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The problem is that this team still does not have a consistent 3rd scorer behind Freeman and X. In games, like today, where one (or both) of them struggle to score, this offense really struggles. When X and Freeman are on, then we are competitive. If this team wants to win 3 games in 3 days in March, others will need to step up.

do we have JoeMo or catdaddyp to thank for that? 😂

To the relief of most and dismay of some, it doesn’t appear DJ is going anywhere. Also, congrats to Coach Fessler!

This game was an absolute embarrassment. One of the few times I can remember over the last 20-ish years I've been watching Zips basketball that I can remember turning off a game in disgust vs what should've been a relatively evenly matched mid-major squad. We'll be in the mix of the MAC because coach always seems to get the puzzle pieces to fit in the best way possible, even if sometimes it takes until the late MAC season. The difference this year is the complete lack of size on this team. It'll take some consistent hot shooting to get a good run going in MAC play, and thus far we've shown anything but that. As a fan, I just try to remember that there are some young guys that will continue to develop and we have to hope they make big strides this year in both performance and consistency. Like it or not, young guys like Tavari, Nate, and Amani will be required to play outsized roles for their experience level in order for this team to succeed. Let's hope coach finds the right mix.

Winning in March needs some luck like Segu's missed 3 in the quarters last year. This game seemed like an odd scheduling and was ripe for a total flop. i'm with the guy who said "burn the tape." But there needs to be another scorer. I think Hank and Hunter can do it. Note that X is currently the highest scorer in the MAC. That's great but last year's top scorer played for WMU and CMU had a top scorer in a down year. What that means is that the other players on the team aren't performing like they should.

That’s a fair concern. Rivals gave him a 3 star in the portal.

