catdaddyp

Good for Albin. He did an outstanding job with the portal this off-season. No one, including myself, saw this type of year coming for Ohio. Charlotte is in a hotbed for football talent and the school is heavily investing into their program. If I’m not mistaken, Charlotte’s overall athletic budget is about $10 mil more than Ohio’s. They are also in the midst of a $70 mil stadium expansion project.

Laurance Seymore in the portal after spending much of the season sidelined or limited.

Agreed. Obviously I’d prefer he stayed, but Granger and Polk ran with their opportunities. They’ll only get better. Mason and P. Davis will have their chance to step to the forefront as well.

Yep. He’ll get paid for sure. Good luck to him. He’s a kid that was unrated by the recruiting services and probably shouldn’t have ended up here in the first place.

I don’t know the answer to the All-MAC question. I do know we have a bunch of young talent waiting for their opportunity. It’s just unproven at this point. I’m anxious to see Finley with an offseason in Moorhead’s system. He could have a huge 2025.

Adrian Norton to the portal. Signed with an agent. He won’t be back.

The G5 offers are to bench players, with the exception of Burke from FIU. FIU recently fired their coach and I believe coach JRod recruited Burke to FIU. For the FCS offers, Anderson was a starter last year and Davis was a starter the year before. I went back and checked the 2022, 2023, and 2024 recruiting classes to see which MAC schools have been able to recruit OTs out of the portal that went on to become all-conference. There are only two: Desmond Bessent (San Diego State) for Buffalo in 2022 and Carson Heidecker (DII) for Ohio this year. Although, Heidecker spent most of conference play at OG. All-conference interior OL have been easier to come by. Looking at DT, there have also only been two all-conference players to come from the portal from the 2022, 2023, and 2024 recruiting classes. Skyler Gil-Howard (DII) for NIU this year and Ryan Buell (Colorado) last year. Basically, we need to develop all MAC talent at those positions from the HS level. Portal players can be solid and become starters (like Blanchard), but that’s about all we can realistically hope for. P4 schools are having similar types of issues at the same positions. Of course, some of those P4 schools have plenty of NIL $ to help their cause. We’ve now lost 3 potential all-conference players to the portal, or grades, at OT and DT - Landers (2022 class), James (2023 class), and Moore (2023 class).

Offer to OL Christian Anderson of Alabama A&M.

No, he’s out of eligibility. Been in college since 2019.

I don’t believe Moorhead is looking for a P4 HC this year. He surely knows that isn’t a viable option unless he turns Akron around. Moorhead has spoken glowingly about coaching in the SEC and I would imagine he’d like to have that opportunity again. My point to the OC conversation - and I’ve said this in the past - is that his name will be attached to a position every year regardless if he is interested or not. His success as a HC has no bearing on if he’s able to become an OC again. As far as the portal goes, I attempt to update the 2025 MAC thread on a daily basis. I’m a little behind right now due to signing day activity, but it’s more accurate than any of the recruiting sites, as none of them are ever 100% when it comes to MAC movement. Years 2023 and 2024 can also be viewed under the recruiting section. I’m not concerned with Moorhead’s portal recruiting. Yes, he’s had some misses, but so does every team. All-in-all he’s blown portal recruiting out the water while at Akron. What is encouraging is that his full classes have increasingly gotten better during his short tenure here.

I was just coming to post the link. No surprises on who made it. I was surprised that Norton and McCoy were not 1st team. I also didn’t think Nunnally would get voted 1st team. Shows how much respect he had from the conferences coaches. D.Lewis had a shot, but his play dropped off the last few games, whereas P. Lewis got better.

QB and both OL. I like all of the signings though. Small in number, but should be a really good class.

https://x.com/9shawn_/status/1864099774191849476?s=61&t=_TFqePY4lFXUo5BavIxA3w Offer out to All-CAA Stony Brook DT Rushawn Lawrence.

https://x.com/ivnunnally/status/1864357104359727560?s=61&t=_TFqePY4lFXUo5BavIxA3w Its official. That stings.

Final episode of 2024

Great class. There are a few players in it that we probably had no business landing.

Players are entering the portal now, despite it not being officially open. Once their name is in the database, schools can reach out. Some schools blatantly ignore the rules and reach out to kids anyway. Other schools may have contact with a relative or former coach of the player to gage interest.

Offer to OT DJ Johnson of Western Kentucky. Only played in 2 games this year, but was a JUCO standout previously.

Offer out to OT Trey Bedosky of UAB.

WR commit. Might turn out to be a sneaky pickup, despite being lightly recruited. Good size, hands, and top end speed.

We won 4 games and we’re already losing guys like Moore and James, who would likely have been some of the best at their respective positions next year. I figured we wouldn’t be able to keep them all 4 years, but I hoped we could at least get one more season from them. I also can’t blame the players as OT and DT are highly coveted positions in the portal. Also goes to show why it’s important to have a coaching staff with plenty of connections and can identify portal talent. In our case, able to identify talent and bring said talent in with no NIL resources. Talk about a challenge.

Long snapper Liam Reardon into the portal.

Golden and Moore already have agents. They’re looking to get paid.

Coach JRod wasting no time getting offer out to OT Travis Burke from FIU.

Rough. I thought maybe we’d be able to keep him for one more year.