Leaderboard

I was able to attend today's scrimmage. Below are my notes. I will say - I am very excited for our offense! And I'm a very pessimistic guy who has soured on college sports in the NIL era. The Zips are legitimately 4-deep at WR, and have a QB that can get them the ball! Poffenbarger (#7) is the real deal. Based only upon today's scrimmage, he appears to be a poised version of Finley. His arm is "strong enough." His accuracy is excellent, but he doesn't seem to panic like Finley often did. He goes through his progressions and makes good decisions. Joey Castle looks to be the punter again Sean Patrick and Brandon Hills were the punt returners Poffenbarger got the starters reps. Ruggow was with the 2nd unit and Broughton was with the 3rd. Beals also got some PT and looks good for a guy who should be going to his high school prom next month Old friend and former Golden Gopher Marquise Williams busted a nice 30 yard TD. He played on the 2nd unit. Starting OL was 71(LT)/58(LG)/72(C)/52(RG)/50(RT) 83 and 84 got the bulk of the TE work #7 tossed a nice slant TD to Marcel Williams (#2) in tight coverage. Right on the money. Schramm had a so-so day kicking. Missed a 50 yarder badly to start the scrimmage. Nailed a 45 yarder with plenty of room to spare later in the day. Then missed a 35 yarder from the center of the field. Kyan Mason looks as good as ever. So glad he stayed. 2nd unit OL 57/70/62/58/75 Ruggow hit Jean Louis (#9)on a nice 25 yard slant. Overall, Ruggow has a decent day. #25 Chris Gee was present, but in a red jersey and didn't play. He looked to be in great shape. 1st Unit DL was: 16/5/97/10 2nd unit DL was: 90/52/51/50 Broughton hit Hills on a quick sideline pass that hills turned into a 40 yard scamper to the endzone. I look for Hills to have a big year. He had a standout scrimmage. Dwight Nonou and Israel Duncan got 1 team LB reps. Duncan (#92)is listed as a DE, but played LB. Reminds me a little of Dall. His hair is fantastic! #21 Catrell White dropped an INT from the hand of Poffenbarger. It was his one bad toss of the day...either that, or the receiver messed up his route. Who knows. First unit secondary appeared to be: 21/9/20/15/29 #81 Juke Sivon hauled in a 40 yard slant from Poffenbarger and took it to the house. Overall a great day for the WR's. Sivon is my "Sleeper of the Year".

Mahaffeys are at the presser.

Sad to see a "rafterable" player leave so soon, but that's the way it will be for the rest of our lifetimes. I saw worthless talking head Clark Kellogg state "The mid-majors are losing their veteran players to P4 programs, but they're getting a better caliber of Freshmen than ever before. So it's a wash." You know what they say when a Freshman redshirts? "You're trading your worst year for your best (5th) year." The Zips now get a Freshman for his worst year, and P4 programs get him for his best years. Definitely a "wash." 🙄

Hello Zips Nation, The current software utilized for our site will cease to receive support. We will transition to Invision’s new Community platform. While the transition is anticipated to be seamless, it is important to acknowledge that minor challenges may arise. I have commenced preliminary work on the backend. The login process has to undergo a modification for enhanced security for the new software. Users will no longer be permitted to log in using their display name; instead, they will be required to utilize their email addresses. This change will be implemented in the near future. Sometime this summer, prior to football season, I will execute a comprehensive upgrade. This process may result in changes to the look and interactive elements of our site. I am providing this notification to ensure that all users are informed. I will post updates in this thread before proceeding with the full upgrade. Kind regards, Dr Z

He played well overall. Along with the 13/7 he also had 2 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks. His +/- of 25 led the team.

oh man I thought I was done reading this stuff like 4 years ago

Wonder what’s it’s going to take to resign Conner Groce???

