zipsoutsider

From Sleeper Athletes: http://twitter.com/SleeperAthletes/statuses/561707717925298176

2016 OT Brandon Ford from Upper St. Clair HS in the Pittsburgh area was offered. http://www.hudl.com/athlete/1339682/highlights/198889375

They do pictures late spring/early summer. He probably had not arrived on campus yet. They do not do updates throughout the year on photos.

I think we have more talent at OL on the roster then most people are accounting for. Boyett, Brown, and Brumbaugh are returning, and when I look at the other kids returning who have not had the chance to make an impact yet, there seems to be solid potential.

From GoZips.com AKRON, Ohio — University of Akron head coach Terry Bowden has invited all students, faculty, and fans to the Zips' inaugural interactive experience to celebrate National Signing Day on Wednesday, Feb. 4. Festivities will take place at 3 p.m. at the University of Akron Student Union (Starbucks stage). All students, faculty, and fans will have the opportunity to meet the Zips' mentor, ask questions during the press conference, and win prizes for attending. During the hour-long engagement, all will learn about the signees and watch video highlights. Fans may tweet their questions to Bowden in advance, using the hashtag– #AskBowden. The Signing Day event will also be streamed live on GoZips.com. Akron football opens the 2015 season at Oklahoma on Sept. 5. Available on site, season tickets for Akron Football start at only $60 each and are a 40 percent savings over single-game tickets. Fans can make non-refundable deposits for season tickets for $25 per seat anytime at GoZips.com/Tickets, or from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET on Mondays through Fridays by either calling 1-888-99-AKRON (25766) or visiting The C.P. and Cornelia S. Chima Athletics Ticket Office at InfoCision Stadium - Summa Field (located at 375 E. Exchange Street, near Gate 1 at the southwest corner of the venue, at the corner of E. Exchange and S. Union streets). Season ticket holders will be able to renew their tickets online beginning on February 4 at 9 a.m.

Gilbert was originally a Bearcat commit.

TE Avery Cagle Hudl 6‘ 4"/227/4.57-40

Arrested for possession 4 days ago.

More than anything, someone who is the visible leader of the offense is needed.

Big Ben went to Miami of OH.

Again, those recruiting sites have little to do with talent, more to do with revenue for the recruiting site. They do poorly with kids from smaller schools.

Overnight RV parking would be great if we continue weeknight games. Agree about moving the Zipfest to Lot 9. Also, the Root walk needs to be coordinated with the fans better. As it is, hardly anyone is there. Also, it would be nice if somehow Lot 9 was not filled with Pitt fans this fall when we play them. It was pretty annoying to have to walk through the Marshall fans. The other suggestion would be to get some of the bigger names around town and campus down to lot 9 - President Scarborough, the AD, etc.. They could also do different features each week where you could meet different people. Maybe get the radio station to broadcast from Lot 9 or a local sportscaster to do a segment from there. They could also coordinate it with some of their other initiatives. For military appreciation day, invite the military personnel to a hospitality tent in lot 9, where they would be the VIPs, etc.. The other thing that has always puzzled me is having the student section and band so far away from the home side (in the stadium). I think the crowd loses a lot of synergy from the gap. I know, ideally, the home side would be full, but it isn't, at least not regularly.

Washington State LB Darryl Monrore to transfer to Akron Article is very poorly written. Found this and this on him. He graduated so he should be eligible to play this fall, I believe.

The good news is that both ESPN and the NCAA will want to focus on a new team or the next championship game to drive 2015-2016 ratings. The money game is always about the next great thing, not yesterday's great thing.

The reality in college football recruiting is that it is more about players marketing themselves to coaches than it is about coaches looking for hidden talent. The recruiting sites are nothing more than entrepreneurs capitalizing on an opportunity. Almost every parent wants to give their kid the edge with recruiting and these guys all promise that. It is an easy sell, to some degree. Who wants to feel like they aren't doing everything they can to put their kid in the best position for the best offers? The truth is that recruiting coaches will generally look at the videos sent to them, whether its from a paid site or from the kid himself, posted to YouTube. Why on earth would a coach want to take the advice of a website that is acting as a paid advocate? Bowden addressed the lack of commits showing up on websites in his last press conference and said they already had 12 kids onto he roster already who counted towards the 2015 recruiting class. http://youtu.be/A3O0EpHJ63Q?t=22m28s Remember, the coaching staff cannot comment on high school commits until signing day, so unless we happen to pick up the story via a news source or Twitter, we don't know who has committed

I doubt we will see a change of OC and I don't think a change is necessary. Milwee was likely working under the guidance of Bowden and the blame that has been assigned to him here has likely been unfair. In his defense, it's hard to run a successful offense with receivers who seemed to drop more than they caught and the QB challenges that presented themselves. The season was nearly over when the O line gelled enough to run with any consistency (Sorry, I am not part of the "run no matter what" club.) Our receivers rarely had a height advantage, limiting what we were able to achieve. Pitt, obviously, came ill prepared and not prepared to stop the run. They were out-coached, and this seemed to lead many we were further along than we were. Yes, we can probably expect a better run game and balanced offense next year as the O line will have matured. I believe we will start to turn the corner next year with more Bowden recruits on the field. I understand people are tired of waiting, but you don't overcome years of poor recruiting in 3 years. President Scarborough is a huge football fan and likely has the good sense to not loose the best coach that could possibly be hoped for at UA. It is complete nonsense to even hint that there should be any consideration that Bowden 's job would be in any type of jeopardy. The fact that everyone was disappointed with the results last season is a testimony to the progress of the program itself.

