ZachTheZip

Solid offer list. I'm totally OK with stacking the OL.

Another coaching staff move. Who is Mark Ouimet, and why does his hiring away from Akron warrant several verified Twitter accounts reporting it as breaking news? I honestly have no answer to either of these questions. GoZips.com lists him as our assistant DFO.

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2018/01/cleveland_state_university_of_akron_join_program_to_recruit_out-of-state_students.html

He's more of a defensive-minded coach.

Both records should stand. The introduction of the 3-point line is such a fundamental change to the game that it's not fair to make comparisons.

The ones that already do it? This is already how most class schedules are structured in most programs at UA. How long has it been since you've taken classes at UA? This move is just a formalization of how classes have been scheduled for over a decade now. Most programs already don't offer classes on Fridays and have not for a very long time. You seem to be apprehensive over this move, but it's nothing but marketing. Nothing is changing, because it's been this way for a while, just informally.

Buffalo started it. One year, the Rowdies traveled to Buffalo and the Buffalo students had started an "Akron's in Ohio" chant. Somebody yelled back "Yeah, well Buffalo's in Canada!" and it stuck.

That won't happen for decades. Zips fans really didn't stop talking about Huggins until Dambrot had put the program at a similar level and sustained it for a number of years. Until we hire a coach that can do the same or surpass it (something we're nowhere near), we'll continue to talk about Dambrot.

Williams wanted to make a major sports hire to boost his own resume/ego. It came down to Dambrot being easier to remove than Bowden due to a number of factors. The people on ZN who were bashing Dambrot sounded like immature teenagers venting after their crush broke up with them. Dambrot never wanted to leave Akron, especially not for another mid-major. In the end, the environment created athletic department left him with no choice.

That depends entirely on who we bring in to replace him. He was obviously doing something right. He had to have one of the hardest jobs on the coaching staff, constantly losing his best players to injury.

http://footballscoop.com/the-scoop/

Buffalo came in prepared like they were going to face one of Dambrot's best teams, despite what this season's stats say. That says a lot about the respect the program has built up over the years. If we continue in this direction, I don't know how much of that respect will remain by season's end. If every MAC team gets "up" to play us like they have in the past, we could see a lot of ugly blowouts.

The RPI going into tonight game: Buffalo - #30 (best in the MAC), Akron - 265 (worst in the MAC). UB is doing what they're supposed to to a team 200+ spots below them. We used to do the same thing to BG or whomever in the past. Sucks being on the receiving end.

Maybe the fact that you have to make the tournament to have a chance to win a game in it, and we're currently not good enough to make any postseason tournament.

The A-10 is projected to finish one spot behind the MAC this season (the MAC at #10, A-10 at #11) in the RPI, but the A-10 has much better top teams than anybody in the MAC and more bottom feeders. The MAC has no standouts but there are no bottom-feeders this year. We have zero opportunities for quality wins in the MAC this season, when usually we can count on Kent or Ohio or Buffalo to give us a boost, but wins over Rhode Island or St Bonaventure would catch the committee's eye. At the same time, Duquesne will have a harder path in their conference tournament because of that while the MAC is looking like a crapshoot where whoever gets hot at the right time will win it.

The MAC doesn't have any clear-cut bottom-feeders this year. Every team is projected to get at least ten wins and no team is expected to be in the bottom third of the RPI standings like we've seen in years past. Nobody's standing out with a great record right now, but there are no cupcakes.

First thought was Carl Pelini, but he just got hired by BGSU.

Good teams create their own luck by being opportunistic. But luck and opportunity can't overcome a major talent differential. We're not there yet, especially in the depth department which is why we can't seem to keep up with high-tempo teams. Recruiting has improved by an unfathomable amount since Bowden's early years at Akron. We're closer than you think.

As I understand it, bowl money gets split 50/50 between the team and the conference. So we get half the payout of our bowl, and 1/24th of the combined payouts of all the MAC bowls (half the other bowl payout money, split 12 ways). Plus a payout from the Playoffs, depending on the order finish of the G5 conferences (I have the MAC 3rd behind the AAC and MWC, but that's only a guess). Plus a little TV money from ESPN.

Alrighty, let's take a look at how many offers these guys had, according to the recruiting services. I don't feel like going through the players' twitter feeds to pick out any offers not listed on the recruiting websites at this time. Also keep in mind that the offer lists don't mean much of anything, since if you don't participate in the recruiting services' camps they'll straight-up ignore you unless you get a top-25 team chasing after you. OL Ben Phillis: Only offered by Akron OL Vincent Fonte: BGSU, Buffalo, Eastern Kentucky, and Kent. DL Logan Hawkins: Army, Ball State, Citadel, EMU, and Navy OL RJ Kelly: App State, BGSU, Bryant, Buffalo, EKU, Iowa State, Kent, Marshall, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, Toledo, YSU DB Rich Hall: Alabama State, Duquesne, FAU ATH Jalen Hooks: Boston College, Cincinnati, EKU, Kent, Miami OH, Toledo RB Keyondre White: Army, Buffalo, Florida A&M, FAU, Illinois, Louisville, Minnesota, Purdue, South Florida, Syracuse, UAB RB Devanier Floyd: Indiana State WR Daishawn Brimage: Only offered by Akron WR Gavin Blunt: Albany, Indiana State, Robert Morris This is a far cry from the years when nearly all of our recruits had only D-I offer.

I wouldn't expect too many more today. The real Signing Day is in February. The fact that we got as many early signees as we did is fantastic. This class is looking like the best we've had in a decade.