Leaderboard

After attending one team practice it's clear to me why we were able to keep at least SOME of our players from escaping to PA. Damn! This Groce guy is a motivational leader. Two hour full contact session at UH Gym 2 from 10:30 - 12:30, and there were a couple of elbows to the chops in the lane. Everyone came out no worse for the ware. Coach G is a totally positive force on his players -- the only words of criticism on the floor were from #0, who for good or bad -- and I think it's the former -- is the vocal leader of this club. I did wonder if the attitude is similar to some of us -- "We have nowhere to go but up.", but I imagine the team's expectations are higher than that, as I could sense a belief in their chemistry and confidence to compete vs a recent top 15 team on the court Friday. 'E' Olajakpoke was throwing down just like in game, and didn't even miss "bunnies". Steve French be warned. Want to hear a name to be looking out for in the future -- if not necessarily this weekend? That guy #13, the new JC transfer can play with a smooth presence on the court, and puts up three-pointers with more confidence than, e.g., Virshon who will be good but isn't quite there after just two months. BUT, I have to say he played tough hard-nose defense today, and that will be important vs USC's guards like McLaughlin who you HAVE to keep away from the ball. BTW, the reason #13's not on the GoZips.com roster is because he does not have a head-shot photo yet that is required for consistency with the rest of the players. I swear, that's what I was told was the reason! From the way Coach talked to his troops -- especially about errant passes underneath that the Trojans big man will mark "return to sender" -- it seems he expects USC to be at full strength personnel wise. One more shorter no-contact session tomorrow and a walk-through in the arena at the same time on Thursday. Coach Groce is attending a Coaches Against Cancer fund-raiser tonight with Hawai'i coach Aran Ganot and I guess the other tournament coaches. An opportunity to tell the Dan Peters Story to a wider audience. #ForPetesSake. Aloha and mahalo for reading!

For Akron fans, this is a glass half full or glass half empty season. As I read post on Zipnation and the Akron community it is another whoa is me, glass half empty season……we got embarrassed again on national TV again just like VCU BBall, Toledo in the MAC Championship….maybe even soccer vs Stanford, the MAC sucks, Bowden sucks, Milwee sucks, Amato sucks, etc. If you are glass half full (like I am) I say, we keep making it to the big stage. We won the conference, nobody expected that. We did it losing two of our team captains (who were key players btw), we lost our senior QB. This coaching staff did an amazing job. Far exceeded my expectations. I am not sure if we had a choice to pick which bowl we played (did we?) in but playing FAU on their home field was a stupid decision, that’s on the AD. FAU is dangerous and would have kicked the crap out of most teams last night as they have been doing for most of their season. Last nights broadcast was a joke…a total recruiting video for Lane Kiffin. That guy is a complete TOOL, I don’t get it. Oh, on the glass half full side, our BBall team is already doing amazing things after losing our coach and having the roster gutted. Go Zips!

Good luck to those 5 seniors. I would be remiss if I did also not send best wishes to Stuart Holthusen. Those 6 seniors will be very hard to replace on the field. Very anxious to see what next year's recruiting class looks like.

I can understand when people say "we Exceeded Expectations" this season if this was for example New Coaching Staff. The problem is 6 or whatever years in we shouldn't be exceeding expectations We should rather be Living up to expectations And with this staff I don't see that at all.

Let's see how this works... I've sorted by position group as how they are listed on GoZips. An "X" in Column C means I believe they are on scholarship one way or another. Either announced in a signing day presser, transfer from a bigger school, late signing, or at least a semi-regular contributor. I've got 2 players listed as Medical Redshirt Seniors - MTB and DeMarcus Lloyd. Both have been injured all year and did not participate in senior day. I assumed all walk-on freshman from last year will be redshirt freshman next year, and everyone else I just added a year based on what was listed for 2017. Ex. A R.Sophomore in 2017 will be a R.Junior in 2018. I did my best guesstimating the 2017 freshman class classification for next year. I would imagine it is correct, though. I also assumed only one of each specialist (PK,P, LS) were on scholly. I think we know this is done based on the Stein story of letting O'Leary keep the scholly even though he was the starter because he didn't need it. If you are pretty sure a player shouldn't be/should be listed as a scholly player, let me know! Right now I am showing we have 11 scholarships left going into next year. I would imagine there are probably a few on scholly we don't know of, 6-7 more signees for this years class, and a few to be left open for any transfers opportunities that may arise. LB is an area of concern that sticks out to me immediately. We lose a lot of scholarship players after next season and I don't feel the best about the talent of the lower-classman. DE looks a little thin as well, but we know Reinke plays DE and Hanson may end up there too as he is too light to play interior to me. Zips Football Scholarship Chart.xlsx

The JUCO walkon is Lucas SMith, however his # per the stats is 25 not 13 (there is no 13). But for practice jerseys, maybe either he or Hester were wearing 13. My guess would be that it was Smith as I am sure Z.I.P. probably talked to coaches there were they mentioned the story about seeing him at the rec.

