Zipgrad01

We're probably desperate to fill our recruiting class. 4 spots to fill in only a few days. This is probably a sign we aren't pursuing any more JUCOs. Broken record...mr doom and gloom

Finally, we have a cornerback with decent size. Yes he has good size for a CB. That should make us all happy if he has the speed. But if he truly was recruited at LB I have serious misgivings. I don't care if he has been in a weight program or not. At the desparate stage we find our team in now we need someone who can give us productive playing time after one year in our program. He may be too small for that at LB. Putting him in the average size of our current LB's means nothing because they are almost all undersized and under-performing. If we are to build the program we all want, our recruits will have to be better than what we have rather than equal to our average size. Now we are turning our noses at 3 star players because they don't fit "your" mold of what we should be recruiting. My god the negativity about everything Ianello does is getting annoying. Be thankful we got a 3 star "athlete". Let the coaching staff determine where he should play once he gets here. I've seen lots of three stars come to Akron who can't play in the MAC. The negativism comes from being 1-11 and having a coaching staff that did not make the team any better from the beginning of the season to the end, like Miami did last year when they went 1-11. This is not being negative, it's being realistic in the assessment of the program. We can't get better until we objectively assess what we have and then go get what we need. We need size and athleticism at LB. I also remember JD coming in and winning the MAC title his first year and everyone thought we we on our way to greatness only to see things get progressively worse. I am willing to let Ianello build the team how he wants to. Granted, I wont be willing to give him 6 or 7 years to do it. I just want to see improvement year after year. I am not going to hold 1 bad year of house cleaning and concept changes against him. I will start questioning things if I don't start seeing improvement by late next year and into his 3rd season. This program was in bad, bad shape, so it isnt an over night process.

Finally, we have a cornerback with decent size. Yes he has good size for a CB. That should make us all happy if he has the speed. But if he truly was recruited at LB I have serious misgivings. I don't care if he has been in a weight program or not. At the desparate stage we find our team in now we need someone who can give us productive playing time after one year in our program. He may be too small for that at LB. Putting him in the average size of our current LB's means nothing because they are almost all undersized and under-performing. If we are to build the program we all want, our recruits will have to be better than what we have rather than equal to our average size. Now we are turning our noses at 3 star players because they don't fit "your" mold of what we should be recruiting. My god the negativity about everything Ianello does is getting annoying. Be thankful we got a 3 star "athlete". Let the coaching staff determine where he should play once he gets here.

From looking at Rivals recently, I think only one or two MAC schools (CMU/Toledo?) had more verbals than Akron. Now, if we can get some more three*s. I don't think the number of recruits should mean anything. The way the ratings work, we would be ranked higher with a class of 25 scrubs than a MAC school with 18 recruits but five or six three-star players. I don't know if we have enough quality recruits to make a difference. Looking at who we lost to graduation and what "talent" we have to replace them, this class needed to be a home run with a bunch of guys who would start immediately and were comparable to upper-level MAC players just to have a chance at a .500 record. It shouldn't be too hard for the much-heralded recruiting genius Ianello to come up with a couple dozen players who match-up with what the upper MAC schools have. Even his worst classes at his old jobs would tear through the current MAC with ease. But, we're not seeing that kind of talent coming in with the exception of maybe three or four players. Why is that? You have no idea what we have coming in. Miami didnt exactly tear up the rivals ratings, but obviously brought their talent level up. The rivals rankings are a guess at best. You cant base our class on a rivals rating. I will base it how the guys perform at the college level.

I ran into this article today again, more than a year later. Re-reading it, this quotes stood out. It seems obvious now, and it was to some of us from the beginning. He was supposed to be one of the best recruiters in the country, but now his recruiting classes are about average for a MAC school. The learning curve almost did lead to a dead end, but he pulled a win out of his @$$ at the last second to save the slightest bit of face. How do you know that his recruiting classes are average, because Rivals says so? If you look at last years class, most of the guys that were Brookhart verbals did nothing. In the short time that he had to recruit he brought in some young guys that show promise. I think we need to see his classes on the field before we make comments like this.

Thanks for keeping tabs on recruiting, Zach! Will Rodnell be eligible to play immediately, or must he sit for a year? From the day you enroll in a school you have 5 years to play 4. Thus he should not be available to play for the Zips until Fall 2012, since he needs to sit out a full calendar year. He can practice, but not play. Maybe there's a way that he can take a full summer school load and be eligible...but I don't think so. If we made a bowl game in 2011, I believe he could play in the game since his 2nd full Akron semester would be completed. But isn't this different since he is a greyshirt? That's basically a walkon for the first year. If he never had a scholly, it shouldn't matter. 1.) I don't know whether or not he was actually a greyshirt. I know he was a late-qualifier. But it would be quite a steal to get a Rivals 3-star to come to a MAC campus without a scholarship. Not impossible, but very unlikely. 2.) Regardless of anything...the moment you enroll, and step on a given campus, the NCAA clock starts. Scholarship or no scholarship. If BuckZip never played a down of football for the Zips, never even attended a practice...just attended school, then transferred to Ohio State to play football after 3 years @ UA, he would have 1 year of eligibility at Ohio State regardless of whether or not he ever played football at UA. He actually had no stars on rivals. I just looked him up. He isnt listed on Ball States class either.

