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Hopefully all our future opponents get #CaughtInTheZipper

Zips take a bus trip to Portage County on a day’s notice and somehow hold on to win an ugly one. Big game for Dawson. Great win! Bleep Kent!

He was a JUCO guy, so he was here his Jr and Sr seasons, lost half his Sr year to injury I believe. I also think i remember him making a spectacular catch in a Wagon Wheel at Kent to either win the game or give us the lead. 13 years ago is a while...

Honestly I care more about which schools are offering a guy. If I see a recruit has multiple offers from BigTen, ACC or even SEC schools, I'd assume he's a good player. Regardless of if he has 1 star or 5. If someone has offers from all MAC, CUSA or FCS schools it's definitely little less exciting. Not that he won't be a great player. Just need to have lower expectations.

I think you could see more players leave after the coaches look at tape and have "heart to heart" talks with them about their future playing time. One of the primary downfalls of the Arth staff was their failure to attract D1 FBS level talent or conversely their ability to attract non-FBS level talent, and some of those kids are going to learn quickly from this staff that they may not measure up and move on.

Fair enough. I doubt it bothers him. He has bigger issues to think about. Joe and Skozcen always seem more respectful. And I wasn't saying this because I thought it would bother Groce. To me, it reflects GTs overall casual attitude towards covering the Zips.

247sports provides evidence that your observation has some merit in this case. Here's what they have to say about the other 5 D1 programs that offerred Dijon. Testicle Tech has 7 QBs on their roster and signed a 3* high schooler. Canada has 4 QBs on their roster, a 3* high schooler committed, and a 3* Rudgers transfer coming in. EMU has 9 QBs on their roster. The Sweaters have 9 QBs on their roster, and have signed a 3* high schooler. UK has 5 QBs on their roster and their recruiting class is currently ranked as the 11th best in the nation.

FAR too many years of #ZippersDown !!!

Dambrot made it to 7 straight MAC championships. It seems a bit of an exaggeration to say he wasn't equipped for the MAC. Now to say he isn't equipped for the A10 is a very fair statement. I feel Dambrot is quickly realizing that at-large bids are given to teams, not conferences. You still have to put a talented enough roster on the court to get resume building wins. Without those it's actually more challenging to make the tournament in the A10 compared to the MAC as its easier to beat an Ohio, Buffalo, Toledo in the conference tournament to secure the auto-bid than it is to beat St Louis, VCU, Dayton. I have no ill will against Dambrot and am overall pleased we managed to get Groce. Without Groce this program could have turned south quick. This is now year 5 of Groce. If you're going to criticize Dambrot for making it to 9 MAC finals (winning 3) in his 13 years as head coach, you need to start considering criticizing Groce for having yet to make it to a Saturday in Cleveland. Edit: To clarify this post isn't meant to be anti-Groce. I just think the downplaying of Dambrot era is unwell. The only reason Akron had expectations was he built the basketball program have them.

As someone posted that Tavian Dunn Martin is out Florida Gulf Coast I wanted to do a quick check to see where former Zips scholarship players are at and how they are faring: TDM - at Florida Gulf Coast had 34 points in his first game followed by 9 vs USC Camron Reece - Originally announced as a transfer to Pacific but then ended up at NAIA Talladega College which doesn't have a good site for box scores or stats but they are 6-0 Tre Edwards is at UMBC and did not get into the first 2 games Jermaine Marshall is at Samford averaging 12 points and 7 rebounds on 50% shooting in 3 games Taylor Currie is at D2 Harding College averaging 20 points and 7.5 boards on 53% shooting through 2 games Jaden Sayles is at Stony Brook and they have only played 1 game where he played 10 minutes off the bench without scoring or a rebound

https://gozips.com/news/2022/1/6/general-message-and-update-from-ad-guthrie.aspx

He had 106 career tackles at Buffalo so he obviously saw some decent playing time. Our friends over at the UB message board seem to not like the news, which makes me like it even more.

Jackson was a Center not a LB. Went to Illinois but I'm not sure if he played.

This. By the way, regarding stars/all-time recruits for Akron, the majority came during the Reno Ferri's/Moorhead's first stint with Akron, where Ferri delivered the #1 recruiting class in the MAC for 4(?) straight years.

I would expect to see between 15-20 transfers and 5-7 highschool seniors signed in this class. The majority of the transfers on the defensive side.

We are a young team who didn't lose much to graduation and as far as we know so far, hasn't really lost a ton of players with the coaching change. We are ultimately looking at I think as little as 17 scholarships available and as much as 32 (with the new transfer portal rules) to get to the 85 limit. Not very helpful I'm sure, but It'll all depend on how many players actually end up staying - whether its by their choice or the new staff's. The roster for next year won't likely be finalized until fall camp as I'm sure spring ball will be telling for both the coaches and players in terms of talent and projected playing time and some additional spots will open up. The good news is, even if there happens to be a dozen or so players we don't know about no longer on the team next season, we still have the opportunity to be at 85 scholarship players. Thats something that was never done in the Arth era.

