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Kansas caliber player and Kowalchoke still couldn't win the big one. Un"lucky" I guess.

Well Groce picks up a Cock, but we get Head this year. We'll see how it plays out

Poor Hardman. 😂

The portal tool I have access to agrees with you. The only area Young has Staveskie beat in is defense. Edit: It should be noted that those numbers you see below represent percentiles at your position. 50 would mean you were average.

Hot take Eric is the next Ali Ali. See you at Akron again in 2027

Day of Giving is in two days.

Someone's prepping their resume it looks like

Brugler also has Malcolm DeWalt listed as the 59th CB

Wonder if this means another lineman isn’t making it to campus.

To quote Kowalchoke himself, "GET OUT OF MY FACE."

According to Dane Brugler CJ Nunnally is the 87th best Edge Jordan Simmons is the 37th best running back Antavious Fish is the 102nd best linebacker Bryan McCoy is the 173rd best linebacker

Gee was injured before the season even started. He’ll have had a full 12 months to rehab, so hopefully he’s good as new. You can see in the pic above Patrick’s not skipping leg day.😃 But whether or not that’s enough to keep him off the injury list in 2026, who knows? It’s a good sign that he’s a full participant this spring and not wearing a red jersey.

Nearly 9 points as a freshman at a SEC program feels good.

We qualified for the MAC Tournament as the #2 seed 💪💪

I don't believe the others accumulated enough playing time to be graded. Eric was obviously the big loss here. They actually graded him as a high major starter/mid-major all conference for next year, which to me checks out. As I said before the percentiles are position based. Burton with a higher playmaker score doesn't mean he's a better playmaker than Eric. It just means he was borderline elite for a big in that category while Eric was good relative to other wings.

FWIW, a friend within the program told me Joe and coach Rod have done a good job of mining the portal. Our OL will be no better than last season, but also no worse. The net/net here is that the team will be better because we have a QB who can quickly make reads, follow the progression and get rid of the ball. The OL is not the best, but it will not hurts us either. We may have a team that is exciting.

The Zips played at least 9 different OL’s yesterday. There are another 9 committed on signing day. So there are plenty of bodies to choose from in creating a solid 2-deep. The lines yesterday looked fine in pass protection. The RB’s didn’t do much so I can’t say much regarding the run blocking. I know bad offensive line play when I see it, and I didn’t see it on Saturday. Maybe it’s because the QB’s couldn’t get hit. Maybe the Zips DL’s aren’t great. Who knows…it was only one spring scrimmage. But overall our offense looks very promising.

Zips add Exavier Wilson and Max Burton. Sharron Young and Eric Mahaffey depart. Still to be determined is the status of the incoming Freshman class along with Bowen Hardman and Ognjen Stankovic who are in the portal.

Remember you asked for this… Nine years ago I came onto this forum and expressed to you all just how good of a coach you were getting in John Groce. And an even better person in my opinion. At that time you were dealing with the departure of KD and I couldn’t say goodbye to a guy I grew fond of as the coach of the Fighting Illini. I really thought he would get Akron that first NCAAT win. I know the landscape of the game completely changed during his tenure, but I sure wish he could have achieved that ultimate goal. UCLA was the game, damn we were so close. As a guy who grew up in Illinois within a couple of hours of Chicago I support my local pro teams. I support U of Illinois. My alma mater is Illinois State and they stick their head up every once in a great while. Pretty basic regional loyalty stuff. Here is the great twist as I have gotten older. I have adopted teams into my fandom that are based on affinity. I don’t know Groce personally. I just connected with him on some level and that led me to Akron. And I will probably check in on him at Charleston too. It might be harder because I can’t find a legitimate fan forum for the College of Charleston cougars. It’s still so hard for me to believe he’s gone. Anyway, I have also adopted Ole Miss due to a road trip from Illinois to Florida. They are now my SEC team. The sleepy little town of Oxford fits my personality so well and I enjoyed talking to the people during my short visit. I need to get back down there. All of this is to say people and relationships is what matters most to me. Zips Nation, you all matter to me. I have spent so much time on this forum and have never met any of you in person. Is that silly, pathetic? Perhaps. But you are still my friends. We have experienced so many highs and lows together. So I’m not looking to go anywhere. Now my positive feelings towards the new head coach are a plus. I met both Groce and Ford years ago when the Zips played at NIU. Ford was very personable and gave generously of his time. I think his hire while not a sure thing is a wise decision and I will be pulling for his success just the same. I will still be putting together the scholarship chart and if I win it big one day I will still build Joe and Jane Akron a new basketball arena with the best concessions. Thanks for the good times. And here’s to many more to come!! Go Zips!!