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@catdaddyp has been one of the best, if not THE best asset to the football section of this forum. This is a disrespectful, trash response to a thoroughly developed post that highlighted a pretty important aspect of the discussion. I'm glad you saw a 1-9 record. I saw a number of 1 score losses that were enabled by a porous defense that turned it on for the final 2 games - ironically when JU was under center.

take your time coming back if that's your response to the time spent accumulating everything in that post.

Shoutout to @catdaddyp for taking a great message board and elevating it to the next level. Hopefully more Zips fans can find ZN.o as a place to not only discuss Akron athletics, but to learn and get coverage. Can’t get this stuff anywhere else on the internet. Thank you for all you do!

Don’t take a congenial conversation and make things personal @bigjim. Especially when you know nothing about my coaching record or my achievements. I stepped away from coaching, and definitely not canned as you incorrectly assumed, to spend more time with my family and the opportunity to work from home. Now my wife is pushing me to go back into it with my kids (somewhat) functional. I have more experience in the areas you mentioned than most. Outside of personal observation, which we clearly disagree on, there is no way to compare the two players without stats.

We were at 85 this year with the help of players being in school an extra year and the allowance of replacing up to 7 guys who enter the TP, giving us a max of 32 rather than 25. You’re correct about the numbers from prior years though. 10+ under during Arth era.

Last Episode of the season. JoeMo talks about several points we’ve discussed on this forum numerous times. - Holt is coming back and was probably up to 80/85% by end of season. Excited to have an offseason with him. - Bubba is coming back. - Tim Terry came on strong the past 4 weeks. - The safety combo of Thompson, Martin, Woods developed well throughout the season. - The portal is hurting HS recruiting the most as it’s taking scholarships away that used to be allotted for HS seniors. - Would like to keep playing because the team has gotten better throughout the season. - Team is playing physical football now. - There has been pro interest for Shocky, Whigan, and Jones. - Golden will compete for time in the slot with Adams next year. - Spoke about all the missed opportunities and how the team will learn and grow from them.

"Hey Rick. Thanks for hiring away Sean Lewis. Can't State is a proper dumpster fire again." Love the shot across the bow at PCCC's AD.

With respect to local guys like Sperling, I think it is important for the staff to establish some relationship with them even of they know they won't be getting the kid as there's always a chance the kid may not work out at his first stop and look to come home. One example I can recall at UA is Se'von Pittman.

If Buffalo pulls that one off, they have a mortal lock on the "Hoban pipeline"! I remember when Andy Hipsher was in his later HS years, even though he was heading to Akron, his dad thought it was important for him to go through the recruiting process. And, there's no guarantee that the next "Larry" Williams, "Curly" Wistercill or "Moe" Helsel doesn't succeed Guthrie and ditch Joe. Or, Joe naturally moves on from UA. A million things can happen between now and 2026 so I get why he's going through the same process as any other HS '26 talent.

Coach JoeMo's son ('26 QB) just picked up an offer from Buffalo

Tom Corado Could be the "Blake Dennis" of this Zips recruiting class?

The Zips get the week off for exams then return to the JAR next Sunday to face 1-6 Jackson State. Jackson State's record is a little deceptive as they've generally been in their games and their one win came in their last game against SMU. Prior to that they lost 95-78 in the cavern known in Oxford. They play TCU this Tuesday. Ken Evans and Trace Young lead Jackson State scoring each at 14.1 ppg. Evans is a 6'5" RS guard while Young is a 6'8" RS senior guard/forward. Young leads rebounding at 6.4 rpg along with 6'9" junior forward Romelle Mansel. They were predicted to finish 7th in the SWAC preseason poll, placing no one on the first or second team. The Tigers' new head coach in former Cav Mo Williams. Willams brought Young with him from Alabama State.

Undercuffler also had the benefit of leading a team that had nearly a full season under them while the team was still growing during most of Irons starts. I agree that Irons isn't the fastest in his reads but I think that will improve with experience in the system. This system is also set up to be more successful with a mobile QB and Irons is far more mobile. He has shown to be a better arm talent than Undercuffler. I also have issues with Undercuffler's temperament after his embarrassing behavior in the Miami game. The way I look at this team is that every position is open. If a better talent comes in at QB it should be his job, but based upon who is in the QB room right now, Irons is the best alternative.

