catdaddyp

I wonder if the voting style is set to where the HC cannot vote for his own team to be 1st. Looks like the rest of the MAC still thinks Akron does not have much. 😎

2024 QB commit Brayden Roggow (dark blue shorts) slingin it.

Hard to envision more than 3 wins with that roster. Would like to think they’d beat UTEP and Howard. Maybe catch someone else by surprise to get 3? Evan Hull basically carried their offense and he’s gone. Maybe Hilinski has matured since his days at South Carolina? He struggled last year and will likely have a worse OL this year. The defense was dead last in the Big10 against the run, collecting sacks, and second to last in interceptions. Just rough all around.

I’m not sure if even the most avid Ball State fan would pick Ball State to win their division. Not much has been done to improve the worst run defense in the conference. That being said, I think they are a bit better than last year, but 5-7 or 6-6 sounds about right to me. They start out with back to back road games against Kentucky and Georgia. Rough.

That’s basically the case on both sides of the line of scrimmage and at WR. Despite their secondary not having much depth, they could be solid if they get a consistent pass rush…which I don’t think they will (switching to a 4 man front). The new staff seems to be doing a solid job with the 2024 class, so they may become competitive again quicker than I originally thought. It just won’t be this year.

The funny thing about that is I actually have UMASS and New Mexico State on the “Over” this year (not betting advice). Had NMSU outperforming last year too. I think UMASS has a tough schedule, but wouldn’t be surprised to see them win 4-5 games. I honestly don’t know enough about what FIU and Monroe have done in the off-season to have much of an opinion on them. I think more deserving bottom feeders would be New Mexico, Kent State, and probably Sam Houston.

Agreed. Kindred and Kabbash are completely missing. Not only from the 2 deep, but also the 3 deep. Although I think George can play tackle, he’s probably a better fit at guard. George should probably be listed as the backup RG with Robarge moved to backup LG. Kindred should be listed as backup RT. I can’t count the number of times Whigan was asked to pull from the RG spot last year and that isn’t Robarge’s strength. He’s much better equipped at plowing away at DL directly in front of him. Blanchard is also missing and he will be pushing for a spot as well. The DE situation could be so many different combinations and I have to believe Kabbash will be squarely in the mix. A lot of what this outlet said I disagree with such as “Moorhead stepped into a decent situation” referring to all the freshmen Arth played. I can’t see how anyone who has been paying attention would come to that conclusion when less than 30 players remain from Arth’s classes. The one thing this outlet was pretty accurate on was the initial depth chart from last year. Here are the MAC Position Rankings for Zips: QB - 3 RB - 9 WR/TE - 1 OL - 10 DL - 11 LB - 7 DB - 4 ST - 11 Coaching - 10 Some of the above missed the mark so badly I don’t even know what to say. It’s mind blowing that Moorhead had one bad year in the W/L column and he is bumped so far down in nearly every national ranking system. The majority of pundits missed how this team improved throughout the year and that Moorhead inherited one of the worst rosters in all of FBS. It’s also easy to tell which outlets have been paying attention to recruiting and the transfer portal. Watch how the narrative is completely flipped after this year and headed into 2024.

I saw that too and just ignored it. Sometimes PFF badly misses the mark. They do a decent job with most of their game grades (although they really struggle with OL grades). When it comes to their upcoming predictions like NFL draft or the college football season….usually pretty rough.

Here is a depth chart from a source that claims to have spoken to every school’s coaching staff. Not going to say the source’s name because it’s behind a paywall. This source was almost 100% accurate on the depth chart to start the season last year. In any case, take it for what it’s worth as we all know some of this will change. Plus a few additions to the roster were made since this came out. Good offseason chatter though. QB: Irons Undercuffler RB: Lingard (TP) D. Anderson (TP) WR: Adams Walker (surprised this wasn’t Golden) WR: George C. Anderson WR: Gathings P. Wilson (TP) TE: Banks Newell (TP) LT: Chambers (Landers was listed here, but since he’s no longer on the roster…) Frank (TP) LG: Kilbane Stopiak C T. Williams T. Georges RG: K. Davis Robarge RT: N. Williams AJ George (TP) DE: A. Smith (JUCO) L. Jackson (JUCO) DT: K. Thomas K. Murphy DT: T. Jones (TP) D. Robinson DE: R. Johnson CJ Nunnally (JUCO) WLB: McCoy Behm MLB: Fish (was Bubba…) Griffin CB: Hunter (TP) Durant CB: Tallandier (TP) Golden-Nelson NB: D. Lewis T. Thomas (TP) SS: N. Thompson Woods FS: KJ Martin C. Thomas

Looks like JacQai Long committed to Marshall and has also transferred to a high school in West Virginia.

InfoCision should easily win, but it looks like Charlotte is going to win the popularity vote. Speaking of other G5s in the Carolinas, I also think InfoCision is much better than Coastal Carolina’s stadium.

I like your thinking. My only concern is 5-3 or even 6-2 conference record may not be good enough to get into the championship game. Ohio avoids Toledo and EMU. They also don’t have a single back to back away game stretch. Stars are aligned for Bobcats to win the East if they don’t goof it up.

