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Little background on these guys while I'm anxiously awaiting the Browns game to start: Matt Feeney: Dublin, OH native. Very young...earned his bachelor's in 2014. Team captain at JCU then joined Arth's staff. Led UTC to the #1 ranked defense in the Southern Conference in 2018, his first year as DC, as the prior DC left to join Kent State... Oscar Rodriguez: Kansas native. A lot of JUCO and D3 experience. ESPN article featuring him and the experience of JUCO recruiting here. Davern Williams: Popular in my eyes from Netflix's popular CFB documentary, Last Chance U. From the south. Played DT a few years in the NFL. Seems to be a real good recruiter and a coach that can connect well with his unit. Scott Aligo: Linked with Arth back to JCU. Also has 6 years of player personnel experience in the NFL. Brian Cochran: Another JCU guy. Coached with Arth his first year at UT-C. Apparently left for a promotion to Kent St in 2018. As far as I can tell, he'd rather be at Akron than KSU (who can blame him). Chris Hurd: Texas native. Played defense in college. Has prior FBS experience. His bio on UT-C site definitely leans on the special teams side. Chris Cook: UTC alum. Had a TE named to the All So-Con team in 2017. Tom Zagorski: Arth's OC at JCU in 2014. Then left for a offensive quality control position at Tennessee. Took another job to EKU the year after as assistant head coach/TE coach. Served as OC the final 4 games of 2018 where he led them to a 4-0 record. Is from Cleveland and definitely has some connections. As 94zipgrad pointed out, there are still a few open positions. Hoping Mounds can still make the cut as there is a real lack of FL connections in this staff.

That $60 must have been really breaking the bank.

Um, its called realism?! When has Akron ever played a team with that talent that close?

Stats.

I'm not sure I see where the issue is. TB, if kept around the university, will not be involved with the football program whatsoever. A fundraising type role makes the most sense in my opinion. Urban Meyer is likely going to do something similar at OSU.

Ugh.

Not much to take from the interview specific to the program IMO. Said there's no reason Akron can't be a "Toledo" of the MAC. Going to concentrate on recruiting in the area. Feels UT-C was a good learning experience to help prepare him to make the jump to FBS Justin Fields was brought up tongue in cheek, Arth prefaced by saying he feels like we have a pretty good one here. Hopes to have staff in place by end of the week. Still a few positions trying to finalize. Didn't mention any names.

I wonder how many of our previous commits signed with somewhere else yesterday.Seems like at least 5 just following this thread. Hopefully we can still save face with the rest.

Arth supposed to be on 92.3 at 8:20.

I was thinking something similar, but looking at our spring roster - I only see 2 true corners - Riley and Lubin. All the others guys are either likely walk ons or have only played safety up until this point. FWIW - Denzel Butler was listed as a Redshirt Jr. on the 2018 roster, but isn't on the 2019 spring roster. I think we need some depth at CB, whether it be new signees or players switching positions.

I'm right there with you on both accounts.

Shredo Louis going to Liberty with Sibley.

Looks like we offered this guy who was also recruited by UT-C. Has offers from UAB and Ark State as well. Most important thing here IMO is him tagging Davern Williams, as that would indicate he will be on the staff. He's been brought up before by I think @zzx, but he was at EMCC on Last Chance U, with Arth's staff at UT-C. Seems like a good coach and recruiter. UT-C's biggest recruits, where they really seemed to punch above their weight, last year were Dlineman.

Okay - PCCC is actually doing something cool.

My mistake! Thats what I get for not looking it up.

Bummer. Sibley to Liberty.

Good for Buffalo. I hope they’re undefeated when we play them ?. Beating Syracuse and WVU on the road will go a long way towards the MAC getting two bids this year if they end up losing the MAC-C. Still have St. Bona and Marquette though. Winning 1 of those 2 and then losing no more than two games in conference play should do the job, IMO.

I mean, we have played Clemson, Illinois State, St Bonaventure, Marshall, and will play Nevada this OOC. 4 of those 5 at least won 1 NCAA game last year. I believe Illinois State was picked to finish high in the MVC. We also play Buffalo twice, who won a tourney game last year lol - and is undefeated, unless they lose to Cuse tonight. I agree the home OOC sucks tho.

Just pulled Lance Leipold's bio. Buffalo actually lost one more game in his first year compared to the year before he took over. He actually even regressed, only winning 2 games in his second season. Didn't even have a winning season until this year (his fourth year). I think its fair to assume there is quite a gap making that jump that these coaches likely have to adjust to. I would imagine that is a large part of UT-C's immediate regression, along with other factors I'm sure (which have been brought up). Let's hope Arth cut his teeth at UT-C and can hit the ground running here. I like the fact that he 1) is a local guy who seems to want to be in the area and 2) isn't always looking for the next job, even though recent history might suggest otherwise. Keeping him here at least an extra year or two if he's kicking ass would be nice and would likely do wonders in making our program more than a flash in the pan in the MAC.

Keep an eye on this guy. New staff offered him (also recruited at UT-C). 3 years to play 2. https://247sports.com/Recruitment/Koby-Perry-121065/RecruitInterests/ Another one we just offered that Arth was recruiting at UT-C. Looks like 3 years to play 3. Apparently originally at OK St. https://247sports.com/player/james-lewis-83495/

Early signing period begins tomorrow and runs through Friday. Total shot in the dark, but I'm setting the O/U for early signees at 6, which may include some non-qualifiers/greyshirts from last year's class like Sibley and Phillis. Also, a good thing for at least this year - and kind of expected - the spring roster shows Featherstone, Lloyd, and Robbie Kelley. So looking at 3 less schollies to fill and have quality players using them, in my opinion.

Coach Mounds has liked two tweets related to Akron naming Arth HC, FWIW.