Alex Ramart showing fantastic leadership already! He sent out congratulatory texts to all the recruits & though each text was different, he basically told them he's excited they're part of the team & can't wait till they're on campus & they can get to work together! Alex Ramart's twitter page P.s. Can't wait for this QB competition in the spring.

The guys on the radio show said that there was a ton of trash talking and disrespect being shown by the community towards our team that it was difficult for the radio guys to keep their mouths shut. Evide fly one of the bus drivers for the Zips was even trash talking to the players. I honestly think Bowden and others from the U will be polite, probably mostly for the sake of the Bowl sponsors, but the residents of Boca and their head idiot coach proved themselves to be the low class people that we saw on Twitter and our own boards here leading up to the game. I hope Bowden let's the MAC know that we need to not go back to Boca. Players were not treated like that in Boise.The Utah State fans and players were great. None of the cheap, dirty plays we saw last night. We got a good dose of why so many teams had their fill of Kiffin.

Ugh, I'll definitely be rooting for Oklahoma Week 1 2018.

Zips announce 12 signings, including reannouncing Eric Bentley and Reggie Corner Jr.. Bentley, Corner, Hall, and White are early enrollees. http://www.gozips.com/news/2017/12/20/football-signing-day-release.aspx

Recruiting the past two or three years is light-years ahead of what it was before then in terms of talent. Fact is, we're still about two years away development-wise from being where we want to be and we won the MAC East because more than one team choked against us, as MAC East teams tend to do. We're not there yet, but we are headed in the right direction. Anybody that thinks this program has stalled hasn't been paying attention.

Meeks was an all state LB & wrestler in FL & could be moved back next season, TE was a position of need early in season & he was moved there from LB

This is where my thinking is as well. Next year may be a little rough at first with the QB (whoever that may be) & new WR's having to develop some chemistry.

Earlier in the season I was firmly in the camp of questioning whether Bowden should be back next year. Especially after our win at BUGS. I know it sounds odd to want Bowden's seat to be hot after a win, but that BUGS game was possibly the ugliest, most poorly played (by both teams) football game I've ever witnessed. We won, but I was thoroughly unimpressed. That performance @ BUGS, coming on the heels of being humiliated by Penn State & dominated in the 2nd half against Iowa State, had me almost completely disillusioned with Bowden & Co. And, honestly, I'm still more than a bit salty about how badly we lost both the MACC & Boca Bowl. But, having said that, I believe Bowden should definitely get an extension. It's the recruiting. Last year's recruiting class was FINALLY a good one. As is this year's class. It seems as if recruiting has finally gotten untracked. I'm expecting us to be better next year than we were this year, and better the year after that. We've got some really good young talent ready to take the field next season & we signed more just yesterday. I think these last two recruiting classes contain more top talent than Akron's brought in in the last decade combined. I've been waiting my entire adult life for the Zips to be the destination for top local talent and Bowden & Co. seem to have finally done that.

Fan34 wins the award. I just checked the MVSU stats myself, and saw he wore #25 in the game. Lucas is wearing the #13 jersey in practice. Hester, Jackson and the other transfer are not allowed to travel (sad for them!) -- maybe there's an extra practice singlet...?? Practice right now, then we're walk-thruing in Stan Sheriff Center Arena. The game Friday is expected to start about 2:50 HST 7:50 EST depending on the end of game 1. After thought: The players were all wearing different numbers in practice than their game jersies. They must grab whatever they can find. GoZips!!!

No player shall target and make forcible contact to the head or neck area of a defenseless opponent (See Note 2 below) with the helmet, forearm, hand, fist, elbow or shoulder. It's not even close you zipperhead.

No offense, but this might be the worst argument I see against Bowden. I don't even know what it is supposed to mean honestly. Was the Troy loss sheer luck against us? We played a horrible game and they converted some big plays on their last drive to win it. Was the Miami loss sheer luck against us? Had to throw in a freshman QB making their first start on a few days notice and they got their starting QB back. Was Buffalo a lucky win? They got their starting QB back against us after missing considerable time. Is our captain on offense and defense missing most of the season sheer luck going our way? Was last year after we started 5-3 and ended up finishing the season with a WR at QB sheer luck in our favor? I believe we win or lose every game as a result of the player and coach performance. There are a few lucky breaks that go our way and a few bad breaks that go our way in both every game and season.

