Captain Kangaroo

Figures the one day out of the next 6 calling for rain is Friday. 🤬 If it holds true, I'll assume the scrimmage will be held in the Stiles Center. But it puts a damper on the tailgate scene.

5 star, huh? Who knew?

The existing "system" is great for those Power schools that make the rules. Say there's someone you want on the Zips...take them. It's free. If the Boston Celtics want Enrique Freeman, they need to pay for him either with players, money and/or draft picks. That's how pro sports works. "College" is now professional. The MAC shouldn't be a free developmental league for the P5's. You want Nate Johnson, you pay for him.

Their absolute best chance to win a championship and play in the NCAA Tournament was to stay in Akron. Their absolute best chance to make between $500,000 and $1.5 million was to transfer to a P5 program. Compare Nate's income next season to any UA graduate walking across the stage this May. His income will dwarf the next closest earner by a factor of 10X. Hell...he'll be making $1,000,000 more than Enrique Freeman's made with the Pacers this season! Nate's the #1 '25 UA earner, and no one else is even close. Okonkwo and Tavari will be second and third on the list of Class of '25 UA earners. Then, some schmuck with a Polymer Science Doctorate comes in 4th, pulling in around $150,000. Playing time, championships, etc. do not factor into the transfer equation. As Don Olmeyer famously said: "The answer to all your questions is 'money'".

What a waste of John Groce's work ethic and talent. He does all the heavy lifting of identifying young talent, nurturing it, living through the tough times...and when it comes to graduation day, a new "dad" with a fat wallet buys his way onto the scene and walks John's players across the graduation stage, taking pictures and smiling with his arm around them. John's left with a few hollow tweets, and yet another rebuild. The Zips steal no one's players. We get Freshman, castaways and reclamation projects. Groce works his ass off to get those guys into a cohesive, championship unit that the school and fans can be proud of...until the next April when another new fat billfolded MF'er buys his way onto the scene and strips the Zips down to the frame again. Go Zips...

Yes. Notes are now posted. Happy Easter to all!

Apologies for the poor photo quality...the lighting in the practice facility is horrible, and I don't have one of those $5,000 giant lenses. Ben Finley tosses one over the outstretched arms of #42 LB Melvin Spriggs. Finley played really well. His best throw was a 50 yard TD bomb to #16 Paul Davis. Pending the help he receives in the summer via the JUCO and Portal route (OL and WR), he could be 1st or 2nd all team all MAC. Pray that no P4 school wants insurance at the QB position and "Nate Johnson's" the Zips with a stupid NIL money offer to Ben. Ruggow got the 2nd team reps. Thus far he's shown he's a serviceable #2. He's sneaky-athletic. Not a bad runner. But hasn't lit it up on the past 2 Saturdays. To be fair - he's also playing with the 2nd team unit. Here's the reserve OL. Paul Davis, a 6' sophomore from Georgia (the state, not the Bulldogs) has had a nice spring. Here, he pulls in a Ben Finley sideline pass. Here, Ben tosses a fade to #7 Alex Adams. ...and Adams pulls it in for the TD! I'm a big fan of #11 Kyan Mason, a 5' 9" freshman from St Ed's. He's jitterbug quick, and runs tougher than his size. He has stood out this spring. Cibastian Broughton didn't do much today. He did play without a green shirt, so he could be tackled. The first time I've seen a QB without one this spring. He will play in 2025. Whether it's a situational QB, WR, or possibly even a return man. He's too electric to sit on the sidelines with a clipboard. One of Broughton's bet plays of the day was a fake pass/Statue of Liberty that #28 Luke Reed took 40 yards to paydirt. The D bit hard on the fake. Luke gets an attaboy for his efforts. The Player of the Day? #43 Austin "Wondo" Wondolowski, a 5' 10" redshirt freshman from Holy Name. Wondo had 2 INT's on the day, as well as a great pass break up on a longball to Kyan Mason. He is a baller. Maybe along the lines of a John Mackey (for you old timers out there). Mason vs. Wondo. Wondo won. #88 Jake Newell, to no one's surprise, has had a great spring. Bubble wrap him until the fall. He's a slam dunk 1st team all MAC. Great hands, great blocker. The scrimmage ended on a Ben Kamara INT of Ruggow. The 6' 3" transfer from Upper Iowa (who knew that was a school?) has all the tools to be a great CB. The players gave themselves a round of applause and look forward to seeing everyone at InfoCision this coming Friday. Other notes: The kicking battle between Owen Wiley and Matthew Schramm rages on. Joe had them kick 47 yarders in each quarter. I believe the both went 3-4. We're fine at punter. Joey Castle has a big time leg. Jordan Gant and Sean Patrick opened up as the starting RB's. #34 Cam Moore, the Walsh transfer, also played quite a bit. Play of the day - Moore fumbled, and his OL teammate 6' 5", 300 lb Nick Scopiak scooped the ball up and rumbled, bumbled, stumbled the remaining 25 yards to the endzone. I can't believe Marquise Williams, the Minnesota transfer, will see the field much. #15 picked Finley, but since he's not on the roster, I don't know who he is. Off to hunt eggs!