Hopefully he doesnt sell his all star game ring to a tattoo parlor. : )

There are 14 JC teams in Mississippi divided into 2 divisions, they play a 9 game regular season. Top 2 teams in each division(4 team total) meet in a playoff system. Winner is Mississippi JC football champion. Mississippi JC Champion is one of the teams in the Mississippi Bowl which is one of about 8 or 9 JC Football Bowl games. http://www.recruitingplanet.com/forum/wisc...-miss-walk.html Kid looks like he had some huge offers. May be a huge get if true.

You would be the same guy in the Miami forum last year ripping on their 1-11 coach. Why don't you cool it until the guy gets a chance to recruit and put in his systems. It is getting annoying to read and I am sure potential recruits visit this site. I know it would really make me want to come here and play.

Thanks for the input. Your statement means more to me than any BS rivals stars. He was the best player on the field when Glenville played Dwyer from Florida. They were a national top 5 team and Morgan was a terror on defense that day.

I watched Glenville 3 or 4 times this year and DeVonte Morgan can flat out play. He is a great pickup.

IMNHO, this is a real good home schedule next year on both an entertaining/interesting level and importance of winning the MAC East (If Miami can do it, we can do it) level. Some think getting our butts kicked by BCS teams is an indication of where the program is...maybe. I believe a better indication is how we do against other non-BCS D-1A teams. Playing FIU at home will allow us to better measure our program in the world of reality. Please tell me that you are joking. Nobody cares about FIU or VMI. That is a joke of a home non conference schedule. A gauge of our program needs to be against the Indiana's of the world. We already play garbage in the MAC. Measures against other garbage teams does nothing to get fans interested.

I only wish our model of hiring coaches without head coaching experiece turned out as good as theirs did. The following Miami coaches had their first head coaching experience at Miami (source) 1. Joe Novak 2. Bo Schembeckler 3. Bill Mallory 4. Ara Parseghian 5. Randy Walker 6. Terry Hoepner Being a good head coach has more to do with being able to get talented players to come to your school and then do something with them than it does laboring for years in the lower ranks of college football as you move your way up. Funny.....I am sure they were saying the same thing about this guy when he was 1-11 last year.

I only wish our model of hiring coaches without head coaching experiece turned out as good as theirs did. The following Miami coaches had their first head coaching experience at Miami (source) 1. Joe Novak 2. Bo Schembeckler 3. Bill Mallory 4. Ara Parseghian 5. Randy Walker 6. Terry Hoepner Being a good head coach has more to do with being able to get talented players to come to your school and then do something with them than it does laboring for years in the lower ranks of college football as you move your way up.

Entire fanbase? You mean he upset about 3,000 people? I am sure the university can live with that if he really CAN recruit and gets us out of this funk next year.

My question.... With 17 starters back, a lot was expected from this team. After watching the first 5 games, the players seem to have regressed since last season. Is this due to the players getting used to a new offensive and defensive philosophy or is it that we simply do not have the right type of players to run the system that you are trying to install?

I will be headed over there early Friday afternoon. Anyone else making the trip? If so, has anyone looked at their tailgate map and figured out where they are setting up?

Unfortunately, I already have my tickets. We all need to find a place and tailgate together.

I noticed that as well though I am not all that concerned with AA and Burney in the backfield. I would like to see him get a few reps when we are up big at Can't He needs to be playing now. It is a complete waste to burn this kid on special teams. Alex Allen is not very quick and Burney is too small. Get this kid in there now.

I am still guilty of being too optimistic at 35-0, aren't I? 55-0 Kentucky

Great post. While I am struggling to understand some of Ianello's on the field decisions, I have also come to the conclusion that we have 1-AA talent in a few area's and D3 talent in other areas. We only have a handful of legit 1A players on this team. I just pray that we are able to recruit through this disaster of a season.

Come on...this team is a joke. If we don't win by 30+ we have major issues. We have issues. We just hope they aren't major. We'll probably know this in a few more weeks. We still have talent lights years ahead of a nobody like Gardner Webb. This game will be a beatdown.

Come on...this team is a joke. If we don't win by 30+ we have major issues.

Nice Job GP1. You've probably found the only thing about Nicely that reminds us of Charlie. Charlie took a way worse beat down his first game against a BCS team as a Senior with a new coach than PN took yesterday as a sophomore. The middle of our OL is terrible. We ran far too many 5 and 7 step drops. By the time Nicely made his drop he was running in circles for his life. The only time he looked comfortable was out of the gun or when the coach was smart enough to go to a 3 step drop and get the ball out. Our receivers are pathetic. Our safeties are horrible. That being said, our best safety is playing wr. It is time to end the Jalil Carter project. Move him back to safety and get Sconiers or Russell in the game at receiver. Why wait until the season is half over before they blow their redshirt because it is going to have to happen if we want to score. Our running backs are terrible. They are small and slow. There was a huge speed difference. Not one of our guys could get to the edge on any plays. Brian Wagner is an absolute beast.

Sorry if this has been posted somewhere, but I have a few people that are meeting us at their tailgate and they don't have parking passes. I am in Lot 9. Where is the closest cash parking lot that I can send them to? Appreciate the help!