I am a life long Republician and there is NO WAY I would ever vote for Vivek after his simplistic attitude towards higher education. Simply put, The University of Akron is now stronger academically than ever in its history. The strength of undergraduate/graduate programs in Engineering, Business, Nursing, Law, Psych, Speech Audiology, and even unheralded programs like Geology and PoliSc/Law are numerous (I have left out some other strong programs just for brevity). How many schools can boost the world's best program in any discipline? Admittedly The University bears some responsiblilty for not promoting itself as much as it should have given its strengths but the facts are still the same. In addition, The University is doing an excelllent job of producing "career-ready" graduates- not everyone but some of that blame is on the students for not taking advantage of opportunities provided by UA that are essential in today's more difficult job market. It is inexcusable for any public figure to take such a sophomoric rather than qualitative view of Universities. He has lost this Republician vote forever. I would rather be Forever A Zip!

Oh I see what this is. Welcome to Akron, Javari Tohnson

That's why Kent made it "kids day" and had activities for the kids with the football players being involved with the kids. Yeah, it was bad football...but I bet they made a couple fans for life because they actually tried to.

This came off from a very direct question from Jim Clark, long time Akron radio broadcaster. "I was at the championship game against toledo, 12k fans and maybe 10k were akron fans. How do we get them to come out on a Tuesday night against Eastern Michigan". Its nice to hear the stuff we discuss about in here ad nauseam being brought up in public

If MMK has one fan that’s me, if MMK has no fans I’m dead

I think the NCAA is having a BOGO transfer portal deal on D2 and D3 players.

Finished with 13 points (career high) and 7 rebounds in 26 minutes.

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.

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.

He has Cal Baptist written all over him.

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.

Thanks for sharing. It sounds like Ford signed a 5 year deal at $500K/yr. That's $350k less than what Groce was making, plus we received a $350K buyout from Groce leaving. Hopefully that money was mostly reinvested in the program. Whether it be assistant coach salaries, revenue share, travel, etc.

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.

He should. He’s earned it. I just hope he improves offensively.

I can speculate, assume, reason, and guess that Coach Ford isn't going to be pushed around by the players and agents. He recruited over Sherron.

WKU is a program many around the MAC for years have coveted for expansion, specifically because of the quality of their basketball program, historically. Guessing their NIL is competitive with MAC teams, just a ??? of which positions they want/need to spend it.

Nate commented "ZIP GO ZIPPERS" on his IG post committing to Akron. I imagine he put in a nice word on Akron and Ford.

A security update was yesterday. The update caused some issues that have been fixed. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Spring game kickoff is Saturday April 25th @1pm.

I know things can change quickly in today's college hoops world, but I'm going to assume the players with eligibility remaining who aren't in the portal are returning. Returnees who saw the floor last season would include MMK, Halligan, and Barre with Head, Henderson, and Perkins returning as well. I'll also assume for now that Jones, Ladd, and Christion will stay and redshirt. MMK and Halligan are both culture guys, and I think they'll bring a lot of value in making sure the Akron culture Groce/Ford built continues forward under Ford. I think MMK in particular can be a valuable rotation player if he continues to add strength and develops more offensive ability. Halligan is going to give you defense and energy, ideally off the bench, and will hopefully improve his spot-up shooting from the outside further over the summer. Barre is a bit of an enigma - he's shown the ability to be an impact player in small samples here and during his time at Duquesne, but there were also times where he looked lost. I'm hoping a (hopefully) fully healthy offseason + time with our big man whisperer in Coach Ford will at a minimum give us a Barre who can rebound and provide interior defense. He certainly has the size and athleticism to do it, and everything I've heard of him is that he is an excellent young man who works hard. Head was fantastic at Lipscomb as a freshman and I think, at a minimum, can be a solid contributor. I was surprised he redshirted last season, but hopefully a year in our system as a redshirt will help him hit the ground running next fall. I'm excited to see Henderson and Perkins, and think they'll both contribute as redshirt freshmen.

And the same amount of MAC championships

If I'm not mistaken, he's the biggest player in the MAC at the moment. The board has been clambering to get bigger down low and we did that. My excitement isn't exactly through the roof but I see the vision. Believe in Ford & his staff - he has earned that over that the last 9 years of developing undersized big men into All-MAC caliber players.

It's obvious how much this means to Dustin. So awesome. Thrilled for him and his family. He's going to be easy to root for and I can't wait to see where he can take this program.