What is going on with college basketball in the state of Utah? Utah Valley stole Bandaogo from us. Utah steals Okonkwo. BYU buys AJ Dybantsa, the #1 recruit in the 2025 class, 4-star Xavion Staton and likely Rob Wright from Baylor.

Fills a big need. 6’ 5” is something we’ve been missing on the OL.

Is the Conner Groce era upon us?

Very revealing article. I remember a news story on Nate Johnson, discussing when he came to UA and Groce wanted to redshirt him. His mom said "Does that mean he gets and extra free year of education?" Groce replied "Yes", and mom was excited to have him redshirt. Fast forward to today: "Five years ago, more than 4,400 Division I men's basketball players were legally and collectively paid a grand total of $0 in NIL earnings. That number is now promised to be in the hundreds of millions." We live in The United States of America, and every citizen is free to make as much money as they'd like. That's what makes our country great, and I can't fault any kid for taking the cash being thrown at them today. But it has destroyed what made college basketball so cool. It's created a G-League disguised as college basketball, and that isn't nearly as cool. It's money-driven and corporate. It's eliminated the underdogs and Cinderella's and created a handful of Yankee's, Mets and Dodgers. And no, Rob Senderoff...the Zips ain't the Yankees.

I blame every Zips fan who didn't contribute $350,000 to the basketball program's Day of Giving fund today. And people wonder why the mid-majors performed so poorly in the NCAA tourney...every good/great player gets poached, regardless of culture, coach, NIL money...from the NIL/portal era until the end of time there will never be another number raised to the JAR rafters...unless we lower the bar to "impactful 1- or 2-year mercenaries". Get used to #foreverazip and watching your most promising Zips players compete in other team's jersey's for their final year or two. If this doesn't make you appreciate Freeman, nothing will. I can't imagine the money he turned down to stick with the Zips. The Zips should still be the favorite to win the MAC. And the spread for our Round #1 NCAA tournament game should be around Zips +17. Shammah and Sharron will happily take his minutes, and flourish. But you don't improve your roster by losing the MAC PoTY who was entering his senior season.

It's easy to transfer to Ole Miss...it's tougher to make the team. I wasn't shocked when he left the Zips...he probably merited more carries than what he was getting. But he's not good enough to be on the RB 2-deep of a P4 team. Other than maybe Purdue. 🙂 With Kellom leaving, he could have been "The Man" for the Zips this year. Oh well...

I think at 58 years of age, I could still play overseas. 😁 There are pro leagues all over Europe (and Turkey, Russia, Israel...). If he wants to play internationally...and he's from England so he knows the score...he can make a 10 year career out of it.

In defense of these Zips portal losses...Purdue did finish 18th in the Big 10 last year. We're not exactly losing anyone to Alabama or Ohio State. 🙂 P4 teams are paying stupid money for G5 starters to become their 2nd stringers. That seems impossible to compete with for the Zips.

Hull played quite a bit. For a Freshman, he more than held his own. Definitely looks like he was born to play NT. Physically, he's a drop in replacement for Marcus Moore. Need to pay more attention to him this week.

