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On a personal note, as an undergraduate, I attended an "elite" private East Coast college with a 7% acceptance rate. I was not an athlete, child of an alum, nor child of a major donor. Their acceptance rates were much higher than 7%. The rest of us, therefore, had a rate even more restrictive. Tough to get into. My master's was done at Akron in an area that had a number of combined undergrad/graduate classes in which graduate students were expected to do more- but- gave me an insight into the undergraduate student requirements. I assure you the undergraduate students had demands that matched those at the "elite" school. The difference was largely the research/book success of the professors at the "elite" school. Virtually no impact on the education received by students unless the student sought to be a researcher. Quality of output is the most important criteria in measuring a college- UA can stand tall!

The amount of spring coverage we’ve gotten from the program has been disappointing. To be fair, spring coverage across college football has taken a hit in general. As of this writing, only two SEC schools are even televising their spring games. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a vote next year to allow schools to play other programs during the spring. Colorado and Syracuse gave it a shot, but the NCAA shut it down, saying it wouldn’t be fair since other schools had already wrapped up spring ball and didn’t have the same opportunity. In any case, here’s my take on the current roster and what I’ll be keeping an eye on during our spring event. QB: Finley is one of the few returning starting quarterbacks in the MAC, and with a full year in the system under his belt, he should be in the mix for an all-conference season—assuming he stays healthy. With Bullock hitting the portal, the QB-run threat takes a hit, so that element of the offense will have a different feel in 2025. Roggow didn’t look like an overwhelmed freshman during spring ball in 2024, and there's a good chance he’s ready to lock down the backup role as a redshirt freshman. Then there’s true freshman Cibastian Broughton. He’s a bit undersized for the position, but he’s physically gifted and could force his way into the conversation if he puts it together quickly. RB: Top rushers Simmons and Kellom have moved on after the 2024 season, opening the door for new faces to step up and take meaningful snaps. Jordan Gant, a transfer from Tennessee State, looks like the best bet to grab the starting job, while Chris Gee out of Colgate might end up being a sneaky good pickup. Don’t sleep on redshirt freshman Sean Patrick, either. He was electric in high school and may be ready to make an impact this season. WR: Golden and Norton decided to go portaling, which leaves a production void—but honestly, I don’t think we’re looking at much of a drop-off. Adams returns, and if he can stay healthy, we’re getting back a former 1st team All-MAC player. Polk showed real growth late in the season, and that development should keep trending in the right direction. Walker, Louis, and P. Davis should be ready to step in and contribute. Redshirt freshman Kyan Mason was an absolute nightmare to cover in high school. He flashed that ability with a tough touchdown grab last year, and if he’s added some mass, he should start seeing regular snaps. And I’m pretty high on the upside of Brandon Hills, the Washington State transfer. He’s got the physical tools to become a big-time player in this offense. TE: Newell and Cravaack form what is likely the best tight end duo in the MAC. I’m curious to see what strides redshirt freshman Khalil Witherspoon has made. OL: What the starters at this position will look like is anyone’s guess. Coach JRod has done a fantastic job recruiting the high school ranks since he got here—but keeping those kids around has been a challenge. We lost starters James and Williams to the portal, and Blanchard is out of eligibility, but we might actually be in a spot where we can replace them without too much of a drop. The new additions don’t lack size or athleticism, that’s for sure. Morris and K. Davis will be locked in as starters somewhere on the interior, and we’ll have to see how the tackle spots shake out. If he’s healthy, Mann could be ready to make a push at right tackle. DE: 1st Team All-MAC Nunnally took advantage of his extra year and hit the portal to Purdue, and his running mate Adler is out of eligibility—so we’re looking at some new faces at this spot. Arizona transfer Cyrus Durham will battle it out with redshirt sophomores Cheatom and Dall for the starting jobs. Right behind them are the Frazier brothers, both redshirt freshmen. None of these guys are short on length or athleticism. DT: This position probably concerns me the most on the defensive side right now. Moore surprisingly moved on to Bowling Green, and Kapongo is out of eligibility, so we’re thin. This would be the perfect time for Murphy to finally tap into his potential and lock down a starting role. Redshirt freshmen Ronald Hull and Elijah Davis definitely have the talent, but the question is whether they’re ready to handle the workload. Madden flashed at times last season, but even as an upperclassman, he’s still pretty green. We’ve added two JUCO signees, but I don’t know when they’ll actually get on campus. We probably need a few more DTs before we can start feeling good about depth. LB: Starters McCoy and Fish have moved on—Oklahoma State and Sam Houston snagged them—but there’s some good news: Cooper looks to have been granted an extra year, and Summers is listed on the spring roster. I’m actually really high on this group. All the young guys have a ton of upside—it’s just a matter of when the light comes on for each of them. If it clicks, this unit could surprise. NB: D. Lewis and Greenwood will once again handle the snaps at Nickel, barring injury. They have plenty of experience and provide stability to the secondary. CB: Golden-Nelson transferred out, but outside of his departure, we didn’t really lose much at this spot. Reed, DeWalt, and White are the top returners and should collect the meaningful snaps. Upper Iowa transfer Ben Kamara is definitely one to watch. He has all the physical tools to be a really good player—it’s just a matter of how quickly he adjusts to this level. S: P. Lewis is off to try his hand at the pro level after a one-and-done, all-conference season. David and Anderson should be the starters heading into the year. Quality depth was a real issue last season—once David went down or anyone else missed time, it really showed. We’ve added two transfers to help shore things up: Jamarii Somerville from James Madison and Mehki Flowers from Penn State. I’m not sure if Flowers is on campus yet, but if he’s able to pull it all together as a former 4 star, he could be a game-changer. ST: We fielded one of the best special teams units in the conference in 2024, but now we’re looking at a full reset—our starting kicker, punter, kickoff specialist, and long snapper have all moved on. Wiley and Castle will both have shots to earn starting roles. They have been in the program for several years now and should be noticeably improved from their freshmen campaigns. I’d imagine we’ll see a few more specialists brought in after the spring for competition purposes. Ending Thoughts: I’m sure we’ll lose a handful of players after the spring when the next portal window opens. By my count, we still have nine scholarships to fill, not counting the three usually allocated to special teams. There are still plenty of players out there who could help us, whether from JUCO or the portal, so we’ll see how everything shakes out over the next few months.