"The hot water heater went out this morning, so I had my wife go down to the basement and fix it" love this guy

Someone needs to turn the mic up, computer is at max volume and can barely hear

Looks like a solid rotation big. With 6 potential open spots heading into portal season, not every one is/was going to be a high-impact player. 4 spots remain.

People are saying Groce is a shell of himself without Coach Ford

I talked to bill skeeles last night, UA needs to find a way to get him to invest more. He started his own private equity firm recently, he is already an investor in the new RubberDucks ownership group. He is also a very funny guy to talk to, he might be the biggest Luigi’s hater I’ve ever met

How cool is this?!

I think it's interesting that none of the HS recruits decommitted (yet). Pretty excited for all 3 of them and wouldn't be surprised if at least 1 or 2 get some PT next year. I said a week or 2 ago after Young & Mahaffey hit the Portal that the 2 key guys to retain would be MMK & Halligan due to their experience within the culture. Each guy has had 3(?) years of experience doing things the Akron Way and both seem like GREAT teammates. I don't care what we get out of them on the court as much as I do in the locker room/off the court. I think MMK can continue to take giant leaps in his abilities to become a legitimate threat on the offensive side of the ball, as he is already a pretty solid defender. Halligan just needs to work on his shot & decision making on offense and we have a legitimate contributor out of him. Barre could be All MAC next year. As long as he's healthy, an entire off-season in the Dustin Ford School of Big Men should do him wonders. No idea why he didn't get more run last year, but I think we've learned that Groce likes to stick to a core of guys he trusts more than others, especially as the season goes on. Very excited about Head. I think it speaks volumes to his desire to play for Akron that there wasn't even a hint of him going into the Portal. Health and fit and Arkansas St. made for a not great sophomore year. I expect him to return to his Lipscomb form. Very excited for Perkins & Henderson - especially Henderson. I've heard nothing but good things about him and love his size. We never had the bonafide build-around guy returning on this roster regardless of who the HC was going to be. However, so far we've been able to at least not lose the vast majority of a potentially very solid supporting cast/depth. Several more open spots to add some top tier production.

I agree with everything you said, and I also think MMK showed a ton of hustle on defense and rebounding ability both offensively and defensively.

https://gozips.com/Watch

"Ooo that's a cool place to go." I know it's an amazing concept around here for the program to actually try and build its fanbase, but Kent is showing ways to actually go and work on it. And the reply around here is "haha that's dumb, we shouldn't do anything"

The portal is the new normal. 4- or 5-year commitments to a single school are passe’. It’s fun to be wanted, and flirt with other schools. You can’t tweet #foreverazip unless you leave Akron. And those tweets, which always contain noble references to God and family, are great for the ol’ ego too. It’s often as much about ego, and the grass being greener at the next school, as it is about money.

The 2026 Mid-American Conference (MAC) Softball Championship will be held at Firestone Stadium in Akron, Ohio. [1, 2] The tournament is scheduled to take place from May 6 to May 9, 2026. The top six teams from the conference regular season will qualify for the championship. [1, 2] Firestone Stadium Akron, OH Event Details Location: Firestone Stadium, Akron, OH. Dates: Wednesday, May 6 – Saturday, May 9, 2026. Format: Double-elimination tournament featuring the top six conference teams. Tickets: Championship passes and daily tickets are typically available through HomeTown Ticketing. [1, 2, 3, 4] Firestone Stadium has been a long-term partner for the event, having hosted the championship from 2002–2005, 2008–2019, and consistently since 2024 following significant facility renovations. [1, 2]

Remember the old radio jingle.. Wherever you're go-ing 🎵 You can get there 🎶 From the U-niver-sity of Ak-ron 🎵 (maybe they should bring it back)

Yep, we are 100% in agreement there. Yeah, the game itself isn't exactly going to be the highlight of anything because it is effectively a practice. Which means the other parts of the package actually have to do work to make it a fun experience. And Akron has failed amazingly at that task.

It looked almost completely empty. Spring games are bad football. I don't see how exposing people to bad football will make them want to come back for more.