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I just got off the phone with Amani. He is excited about next season and ready to put in the work to take his game to the next level. He is a great kid and a perfect fit for Akron. I would expect his offensive game to take a step forward next season.

I was at the top until the last minute of the championship game. I now know what it feels like to be Miami.

UMass has lost 8-9 players to the portal. They did just bring in a top 100 JUCO rated player to replace some of the production lost. I'm sure they will be active and add more. Their fan base doesn't seem to believe they will compete with Akron this coming year, but that it will be a top 4 MAC team. Miami has their 2nd best player and 2 additional rotational players in the portal. They still haven't added anyone. I think for them it's too soon to tell. They could be improved if Craft decides to return. Otherwise they will have to replace 26ppg, 9 rpg, and 5 assists from the loss of Craft, Potter, and Cooper. Ohio is losing AJ Clayton to graduation and Elmore James to the portal. That roughly offsets what they've added in the portal. I think they would still need to add another piece, which is certainly possible, in order to see meaningful improvement. Kowalchoke has had luck both raiding other MAC rosters and finding guys at the D2 level in prior years. I think they will be about on par with what they were this year.

Congratulations to @GoZips88 on winning the ZipsNation bracket challenge! Your reward: knowing you're smarter than a Kent fan. Go Zips!

Frankly ... I'd rather see the money got to NIL over a new arena. Not sure I would have said this even 5 years ago. But Rhodes Arena has not kept Groce from landing some pretty good recruits. Until Rhodes consistently has 5,000 attendance ... even 3,500 consistently, Rhodes is just fine. Rhodes isn't keeping that extra 2,000 fans/students from consistently buying a ticket.

Would love to see Dustin up for and winning some of the assistant coach awards and rising star lists handed out/ complied each year! Obviously nice for him to be under the radar, but the guy deserves his flowers.

Exactly, revenue sharing is about to start and it's not like the University has deep pockets. Akron revenue sharing $1 million to pay players goes much further to building a competitive roster than a flashy arena would and costs a fraction of the price. The JAR is like a 12 year old Toyota. It's not flashy, maybe even has a few rust spots, but it's still dependable to get you from point A to point B. When it starts to become dilapidated then it becomes a different conversation.

I guess I’m a little more bullish on Amani. He seemed to be shooting pretty well from deep before he got hurt. I don’t know what happened thereafter. I will concede that in order to play on the perimeter Amani probably needs to improve his handle a bit and a lack of lateral quickness would hurt him with certain defensive assignments at the 4 spot. Maybe I am just having a hard time excepting so much of Groce’s offense is shelved having 5 guys on next years roster between 6-6” and 6-8”, none of them being a serious threat away from the rim. You all know what Xerius and Hunter added to the team, but consider a 6-9” big who can pass and shoot well from the free throw line area. Such a player is an absolute zone killer in this offense. Anyway, I am choosing to hope someone emerges from the off-season with more to offer and today my money is on Amani.

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.

I shared this link elsewhere. It might be useful for you to include it on your original post. Someone has been updating it and inputting stats. Buffalo for example has 4 incoming transfers, but 3 of them are very much under the radar since they're D2/NAIA players. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1_KQr_u9-3pHbYajqHmII1vuwYWZJLmw2UImJrAsiIIM/htmlview?pli=1

For those interested, I found this elsewhere on the internet. It lists all the incoming and outgoing transfers for the MAC, including player stats. It was probably last updated 2-3 days ago as I see Vanderjagt listed for Toledo, but not Ohio's transfers. I'm sure it will be fully updated soon. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1_KQr_u9-3pHbYajqHmII1vuwYWZJLmw2UImJrAsiIIM/htmlview?pli=1

We keep redecorating ours with new championship banners.

I don't think that comment changes much. He was going to replace Gray in the lineup, which is still what I see likely happening. Akron will almost certainly start 3 guards, 1 wing, and 1 big. It's an improvement in size over the 4 guards and 1 big lineup we deployed last year.

In the Instagram release on Evan Mahaffey Groce's quote states "...we felt we needed to add some size, versatility and skill to our perimeter. With Evan, we feel we accomplished that goal..." That's a pretty strong indication they don't view him as a big but more a wing defender on the league's bigger wings (like Lewis was at Toledo/Craft was at Miami...).

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.

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.

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.

I think you might have had some people on your side, until the Akron-Kent is “just a game” comment. Then the wheels came off.

Is this a bad time to remind everyone just how much I hate Toledo?

Looks like they pulled him out of the front row at a Willie Nelson concert.

They have ruined rivalries like this for years now. Listen carefully everyone. I've said this before but it doesn't seem to be sinking in. The people who run college athletics simply don't care about the in person fan experience. It's almost completely about TV, boozers and degenerate gamblers. As soon as you accept that, you will feel less disappointed when you see leaders do stupid things.

This is what our schedule needs to look like every year. The opportunity is there for a good start and to create momentum. No excuses, they need to perform this year. Bowl eligibility or bust