these rankings have little to do with academic excellence- most never have. They are based on public acceptance and exposure. The University of Akron has had historical disadvantages. First- lack of exposure due to localized student body. Second- the power structure of Akron largely didn't care because they sent their children elsewhere and they had the rubber industry. They started to care about 1980 when it became obvious the rubber industry was moving their manufacturing elsewhere- that meant employment at The University of Akron became important "core jobs" for the community. Next was the tendency of Akron residents to call our school "Hilltop High' which has largely disappeared and "Akron U" which has unfortunately not disappeared. Also some of The University's leadership has not been as aggressive as they might in seeking to expand its influence- Dr. Guzzetta for one and the collection of weak leadership/temporary leadership more recently. Lastly- the power of sports towards the value of academic rating. No one in the 1970s would have considered the University of Alabama a strong educational institution. There have been multiple TV stories about the enrollment growth and the increase in stature there that Saban has built. There have been others- Notre Dame, for example- not as strong academically back 100 years ago as it is now. I agree with the poster above- better to measure the quality of the output than the input! The University of Akron provides a solid education and better than most colleges. There is little objective logic to the above rating even if you remove Akron from the list.

I may have mentioned this on here before but in light of the current conversation, undergrad in Computer Science at a school that honestly at the time I didn't love and wasn't that happy to have to go there. Grad school at Johns Hopkins, not exactly an apples to apples comparison since it was part-time night school, but Akron's program blew Hopkins away. I've come to appreciate Akron so much more in the intervening years. Hopkins is a good school and often comes in the top 10 in rankings, but if you gave me the blind "taste test" I'd have ranked Akron higher. Screw the stupid rankings.

On the other hand, dumb kids need a place to go to college too.