They could actually use this video clip as a perfect example of what targeting is, it looked even worse from the other angle. Unbelievable!! Example of Targeting

If you have the chance to pick your bowl, you pick the bowl that gives you the most exposure and the biggest payout. That was the Boca Raton Bowl. It's on the coaching staff to get the team ready to play, which we were not. Nobody can defend Bowden, yet suggest we should have avoided FAU because they are "dangerous". This is FAU, a team that was a perennial ESPN #1 Bottom Ten team, at worst sharing the spot with FIU with the "I" and "A" rotating in and out in the logo GIF. Yes, they got Kiffin, but they were 3-9 last year. They finished this year 11-3. After 5 years of Bowden, we should not be getting embarrassed, especially by the likes of FAU. No more excuses.

I'm going to try to put a scholarship chart together (similar to what was done for basketball) today or tomorrow to see where we really stand with openings since there are always questions. Of course there will be a ton of uncertainties of whether or not a player is on scholly or not, but hopefully the wonderful members of Zn.O will have some random knowledge and help narrow it down.

Another well intentioned, though slightly discombobulated post from Z.I.P.

+1 Really nice to see.

I highly doubt GVH said anything that bad.

Hmm. We elected someone who does the same thing and worse. The America we live in now. This childish behavior is rewarded now. And, yes, his son learned a nice lesson.

Alrighty, let's take a look at how many offers these guys had, according to the recruiting services. I don't feel like going through the players' twitter feeds to pick out any offers not listed on the recruiting websites at this time. Also keep in mind that the offer lists don't mean much of anything, since if you don't participate in the recruiting services' camps they'll straight-up ignore you unless you get a top-25 team chasing after you. OL Ben Phillis: Only offered by Akron OL Vincent Fonte: BGSU, Buffalo, Eastern Kentucky, and Kent. DL Logan Hawkins: Army, Ball State, Citadel, EMU, and Navy OL RJ Kelly: App State, BGSU, Bryant, Buffalo, EKU, Iowa State, Kent, Marshall, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, Toledo, YSU DB Rich Hall: Alabama State, Duquesne, FAU ATH Jalen Hooks: Boston College, Cincinnati, EKU, Kent, Miami OH, Toledo RB Keyondre White: Army, Buffalo, Florida A&M, FAU, Illinois, Louisville, Minnesota, Purdue, South Florida, Syracuse, UAB RB Devanier Floyd: Indiana State WR Daishawn Brimage: Only offered by Akron WR Gavin Blunt: Albany, Indiana State, Robert Morris This is a far cry from the years when nearly all of our recruits had only D-I offer.

No, but calling him "George Van Dick", with your little kid sitting next to you, is a total idiot move.

I really don't have much interest in this topic but I find this discussion quite rich given the first sentence in the topic

Then, when we accomplished something that was unreachable for us for 12 years, I don't understand why you'd feel as if it means nothing.

I am in line with RowdyZip's opinion that these Zips seniors are the ones that bought-in on our program when it was coming off 3 consecutive 1-11 seasons. Can you really expect to compete with Toledo recruiting/athletes when you're strapped with that kind of baggage? Give Toledo Tom Wistercill and Rob I-and-II-o for three seasons and maybe it's a fair fight. We redshirted a lot of talented kids last year, and have a nice recruiting class shaping up this year. We're a solid, stable program now. We're beating the teams we should beat, and sneaking in another win or two when better teams overlook us. But we aren't at the level of a Toledo, and shouldn't expect to be in 2017. We should be good next season. 8 wins should be the bar, and we'll see if more wins are possible once we actually watch the product on the field.

I think most of us who suffered through many of the demoralizing events of the last 12 years would say otherwise. Just a few short years ago, we all would have died for a chance at a MAC East title.

I'm out of likes!

There are multiple issues. We were on our 3rd and 4th RBs, eventually just our 3rd when Edwards went out. We were on our 2nd QB, making his 4th start. The line couldn't run block, and we had 2 okay receiving options, after the departures of Lane, Natson and the injury to MTB. And obviously, Milwee isn't great. I don't think he's as bad as some make him out to be, but when you put it all together, last night is what you get.

Well said and I agree completely. I'm excited for next year's team. No excuses in 2018.

Kiffin rubs me the wrong way with his classless coaching, but props to him for giving us an ass-kicking. Looking back, I'm glad I didn't end up making the trip down to FL. Congrats to the FAU fans here on the success, you deserve it, but I hope Kiffin falls flat on his face. History tells us it will happen. On to next season.

We should have depth, and competition at every position next season. That will be a first for the Bowden era. The rebuilding is over. It is obvious we created separation from the MAC cellar in 2017, and it obvious we weren't yet ready for prime time. The days of taking steps backward are over. No excuses for 2018.

Not that it would have mattered at all, but playing a bowl game in the opposing teams home stadium just sounds like a bad idea.

What an absolutely stupid comment. We win the MAC East and you want to fire him. Do you realize how ridiculous that sounds?