You know GT's going to milk COVID as long as he can to sit from home. I think he hasn't been at a very large majority of events in person since this began.

The Record courier does a better job covering KSU womens BB than the ABJ does covering the Zips mens team. https://www.record-courier.com/story/sports/college/basketball/2022/01/05/kent-state-lost-visiting-akron-wednesday/9076944002/

How is his 23' jump shot?

6'1" CB. Offers from UNLV, Buffalo, Colorado State, and UMASS. 6'0" DB. Offers from Eastern Illinois (makes sense given the recent coaching hire from here), Grambling State (Hue Jackson), Nevada, Texas State, and NMSU. 6'4" 270-300 lbs OT out of Ben Davis HS in Indy. Big time offer list. Balls, Boston College, Cincy, Indiana, Kentucky, Purdue, Toledo, and WVU.

I think that's also a factor in why you don't see a lot of schools like Akron having big early signing days in December. The top and schools are all doing the math of reducing 5 to 2 and the remaining talent then flows down.

Also keep in mind all these colleges have a ton of offers out there. They may have 5 WR offers out but only 2 WR spots & depending on who they get to commit they pull offers and players don’t announce that info as the more offers the better you look but it’s possible at this point the options where no longer available

I feel offer lists matter more than stars. If there are 5 other MAC schools offering the same player as us and we land him, I'm going to feel better about that than if we landed a 3* that only had a couple FCS offers and no FBS ones.

In no way have I ever downplayed Dambrot's accomplishments and trips to the final and championships in any way. I simply found the end of it to be embarrassing to have by far the best team for the last two years yet be completely out-toughed and out-classed by far inferior coaches, teams, and programs in back to back seasons, with the second coming to Senderoff of all coaches. And my view of that whole situation would be far different had KD not walked off the court without having the fortitude to shake Pinky's hand after the game. That was about as pathetic an act I have ever seen from a coach in this athletic department, and I still get to hear about it from my friends who are Kent people. In no way is that discounting his success he had at Akron, it was simply very disappointing to see from a coach that is the most AKRON person to ever coach at the school. With that said, Akron was not the same program it was in 2017 as it was in 2013. Josh Williams and Noah Robotham were transferring whether KD was going to leave or not. That is a problem that has now followed him to Duquesne. As for Groce? He took over a completely gutted program and has made it about values that I consider to be more favorable, but it's just flat out different and that has appeal in my eyes. There is no ego allowed. You must practice hard. You must take care of yourself. You must play defense. We may not have a Tree, but we also don't have a Harney. KD could develop a player better than most MAC coaches I have ever seen, but coaching isn't so much about that any more as it was ten years ago. Groce recruits a lot better than he develops, again the opposite of Dambrot, but the best MAC teams now are the ones that recruit, not necessarily the ones that develop the best players for 4 years. It is a discussion of nuance. I can love Dambrot and be thankful for what he did her while also pointing out his deficiencies. I love Groce and love what he's got going, but unfortunately it did take 3 seasons to meet expectations and I do think they could be better than they are. Like @Captain Kangaroo has said before, this situation has worked out pretty well for all sides thus far. Duquesne is a better, still not great A10 program, Akron is still a great MAC program, and both coaches seem to be happy.

Aaron Rodgers mentions Luke Getsy during MNF.

Game postponed due to COVID issues in………. Akron’s program

AJ Campbell, UCLA transfer from Akron, committed to Kent 😐

Stars kind of matter, but once you get past the top 100-150 recruits, it's really a crapshoot. Below are our top 9 all-time recruits per Scout/247. None were stars in the MAC. Mark Jackson (LB): Never played in Akron uniform (that I can find) Deryn Bowser (WR): Above average WR JUCO transfer. 85 receptions for 1,092 yards in 18 games over two seasons. Erick Howard (RB): Never played in Akron uniform (I think he's in prison for burglary?) Paul Simkovich (OL): Serviceable OL, played in 19 career games for Akron Patrick Nicely (QB): Below average QB. I believe transferred down for his Sr year? 49.8 career completion percentage, 18 TDs/ 21 INTs in 30 games. Corey Thomas (LB): Brighter spot on defense this past year, played all 12 games. 29 tackles, 2.5 TFL, 1 sack Peter Hayes-Patrick (RB): RB with a handful of carries during his freshman year. Doesn't appear to be playing football anymore. Keith Sconiers (WR): 114 catches for 1366 yards and 6 TDs in 43 career games. Keyondre White (RB): Played 7 games at Akron, 23 carries for 81 yards and 1 TD.