I love the perspective. They always say the hardest thing about Harvard is getting in. Harvard is always #1 on the survey. 97% of the students who get into Harvard graduate. They have massive grade inflation. To me, that isn't a good look. If a school is truly challenging it's students and not producing just another generation of donors to the foundation, the failure rate should be higher. I don't blame the kids for this. They are probably very smart. It's not their fault the university isn't challenging them in a meaningful way. While living in the Carolinas, I once had a choice to make between an Elon grad and a YSU grad. The Elon grad was smart enough, but struck me as someone who could be lazy and entitled. The YSU grad worked his way through school at an auto plant working the night shift. I hired him because of that. He was a great, hard working employee who made me good money for two years. He has his own business now and is what I would consider to be successful. Regional schools like Akron, which really defines most universities, have plenty of kids like this attending and provide a great learning experience for someone who doesn't have the same advantages as others. The key for Akron is developing ways to admit those kids who are capable of graduating. The key for us as alumni is to provide support for these kids so they can share the same success we have. Things like direct financial support or a paid co-op, to name a couple of opportunities, are very important to these kids. It isn't easy, but duty isn't easy.

https://blog.prepscholar.com/why-you-shouldnt-trust-us-news-college-rankings#:~:text=US News is probably the,might end up being miserable. I think the people who rank the study put as much effort into it as sports writers put into the preseason MAC football rankings. What I see when I look at the University is an institution that produces excellent business and community leaders than KSU across colleges across NE Ohio and Ohio in general. Maybe their Fashion Merchandising program has us beat, but I'd hire an engineer, business, teacher, nurse, etc over a KSU grad any day of the week.

Whenever Akron goes through an inevitable scoring drought in the future, just remember that Duke had 1 FG in the final 10:30 of a Four Four game, with the best player in the country, was still up by 6 with 33 seconds left, and lost.

Unfortunately Catdaddy's post is the most publicity football has received since the season ended. Somebody has to accept responsibility to post 3 minute interviews on the team every damn day to keep what interest there is alive. I believe Catdaddy's analysis is realistic. My worry is that there are too many question marks on the team. One respected coach told me that when you have question marks, at best, only 50% of them turn out OK. Believing that I see this team winning 5 games. That's progress but not what is capable with commitment from all facets of the program, inside and out.

I believe rankings can be made to suit the people you want to please. An Akron education can carry a grad to whatever level of achievement he/she wants. I taught several classes in the Fisher Sales Institute in the College of Business Administration. 100% of the students graduating from there get jobs. They are high paying jobs too. The preparation the faculty put students thru exceeded that of the company in which I was director of sales. We were a career destination and required previous sales with two companies. Still the UA students were excellent. Akron's sales program is one of the best five, if not the best, in the U.S. Just another point to be proud of. We take a hit in the rankings because we take chances on marginal high school grads that decide they want college. Of course, many aren't prepared and don't make it, but others do and UA gave them a vehicle to achieve their dream. Many have money issues so they need to commute. I prefer the residential experience at a university, but if you and your family can't afford it God bless you for going to a school like Akron and making it happen. We need to be proud of who we are!

Western Michigan has a chance to capture another MAC team championship. They have reached the Frozen Four.

I have no love for Bruce Pearl. And now it’s go Florida because of the Eric Gordon scandal involving Kelvin Sampson (now with Houston) and probably Senderoff.

I bet Illini Zip is smiling as Pearl goes home!

“DT: This position probably concerns me the most on the defensive side right now. Moore surprisingly moved on to Bowling Green, and Kapongo is out of eligibility, so we’re thin.” Thanks for the great/only info we see Catdaddy! I saw that Marcus Moore is already back in the portal at BG

Great analysis as usual @catdaddyp I agree that DL seems to be the biggest weakness. Question marks at a number of position groups, but should have good potential/good competition in all of them where a starter isn't already solidified...looking forward to see how it all shakes out. With 9 open scholarships still to fill, we can still get quite a bit better.

In my opinion, another QB should be added to the roster In addition, I think Broughton may be utilized sparingly as a wildcat QB

No. UA is in a cold war and KSUcks is the enemy. KSUcks has and continues to drain billions of potential dollars from central city Akron (and, frankly, Youngstown); two legacy but aging Ohio anchor cities which could certainly use the money. While Toledo, Ohio, and Miami are fun rivalries, KSUcks should not even exist (and NEOMED should reside @ UA as The University of Akron School of Medicine but good grief don't get me started on that). Drive them into the dust and scatter their ashes till no one remembers their name. Go Zips.