Man, I'm already hungry for more Zips football

Congratulations to Adam Najem, who is currently playing professionally in Indonesia, on earning his degree.

With Irons this team has a much higher ceiling. Irons has areas he does need to improve his game (As can be said about nearly everyone). Namely in getting through his progressions quicker to find the right read, and simply understanding at times its best to throw the ball away to live for another down instead of taking a costly sacks that kills the drive. Hopefully with an improved o-line and another offseason with JoeMo he improves in these areas.

Stallworth. I’m going back through and slowly updating the position threads, but not going to bump any of them until the dust settles.

Pretty sure we got up to the full 85 by end of year. A few guys like Durant and Hester were put on scholarship during the year. Can’t remember who else though.

Were we at the full allotment of 85 scholarship players heading into this season? I thought @LZIp in the past had tracked that and we have been in the 70-75 range in previous years.

That's a good attitude to have, because we don't have a lot of commas and zeros to offer.

Make sense conidering he appeared to be 5th RB at end of the year. Unsure what happened there, but he had some attitude issues with Arth even IIRC.

One son at Grove City college and one at Hawken as far as I know

...

If you're going to have a Division 3 coach, you could certainly do worse than U. of Chicago's Juliane Sitch! 😘🤩 https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/35177051/uchicago-julianne-sitch-first-woman-coach-ncaa-men-soccer-team-title

6'2" DB. Huge offer list. Out of high school, he was a Miss. State commit, then decommitted - looks to be around the time JoeMo left. Then held offers from WVU, Kentucky, and Florida. Currently, he has a ton of FCS offers and some MAC offers, including the newly destructed KSUcks program. If I had to guess, I'd be willing to bet he's in the Akron Blue & Gold next fall. Our recent home visits seem to be with commits or recruits where we're their top option. Sort of the "final confirmation you're committing/signing with us in a few weeks," type of visit.

2023 JUCO CB

One of Groce's sayings is "Winter will ask what Summer did". Something like that anyway. Basically, the time for forming good basketball habits and personal improvement on their shot, dribble, post moves, etc is the off-season. Now is the time for competing and building team chemistry (Teamism). I sure hope these guys have put in the work and are just off to a slow start. Because I too am less than impressed and we need to make up for the lost production of Ali, Dawson and Wynn if we want to have a successful March. We need 2 or 3 players beyond Castaneda, Freeman, and TJ to contribute on a consistent basis. It is getting late in the developmental process for some guys so the potential for them being passed over going forward is quite real. Not concerned yet, it's a long season. And I'm rooting for all of our guys to break out.

Last one to leave remember to turn off the lights.

Colorado should be an elite football school. The opportunity to go to school & play football in the Rocky Mountains should be a dream. I'm a beach guy. Love the beach. But I've never been literally awestruck by the landscape like I was when visiting the Rocky Mountains.

I think Irons as QB 1 next season, with Wasel redshirting, is a great scenario, personally.

Not entirely sure where to put this. JoeMo's son has been ranked the #1 Pro-Style QB in OH & #29 in the Nation for the 2026 class. https://twitter.com/BallCoachJoeMo/status/1599237815120048129?t=pCB7IfL7xCFtCzda1suJyg&s=19

@catdaddypPlease don't be too upset with BJs rant. I think this is just a case of someone with an undistinguished career/life striking out at someone whose career/life he finds intimidating Unfortunately, this is commonplace. Sometimes successful completion of a Dale Carnegie course will help but there are no guarantees. My major criticism of Undercuffer is that he floats his passes.

Sorry, but I have been away for a few days. Statistics are important, but they are not the tell all. If you only look at Stats, I can understand why you got canned from your coaching job. You need to look at the strength of the team you are playing, winning record, turnovers in the last minute, the game plan, etc. I see one QB was 1-9 with a lucky win over a FCS team (and a potential win against CMU although the game was tied) vs. a QB who was 1-1 and would have been 2-0 if not for a missed FG and/or a crazy late fumble when Akron was leading. The offense and team responded to him very well. It is not a guarantee that JU goes 8-4 next year, but he should be in the conversation and Irons needs to show something on the field. I always think it is humorous when people who have never played sports at a serious level think they know how a team and locker room operates. I love my Zips, and I am going away for a few days. Go Zips!!!