2023 VERBAL COMMITMENTS SIGNED: Kameron Cheatom, DE, 6-4, 225, Brashear HS, Pittsburgh, PA, Rivals Profile SIGNED: Conner Cravaack, TE, 6-5, 220, Madeira HS, Cincinnati, OH, Rivals profile Senior Year Highlights SIGNED: Bruno Dall, DE, 6-8, 230, St. Stanislaus HS, Bay St. Louis, MS, Rivals Profile, Season Highlights SIGNED: Jayvin James, OL, 6-6, 270, Blanche Ely HS, Pompano Beach, FL, Rivals Profile SIGNED: Terray Jones, DL, 6-1, 290, Transfer from Tennessee State University SIGNED: Zayden Laing-Taylor, CB, 6-0, 185, Miami Central HS, Miami, FL, Rivals profile Senior Year Highlights SIGNED: Lorenzo Lingard, RB, 6-0, 210, Transfer from U. of Florida SIGNED: Jean Louis III, WR, 5-9, 185, Canarsie HS, Middle Village, NY, Rivals profile Senior Year Highlights SIGNED: Jonas Mann, OL, 6-8, 295, Pickerington North HS, Pickerington, OH, Rivals profile SIGNED: Marcus Moore, DT, 6-3, 310, Massillon Washington HS, Massillon, OH, Rivals profile Mid-season Highlights SIGNED: Adrian Norton, WR, 6-1, 195, Stebbins HS, Dayton, OH, Rivals profile Mid-season Highlights Senior Year Highlights SIGNED: Darius Owens, S, 6-0, 175, South Gwinnett HS, Snellville, GA, Rivals profile Mid-season Highlights Senior Year Highlights SIGNED: Ahmad Rabah, DE, 6-5, 215, Transfer from American International College SIGNED: Melvin Spriggs, LB, 6-3, 215, St. Michael the Archangel HS, Fredericksburg, VA, Rivals Profile, Season Highlights SIGNED: Steele Wassel, QB, 6-4, 210, Choctaw HS, Choctaw, OK, Rivals profile SIGNED: Catrell White, CB, 5-10, 175, Erasmus Hall HS, Brooklyn, NY, Rivals profile LATE SIGNING PERIOD VERBAL COMMITMENTS: SIGNED: Joey Hunter, CB, 6-1, 200, Transfer from University of South Carolina SIGNED: David Jester, S, 6-3, 195, Homestead HS, Homestead, FL SIGNED: Delvin Morris, OL, 6-5, 285, Caldwell HS, Caldwell, TX hudl highlights SIGNED: Ben Frank, OL, 6-5, 310, Transfer from Hobart College, NY SIGNED: Terrence Thomas, S, 6-0, 190, Transfer from Purdue University SIGNED: Paul Davis, WR, 6-0, 185, Hart Co. HS, Bowman, GA SIGNED: Judson Tallandier, S, 6-2, 190, Transfer from Pitt SIGNED: Antonio Smith, DL, 6-5, 240, Transfer from New Mexico Military Institute SIGNED: CJ Nunnally, DL, 6-4, 245, Transfer from Independence CC, Independence, Kansas SIGNED: Gage Summers, LB, 6-0, 230, Transfer from Riverside City College, CA SIGNED: LaJoshua Jackson, DE, 6-4, 250, Transfer from East Mississippi CC SIGNED: Silas Proby, CB, 5-11, 175, Transfer from Reedley College, CA SIGNED: AJ George, OL, 6-6, 300, Transfer from University of Cincinnati SIGNED: Drake Anderson, RB, 5-10, 200, Transfer from University of Arizona SIGNED: Lama Lavea, DT, 6-0, 300, Transfer from New Mexico State University SIGNED: Keon Kindred, OL, 6-5, 285, Transfer from the University of Maryland SIGNED: Joshua Blanchard, OL, 6-5, 310, Transfer from USF SIGNED: Tyler Carter, DL, 6-2, 300, Transfer from Fullerton College, CA SIGNED: Tahj Bullock, QB, 6-4, 225, Transfer from Virginia Tech SIGNED: Shammond Cooper, LB, 6-3, 235, Transfer from the University of Illinois SIGNED: Phaizon Wilson, WR, 6-3, 215, Transfer from Grambling State University SIGNED: Jacob Newell, TE, 6-5, 245, Transfer from Arizona State University VERBAL: Josh Castro, OL, 6-4, 305, Transfer from California Lutheran University VERBAL: Kabbash Richards, DE, 6-5, 245, Transfer from East Mississippi CC CLASS BREAKDOWN Total Commits: 39 Offense: 17 QB: 2 (Wassel, Bullock) RB: 2 (Lingard, Anderson) WR: 4 (Louis III, Norton, Davis, Wilson) TE: 2 (Cravaack, Newell) OL: 7 (James, Mann, Morris, Frank, George, Kindred, Blanchard) Defense: 22 DT: 4 (Jones, Moore, Lavea, Carter) DE: 7 (Cheatom, Dall, Rabbah, Smith, Nunnally, Jackson, Richards) LB: 3 (Spriggs, Summers, Cooper) CB: 4 (Laing-Taylor, White, Hunter, Proby) S: 4 (Owens, Jester, Thomas, Talliander) Specialists: 0 P/K: 0 (We're guessing Owen Wiley, Joey Castle, and Dante Jackson are preferred walk-ons.) LS: 0 (We're guessing Drew Nicholson is a preferred walk-on.) Walk-Ons: 9 Jax Smith, 6-0, 190, WR, Choctaw HS, Choctaw, OK Grant Edgington, OL, 6-4, 270, Madeira HS, Cincinnatti, OH Aiden Diaz, TE, 6-3, 225, Shaker Heights HS, Shaker Heights, OH Langston Ragland, DL, 6-5, 225, Westerville Central HS, Westerville, OH Drew Nicolson, LS, 6-1, 205, Corona del Sol HS, Tempe, AZ Owen Wiley, K, 5-11, 165, Avon Lake HS, Avon Lake, OH, Rivals Profile Joey Castle, P/K, 6-3, 195, Norwin HS, North Huntington, PA Dante Jackson, P/K, 6-0, 195, Transfer from Butte CC, CA Ridge Howard, LB, 6-2, 225, Elkhart, IN These verbal commits never signed LOI's: Maurice Long, OL, 6-6, 285, South Point HS, South Point, OH, Rivals profile Joshua Bowen, LB, 6-2, 210, Dillard HS, Fort Lauderdale, FL, Rivals profile Mid-season Highlights Senior Year Highlights

And a couple "what the hell was that" wins against awful teams.

If you look at the numbers above, the difference between 4th and 9th place in the Rivals MAC rankings is very small. 247 sports have missed a couple of Zip recruits, but they have Akron rated #10 in the MAC and #104 nationally. Sorry, but I could not get a link posted. The coaches got some real good recruits, but we need additional good high school players (including Bowen and Long) and Transfer Portal additions for this class to be very successful and propel the Zips to many wins in 2023. Go Zips!!!!

