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If anyone attended the scrimmage and wanted to share their thoughts, let's try it in this thread. Here's what I saw... The scrimmage began a little late, with the action starting a little after 9 am. Thankfully it was held indoors. Appropriately kicking things off was a session with the various kicking candidates who rotated attempts starting at roughly 30 yards, and extending out to 50. O'Leary and Gasser alternated, and then Fitschen and newcomer David Albert took turns. O'Leary looked strong. Gasser was short from 50. Fitschen is a lefty who's been around a while. Looks like he's got a really powerful leg. Albert hit one from 50. I don't know what that all will mean come September, but those are the names presently in the kicking battle. Kato and Alex Ramart split virtually all the QB snaps. Drew Hodgson saw very limited action. They wore red jersey's, so they couldn't be hit. The offense/defense portion of the scrimmage began with the offense basically at the 20 yard line, running 8(?) plays each, and then moving back to the 20 and re-starting with the other QB. The 2nd half of the scrimmage was devoted to red zone plays, again alternating QB's. Zips fans should be pretty excited about their 2018 QB situation. Both Nelson and Ramart looked eminently capable of running the offense. As expected, there were a lot of designed running plays with Kato. Ramart, while not the runner, acquitted himself well when he had to use his feet. Said Bowden after the scrimmage, "As much as we're excited about Kato, we haven't really talked about how excited we are about Ramart. He's 6' 3", 215 pounds and in addition to his passing, he runs the ball well. He's not a typical "Louisville type" running QB, but he's big and strong. I liken him to that Florida Atlantic QB (Jake Driskel). A smart runner with good size that drives you crazy if you don't account for him. It's exciting to have two guys who have now been with our program a little while, that can play the game like Kato and Alex." Both Ramart and Nelson showcased strong arms. Ramart threw a nice deep ball the MTB on his first possession that would have been on the money, had Traylor-Bennett not been held. He later had a deep one to Kwad that was dropped. Kato's best deep toss of the day resulted in a 30+ yard grab by Andre Williams. Williams took a big stem forward in solidifying a starting position. He showed sure hands, and looked comfortable catching balls along the sidelines and in the slot. He's also very elusive after the catch. Said Bowden, "We saw as a back up last season that Dre was going to be something special." Ramart threw the only INT of the day. Under pressure, he tossed a ball into traffic that was picked by Bubba Arslanian. A name to watch on the defensive side of the ball is Andy Jean-Baptiste. The 6' 5", 267 pound JUCO transfer looks like he'll make an impact in 2018. Dylan Meeks saw some time at defensive end. Jamal Davis had an active day. Said Bowden, "He's still learning to play with his hand down, but he's got as much talent as anyone on our team. He could've had two or three sacks today if the quarterbacks weren't wearing those red shirts. Sampson on the other side, he's got some real ability too. We've just got to continue to grow them." When asked about the goals of this scrimmage, and the spring overall, Bowden said "I told our coaches I want to find the top eleven guys on offense and defense. and then we need to find those next eleven. We're evaluating the talent level of the team, and identifying which guys we can count on in the fall." Bowden also said it was a good time to experiment with some different looks on both sides of the ball. "We're trying a few different things ...just throwing some plays and formations up against the wall and seeing what sticks." One of those trials looked to be lining true freshman Keyondre White in the wildcat as the potential successor to 2017 short-yardage specialist Manny Morgan. On White, Bowden said "He's 233 pounds...we haven't had a runner like that for a while. He's got those big hips and he's tough to tackle. He's got a place here for sure." Bowden also mention he's following the track exploits of Devanier Floyd, "He's 220 pounds and ran a 10.9 the other day." Abe Alce also enters the picture this summer at 250 lbs, so the 2018 Zips will definitely have a different, more physical look in the backfield. There were only two scholarship running backs available today. Keyondre White and Van Edwards shared the load on the ground. Former DB Caleb Green got a few carries at RB too. He actually looked pretty good. ZipsNation medical specialist Dr. Z reports Deltron Sands is 75% healed, and will be ready to go for the fall. The Coach spoke in general terms about the scrimmage when he stated "We saw some guys today that made some plays...we didn't know those guys could do what they showed." But it was clear he was caught by surprise at the physicality of Maverick Wolfley's (West Virginia transfer) play from the H-back position. With Kobie Booker out for a family commitment, and Newman Williams out with a meniscus issue, Wolfley took the opportunity for extended playing time to steal the early Saturday morning show and provide a rude awakening to multiple would-be tacklers. The biggest roar from the sidelines came when Wolfley steamed up the sideline and completely flattened a Zips CB. If you like hard-nosed, old school football you're going to love watching Maverick Wolfley play at InfoCision over the next four seasons. Another surprise was the play of former QB Nick Johns, who caught several mid-range passes (1 TD) from the H position. At 6' 3", 230 pounds he was a favorite target for both QB's today. Former Zips defensive coordinator (under Lee Owens) Joe Trecey was once again seen coaching along the sidelines? In addition to Akron, he's had stints as defensive coordinator at Cincinnati, UCLA, YSU and some other schools. Word on the street is he's not going to be the Zips DC, but will be a defensive position coach. Alvin Davis was a healthy scratch today. Jest is back and looks to be in better condition than his freshman season. So the overall takeaways from today's scrimmage? We have a deep, veteran defense. We're a little thin at WR, but reinforcements are coming. And MTB will shake off the rust at some point. We have two great young QB's. The depth at H-back might get the Zips playing some 3 WR + TE sets this year? Maverick Wolfley is a beast. We got out of the scrimmage healthy. Apologies if there are any errors above. The scrimmage was very fast-paced, with no time outs. The seating in the Stile Center is very low, and it's tough to see the action when it's far away. It was tough to keep up at times.

