Captain Kangaroo

I'll add one more note regarding Akron and NIL - A goal of the Zips between now and December is to reach $1,000,000 in NIL money. This would be spent to keep the best players in the fold and stem the "talent drain" we witness every season. I don't know how they'll get there considering where our NIL balance sheet stands today. Time will tell.

I was busy Tuesday and Wednesday, and we had technical issues with the board through this morning. Here is my overview of Monday’s event – Like in all sports, the fun associated with college football is being sucked out the game. No longer are we talking about incoming freshman, and who might see playing time. We’re not talking about the team’s growth from 2024 to 2025. We’re talking Transfer Portal, and NIL. The fun and interesting stuff is now parsley on the plate. One thing is abundantly clear – the Zips ain’t got no money. We have the smallest staff in D1. We have the smallest budget in D1…by a longshot. Our coaches weren’t even permitted to travel and recruit in the spring. I don’t think any Division 2 schools prevented their coaches from travel-recruiting in the spring, let alone D1. Said Joe Moorhead – “If you wonder why some schools have 15 or 20 kids committed, and we have 3, there you go.” Our players once again have no training table. In 2024 a booster was able to generate $18,000 to get a training table returned. But this summer, and looking into the fall, our guys get a flat $91 per month, and 5 meals per week in Robs (Robertson to the old guys). We’re basically banking on parent care packages to feed the team. At some point soon UA is going to need to decide if it wants football, or not. The situation as it stands right now is not sustainable. Regarding the academics – Joe said when a player hooks up with another program, you get your “point” back. But if they drop out completely, you don’t. We had a lot of terrible football players who hit the portal over Joe’s first 3 seasons, and too many of them dropped our completely. So here we are. The new AD spoke for about 10 minutes. He seems like a nice guy. He has a good rapport with Joe and is a strong supporter of football. He wants to get the community re-engaged with the Zips. He has a lot of work to do. If were him I’d focus on branding. That seems like what any great AD would do in this situation. Matt Kaulig was there. He didn’t speak, but it was nice of him to make a showing (there were maybe 40 total people in attendance). Someone asked if the Zips would take back a player who’d overestimated their worth in the portal. Joe said “Yes, if they want to be a walk-on.” I’ll guess the reference was to Jordon Simmons who would have been Akron’s starting RB this season, but instead flamed-out at Ole Miss, and is now at Georgia State. The same Georgia State that just signed a 4-star transfer RB from Georgia. I'll guess Jordon doesn't see much PT this year. A coach was overheard saying – “Don’t ask me about any players until about week 2 of camp. There are probably at least 15 kids who will receive appreciable playing time…and who I’ve never seen on an actual field.” Coach Tibesar told a story of a phone call he received from Louisville regarding a Zip that was in the portal. Now that you can provide money to walk-ons, Louisville is trying to build the strongest scout team possible and was asking if the kid was any good. So on the surface it might look like the Zips lost a player to a bigger school like Louisville or Tennessee, but they may just be there for the cash, prestige, and to make scholarship guys work a little. Crazy times we live in. Colin Lyons and AJ George spoke for a bit and answered some questions. Both outstanding young men. Both will become teachers when all is said and done. They’ve been leading the unsupervised workouts this summer. They said all players are participating. Joe was bullish on his team’s attitude and effort. There should be no culture issues this season…even with the influx of new guys. Culture-fit within the program was stated as a high priority in the recruiting process. We’ll see how 2025 plays out. I know the Nebraska kids aren’t eating ramen noodles and Food Club Mac-n-Cheese though…

Bump, since the event is this evening. I'll be there. Worth $20 to hear Joe, and see what the new AD is all about.

Celtics had the 54th pick...4 after the Pacers in last year's second round. I have to believe they'd have taken Enrique with that pick had he been available. Instead they picked Antwon Watson from Gonzaga...a slightly thicker, slower version of Enrique. They cut Watson half way through last season.

Saw John Groce sitting alongside Brad Stevens at the Celtics Heat summer league game tonight.

Looks like he was at unc for three seasons and never saw the field? Should have 2 years of eligibility remaining. 6’3” 235 lbs. Can’t complain about that.

I agree with you. New AD’s always bring in “their guys.” If you are a Guthrie underling your resume and profile was updated the day he bolted for Fordham. i thought the guy had potential. It’ll be interesting to follow his career over the next several years.

Team Captain with a 3.82 GPA. Need 20 more of him.

Good for you.

While not Zips-related, I though this was an interesting college football article. Whoda thunk Randy Moss' kid would have his head screwed on straight? Kudos to him...wish his character wasn't an anomaly nowadays. Turns out any temptation to play elsewhere was no match for an increasingly scarce characteristic in college sports: loyalty.

I’m sure he thought the same thing. When you enter the portal there’s a decent chance there isn’t a pot of gold at the end. Sometimes it’s a smelly old CSU jersey.

Wonder 4…5…6 years after the Arth era how many kids graduated, and if they didn’t, who it reflects poorly on? This is a good litmus test for our new AD. Will he have a knee jerk response and be swayed by collegejocksniffer.com’s click bait and memes? Or will he perform a real investigation and make meaningful changes? If tomorrow he says “Hey, I didn’t hire that coach” be very afraid.

If this was 2014, I get it. But nowadays...how do you even calculate who is credited for a player's graduation after they've been at 4 different schools? We get 40 new kids every season and the NCAA is complaining about them not graduating? Who knew? When Joe signed on, at his press conference he stated "I don't just want kids to get degrees...I want my kids to get meaningful degrees (not just major in eligibility)". That noble goal lasted about 47 minutes, then the portal concept blew up and put the kibosh on any football-academic fantasies. The bulk of today's players are no longer in college for an education. It's a job. Their goal at UA isn't to get a degree, it's to perform good enough to get noticed by a bigger program. Along with the training tables being cut last year, was the academic support staff reduced too?

I overheard Guthrie designed our OV background? Just a rumor tho...

3rd school in 2 years?

Rats. If the Zips played the Baha Mar Rumrunning Jerk Chickens it would have been so cool.😢

I expect to be adding Baha Mar to this list in November.

Try again.

LT Smith Start watching the video at the 10:25 point -

6’ 6”, 340 lbs. Zips have had 3-4 serviceable OLs in any of the past few seasons. They should be 2-deep with options this year. We should have a legit team and a manageable schedule this season. Gotta at least go 6-6. I’m feeling 7-5, which is insanity. I’ll make my stone cold lock prediction after I see an August scrimmage or two.

Much better fit for him than Ole Miss.

This is about as excited as I can get over a back up QB. He was a really impressive player out of HS. He will be a big improvement over Bullock. Strong, athletic kid. His dad is probably the most accomplished UA football player ever, if you look at the breadth of his overall football career. He played in the USFL and has coached high level positions at P5 and NFL staffs. His name usually pops up whenever the Zips decide they need a new HC (about every 3 years) He came to the Zips from Arizona State while I was at UA. He used to wear a burgundy corduroy jacket around campus that was swag from being on Arizona State's Rose Bowl team. Great player. To be eligible to play for the Zips in the fall I recall Mike Sr. had to take something insane like 24 credit hours over the summer, and he did it.

Watch that YouTube video at your own risk. The "reporter" extends what should be a 1 minute and 30 second story into a 30 minute diatribe. Funny to see former Zip Zach Gibson trying to catch on with the Orange. Akron to Georgia Tech to Georgia State to Syracuse?