Sorry your would've-been-Heisman-candidate QB tore his ACL in a blowout loss against the Gamecocks, and you were undoubtedly not the same team without him, which 100% justifies finishing below Bama in the rankings. Cry about it more at the Orange Bowl, and feel free to send us another $1M check in the future if you want "revenge" on us for tackling your stud WRs that you left in while up 4+ TDs.

Speaking of Tennessee, I was reading some comments on twitter in regards to Lingard committing. A saw a few people call us a dirty program and it caught me off guard. Turns out it was Tennessee fans who apparently hold some vendetta against us for one of their WRs getting hurt on a low tackle. Give me a break.

We should collectively say a prayer for the Tennessee game announcers. I hope they're ok with this news that DJ will not being transferring to the SEC.

I'm bored, so here's my game by game. Don't get me wrong, I'm still pretty pessimistic after that beatdown yesterday but the MAC is not good: vs. NIU W (1-0) @ Ball State L (1-1) @ BGSU W (2-1) vs EMU W (3-1) @ CMU W (4-1) @ WMU W (5-1) vs Miami W (6-1) vs Ohio W (7-1) @ Buffalo L (7-2) vs Kent W (8-2) vs Toledo W (9-2) @ Ohio L (9-3) @ EMU L (9-4) vs Buffalo W (10-4) @ Toledo L (10-5) vs WMU W (11-5) vs Ball State W (12-5) @ Kent L (12-6) 12-6 should have us in the top 3-4. The schedule is set up for some confidence building (or destroying?) matchups early. Hopefully we start out well, the kids grow up and we have a healthy 8-9 man rotation come February.

With our less than illustrious history I'll gladly take #4 in the MAC... especially with portal commits yet to be factored in. Our transfers did well last year & JoeMo should be able to use that as a selling point. @catdaddyp for clarity, the above ranking does not include Lingard, Jones, or Rabah?

Hopefully he’ll be a February signee. We’ll see.

11-7 Mr. Pinky has an outlier season and gets a 10-year contract extension.

Seem to be going hard after another safety

I agree with much of what is being said by everyone here. The whole team needs to improve their game to some degree and I think they will. But imho, the amount Tavari grows at the point throughout the course of the season will be the greatest factor dictating the Zip's success. His untapped potential is the key. It's not much, but Hunter did hit a couple of 3's again tonight.

Same here. I was able to hear the post game and Groce essentially said they got punked by a more physical team and that it was an awful performance. We were lucky in not having to watch it. There's a lot of work to get done in the next week and a half.

We aren't done with 2023 High Schoolers. 6'2" Safety. Very nice offer list that includes West Virginia, Arkansas, and Georgia Tech.

I am always a little bummed reading the recap of these games. We got SMOKED three times straight in Florida last year and won the MAC. Listen, today was soooooo sooooooooo disappointing. It hurt my soul watching our brains get beat in. But, honest question. Does anyone really think this team cannot win the MAC with how we have played in games like WKU and Maine? I know those teams are not Kent level, but please be honest, I would love feedback.

Some of it was even us whooping our own ass.

I must be living right. I was travelling and assumed the game was at 7 or 8 and missed the game. Based on the comments on this board, I did not miss much.

Groce, "Does not bode well for league play." "way too much hero ball." "taken to the woodshed" "soft" etc.

X is 1/9 from the field with 3 TO. Outside of Hunter hitting a few triples not really any positives from this game. Burn the game film.

Lingard has 286 career yards. I don't mean to be a debbie downer, but this guy was a 5 star 5+ years and a knee surgery ago. I hope he's great, but I'm not all that optimistic

5* recruits have highly-talented friends. Those highly-talented friends have other highly-talented friends. The spiderweb of talent that could find its way to Akron from these Portal adds like Lingard would really expedite the rise of the program.

Base on Tre Bell's activity on Twitter, I would imagine we address the DB group via the Portal - heavily.

+1. He may be ready to help straightaway 💪 *For @blueandgold we're referring to CB Zayden Laing-Taylor.

Speaking of hot beds, Florida guys are built different. Love this get.