I'll have some more photography of Mykel (and others) from this morning late today, or early morning.

I expect coach Stroud to be eventually named DC, he ran the show today. His help will come in the form of a new LB coach...think Lee Owens era. There will also be a few other coaching announcements, coming all at once very soon. Some reorganization, nothing earth shattering.

Here's a really nice article on Mykel Traylor-Bennett: GT for the ABJ: Back to his original position, wide receiver Mykel Taylor-Bennett hopes to have big impact on Zips' offense

Athletics attracts students.

Ha. Knew you were a slacker!!

Plus EMan and Sayles to an extent, and add the 3 scholarship players we are probably getting - whomever they are - to the roster.

Of the people mentioned in that article, I could see one of the big freshman backs being immediate contributors (White or Alce) as they are pretty highly rated and a short yardage back is a need and we do have short yardage formations. In the past we've used TEs and even a nose guard to get short yardage. Hopefully that won't be needed anymore, though it did seem to work most of the time, albeit gimmicky. MJ McGriff as he is a transfer from IL and looks talented on tape. We lost 5 WRs from last year's team. None were really of superior talent, but all were in the rotation most of the season. He reminds me a lot of poor man's JoJo Natson, who was on the team a few years ago and is now in the NFL. Bryce Peterson and/or Landon Forman as they are both JUCO guys and we don't have a lot of experienced depth at OL plus have a few holes to fill from last year due to graduation.

There's pessimistic and realistic. As of today we're plus Riak and Hester (January). And minus Duvivier, Cotton, and Torrey. I don't see us automatically being better or deeper, as of now. These 3 scholarships are very important, and as of now we're only on the radar of a bunch of solid prospects. Need commits.

Would Ivey stick around if there wasn't a strong probability of success next season? Or, if he didn't have confidence in Groce? I'm with Jimmond. I think we'll be much more talented and deeper next year, and by season's end we'll be in the hunt for a finals appearance.

Yeah..I'm sure the transfers who came here and sat out a year are really considering going somewhere else and giving up yet another year of their college eligibility

I thought Torrey started to show some good signs down the stretch and into the MAC tournament, so while it isn't a killer I'm a little bummed.

The JAR is still structurally fine. I posted a report on this site 2-3 years ago that detailed the report conducted by that independent party that conducted the feasibility study on the cost of repairing the Rubber Bowl. Long story short, the Rubber Bowl was totaled. Building a new basketball arena while continuing playing football games at the Rubber Bowl wasn't an option. The option was either build a new football stadium or disband the program. Infocision was built at a cost of $61 million. That's really cheap compared to most other stadiums built and renovated in that same time period. Could have they built it a little smaller and saved a few million? Probably, and honestly they should have. It still would have only saved a few million dollars at most. Not enough to fund a ~$70 million basketball arena.

Yes, this is exactly where I want to go.

I think the KD era showed us the ceiling for Zips basketball. Just making the tournament is probably the best thing we'll ever see, and I don't think we would have made it any further had he stayed. KD could always make it to the big game, win a few, but that's about it. The Zips never really seemed to live up to the potential we saw in them. Maybe we just overrated them? I don't know. Can't think that a new arena would have made any difference. As much as I would like Akron to become Gonzaga, Butler, VCU or Loyola, I just don't see it ever happening.