Akron Local Recruiting Targets

[wadszip]

He was a stud coming out of high school. He'd be a great pickup.

This seems like a perfect fit. A kid who can come home and play at a school that has built one of the nation's top front 7s under Amato with guys who transferred in from "bigger" programs. Hopefully, Sevon can get in his ear.

Wonder if another Canton kid, Brionte Dunn, may consider a transfer? He will be a fifth year guy (so guessing a grad transfer). Even with Ezekial Elliot going pro, it sounds like he may still not be at the top of the depth chart at OSU. He could come to Akron, easily be the bell-cow, tear up the MAC and have a shot at the NFL (think Thomas Rawls at CMU). It makes too much sense. Plus, I believe Sevon and Dunn are pretty tight.

Edit: just looked up Rawls vs. Dunn in college. Both seem like mirror images.

Rawls:

http://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/players/thomas-rawls-1.html

DuDunnhttp://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/players/brionte-dunn-1.html

Same size, similar Big Ten stats in limited time. Rawls parlayed his big year at CMU to spot on the Seahawks, where he is looking like the future RB there (despite an injury that cut his season short).

No doubt that Dunn, who was way more touted coming out of HS (5 star, top 30 prospect ... Who Michigan also wanted badly even though they already had Rawls in the same class) and more productive in a limited role in the Big Ten, could find himself in a similar situation, especially since a big RB is what this team needs with the losses of Hundley and Alexander.

Put Dunn in an Akron uniform and he could rush for 1,2000-1,300 yards and be a legit NFL prospect. And "going down" to Akron won't hurt him, since all NFL teams would have to do is look at what Thomas Rawls did at CMU as a reason to take him.

A big year at Akron, combined with the Rawls effect, and it wouldn't shock me to see somebody take him in the mid rounds of the NFL draft. If he stays at OSU, is relegated a backup, he still may stick with an NFL team, but probably as an undrafted player. True Rawls was also undrafted, but if he stayed at Michigan and split carries, he probably never even gets a shot.

Edited December 22, 2015 by wadszip

[wadszip]

Akron Builds Program on Backbone of Local Talent -from go zips dot com

"I can't say enough about bringing John Nemec onto our staff," Bowden said. "He's one of the deans of local high schools. He has great credibility and respect among coaches in this area, and I think having him on our staff has been critical to us earning that trust from these high school coaches. Apparently, Bowden's strategy has worked. Currently Akron has 51 student-athletes on its roster from the state of Ohio; 37 of those live within a 30-mile radius to campus, including eight of the 22 starters.

This photo shows the amount of talent that comes from the Akron-Canton area (not even counting Cleveland which is top 10 in the country). Akron-Canton, alone, had five HS teams reach the state final four in Ohio this past year. And that was with Hoban taking out SVSM and Perry taking out Hudson (two other state worthy teams).

Bowden is getting kids to buy in, even if the general public is still on the fence. This is a bit OT, but I passed Newman Williams' mom on I77 the other day. How did I know? She was displaying a bumper sticker on the back of her car that said "my son plays football for the Akron Zips" with a No. 35 on it. Yeah, moms are always proud of their sons, but there is a not too distant past where that wouldn't be something even a mother would like to announce to the world ... Or even the Akron-Canton area.

[Captain Kangaroo]

What Bowden has done right with the local kids is not accept the local 1-AA talent. He's been picky regarding who gets a scholarship offer. P5 transfers and upper-tier talent.

[LZIp]

What Bowden has done right with the local kids is not accept the local 1-AA talent. He's been picky regarding who gets a scholarship offer. P5 transfers and upper-tier talent.

I'm not sure how much I agree with this, but I'm also not sure its worth the time to debate. What we both can degree on is that he has brought in some nice local talent and they seem to be the cornerstone of the program.

Edited December 22, 2015 by LZip

[Blue & Gold]

Bump

 

I had fun re-reading through this old thread. Thought some of you might too.

[Blue & Gold]

 

[Blue & Gold]

I thinnnnnnkk we're trying to get King Sanders to walk-on.

 

 

[ZachTheZip]

 

[LZIp]

I am not aware of what happened to the old coach, but this new guy has UA connections.

 

[Captain Kangaroo]

20 minutes ago, LZIp said:

I am not aware of what happened to the old coach, but this new guy has UA connections.

 

Odd to hire a 68 year old softball coach as your new football coach. Was Wistercill somehow involved?

[blueandgold]

On 5/2/2017 at 3:51 PM, Captain Kangaroo said:

Odd to hire a 68 year old softball coach as your new football coach. Was Wistercill somehow involved?

This hire for Ellet shows you how much they care about becoming a better football program. First off, the softball coach? Secondly, he's been an assistant on the mediocre football team for many years. If they were serious, they would have hired someone completely outside of the "good ole' boy network". This was their chance to finally make a statement and they blew it.

[Steve1982]

Blew it ? Really? The very good players that they get one of every five years either go to St V or transfer to Massillon. Ellet generally wins more than they lose, and once in awhile they have a really good year. They are the "Iowa" of NE Ohio football and content with it. At some point you have to realize what your program is. And they have.

[blueandgold]

11 minutes ago, Steve1982 said:

Blew it ? Really? The very good players that they get one of every five years either go to St V or transfer to Massillon. Ellet generally wins more than they lose, and once in awhile they have a really good year. They are the "Iowa" of NE Ohio football and content with it. At some point you have to realize what your program is. And they have.

Yes, they completely blew it. Why do you think all the best players left for St V, Hoban, Massillon, etc after youth football? No one wanted to play for Yost and I can name plenty. Now they just promoted one of his assistants. How will that make things better? I agree that they win more than they lose, but they play in the Akron City Series and basically have two to three automatic wins before the season even starts. Then on top of that, the coaching staff almost never puts together a challenging out of conference schedule so they win two out of three of those games each year. What that means is they need to win two other games throughout the season and there is the winning record.

