catdaddyp

List has been updated. I’m guessing the 5 HS prospects will not qualify for D1, with the exception of maybe Lemba who will probably play basketball somewhere. The 12 JUCO prospects have not committed and most of them are still receiving offers.

Grunkemeyer committed to Penn State. I imagine more P5 offers will come his way, so it’ll be interesting to see if he follows through on that commitment. Long is up to 15 offers, but none of them are P5 and he currently does not hold an offer from us.

Nice! We are really hitting the California JUCOs hard this cycle. Dante Jackson

Bump for update. Some of our outgoing transfers have found new homes.

I’ll keep up with this thread as much as possible. There has been so much movement with the 2023 MAC recruiting, I’ve had little free time to update anything else. QB: Chris Denson (FL) - (5.6) 3 ⭐️ Charlie Johnston (AL) - NR Samuel Willoughby (TN) - NR Jimmy Sullivan (IN) - NR Charlie LaMorte (NJ) - NR RB: Nino Hill (OH) - NR WR: Kenzy West (MS) - NR Jovanni Mcgee (GA) - NR Jamil Miller (OH) - NR Maurice Stephens (KY) -NR TE: Brendan Loftus (IL) - NR DE: Romando Johnson (FL) - NR Israel Oladipupo (IN) - NR Cal Thrush (OH) - NR CB: Sean Ferguson (GA) - NR S: Jaleel Walters (FL) - NR Joel Cordoba (NJ) - NR Donovan Robinson (IL) - NR

Here’s some film on newcomer Tahj Bullock. Most of it is practice film, but there are a few game highlights at the beginning. There’s a lot to like as Bullock is a true dual threat quarterback. He throws a really nice deep ball and has the ability to make most throws when he has time, as seen in his practice film. If I’m going to nitpick, he tends to push the ball out on the shorter routes and isn’t quite as fluid there. So much of playing QB is mental, so it’s not always easy to know who will pan out, but Bullock certainly has the physical traits. It’s going to be fun watching these guys develop. Hard to believe the depth in the QB room (and team in general) now versus when JoeMo arrived.

JUCO. Was on Buffalo’s roster before.

And a LB from NIU. Signed in this year’s class and entered the portal after the spring.

I came away from the spring game feeling good about the OL and Secondary. These additions will only make us stronger there. Coach Wart was a little behind the eight ball in recruiting the DL and it’s not ideal taking this many JUCOs, but gotta figure a few of them will pan out. We should have a solid rotation on the interior. I like the potential we have on the edge, just don’t know what’ll we’ll get from our ends. Now to see how quickly coach Wart can develop these guys.

And another one. I have no idea where we stand with scholarships at this point.

I’m not sure if it’s the biggest, but I’d say easily the most athletic. These guys have size and can move. Little chance we finish last in the league rushing this year. JoeMo is about to put the MAC on notice.

I feel like that pic should be labeled “F around and find out.”

So much so I can’t keep up. I’m having to save the names and come back to them. A number of 2025 offers going out too.

I imagine the thinking with Kindred is to eventually have him push for the RT spot, but gotta figure he will be one of the best 5 OL and be slid inside to one of the guard spots this year. If that’s the case we probably see something like this: LT = Landers LG = Kindred C = T. Williams RG = Davis RT = N. Williams Maybe Kindred and Davis would be flipped, depending on what coach JRod wants. The above lineup would certainly rival any other OL in the MAC in regards to athleticism. I’m also curious to see what Ben Frank gives us. It can take lower level OL transfers a while to get acclimated, so who knows? I hoped he would arrive in the spring and get ahead of the curve. My best guess is Long and Bowen did not qualify. We’ll probably see them take the JUCO route if they choose to continue playing football.

Huge Pickup! 💣 🔥

Not at the 0 or 1 tech here, but man! I’ll happily take this kind of play.

I watched a few NMSU games last year and from what I recall he wasn’t aligned to be a standout on their defense. Lavea was mostly lined up as a 0 or 1 tech and took on a bunch of double teams. NMSU had 3 interior d linemen that were close on snaps. The 4th was their standout (Izaiah Reed). Lavea fires off the ball quickly and does a nice job when taking on double teams. I imagine he’ll compete with Robinson for starting snaps. We needed more quality depth and I think that was accomplished with this addition. This is going to be one physical defense. On a side note, Kent State is going to be really bad.

https://twitter.com/ogescobar/status/1655661803022458889?s=61&t=_TFqePY4lFXUo5BavIxA3w There it is.

Quick update. I’m still working on getting our recent JUCO commitments (and the rest of the MAC) rated. Even if they are all given a 5.2 star, it would catapult this class above Toledo and into 3rd place. It would also place Akron in the top 100.

I actually laughed when you said that. I was just thinking how he always has a heavy amount of starters from Ohio.

Christman committed to Kentucky.

Thanks. I’m assuming Hester and Durant will stay on the scholarships they earned last year, but could be wrong. The guys I’m unsure about are Kilbane, Robarge, and Georges. I’d think they are all on scholarship at this point? I don’t believe any of the kickers or LS are currently on scholarship, but makes sense that the guys who win the position will eventually be placed on scholarship. Although that may not be necessary if they are already on full academic scholarships.

To add a little more context to this that may or may not be useful. All 5 of Illinois’ current RBs are on scholarship, but Bielema will probably add one or two more walk-ons to the position. He is a big proponent of walk-ons as he was originally one himself and in essence uses walk-ons as a way to fill in for the inevitable misses in recruiting. I know they aren’t mentioned here, but South Carolina currently has 3 scholarship RBs (one of them was transitioned from WR in the spring) and 5 walk-on RBs. However, they have an incoming freshman RB and will take another portal RB to get to the 5 scholarship RBs that Beamer prefers. I can’t speak to any of the other teams on this list as I haven’t followed them as closely, this offseason, as Illinois and Carolina.

Not sure if this is a commitment or just more pics from his visit. In any case, offer out to New Mexico State DT Lama Lavea. He played nearly 300 snaps and started 2 games last year.