I’ve changed my predictions several times, but now that the dust has settled in recruiting, here is where I think we’ll land: @ Temple - W - Probably be a close game. I’ve flipped my prediction to Akron. Morgan State - W @ Kentucky - L @ Indiana - L - I’d love to see an upset, but that’s a lot to ask in back to back road games against P5 teams. Buffalo - W NIU - W @ CMU - L - I also think we slip up here. Not sure if the team is ready to handle consistent success at this point in the season. @ BUGS - W KSUcks - W @ Miami - W - Don’t feel confident about this one, but it’s in the back half of the season and I’m betting JoeMo has the team firing on all cylinders at this point. Should be a physical game. @ EMU - L - I think we match up well with EMU, but it’s another back to back road game. Ohio - W - This could be the statement victory that finally makes the rest of the MAC realize Zips are legit. Bobcats allowed a lot of yards through the air last year and probably more of the same this year. Zips defense should be improved enough to somewhat slow the Ohio offense. Temple should be improved defensively. They created a lot of pressure on opposing quarterbacks, but struggled to stop the run. On offense they were decent throwing the ball with Warner at the helm (son of Kurt Warner) but struggled in the run game. Temple’s OL is not a strength and I’m not sure how much better it will be this season. That being said, Temple seems to be a program is headed in the right direction. Similar to us, they played well in the back half of 2022. Last 5 games were: At Navy = L 27-20 in OT Vs USF = W 54-28 At Houston = L 43-36 Vs #25 Cincinnati = L 23-3 Vs East Carolina = L 49-46

I can’t speak for every other team, but I can say for sure this team is further ahead of where they were last year at this time.

I noticed a difference at the spring game as the players made their way from the field back to indoor facility. The new S&C coach seems to have taken it up a notch.

Thanks. Didn’t know that was official. Seems I recall seeing him for a visit, but nothing else. Looks like he has a picture of himself in a Zips uniform now, so assuming it’s official.

Can’t argue with much of that. A few thoughts though: - Kinda hard for D. Thomas to compete for a roster spot when he isn’t on the roster. Maybe he’s back before the season starts? - M. Walker will likely compete for the Z spot with Gathings and Wilson. - George probably projects more as an IOL leaving Frank and Kindred as the likely backups (or starters) at OT. - I didn’t realize there was an Ali Barker was on the roster? - No Kabbash Richards listed. - JoeMo said Corey Thomas is officially a safety. Not sure if something has changed there? - Maybe Behm is initially the starter at MIKE, but I can’t see any scenario where that stays the case.

Itching for some Zips football? Full replays of BG and NIU games are available on YouTube. As are Tennessee and Liberty, but I’m not sure if the Tennessee game is worth watching and the Liberty film is choppy. A few things of note: - Its easy to see the progress from the BG game to the NIU game. - So many missed tackles against BG. Richardson and Johnson seemed to miss more than their fair share. - LT (and often LG and C) play was darn near awful against BG. - Goes without saying, but definite difference in the offense with Irons vs Undercuffler. Looking forward to (hopefully) getting a healthy DJI back. That being said, I thought Undercuffler was much improved during the spring game. - Not sure why Price did not receive the bulk of the carries against NIU. He has much better feet than Wiley and the ability to gain those tough yards. I’m not sure if there were any runs Wiley made against NIU that Price would not have been able to make as well. - In the first half against NIU, often the Nickel was removed and another DL was inserted giving the defense a 3-4 look. Usually it was Harper, Holt, and Morton on the interior with Jones and Johnson on the edge. I bring that up because I wonder if we see more of a 3-4 alignment this coming year. That’s Tibesar’s bread and butter and three of the JUCO DEs have the ability to play an OLB role (Richards, Nunnally, and Smith). I image Rabah would get a look there too. Not that we’d go away from the 4-2-5 look completely, but a 3-4 alignment could be beneficial with the right players and clearly Tibesar wants to show opponents multiple fronts. It’s too bad the team, as a whole, took so long to turn the corner last year. Soon, the rest of the MAC will be pointing to Akron as the example on how to turn things around quickly through the portal. It’s going to be a fun year!

It was UMASS. Nice pickup for them. Not sure if we take another HS WR prospect in this class, unless someone transfers/leaves the team. George will be the only one out of eligibility after this year.

This guy gets it. However, he’s not totally on point about the transfers. Gives a little too much credit to the guys who transferred out and seems to think only a handful of transfers were brought in this year, but that’s ok. It’s hard to efficiently cover all FBS teams. Overall his assessment is correct. Akron is just as talented as anyone else in the MAC this year.

i expect his choice to be UMASS. I don’t believe we ever got him on campus and it’s hard to land a commitment that way.

Maybe I’m mistaken, but didn’t he do the same cryptic post last year about this time?

EMU probably has the best class at the moment (16 commitments). Miami (15) and Toledo (13) got off to the quickest start, but both have already lost a commitment or two. Akron is definitely in the top tier as far as quality, just don’t have as many commitments at the moment. WMU (11) is doing a surprisingly good job this year as well. Kent State (13), Ball State (16), and NIU (18) have taken a major leap forward compared to their 2023 classes. CMU (13) has been hit or miss. Bowling Green (5), Ohio (3), and Buffalo (0) bring up the rear. Compared to last year, I thought EMU was the leader but Akron finished with a flurry. If the 2023 ratings would be completed, they would reflect Akron as being top 3 for HS/JUCO. Although, our portal class was hands down the best in the MAC. I suspect by the time it’s all said and done the top 2024 classes will be between EMU, Akron, and Toledo. Not including the portal in that statement as this staff has cleaned up like no other MAC school in that area.

I think the plan is about 15 per year. And I think we have 16 seniors (17 if Bubba is included). Who knows how many guys will transfer or forgo their “COVID” year (at least the ones who have that option). The roster was so wonky when the new staff took over, they finally seem to be in a normal spot with the numbers.

This class is turning into something serious. A number of these guys have camped at P5 schools and have drawn serious consideration for offers even if they did not come away with one. They are known and the ones with 3 star ratings were clearly expected to go P5 by at least one recruiting service. Outside of not winning as many games as I expected last year, recruiting has been excellent. The first class (2022) was a good one and underrated. The second (2023) was very good (outstanding in the portal). The third (2024) may very well finish as the best in the MAC. Can’t wait to see what portal additions will eventually be added to this class, but I’m getting way ahead of myself now.