn't change the fact he was a damn fine basketball player who could both score at a highly efficient level and had the court vision and basketball IQ to make the right passes. Losing him is a huge loss no matter how you try sugarcoating it.

I gave you an example of a player who had plenty of offers: LePear Toles. Here is another: Andre Drummond, an all star NBA center, was fully prepared to turn down all of his offers and signed to go to a prep school until deciding to go to UCONN at the very last moment. There is also every other player mentioned in the article that I posted that you seem to have conveniently ignored.

Agree DL is still a big concern. I guess I'm just hoping the players have continued to develop as they should. Would feel much better about Woody being healthy too, but I don;t think he is going to end up missing a game where his play would be the deciding factor. Lets hope we can bring in a D-Lineman who contributes more than Jelani Hamilton did last season.

thanks for the clarification. good to hear.

Here's a very nice press release from Internationals SC. http://www.neosportsinsiders.com/sarver-named-head-coach-u-s-u-19-womens-national-team/

Gilbert is 100% legit, but you need another legit guy or it becomes too easy to focus on him. I think Hauser can be good enough to prevent Gilbert from being the sole focus, if he is healthy, but our DL is just weak and DE position is not really strong, either. I think Jest has the most potential at DL on the current roster to improve, but he is small. I am looking to the 2017 recruiting class to be where we build, and that puts the D out 2 years, at least before we really see a turn-around. Our secondary is strong, but I am not sure a strong secondary is enough to make up for the deficiencies at DL. The DL made it too easy for teams to pick up 5 yards a pop right up the gut last year. We really need a couple of good DL transfers, along with possibly a DE transfer to make up competitive on D. There just isn't enough for Chuck the Chest to work with, here, as things stand, today, and I don't think the true freshmen are strong enough to walk into starting roles. I see the film by Stewart, but the season takes its toll and I hope he is sturdy enough to take the punishment all season. The great occasional catches are made by them all. I will be more impressed when he catches nearly everything thrown to him in game situations. Believe me, I sincerely hope he lives up to the hype, but I haven't seen him yet, so he remains a "maybe" in my mind. With the little I have seen of Ball, I think we could find some really nice success at the run, as long as the passing game can be good enough to force D's to defend both.

Forgot about him. I had tunnel vision on the players Groce had at OU. I think Kostelac being a lot like Boothe is a MUCH better comparison than mine. Good call. Out of likes.

What is preyer? Just asking...couldn't help myself. Mainly because it came from a former Miami "Harvard" Ohio player.

I saw Stewart the week before, he looks the part, and caught everything thrown his way. He stood out. The receivers will benefit when Woodson starts playing again. Playing against the Zips secondary in practice is going to make the receiving corp better too, they won't play against too many better groups this year.

This may be one of the reasons Jerome decided to enter the draft this year: "It's the worst wide receiver class I've seen in a long time," said one NFC executive. source

When I read we got a player from IMG I was pretty pumped to be honest

You go this direction, because you don't skip your freshman year. He still has 5 years to play 4 seasons. If you go to a JC you lose a year of eligibility.

As @clarkwgriswold pointed out these are highlight reels. I don't know how anyone can claim he would be better than Zeke off of a 3 minute video. There are certainly some things to like, but as others mentioned there is some reason only us and Iona offered him. There is obviously some hole in his game that has driven away more and better offers. I'm not going to speculate how good he will or won't be until he is on campus practicing against D-1 competition. I'll be cheering for him to succeed. What he does have that Zeke and Big Dog didn't was an easier path to earning playing time.

He is 6'11" 260. Shoots threes and reverse layups. Yes, he will be a frosh and need to develop, but I predict a better first year than either Zeke or Big Dog. He has the right size and sure looks athletic.

He was a top player on a team that was built to win the MAC. And therein lies the rub.

+1. I'm a tad disappointed this thread is still active. My posting here is ironic, I'm well aware.

Gross's first recruit- Mark Kostelac!

I have not looked for the video...but Aodhan quinn scored goal tonight in 1-1 tie with Louisville..Aodhan interviewed after the game.

If we are counting on Milwee to be creative and use what team can give we are in deep, deep trouble. There is little hope he can be the OC we need. I pray Bowden steps in and calls the plays and Milwee "tries" to develop QB's. If not we will be lucky to win 5 games.

Mattock goal

Nagbe goal

I'm with you on the last statement. Lets see what we "get", rather than getting too excited about what we might be "going after". But lets be fair here about categorizing recruiting objectives, no matter what side of the equation you are on concerning the coaching change. When we were going at it with OU for a few years under Groce, I think it would be ridiculous to think that it was role players vs. athletes when we had some guys like Tree, Harney, Chauncey, and Zeke matching up against guys like Ivo Baltic, Von Kempen and Keely. In fact, I would contend that by the end of that short era between the two teams, Akron probably even surpassed them in better overall athletic talent. There's MAC teams over the years that I would categorize as Very Athletic. The 2010-2013 Bobcats are not one of them. Every MAC team is going to have plenty of role player. I'll take the best basketball players we can get right now. Our previous coach did the same thing.

Jackson Polar Bear.