Leaderboard

Offers from Boston College & UMASS. Good get, especially since he has the @catdaddyp stamp of approval.

Phil Steele’s Preseason All-MAC: 1st Team = Alex Adams (WR) & Bubba Arslanian (LB) 2nd Team = TJ Banks (TE) 3rd Team = DJ Irons (QB) & Daniel George (WR) 4th Team = Lorenzo Lingard (RB), Ryan Johnson (DE), Nate Thompson (S), Blake Hester (KR)

While I do think it’s only a matter of time that Akron is a top level team in the MAC under Moorhead (or even the top team ), I wouldn’t go as far as saying Illinois doesn’t have as much of a chance in the Big10. Ignore history and take a look at what is currently happening. Illinois went from 2 wins in the COVID year (granted not as many games played, but I honestly don’t know if they would have won more than 2 anyway) under Lovie Smith, to 5 wins in Bielema’s first year (including an upset over Penn State) and 8 wins in Bielema’s second year (did not lose a game by more than 8 points until the bowl game where they lost to Miss State by 9 - not a single blowout loss.) Recruiting, culture, and development/coaching is what sets programs apart. I don’t have an inside connection to either Akron or Illinois, but both seem to now have the culture part in order, development of players is clearly taking place, we’ve witnessed some excellent coaching, and recruiting (where I can really vouch) has picked up tremendously. One of the biggest downfalls for the Illinois football teams in the past was losing top instate talent to their competitors. For the most part, Bielema has walled off the state and is now keeping the best talent home. Illinois has the 2nd highest retention rate when it comes to the portal under Bielema and have used the portal selectively when improving the roster. Wining 8 games last year and barely losing to Michigan was not a fluke. Illinois, as hard as it is to believe, is on the doorstep of being a Big10 challenger. Bielema has assembled a phenomenal coaching staff (only whiff was at OC in his first year, which he quickly corrected) and has now put together 2 very strong recruiting classes with a 3rd shaping up nicely. Akron is a year behind Illinois in recruiting, but Moorhead has accelerated the process by stringing together two strong portal classes. Zips played like a P5 team the last two games of the season in the terms of physicality. That, in and of itself, has me excited about this year. While the offense will certainly be strong again, I think the defense is really going to surprise, especially if we have a pass rush. If I’m wrong, I’ll certainly admit it. Although, I rarely am when it comes to turnarounds. That being said, I was wrong in the amount of games we would win last year. Not sure if anyone could have foreseen the way we lost a few of them. 2023 season can’t get here soon enough.

It's Tom Arth, how I wish I could forget!

Illinois is the NC State of the Big Ten. There isn't a good reason for them to be average to below average for a long time, but they are. Maybe it's just what they are and will never be anything else. NC State has a series of Bielemas and have done nothing with them. Lou Holtz's best finish was 9-3 in 1973 and that was long before he really became a Hall of Fame coach. Other Bielemas were: Chuck Amoto who was the big name DC from FSU, NC State graduate and never finished above 4th place in the ACC. Next was Tom O'Brien who was also a pretty big name and never finished above 2nd place. Next, Dave Doeren who was a lesser name and has been there for too long for a guy who has had only 2 second place finishes. The Zips have been bad for a long time and if someone told you the University had a secret plan for failure around a football program, it would almost be believable. In the world of the MAC, Akron has a better chance of being a top level team than NC State does of being a top level team in the ACC or Illinois in the Big Ten. NC State has made some, what appeared at the time to be good decisions around their football program (way better than Illinois), but they are still really average. Until JoMo, Akron has as a whole made catastrophic decisions around the football program. Heck, the first mistake was probably was moving to D1 even after the NCAA basically begged them to not do it and then hired a guy who had no idea what to do to build a D1 program from nothing and his support system was the fired, former coach who had no idea how to build a D1 program. Owens was a high school coach and better suited for D2 where he underperformed for years. Brookhart had the background at time and was a "good" coach, won the MAC, had one player make horrible personal decisions that torpedoed any potential success. Bowden was washed up and lazy. I Coach and the last guy are sort of like when your favorite team loses the Super Bowl and someone asks you what you thought of the Super Bowl and you respond with, "What Super Bowl?". I seriously can't even remember the last guy's name as I type this. It's almost what in the legal world is called a "crime in progress" and we have all been accomplices in the crime. In my opinion, for the first time in the program since the winter of 1986, Akron has made good decisions around the football program. I don't consider JoMo to be a "good" hire. I consider him to be a GREAT hire. For the life of me, I know his reasons, but I don't understand why he came to Akron. I sure am glad he is here though. The program is now in a position to be the success it should have been since the opening of The Big Dialer.

BW's Brian Harrison interviewed for the job previously and was passed over for Sabo. Based on the minimal increase in salary that Akron might provide (Harrison is probably at the the top of the OAC), I don't see him taking it now.. He has built a perennial contender in the OAC (arguably the toughest baseball conference in DIII), competing in consecutive DIII CWS and finishing third this year. He has administration support and strong student body and community support. He has developed a strong culture where recruits are coming to him from the D1 and D2 levels and doesn't have to travel all summer to recruit as most of the strong Ohio club programs make appearances at BW's Fisher Field. BW crushed Akron 17-2 two years ago. This year's team would have beat half the teams in the MAC in a three game series. He can stay forever at BW and have a great career and nice life for his family or chase a few more dollars at Akron, trying to compete in a lower level D1 conference at a school with little baseball tradition, restricted scholarships and little AD support if the rumors are true about how Donnelly was handled. I thought Miami or UC jobs might interest him, but Miami hired Indiana St assistant while BW was in CWS and UC is probably going to make a D1 name hire as they head into the Big 12.

I can't get a link to it but on good morning football on the NFL Network they were discussing universities that are also colors. One guy brought up Navy and said that he had been going through all the other conferences to see what else he could find and said is Akron a color? 🤣

Is the Big East going with an East/West conference alignment this season? The three teams I don't see on our schedule are geographically eastern: Georgetown, Villanova, and UConn.

Was mildly disappointed we picked up neither Georgetown nor Villanova on the road this year since both are reasonable commutes - until I saw the Big East tournament will be 40 minutes from me. 😊I'll be there.

Good read. Out of all those matchups I’d actually say Akron is the best bet. I think there’s a snowballs chance of Toledo beating Illinois. The writer focuses on what Illinois lost and not what they return (and have added the past two offseasons). One of the best front sevens in the Big10 and potentially all of college football. Good luck to Toledo running the ball against that crew. Fat chance Toledo does much defensively against an OL that is likely to have 3 players drafted, a stout RB room, and some extremely talented WRs. I feel like this is another instance where the writer is more focused on the name on the jersey vs what’s actually happening. Props to him for recognizing Akron as an up-and-comer though.

The Big Ten is the MAC's *****. Akron may continue the streak.

Can anyone confirm that the NCAA decided against granting Bubba Arslanian a seventh season of eligibility? Not good news for the defense and special teams if true.