catdaddyp

Thanks, I appreciate all of your thoughts and contributions as well! I’m excited about the upcoming season and confident this will be a breakthrough year. I’ve seen this scenario play out time and time again. The only thing that really surprised me is the amount of close games we lost last year and the fashion in which they happened. I guess the bright side to that is we could potentially triple (or more) last season’s win total and receive national recognition.

I’m going back through the position groups and adding “star rating take” for all the players. Using Rivals formula I’m re-rating the players to what they should have been according to their college production.

Buffalo has started their spring practice. Bowling Green has already finished theirs and did not have a spring game. They supposedly did not have enough offensive linemen.

Finished up the conference preview with predictions. I still need to complete Morgan State, Kentucky, and Indiana. That being said I will predict beating Morgan State with losses to UK and Indiana. Overall record prediction is 7-5 and 6-2 conference. I will say the conference prediction may be a little too aggressive and we’ll probably be more like 5-3, but that’s just how it came out when I reviewed each team game by game. If it’s 5-3 conference, that’d be 6-6 Overall. I think Temple is a definite swing game and the last 3 games on our schedule could also go either way.

Offer to LB Quae Drake from UL Monroe. 1 year of eligibility remaining. Seemed we were set at LB and just recently more offers have gone out. Not sure what changed.

Offer out to JUCO LB Raymond Collins. I can’t see us landing Collins if Ole Miss really wants him, but always worth throwing an offer out there.

They are listed by the date they were offered (oldest at the top and most recent at the bottom). Unfortunately, Rivals doesn’t list that in their data. 247 does, but it’s often wrong. When I see an offer has been issued, or a prospect reaches out to me on Twitter, I’ll update the profile and post here. Every now and then I’ll go back through and update the prospects’ offer list.

Offer out to JUCO DE Timothy Brown. He was JUCO teammates with Amin Mimouni.

All portal movement is fully updated (out and in). If anyone sees any activity for MAC teams let’s me know. Looks like Akron and Kent State had the most players transfer out at 17 a piece. Difference is Kent State had far more of their transfers sign elsewhere. Another recruiting note is Buffalo signed the most JUCOs with 9.

I haven’t even finished updating the 2024 list and the first one is off the board.

He may end up there at some point. I’m guessing part of his recruiting pitch was that we have both cornerback (and nickel) positions up for grabs and that T. Thomas could come in and play immediately. We may have the best slot tandem in the MAC this year with Adams and Golden. I’m curious to see how Myles Walker and Anthony Williams fit into the equation. Also, will Gathings bounce back? I know A. Williams and Gathings weren’t in the slot, but Gathings looked good before his injury last year.

Terence Thomas is an impressive athlete.

I went ahead and added full classes and not just “players to know.” Only 4 high school commits and 10 JUCOs still need ratings for the entire MAC. I’m still pushing for those and think we’ll be able to get all the prep players rated, but the JUCOs are not as likely. The transfer portal is a different beast and I know all the players in the portal will not receive ratings.

Temple, Buffalo, and NIU are updated.

I may be wrong, but I think this event is purely for the Tom Lemming (magazine?) photo shoot. That being said, it’s a great way to get recruits on campus to show off what Akron football has to offer. Even if it’s not in an official capacity.

Yep. Rivals used to go by the average rating, but changed that some years back. On a different note, a number of the JUCOs still do not have ratings. Rivals does not place as high of importance on JUCOs. I bring that up because we will likely sign another JUCO or two that may not receive ratings. It will increase our overall team points (and possible ranking) but drop our average.

Ok, I think I got the Northern Illinois situation straight. Pretty sure they have about a dozen walk-ons. Once the PWOs were removed, it dropped their class to 8th. Here is how Rivals views the HS/JUCO signings. There are still some commitments I’m trying to get rated.

Antonio Smith Hudl Film. As things stand, I’d say we have a good chance at landing Smith.

I believe Bowling Green. He’s from Westerville, OH.

JUCO DE Antonio Smith will visit next month.

Similar offer type of offer list as McCullom.

Already has offers from over half the MAC and two P5 schools (Illinois and Pittsburgh).

Saw this earlier today and got excited. No doubt in my mind Wasel is going to put up big numbers once his mechanics are cleaned up. No one better in Ohio to assist with that than Brad Maendler.

Offer out to DE Richie Hagarty. Former Miami (OH) commit. He then transferred to SIU and will have two years of eligibility remaining. Offer out to CB Courtney Eubanks of North Dakota State. He also has two years of eligibility remaining.

Updated recent Rivals ratings for all the teams. A handful of prospects still need a rating. As far as Akron is concerned: Lingard = 3 star and 448 Portal Ranking Jones = 3 star and 519 Portal Ranking Rabah = 3 star and 667 Portal Ranking Hunter = 2 star and 867 Portal Ranking Tallandier = 2 star and 1003 Portal Ranking D. Thomas = 2 star and 1004 Portal Ranking Terence Thomas probably will not receive a portal ranking due to the way the system is setup. He really should be considered a freshman as part of the 2023 class, but since he technically enrolled and was briefly on the team at Purdue he is considered a transfer. Frank currently does not have a profile to link as he was not considered a D1 prospect out of high school, so he will also not receive a rating.