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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".

Such a big get. 6'6" G that had 23 vs. Wake Forest in the NIT, 13 vs. Auburn in the NIT Final Four, etc. Comes from a winning program. LOVE this signing.

I received mine yesterday as well. I plan to get a case and display it in my home office. There have been some talks here about how the success of the program warrants our attention, but it's also great seeing Ford, Bud, and the assistants engage the fan base. In a day and age where college athletics has become more transactional, it's great to still see the sense of community they're trying to instill in the program. They genuinely seem to want to be here and do great things.

You guys are way to hung up on traditional positional definitions of who is on the court.

Somebody donated 10K to basketball. They've already hit their goal!

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

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

To be fair, it wasn't just him. We were completely guardable with one man at every position. If we had someone that TT needed to double team, that would have freed Hardman for some open looks. But TT had no issues guarding us straight up. To me, that's why the loss Nate and Okonkwo was a killer, and the loss of Sharrone isn't. Sharrone's too short to compete at today's P4 level (NCAA tourney). In the MAC he's fine, but in the tourney he gets exposed. All the Zips did. We needed to get bigger at guard this year. I think we did? Eric Mahaffey (not Fr, but year 2, 3 or 4) is the type of player we need if we ever expect to win an NCAA tourney game. I don't know if that type will ever play at Akron again.

There is a show on Fox promoting this summer's World Cup. Each episode focuses on a specific host city and its culture, especially related to soccer. Each city has a liaison who is interviewed by the commentator throughout the show. UA's Steve Zakuani is the liaison for Seattle. I thought this was really cool to see and wonderful to hear why he chose to live in Seattle after his career. It is always good to see fellow Zips thriving in other parts of the country and throughout the world. https://tubitv.com/series/300019445/fifa-world-cup-26-stories-from-the-cities

More help is needed, but UA's run through an exhaustive list of coaches, AD's and losing programs for decades. Good luck finding anyone willing to shell out big bucks if they don't feel UA will spend that money wisely. I make my donation to football annually because I like Joe and feel he merits support. I have fun attending the games in the fall. The guy went 5-7 last year despite being hamstrung by a litany of handicaps beyond his control. He's a good coach who wants to be here. I expect 6 wins this season. Which is like 8-9 wins for a respectfully funded program. Infocision is a resource. I think it could be filled to 18-20 k on average and make money even with the University's football acumen and historical shortcomings. But it's easier to say "I wouldn't have built that stadium" and be off the hook. Goodrich has only been around a short while. He hasn't done anything stupid yet, so I have a some hope that he can at least get football pointed in the right financial direction. We'll see...

By “so far” do you mean since 1893?

Akron Athletics just posted this news story https://gozips.com/news/2026/4/21/general-university-of-akron-athletics-holds-annual-day-of-giving I plan to donate directly to men's soccer. (direct link below) I just wanted to make everyone on this board aware of this important day. I believe that this is the link that will allow your donation to go 100% to men's soccer. https://fundraise.givesmart.com/vf/ATHDoG26/team/MSoccer

There's real momentum behind Ford/the program.

Great win! (also, it should obviously be "flies" not "fly's". 🫠

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.

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.

This is so cool.

Was just about to post this to call that out. First hint we've seen at the style. Looks like we'll be getting a bigger, more physical version of All Gas No Brakes?

She has been a generous donor for years. Part of me still wonders if she clicked 1 too many zeroes 😅

Home opener should be Deborah Cook Appreciation Night. Wow!

This is a massive haul for Akron. He is projected as a HM start/mid-major all-conference. He's a 2-way player and his game is very well rounded. He is an elite finisher at the rim and dangerous enough from 3. IMO this is this our best signing with Tahj a close second.

He beat PCCC last year. Should be a smooth transition.

Ty Pence is an Akron Zip, from Illinois State. Just shared on his IG.

I noticed it last year that soccer has done a great job of keeping former players engaged with the program. Them and the swimming and diving team seem to have great participation. The soccer donations just typically come in at a higher dollar amount. On the flipside it's disappointing that football doesn't do better. There are 3x-6x more former student athletes in football compared to the other sports, but the number of donors is relatively smaller. At least for day of giving. Not sure what's done differently that makes select sports former athletes stay involved and other not so much.

last time there was a big guy position battle there was a broken jaw and criminal charges involved.

Hey that's a longer college highlight video than LeBron!

I think Colin White could be a 3-4 in the MAC. He supposedly has a physical streak in him. This stings Toledo where the fan base wanted him back home. The key now is for White to measure up to his prep credentials as a MAC player.

Incoming.

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

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

He has Cal Baptist written all over him.

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.

Transfer portal is now officially closed. Players can still sign, but nobody else can enter.

Zips add Colin White. Bowen Hardman, Rich Brisco, Ognjen Stankovic and Jashawn Ladd depart.

7' 280 lbs. He could be a problem. St. Joseph's > Providence > South Carolina > Bowling Green. His production has regressed with every stop but going back to a mid major might revert that trend. Has a jump shot, too.

Just the name makes me cringe. The end of his time with the Zips was not great.

It looks like he suffered a leg injury his freshman year early on and barely played. It required off-season surgery and he attempted to play last year but never found his groove.

Went to Rally House in Fairlawn today and they had an Akron University shirt. How does that even get approved for sale, the correct name is on the seal on the shirt too. Found it online as well.

Brugler also has Malcolm DeWalt listed as the 59th CB

Poor Hardman. 😂

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.

I can't really speak about Young, but Eric attended Ford's press conference the same day he committed to Cincy. I feel it's telling how much respect and appreciation Eric had for Ford that he attended even though he knew he was leaving. Coaching change seems like a non-factor. In fact, maybe Groce left because he knew he was going to lose Eric and Young so he figured if he was going to have to rebuild anyway now was the right time to leave. Hilltopper threw a number out randomly (not sure if accurate) saying Eric was going to get $700k+, which to me sounds right when you hear what others at P5 schools are making. You can't walk away from that. Maybe he stays another year and improves his value further (mind you he would have to nearly double his value to make it worthwhile as he would have 2 years instead of 3 to cash in if he stayed at Akron). Maybe he stays another year and tears his ACL like Ipsaro did at Miami. Now all that money is gone and he doesn't have a head start on life.

Article by Terry Pluto

Chris pitched five shutout innings spacing 4 hits in 5 innings. Now we can watch the rest of the game pulling for the Guardians.