catdaddyp

I hope I’m able to watch this game again, because I definitely missed some things that I’d like to have a second look at. - A win is a win. I would be concerned if we lacked talent, but most areas of improvement can be fixed through coaching and not having to wait another year for more talent. - Tim Terry needs to play more. He and Bubba ought to see the majority of snaps at LB. - Outside contain was a sore spot. - I need to rewatch, but it seemed SFU often attacked OLB Thomas or whoever the DB was that came in as a Nickel. - The OL showed some improvement, especially in the run game when Daniels came in at LT. - SFU threw alot of blitzes at us. The pressure and sacks weren’t all on the OL. Sometimes it was poor pickup by the RB while others were on Irons for holding the ball too long. - Irons must be more consistent. He missed way too many throws tonight, especially on deep balls and crossing routes. - Surprising that Wiley was the only one to see carries at RB. I was not impressed with him the majority of the night. He missed a number of cutback lanes. - Whoever is blitzing on defense needs to get closer to the line of scrimmage. It doesn’t help in the slightest starting the blitz from 5-7 yards away. - Our DBs need to do a better job of getting off blocks. - Victor Jones does so many things well. All-MAC candidate this year. I firmly believe this is going to be a good year. So many coaching points from tonight that will clean up a number of mistakes in the coming weeks. There was a heavy rotation on defense and I’m surprised about the guys we did not see. I wonder if we’ll see more new faces next week. Proud of the way this team did not buckle under pressure.

Joe seems tired of this 💩 and just ready to play some football.

Real possibility there. BG is so far behind in commitments than the rest of the MAC. Similar to where Arth was at this point last year. Although a few recruits BG has committed are talented. I remember looking at Arth’s recruits and thinking “how is this class going to improve the roster?”

Thigpen to Bowling Green. Definitely did not see that one coming. Good for them, they got a good one.

I’m really excited about the potential of the DL. Without knowing what scheme we are basing out of I don’t know what to think about our LBs, but I do like the players we’ve brought in along with the obvious returning ones. I expect our secondary will also be improved and much more physical judging by the guys we’ve brought in. I think you nailed it on the offense. A lot of weapons there and if Irons steps up, this offense could be a juggernaut by year end. Looking forward to seeing the OL play. We’ve got a fantastic OL coach and it’s only a matter of time before they are one of the best in the MAC. May not be this year, but soon.

A few takeaways: - Moorhead said this recruiting class was Akron’s highest rated ever, including the transfers. - He was somewhat hesitant or reserved in answering a few questions. One of them being if this looked like an FBS team. He did say yes, but he clearly thinks we aren’t where we need to be yet. - Spoke highly of Irons. Also said Undercuffler doesn’t quite fit the mold for their offense but has enough mobility to do the things they ask out of RPOs, etc. - Blake Hester is still a walk-on.

JoMoe breaks it down. Enjoy.

WR Shawn Thigpen says “big announcement coming tomorrow at 1:30pm.” Assuming he is going to commit, but I have no idea where we stand.

I know every now and then St. Francis lands some kids who should be playing higher level ball. Just not enough of them. Jason Brown who was recently relegated to backup QB at Virginia Tech is a former SFU guy as well as EJ Jenkins, a 6’8” WR at Georgia Tech. Both players attended South Carolina this past year. Brown led the team to wins over Auburn and Florida, while surprisingly enough, Jenkins did not see a single jump ball thrown his way this past year.

Similar to what @blueandgold said. We will have more talent, size, and athleticism. Also have a better coaching staff in place. There will be some mishaps and kinks to work out, but this game shouldn’t be close. Most kids go to St. Francis in hope of eventually transferring to a bigger school. The majority of St.Francis kids had very few to no FBS offers.

I’m not sure if Nebraska can win more than 5 games this year. I enjoyed watching the Nebraska/Northwestern game, but I don’t think either of them are that good. Northwestern’s RB Evan Hull was fun to watch. Kid has great feet and vision.

Morris saw a good bit of playing time yesterday and Bielema has been really pleased with him throughout the offseason. From the sounds of it, Morris has been willing to do whatever is asked of him. Illinois has really revamped their offense and might be a dark horse in the BIG this year. I’ve been following them closely since Bielema arrived and it seems to be a perfect fit. Bielema came out and said something along of the lines of he was as excited abut this team as his Big Ten champion Wisconsin team and thought it could be a special season. They have some things to clean up, but after tracking what they’ve done in the offseason and watching them play yesterday I can’t say I disagree with him.

Here are where things stand as far as Rivals is concerned. None of the committed players will receive a ratings bump unless they decommit and commit to a P5 school. That goes for all G5 players. So at this point, for more 3 stars to be in the 2023 class they need to be rated as such before committing. I think the process needs some adjustment, but I’m not in a position to change it. There are some players in this class who should probably be 3 stars such as Lester Miller, Adrian Norton, and Max Tucker to name a few. In any case, I think this is a strong prep class and will continue to get better despite the player ratings. Not all of these players will contribute immediately, but the talent is certainly there to be successful at some point in their careers.

