kreed5120

The fact they went onto NFL careers at all is extraordinary. Only the top 1% make it and on average an NFL career lasts 3.3 years. I also appreciate they show their pride in being Zips. Stil doesn't change the fact the average 18 year old kid has never heard of them.

+1

There is no evidence to show that it has helped us over the past 5-10 years, but now that he is going into the HoF suddenly the Dade County kids will be wanting to go to Akron. Good to know. I hope you are right. You do realize LBJ goes to Akron games and occasionally drops by to practices and such. When you commit to Akron, you know you'll see Lebron a few times per year. I'd buy into JT being a boost to our recruiting if he actually would stop by for a game or 2 or would attend a spring practice.

I concede it was unfair for me to call Smith a bust. He had a productive NFL career. Blackburn did ok for himself for being undrafted, but he was a career back up. Nothing to write home about. Hixon was the #4-#5 receiver on a SB team. Hixon had 1,492 yards and 7 TDs in his 6 NFL seasons.

Yeah, I have a meeting scheduled at work until 5. Hopefully it doesn't go over as I'll have to haul a** as is to make it to Akron, park, and get into my seat before the 6PM tipoff. Unless you work in downtown Akron, I imagine most people that work standard business hours will have similar problems.

I inferred it to be Fat Lives Matter, but could be wrong.

I have no problem with Zips tweeting out about Jason Taylor or having an alumni fundraiser in honor of him around HoF weekend. In fact, we SHOULD do those things. I just think it's ridiculous that people believe some 18 year old kid would sign to play with Akron today because a guy played for Akron 20 years ago. It would be different if we had a history of producing those guys, but the only promising NFL player we've produced since is Brown and it's too early to know how his career will turn out.

Sure there are some guys that will be wanting to go to places like ECU just to get away. Being able to talk more and better talented players to stay home will be key if we want to take the leap from being borderline bowl contender to serious MAC contender. It's how a school like Houston has been able to compete with the big boys for the past 2 years. Nobody said it would be easy. NEO is one of the more heavily recruited areas in the nation. That still doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement. We've done a better job of getting Summit County players this year. Hopefully we build upon that next year by adding more and hopefully expanding our footprint further out to the suburbs until it eventually extends from Canton to Cleveland and from Canton to Youngstown. Every year getting a little more selective. Edit: Urban Meyer has transformed OSU into more of a nationwide recruiting school. He passes on those upper scale 3* players that Tressel and prior OSU coaches targeted. It would be nice to land 1 here and there.

Personally, outside of recognizing T.O. as the tremendous player he was, I'm indifferent to him as a player. I never cared for 49ers, Eagles, or Cowboys and still don't. I just feel it's an example of how the current system is flawed.

It's pretty evident that his antics are the sole reason he's not already in the HoF. Statistically he is the 2nd or 3rd best receiver to ever lace them up. What I find being hypocritical is the very same reporters that are voting no for his HoF candidacy are the sames ones that profited off the web clicks for their TMZ style reporting on his behavior.

Do we really want to turn recruiting battles into which team has done the better job of churning out productive NFL players? Unless we are competing with FCS schools for recruits, I feel that is a battle we will lose. Brown was our 1st player since Reggie Corner in 2008 to be drafted. We've only had 7 players total drafted since Taylor in '97. Excluding Brown, who so far looks legit, the other 6 were all busts. http://www.pro-football-reference.com/schools/akron/drafted.htm

So that's what Phil Savage is doing these days. Good to see Terry lobby for his guys.

So we moved the game to an inconvenient time to accommodate a regional sports station that I wasn't aware was in existence until now? Sounds about right for Akron. If it was a station like STO or Fox Sports Ohio, a station people actually watch, I'd be more accepting.

His son is an assistant coach there I believe.

Does anyone know the reason behind the 6PM start?

You can get to Cleveland or Youngstown in under an hour from Akron. If we want to build a successful program, these are areas where we will need to go and acquire talent. I feel you are misunderstanding the point I'm getting a crossed. I'm not labeling these as 17 failures. I just picked out 17 players that are within ~45 miles of campus who didn't accept blue blood offers. I'm not even saying we should have offered all 17. It would have however been nice getting 3-4 of them.

It definitely is. The people at Akron that helped him become who he is are long gone however. Players need to know Akron today can produce NFL players. Not just a place that produces a relevant football player once every 20 years. Brown was great this past season and perhaps Lane will take off next season. Just need to keep that trend continuing.

Recruiting rankings are far from a perfect system, but I do feel they are a useful tool if for nothing else to see where the top rated players are going. As you can see in the below link Akron has 3 of Ohio's top 100 rated players (#94, #95, & #100). What I noticed is we are losing a lot of guys in our own backyard to low P5 and G5 schools. Todd Sibley #15 - Pitt Danny Clark #18 - Kentucky Kadeem Trotter #46 - Syracuse Travis Koontz #47 - Bowling Green Kyle Vantrease #49 - Buffalo Tyrone Chambers #51 - Toledo DeAmonte King #61 - Toledo DeCavilon Reese #64 - Marshall Coby Bryant #65 - Cincy Vincent McConnell #73 - Cincy Chris Anthony #75 - Kent State Domininique Robinson #81 - Miami (Oh) Jabari Taylor #83 - Cincy Adam Mahelic #84 - Miami (Oh) John Speelacy #86 - ECU Donte Taylor #91 - Miami (Oh) Jimmy Daw #92 - Ball State http://247sports.com/Season/2017-Football/CompositeRecruitRankings?State=OH

I agree Jason Taylor playing at Akron 20+ years ago will have little to no effect on recruiting. Everyone that coached and recruited him is long gone and perhaps retired. What will impact it is if we are able to produce Jatavis Brown type players. Guys that weren't highly recruited out of high school which Akron helped them not only get drafted, but become productive players in the NFL.

Having the best team in the MAC the past 2 years has certainly helped.

Congrats to Jason! In related news I see the HoF left out T.O.

Thanks, I needed to hear a good joke to lighten the mood. Mods - You going to do anything with this troll?

You should probably be worrying abOUt the Bobkittens being able to beat WMU in a potential play-in game.

And how many of those were free throw makes from OU. It's just natural that the down in the final few minutes presses trying to chase points. Have Big Dog in when we were up 5 and I don't feel we surrender the lead.

Big Dog pretty much sat the bulk of the 2nd half the same game Kwan had his wortst game of the season. I'm not going to fret over the loss.