Leaderboard

MACtion!

From the graphic I think it's an Zips Athletics Club event. Probably not intended for us unruly blue hairs.

I was busy Tuesday and Wednesday, and we had technical issues with the board through this morning. Here is my overview of Monday’s event – Like in all sports, the fun associated with college football is being sucked out the game. No longer are we talking about incoming freshman, and who might see playing time. We’re not talking about the team’s growth from 2024 to 2025. We’re talking Transfer Portal, and NIL. The fun and interesting stuff is now parsley on the plate. One thing is abundantly clear – the Zips ain’t got no money. We have the smallest staff in D1. We have the smallest budget in D1…by a longshot. Our coaches weren’t even permitted to travel and recruit in the spring. I don’t think any Division 2 schools prevented their coaches from travel-recruiting in the spring, let alone D1. Said Joe Moorhead – “If you wonder why some schools have 15 or 20 kids committed, and we have 3, there you go.” Our players once again have no training table. In 2024 a booster was able to generate $18,000 to get a training table returned. But this summer, and looking into the fall, our guys get a flat $91 per month, and 5 meals per week in Robs (Robertson to the old guys). We’re basically banking on parent care packages to feed the team. At some point soon UA is going to need to decide if it wants football, or not. The situation as it stands right now is not sustainable. Regarding the academics – Joe said when a player hooks up with another program, you get your “point” back. But if they drop out completely, you don’t. We had a lot of terrible football players who hit the portal over Joe’s first 3 seasons, and too many of them dropped our completely. So here we are. The new AD spoke for about 10 minutes. He seems like a nice guy. He has a good rapport with Joe and is a strong supporter of football. He wants to get the community re-engaged with the Zips. He has a lot of work to do. If were him I’d focus on branding. That seems like what any great AD would do in this situation. Matt Kaulig was there. He didn’t speak, but it was nice of him to make a showing (there were maybe 40 total people in attendance). Someone asked if the Zips would take back a player who’d overestimated their worth in the portal. Joe said “Yes, if they want to be a walk-on.” I’ll guess the reference was to Jordon Simmons who would have been Akron’s starting RB this season, but instead flamed-out at Ole Miss, and is now at Georgia State. The same Georgia State that just signed a 4-star transfer RB from Georgia. I'll guess Jordon doesn't see much PT this year. A coach was overheard saying – “Don’t ask me about any players until about week 2 of camp. There are probably at least 15 kids who will receive appreciable playing time…and who I’ve never seen on an actual field.” Coach Tibesar told a story of a phone call he received from Louisville regarding a Zip that was in the portal. Now that you can provide money to walk-ons, Louisville is trying to build the strongest scout team possible and was asking if the kid was any good. So on the surface it might look like the Zips lost a player to a bigger school like Louisville or Tennessee, but they may just be there for the cash, prestige, and to make scholarship guys work a little. Crazy times we live in. Colin Lyons and AJ George spoke for a bit and answered some questions. Both outstanding young men. Both will become teachers when all is said and done. They’ve been leading the unsupervised workouts this summer. They said all players are participating. Joe was bullish on his team’s attitude and effort. There should be no culture issues this season…even with the influx of new guys. Culture-fit within the program was stated as a high priority in the recruiting process. We’ll see how 2025 plays out. I know the Nebraska kids aren’t eating ramen noodles and Food Club Mac-n-Cheese though…