It's a shame that you even brought it up, truthfully

Bowden and his staff have had 2 years to convince kids to come play for what was, the worst team in 1A football. How many true freshman played this year? That's right 0, outside of the place kicker in the first 2 games. So, you basically have 1 year of his recruiting class and the best transfers he could scrounge up. Akron had years of horrible recruiting and you want overnight results. It just doesn't work that way. Even the not so great MAC teams we faced this year had the leg up with years of better recruiting. Just because it isn't happening on your schedule doesn't mean it isn't happening. I think next year we will be better and the year after is when we really turn the corner to becoming a truly dominate MAC team. If Bowden had let previous coaching recruits go, who would he have played? True freshman who weren't ready? Kids coming from HS need that first year to acclimate to the move from HS to college. A few can get by but find me a coach who wouldn't rather red shirt freshmen. They have time to adjust mentally and get bigger, stronger, and faster. While there are a few people who were expecting instant gratification here, most rational people understand that convincing a kid to play here, in from, of a few thousand fans, versus teams that have been going to MAC Championships and bowl games is not an easy task. The fact that Bowden has brought in the quality recruits that he has is pretty remarkable - it's been almost like selling swamp land. It's going to take a little time and he isn't interested in building a 1 and done team, he wants to build a program.

We are allowed 15 practices.

It might be hard to get officials in and making sure emergency personnel (like an ambulance) can easily get to and from the hospital could be an issue. Ultimately, it taxes a community who is already over-taxed to play the game. MAC/UB made the right call.

The temperature is predicted to be 12 degrees at kick-off with the wind chill making it feel like -3 (yes, that's Fahrenheit. It looks mostly free of snow, however we may see flurries in the second half.

One of our pass problems, apart from drops, is that our receivers, particularly our long ball threat receivers, have been hugely outmatched in either height or skill for the second part of the season. It's not like we have guys running down field, wide open and we aren't trying to get them the ball. It seems like our long passes have been fairly well covered and as in the case of the BGSU game, their secondary out-played our receivers, taking the ball out of our hands. This greatly reduces the ability to use shorter plays to set up bigger plays. I disagree about the effectiveness of using the short passes. Our problem is that really, only Williams and Bickley make plays after the catch, and you have to limit your use of Bickley due to his size. Tyler Williams effort after the catch has been excellent for the last 3 to 4 games. Chisolm can also be effective in this scenario, but it seems as though defenses are aware of that and waiting for him. I doubt most of you who are criticizing the play calling know how to read the defenses like the offensive coordinator and coaching staff and I really don't put a lot of stock in your criticisms. I would imagine that the early play calling has had a purpose, but when you fail to execute on the game plan early in the game, you have to adjust accordingly. Overall, it is easy to sit here and pick apart the coaches, telling them who they should play and who they shouldn't, but honestly, what do we know? We don't know the dynamics of practices or if there are lingering injuries. We don't know which kids have attitude problems. Critiquing the play calling when the talent level isn't there yet is also an easy cheap shot. Everyone wants a fix today, but you can't take the worst team in college football and fix it overnight. Bowden has had 2 recruiting classes and a large chunk of the second one is likely red-shirting this year. Even though he carries a big name, recruiting with the mess he walked into with the program is going to take a little time. Buffalo had talent and had the recruiting leverage - they didn't fall apart until early this season. The same could really be said of the other recent losses, Ball State, Ohio, and BGSU. I realize that many have lost their patience, but some of the posts, more or less calling for coaches to resign, are nothing short of ignorant. We had our hopes built up early by a good game against PSU (who really is not that good this year) and a win over Pitt, where Pitt was clearly unprepared and out-coached. Apart from Howard and Pitt, our offense has never looked great all year. Red zone scoring has been a problem since PSU and it has not improved. We have found ways to score, at times, but never a real since of consistency. I wouldn't mind seeing Woodson run the offense for the rest of the season, either. I agree with Captain Kangaroo: at least there was a sense of urgency when he led the team. There did seem to be a little better chemistry, at times, with the receivers, too.

Will be around 22 degrees with 12 mph winds at kick-off. It is going to be a miserable game for the Stein and Zach Paul. Lake effect snow is also possible. I don't agree with those who think run first, pass second, but I hope we can establish the run game early to take the pressure off of Pohl, throwing a football in that kind of weather is like throwing a brick. Chisolm did as best as can be expected with what he had last week. He hit the holes fast and where there was no hole, he bounced it to the outside. He had the right balance. I look for him to have a good game this week. He has had bursts that looked like he was close to having a break out game this season and it seems like he is hungry for it. Tyler William also seems on the verge of a breakout and seems to have been the most consistent receiver over the last month. He does a good job picking up extra yards after the catch.

http://youtu.be/L0MK7qz13bU?t=1m4s

Wrong, Go listen to the MAC head coach's call. Sorry to disappoint the conspiracy theorists.