Captain Kangaroo

Ali who?

6' 9", 225 lbs. Seems like a big upgrade over Aziz. Now we need to replace Ali.

The spring game is never massively attended. Especially for a Program that won 7 games in the past 4 years. It will be a "Family and Friends" crowd on April 30th (not unlike most recent home games). For those that have kept the faith over the past 4 seasons, it will be a fun Saturday on campus. Once the new staff's work becomes evident to the general public in the form of MAC Championship expectations, the spring game will gain some traction. In the near future, if all goes as planned, a crowd of 4, 000 to 5,000 would be a hell of an achievement...but it's possible.

The Big Lewandowski Stumbled across this Post Gazette article. My mom's family is from Butler (Knoch HS).

Meh...he'll be in the transfer portal after 1 season, and be back in Akron for the 2024 opening day kickoff.

He bailed on Boals because he felt he was too good. Sounds like another Walton. I trust Groce will bring in a more team-oriented, less me-oriented, transfer.

Where is @Football grandma to chime in on the OL?

You are correct. Assuming Irons is "the man," I still don't see either holding a clip board, patiently awaiting their shot in 2024. I guess we'll see how it plays-out.

Valid concern! But the OL last season was atrocious and he could barely get past 1-Missisippi before someone was tomahawking his arm. If Joe can shore it up, I think Irons will be great. The entire OL returns and should be a year bigger and stronger. New recruits will provide depth and competition. And I think just by the nature of Joe's higher-level offense being less predictable, it'll greatly help the situation. If I'm wrong, feel free to bookmark this post and wave it in my face in early November. 😁

Other than Jennings, the "young guys" are sophomores. If DJI (Junior) is the man for the next 2 seasons, I'd expect Jankowski and Marousek will have transferred-out. Eager to see if what Marousek brings to the table. He's been really patient sitting behind Gibson and Irons. If Irons can get some protection I have to believe he'll be great. Strong arm, runs with purpose, tall, athletic, accurate. You never know what disenchanted P5 grad transfer QB becomes available after being leapfrogged by a younger guy. So one could show up at Joe's doorstep after spring ball. But count me among the many who feel Irons will be "the man" for the Zips when September rolls around.

In another thread I mentioned a conversation with a friend who's a D1 coach. He mentioned that "culture" was the best way to combat the transfer portal. After seeing Ali depart it's pretty clear - great culture is like a COVID shot. It keeps you from dying. It likely keeps you from getting severely ill. But it doesn't provide full immunity. Note - if anyone hijacks this thread with political/COVID thoughts, their post will be immediately deleted, so save yourself the typing. Ali departing is a blow due more so due to his potential than his to-date production. It's widely noted that he was - * Offensively inconsistent - could score 32 points one night, and 5 the next * ISO Ali - dribbling ad nauseum, and putting up a shot regardless of the situation * A complete disappearing act for long stretches But he has a great turnaround J, length, size, shooters touch, and would only get better. If his head doesn't get in his way, his best 1-2 college seasons are definitely ahead of him. And we won't see them. Bandaogo departing is obviously a lesser impact. But he was a good shot blocker. And moved his feet well on defense, taking more charges than a 7-footer should. He also improved his FT shooting over the course of the season. He and Freeman seemed to have a solid friendship. And unlike Ali, Bandaogo didn't show flashes of anything this year that would get a P5 coach to attempt recruiting him away from Akron. I can only speculate the staff let him know his future role, as it played out at this season's end, would be diminished in 2022-23. And he might be best suited to try and hook up elsewhere. I guess we'll know for sure when he signs. I do trust that Groce will fill their spots with serviceable players. If he could get a kid like Duvivier to come from Oregon for a senior season where his team's destined for a sub .500 record, selling quality kids to play alongside Freeman, Casteneda, Dawson and Tribble...coming off a MAC Championship and a strong NCAA tourney showing, should be easy. There’s an old saying…”No matter how unbelievably smokin’ hot a girl looks, there’s at least one guy somewhere out there that got tired of putting up with her sh*t.” I think of that every time we pick up someone from the transfer portal. If we can land a Xerius Williams...a Casteneda...an LCJ...a Duvivier, Cheese or Banks...we're in great shape. If we lands a Trimble, Hester, Dailey, Guyue, Wynn (with all due respect), etc. we're not going to have a lot of fun at the JAR next season. I trust Groce. Just gotta have some faith and be patient over the next couple weeks. And hope the portal yields some team-oriented ballers with minimal baggage.

How could Groce know a hs kid almost completely unrecruited would leave his program prematurely? We're had enough transfers that have been complete busts that I'm not sold on the portal to base my recruiting on it. There are evils either way. A shame a player in such a great situation would leave because he felt he was too good for it.

Akron and Groce showed him a lot of faith when few others did, and subsequently delivered the goods in playing time and team advancement. Seems like bad advice to tell him to leave his present situation. Too bad... Did being mentioned in the Kent rap song hurt his feelings?

You produced more meaningful Zips football content in the past 48 hours than one can traditionally expect from the Beacon over an entire spring.

Could he pull the dreaded “Reverse Bubba”?!

