Leaderboard

While I am certainly no GT, I'll do my best to pass along a few things gleaned from a Zips football event held last evening at Café Arnone in Fairlawn.😀 The event was for boosters-only, until the last minute when they opened it up to the public. So I just went on my own. I may have been the only person in attendance that wasn't a former player or administrator. The main purpose of the event was to kick off a booster group composed primarily of former Zips players. Most of the guys seemed to be from the Dennison era. A few from the Faust era. Buchtel coach and former Brookhart RB Bryan Williams was in attendance. There will be a big push to get former Zips back into the fold, supporting the program. They'll be arranging road trips, fund raising and a lot of other things. Joe probably spoke for an hour. The most important thing discussed his adamant statement that he was at Akron for the long haul, and 100% committed to turning the ship around. He mentioned the offers he's had both before and since coming to UA...paraphrasing - "I could be a Power 5 head coach right now...I could be a Power 5 coordinator right now...I could be in the NFL right now...with a lot more commas and zero's on my paycheck...but I'm at Akron because I chose to be here, and I WILL turn this thing around." It was a pretty powerful and honest statement. In no particular order, here are some tidbits (I'm going off memory here) - There are two 2023 scholarships left to give The Zips expect two more 2024 freshman commits by next week. I think one is an OL from Florida? Future recruiting classes will likely be 60-70% from the portal (it depends upon what talent is available in a given year). The rest will be freshman. The preference is the portal guys will be like Alex Adams, mature kids with 3-or-so years of eligibility remaining. From the tone of the QB discussions, DJ and Taj are the top 2. But Billy Fessler said "We've only seen Taj in shorts so far, so we'll see what happens in August." Joe mentioned it was nice to have a guy like Undercuffler in the mix, as "he won a game last year, and was a minute away from winning another." Joe addressed the two late-game fumbles from last year - "I think the guys looked up at the scoreboard and said "Holy crap...we can actually win!?" And then, we folded. He said "regardless of how much you simulate those late-game scenarios in practice, the game is just different." He doesn't feel those situations will be repeated in 2023. 😀 The kicker from Oregon State can consistently put a ball 6-7 yards deep in the endzone on kick offs. Joe thought last season may have been his best coaching job ever considering the program's talent level when it was handed to him. On 2022, he said the Zips were "1 deep" at most positions. Now they are 2-3 deep. That's going to create some great competition and raise the level of play appreciably. "We look like a Division 1 team this year...last year that wasn't the case." Coach Tibesar said he has no idea who's going to start on the defensive line, but he likes the numbers and talent they have on the roster. He said the linebackers look like D1 linebackers. Joe Dunn was at the event. He expects to return for another season of broadcasting. The boosters seem like a good group of people. Older, professional guys who seem more than capable and motivated to make the group effective and grow it. I think 16 people joined last night, at $100 each. Nice start! They're appreciative that Joe and the staff have reached out to them. If you're a former player and want to find out more, contact Reno Ferri or Tom Freeman. Joe said the difference between the Fordham team he inherited in "Year 1", and the Zips team he inherited in "Year 0" was buy-in. The Fordham team won the 1-score games the Zips lost because they universally bought in to what his staff was implementing. That universal buy-in wasn't there for the Zips last season. But it is now. He expects great things now that players know they are being held accountable, and so many returning players have a year of Joe's system under their belts. Overall, a very nice, small-venue event. Definitely worth $30 to hear Joe speak. I'll leave the rest to GT. 😀

Thanks Captain. I am glad to hear some news from the coaching staff and their comments. This is a very good staff. I not only try my best to get to all the home games, I go on the road to at least one P5 game and sometimes one other. We hunger for a winning season and a championship. I just renewed my season tickets last week, kind of late as I can't get around like I used too and was not sure I could get someone to accompany me to each game. Still not absolute. A couple years ago, someone gave me a pass for lot 6 so i could get in and out well by myself. GO ZIPS

There will be a Joe Moorhead statue at whatever the Info is called in the future. Book it.

Thanks for the report! Was GT there?

Top Drawer Soccer says that the Zips have added a new recruit for 2024 https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/club-soccer-articles/sima-recruiting-roundup:-july-24-30_aid52277 M Jack Roman (Cleveland Force FC) committed to Akron. On July 4, Top Drawer soccer included Jack Roman on their top 11 team from the ECNL playoffs M Jack Roman, Cleveland Force 06 – After Cleveland lost the group opener against MVLA, the team rallied with back-to-back wins to capture first place. Roman is a hard worker in the midfield, who connected play well. He added a goal-scoring punch from the midfield as well.

Got a good chuckle out of this one.