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Double damn. He was only one year away from tenure as a faculty member.

Did a little more digging on Hocker. This is from one of the Rivals sites last summer when talking about 2024 prospects the particular P5 team was showing heavy interest to. "He's 6'1 1/2 to be exact and he's 235," said Hawkins, who noted that most schools like him as a MIKE "thumper" type in the middle of the field. "But he's actually long and fast enough to probably play outside. Alabama, Illinois, Kentucky, most of these guys have liked him inside."

The GoZips.com schedule page has been updated to Boyds, MD. And also "First Energy Stadium" has been removed from the Xavier game in CIncy. But the CSU game is still listed as Akron when it should be Cleveland.

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.

Did a little more digging. He’s one that BC wanted. They just had him on campus during their spring game. Excerpt from his trip to BC “Applebaum likes the way Mitchell moves at his size as an interior line prospect.” He clearly didn’t play against great competition all the time, but can’t deny his physical ability.

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

Another one in the fold. Roosevelt Mitchell. He’ll probably be an OG despite playing OT in HS, but watch this big boy move.

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? 🤣

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.