catdaddyp

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.

Job, family, and distance won’t allow for season tickets but I will make one game this year. Aiming for the Northern Illinois one.

Offer out to German native Keon Rohe. Offensive tackle.

I guess it would depend on how much UK wanted out of it, assuming they do/would. You’re right, $2 mil (or more) is pushing it, but I would love to see Akron set the line. $700k-$1 mil is more likely. Financially, it probably makes sense for UK to buyout this game and replace it with a home game. UK fans will travel for sure, but its a bit demoralizing when the opponent’s fans are able to drown out the home fans. As far as it being a game day environment and less morgue like, it very well could be the highest attendance of the year depending how UK is projected for the 2024 season. That being said, I’d love to be proved wrong and see Zips fans come out in droves against any team on the schedule.

Great kid who has more home responsibilities than any kid his age should. We’d be fortunate to land him. Already has P5 offers from Kentucky and Boston College.

Cruising other MAC message boards and they sound similar. Not many fan bases happy with the schedule.

I’d rather Kentucky just pay a few million and buy that game out. I don’t want to see Kentucky fans turn InfoCision into a home game. Maybe if the Zips are rolling in 2023 like I expect, Akron fans will hang on to their tickets when that game comes around.

Agree, they aren’t on the level of Ohio State…yet. But I’d say they are ahead of Auburn (fired their coach) and Michigan State programs that took a step back. Carolina also shell shocked Tennessee and Clemson to close out the regular season. They lost to Notre Dame in the bowl game, but both teams were missing key players so it wasn’t exactly a true matchup of the teams that closed out the regular season. Where Carolina has struggled is consistently winning and not dropping games to weaker conference foes they should beat. That’s the mark of a program that’s building though. They are on the cusp of taking the next step and most national pundits will be surprised.

While I appreciate the optimism (and some here would probably call me an optimist) Akron is not going on the road and beating a South Carolina team in front of 85,000 fans (at least not while Shane Beamer is there). I’ll be at that game and I hope most Zips fans also make the trip. I can tell you from experience Williams-Brice can get to a fever pitch and cause the stands to sway. It’s one of the best venues in the SEC and they are still sinking millions of dollars into the stadium and surrounding areas. If anyone is interested, take a look at the upgraded facilities on YouTube when you have a chance. Carolina is quietly becoming a power in the SEC (similar to Illinois in the Big 10). To give an idea of their momentum, their 2024 recruiting class is ranked #8 with five 4 star prospects already committed.

Probably a lot. I’ll be surprised if that game actually happens at Akron.

Regardless of when, where, and what time these games are played, there is no reason to not go bowling this year. Morgan State should be an automatic win and good chance to win 4 straight from the NIU-Kent stretch. Win one more and that’s 6 for bowl eligibility.

I’m curious to see if he makes a leap his senior year. Long definitely has the physical attributes with a big arm and fluid throwing motion. Although, we’ve also offered instate prospect Ethan Grunkemeyer who I think is a better prospect despite not having a rating, yet. Long is just in the our backyard. I know Illinois is interested in Long, but they want to see him play in person before offering.

Interesting that we haven’t offered Jacqai Long out of Hoban. I haven’t seen him play, but I’m sure others here have. Kid looks like he can sling it on his film.

New offer to JUCO WR Shemar Kirk. Purdue came in with an offer shortly after. Kirk looks explosive on film and reminds me of Daniel George.

LB - Not a position of need, but if it were Kobe Wilson from Temple would be a solid addition.

At this point, we are limited with our options. The better high school players have already signed (minus a handful that don’t involve us) and most of the portal options aren’t great. That leaves us with JUCO and whoever enters the portal in the next window (after spring practice). The latest JUCO offers have gone out to guys that will be able to enroll in May. My guess is there were some eligibility issues before now and they will probably receive more offers since they have been cleared. We landed some high quality players in the April/May timeframe last year and I expect the same will happen this year. That being said, I still don’t like DE being so light on depth but Wartman is trying to address it.

Offer to JUCO DE Antonio Smith. 2 years of eligibility remaining. He’s not as impressive as Kabbash Richards, but would still be a solid addition. Especially considering our lack of bodies at the position.

Fresh offer out to JUCO DE Kabbash Richards. Michigan native that played at Eastern Kentucky for a few years before landing at JUCO. Richards started 9 games at EKU his sophomore year. From an athletic and potential standpoint I like this offer. Richards can play with his hand on the ground or as a standup edge. He runs really well for a guy his size.

DE - Jesus Gibbs (who we’ve already offered) is listed as the top prospect. Slim pickings from there.