Can't wait until no one signs him and we get the first "collusion" law suit. That will be so cool.🙄

My OL positives out of the first scrimmage - We were able to field a full 1st and 2nd team OL. With the additions this summer, we should have a stable of 8-10 serviceable OL's to choose from. That's much better than Joe's Year #1. #78 Darrell Johnson looked good at LT. He's a Jr. from Western Kentucky. The scrimmage was officiated, and there were few OL penalties. Seems like a disciplined group. Tough to glean anything deeper than that from scrimmage #1. My biggest takeaways overall from the scrimmage were - Broughton seems like an exciting player. Has some "special" qualities. He won't unseat Finley, but next year it wouldn't be a surprise to see him behind center. Alex Adams looked healthy and in-shape. He could definitely lessen the blow from Norton's departure.

F*ck Utah.

WMU up 3-2 going into the 3rd period. Good for them!

Went to today's practice. Here's what I gleaned... Check out some of the defensive numbers if you'd like... Starting DL was: 97 / 10 / 5 / 41 Second unit was: 50 / 90 / 98 / 30 Joe's post-practice speech. He seemed pretty pleased Joe spent the bulk of his time observing from 20 yards behind the offense. #3 Cibastian Broughton is intriguing. He's a diminutive kid, but has a strong arm. Completed a long TD pass to #7 Adams (who's back and looks healthy). Had another nice TD pass to St Ed's Kyan Mason (#11) and one to Jake Newell too. Moves well. He's like Dijon Jennings, but good. He will see the field somewhere this season. 2nd Unit OL. First unit was (left tackle to right tackle): 78/56/52/50/73 Second unit was: 60/55/52/79/51 Finley's left leg was apparently cold? He played a lot today. Looked in-command, but understandably a bit rusty. WR's screwed up some routes that probably made his accuracy look worse than it was. Owen Wiley and Dublin Fr. Matt Schramm split the kicker duties. Both missed from 42 yards out. Tough to kick indoors, into netting with goal post stripes that's often only halfway dropped from the ceiling when the ball is snapped. Wiley seems to have the bigger leg, but Schramm is no slouch. This position will be an interesting battle. I forget who caught this Finley pass? It's spring practice for me too. 🙃 Ruggow on the run. He threw an early pick (S #18 DeMarco Johnson). Probably threw more bad balls than good ones today. Back up QB will be a battle this year. I expect Broughton (#3) will see the field, even if not at QB (like above). He's pretty athletic. Maybe a few of the 2024 "Taj" wildcat plays go to him this season? Kyan Mason blocks for Ben. Washington State transfer Brandon Hills (Soph.) made a couple nice receptions. Washington State transfer Brandon Hills again. A Cibastian Broughton INT ended the scrimmage. Overall or DB's looked surprisingly good? I think they had a pick of each Blue QB. Other notes: #95 Joey Castle punted well (albeit indoors). It looks like we'll be ok at punter this year. #22 Jordan Gant (Tennessee State) started at RB. He fumbled on his first carry. But rebounded with a tough 10 yard run on next opportunity. #25 Chris Gee from Colgate was the #2 RB today. Got a lot of action. Runs hard. Showed good hands on swing passes. #13 Sean Patrick saw a lot of reps today. Played at WR and RB. Overall the defense looks good. Solid tackling and created several turnovers. #88 Newell looks to be a beast this year. Made several nice plays. Caught a TD from Broughton. Starting LB's were: 42 (Spriggs), 32 (Summers) and 17 DeWalt (Butte College - listed as a DB) #5 Ronald Hull from Wise HS in Maryland played NT. He's mistakenly listed as #55 on the Zips roster Late game RB's included #28 Luke Reed from Benedictine and Cam Macon from Walsh It was heartening to see the Zips had sufficient depth to field 2-deep offensive and defensive units, even without the guys who will be joining in the summer. The country "Rock me like a Wagon Wheel" blasted on the speaker system for the final few minutes. Overheard in the crowd - Adrian Norton is ineligible...that's why he hasn't signed anywhere.

It doesn’t make the smallest team in the 2025 ncaa tournament better when its 6’ 8” 5th year senior departs. But that’s the way it goes nowadays. The Briscoe era is now upon us…off we go…

I think you might have had some people on your side, until the Akron-Kent is “just a game” comment. Then the wheels came off.

Under the "Looking ahead" category - anyone else think the Zips BB ticket prices will jump appreciably this coming year? Fielding a team has certainly become much more expensive over the past couple seasons.

Hey...he's the Ohio State kid! In Akron, 6' 6" is the new 7'.