I’m guessing DJ is doing what he needs to do after being named a team captain and taken to MAC media days. He has the benefit of playing for one of the best offensive minds in college football, so we may see a night and day difference from last year. He wasn’t consistent from what I saw at the spring game, but he didn’t put the ball in harms way either. We won’t know for sure until live action. He shouldn’t have too much issue against SFU, but if he can put on strong performances against MSU and Tenn., then he should be able to handle MAC defenses as well.

Came across Jarvis Green and Riley Robell who both committed to JMU recently. They had offers from the current staff, so I just added them to the “removed” section. I watched some of Robell’s film and thought to myself “d*** this guy is good and looks like someone we’d offer.” Sure enough we did. Jarvis Green is from the same high school DiMarco Johnson attended in South Carolina. JMU has landed a few guys lately that we offered.

Update: Only 8 players still need a rating. Not much movement in the rankings except Toledo jumping into a tie with Ball State at #85. #61 - Central Michigan #62 - Miami #70 - Western Michigan #77 - Akron #79 - Northern Illinois #85 - Ball State #85 - Toledo #92 - Kent State #95 - Eastern Michigan NR - Ohio, Bowling Green, Buffalo

Music to my ears! Makes me think he is at least on the two deep if he made it on the highlight pictures. Plus we’ve seen a #32 several times in the short video clips.

One reason we couldn’t stop the run is because part of the time we weren’t lined up correctly. For instance in this play the TE blocks down and collapses the DE. The inside LB reads run and gets caught up in the wash. What the Safety is doing (top of screen) lined up stacked behind the CB I have no idea. He should be in the box and ready to help fill that massive gap. I could do more of these, but I’m not sure many people want to rehash last year’s defense.

Thanks for the post bigjim. I like your thinking. I think what will eventually separate us from the rest of the league is the offensive and defensive lines. There will probably be some more turnover after this year as some guys who played a bunch last year may not see many minutes this year. That remains to be seen, but it tends to happen after a coaching change and we have some young talent that will develop. Just a guess, but we will probably see another heavy dose of incoming transfer portal defensive linemen next year. It will take some time for the younger guys to develop, but we should be much further ahead this time next year along the line. I also think there will be a noticeable difference in the physicality the team plays with. I love how the staff is targeting physical players on the recruiting trail. They definitely know what they are looking for and are bringing in some guys that will help. 100% agree QB play is important and I have no doubt JoeMo will have that figured out quickly. We have what we have this year and I think our top 2 guys will get the job done, but a player like Wassel could take this offense to another level once he settles in. (Already looking forward to the next few years). Not saying our current guys can’t excel because Irons certainly has all the physical tools, but who knows how consistent he will be.

Impressive play by Safety target Harlem Howard. Edge target Nnamdi Udeogu. 6’5 with a 7 foot wingspan. Now has P5 offers from Vandy, Syracuse, and Rutgers. Jaleel Engleman who also plays DB with an interception. Edge target Kion Wright with the sack.

HS commitments only. Rivals will be rolling out a new transfer ranking later this year, but are still working out kinks in the system.

I updated the rest of the MAC teams in hopes of getting a few more eyes on the conference. Out of all the teams, only 15 committed players still need a rating. Not perfect, but better than any other recruiting site. My goal is to have every MAC player rated in 2023. Currently the team rankings look like this: #60 - Central Michigan #62 - Miami #69 - Western Michigan #77 - Akron #81 - Northern Illinois #84 - Ball State #90 - Kent State #93 -Toledo #97 - Eastern Michigan NR - Ohio NR - Bowling Green NR - Buffalo

I’m anxious to see what our defensive scheme is. It seems like we are playing a 4-2-5 from the clips we’ve seen and what I saw in the 2nd half of the spring game But that could be misleading due to the defense matching up with the offense’s base 11 personnel. Could be similar to what UGA does where they are grounded in the 3-4 but bring an OLB down as a DE, shift the DL, and walk another OLB out in coverage giving look of a 4-2-5 and taking on some of its principals. Pretty sure we are not playing a 3-3-5 like the guys from SBNation kept referring to.

WR Antwan Mays bumped to a 3 star. Penn commit Emmanuel Deng was given a 2 star. He was offered by Nick Toth who is now at Air Force. I assume Akron’s offer to Deng was honored, but I don’t know for sure.

We’ll find out soon enough who the starters are, but for that clip it was: LT - Gray LG - Banes C - Robarge RG - Whigan RT - Williams And the TE that pulled looked like Brank.