Everything you've written is 100% true, and I would LOVE for John Groce to think the same way as you. It just never seems to work out that way. Dambrot was an "Akron Guy." Here for 13 years. He said a million times to Steve French - "I ain't going anywhere." And, he went somewhere. You can live pretty good in Summit County with a $650,000 salary, and a whopper of a nest egg courtesy of his Illinois stint. Low pressure...the media hardly pays attention and you're not beholden to any meddling old money alumni. Assuming his super sophs stick around through their full eligibility, he'll be favored to take the Zips to the NCAA tourney three straight seasons. Coaching them has to be more fun than leaving to pick up the pieces of some broken down P5 program that just fired their coach. We'll see how it plays out. Next season should be a blast, and we'll take it from there.

It's good to know that, if this Ukraine thing doesn't play out well, Putin would likely still be welcomed by the Big Sky conference in some capacity.

Fired

I was speaking to a friend of mine who coaches at the Divsion 1 level regarding the transfer portal. His opinion was - 1.) It sucks. 2.) You combat it with "culture." If the kids like the staff, and like their teammates, they are much less likely to exit your program. Ball State has no culture. They've been floating in mediocrity for over a decade. Maybe Sparks landed there because the extra year of COVID eligibility meant fewer available scholarships at the P5 level? I don't know...but why would you your prime years in Muncie when you are getting scholarship offers from programs guaranteed annual trips to the NCAA's? I see a lot of #2 with Groce. I can't see Enrique ditching Aziz and Ali to chase glory at Xavier, or some other higher-conference program. The Zips players all seem to like each other. They've bought into Groce's culture and system. They're all growing, excelling, having fun and winning. Why leave? You can't bat 1.000 when recruiting 18-22 year old kids. For every Xerius Williams there's inevitably going to be a Trimble. But batting .750 overall is possible if you're consistent in your approach. And not desperate. Groce is too confident in himself and his system, and his contract situation, to be desperate and load up on mercenaries. From the ashes of the Great Dambrot Exodus he's built an OUTSTANDING program. I'll digress for one moment and mention recruiting "stars" as the pertain to the Zips - Ali and Enrique are arguably our most talented players. Neither was recruited by any D1 programs. ZERO! People go gaga over transfers from Florida...St Johns...Wake Forest...Missouri...there's usually a reason these guys are free agents. Groce recognizes talent like few other coaches I've seen. And places that talent in the best positions for team success. Sincere Carry is a tremendous basketball talent, but I really doubt he'd have been anything but a disruption had he played at UA. No player will ever admit they're a "me-first" guy...but it's pretty obvious when a player cares more about playing time, personal statistics and adulation than the good of the team. And, which coaches tolerate those antics. I'm keeping my March calendar clear for 2023. I fully expect the 2022-23 Zips to be dancing. 2024 is promised to no one. If Groce were to be lured away, a lot of the team could follow without penalty. I hope that doesn't happen, because the sky is the limit with Groce captaining our ship, and our "super-sophs"... soon-to-be "super-juniors"... inevitably improving. Enjoy the Zips one-year-at-a-time, as the fan of any successful mid-major should!

It is way to soon to discuss Guthrie departing UA. He just got here. His most-visible accomplishments so far are marketing some $7 beers in the JAR and filling a hundred or so otherwise empty JAR seats with students. That's Doctoral-level thinking when compared to Larry Williams or Tom Wistercill, but pales in comparison to the re-branding and stadium construction we saw in the early 2000's under Thomas and Waddell. Those guys accomplished some major stuff, and were ready to move on to bigger and better things. Credit for hiring Joe to coach the football team should be tempered. Joe's agent reached out to UA expressing his interest in the job. I do credit Guthrie for swiftly recognizing his good fortune and sealing the deal. I guarantee if Joe's agent had called Larry Williams, Williams would have hung up the phone and still paid buyout money to secure 3-win Tom. The best recent Akron AD's did something major in order to matriculate to the "next level." For Guthrie to make that leap he needs to fill InfoCision to a reasonable capacity every Saturday (17-20k = "reasonable"). If the football team wins ("wins" = 9+ wins, like Toledo has done 11 times in the past 22 seasons), a 10-12k Tuesday night crowd in November game should also expected. The days of 500 butts-in-seats has to be over. I like Guthrie. He seems hardworking, intelligent, personable and genuine. He's not the typical phony, hand-shaking stuffed shirt. He has great synergy with Gary Miller (another desperately-needed breath of fresh air @ UA). With all due respect to the tasks of keeping Groce happy, and getting soccer back to its deep NCAA tourney runs, rallying the community to support Akron Football and making the corner of Spicer and Exchange rock & roll on fall gamedays is Guthrie's measuring stick for success. I hope he can do it. I'll have a beer on ice waiting for him in Lot 9 when he does.🦘🏉🦾

A simple Field Turf Life Expectancy Google search yields an answer of "8-10 years." If anybody thought it would last 25 years, they really slacked off on their research.

Shaka loses by 32. Awesome!

No doubt, he is “Mr. March.” 💪🏼

I continue to marvel at how Dawson, Tribble and Clarke elevated their games over the course of the season. Wynn’s contributions also grew. The 60 game-minutes we lost when Trimble and Walton departed were never missed.

My Groce comments have aged like fine wine. 🍷 🦘