[LZIp]

East named High School Sports Insider team of the week.

http://citybeat-tv.com/?page=watch&show=4

Their only loss is to 5-1 Jackson by 7 points, even though they really haven't played anyone outside of Dover. Looking at their schedule, the city series seems to be a joke anymore talent wise.

 

The typical negative nancy's on here like to bash anyone getting excited about recruiting local players, but 4 of the 6 who have made it here this year are getting playing time (Brimage, Sampson, Burkhart, and Booker) as true freshman, whether it be on special teams, spot duty, or a pretty regular contributor. They must not be too bad.

 

@Blue & GoldYou are the resident local high school expert here. Are any of our current local commits really standing out to you or do you have anyone else in mind to keep an eye on that hasn't been offered?

[Blue & Gold]

@LZIp, I appreciate the compliment, but I'm no expert. Lol.  I guess I just spend a little more time following some of the top local players than most.

 

We missed on a really good LB from Barberton.  His name is Keye Thompson (6-1, 210).  He's a do everything player, kind reminds me of Julius Peppers.  He's going to OU.  

 

William Collier is another player from East who is really good.  I'd say he's 5-10, 200.  He was the excellent backup RB to Todd Sibley at Hoban last year.  Earlier this year I mentioned that I thought East RB Devanier Floyd had a good shot at being Ohio's Mr. Football.  Well, Devanier is still the starting RB at East, but with Will transferring in, he also gets quite a few carries, so Davanier's numbers are more watered down this year than I thought they would be.   Will is also a really good safety.  Great all-around player.

 

Two players from East to look for next year are...

 

Kyre Williams, a 5-11, 180 Safety/Corner/WR.  He's an athletic, quick, fast, slippery, athlete who East sometimes lines up @ the wildcat on O.

Dearius Reese, 6-2, 275 DL.  This guys excellent.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed on landing him.

 

McKinley's got a junior QB named Elijah Curtis who's been putting up impressive numbers, but he's only 5'9", so it's extremely unlikely we're looking at him for QB.  5'9" QB's who can play at the D-1 level are 1-in-a-million.  He'd have to be the next coming of Drew Brees or Russell Wilson.

 

I also like Jackson's QB, Jarret Polotta (sp?).  He's got great size at 6'5" & can really throw the ball.  Unfortunately he's verbally committed to UMass.

 

 

[K92]

55 minutes ago, Blue & Gold said:

@LZIp, I appreciate the compliment, but I'm no expert. Lol.  I guess I just spend a little more time following some of the top local players than most.

 

We missed on a really good LB from Barberton.  His name is Keye Thompson (6-1, 210).  He's a do everything player, kind reminds me of Julius Peppers.  He's going to OU.  

 

William Collier is another player from East who is really good.  I'd say he's 5-10, 200.  He was the excellent backup RB to Todd Sibley at Hoban last year.  Earlier this year I mentioned that I thought East RB Devanier Floyd had a good shot at being Ohio's Mr. Football.  Well, Devanier is still the starting RB at East, but with Will transferring in, he also gets quite a few carries, so Davanier's numbers are more watered down this year than I thought they would be.   Will is also a really good safety.  Great all-around player.

 

Two players from East to look for next year are...

 

Kyre Williams, a 5-11, 180 Safety/Corner/WR.  He's an athletic, quick, fast, slippery, athlete who East sometimes lines up @ the wildcat on O.

Dearius Reese, 6-2, 275 DL.  This guys excellent.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed on landing him.

 

McKinley's got a junior QB named Elijah Curtis who's been putting up impressive numbers, but he's only 5'9", so it's extremely unlikely we're looking at him for QB.  5'9" QB's who can play at the D-1 level are 1-in-a-million.  He'd have to be the next coming of Drew Brees or Russell Wilson.

 

I also like Jackson's QB, Jarret Polotta (sp?).  He's got great size at 6'5" & can really throw the ball.  Unfortunately he's verbally committed to UMass.

 

 

B&G, your knowledge of local hs football is pretty impressive.

[LZIp]

1 hour ago, Blue & Gold said:

@LZIp, I appreciate the compliment, but I'm no expert. Lol.  I guess I just spend a little more time following some of the top local players than most.

 

We missed on a really good LB from Barberton.  His name is Keye Thompson (6-1, 210).  He's a do everything player, kind reminds me of Julius Peppers.  He's going to OU.  

 

William Collier is another player from East who is really good.  I'd say he's 5-10, 200.  He was the excellent backup RB to Todd Sibley at Hoban last year.  Earlier this year I mentioned that I thought East RB Devanier Floyd had a good shot at being Ohio's Mr. Football.  Well, Devanier is still the starting RB at East, but with Will transferring in, he also gets quite a few carries, so Davanier's numbers are more watered down this year than I thought they would be.   Will is also a really good safety.  Great all-around player.

 

Two players from East to look for next year are...

 

Kyre Williams, a 5-11, 180 Safety/Corner/WR.  He's an athletic, quick, fast, slippery, athlete who East sometimes lines up @ the wildcat on O.

Dearius Reese, 6-2, 275 DL.  This guys excellent.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed on landing him.

 

McKinley's got a junior QB named Elijah Curtis who's been putting up impressive numbers, but he's only 5'9", so it's extremely unlikely we're looking at him for QB.  5'9" QB's who can play at the D-1 level are 1-in-a-million.  He'd have to be the next coming of Drew Brees or Russell Wilson.

 

I also like Jackson's QB, Jarret Polotta (sp?).  He's got great size at 6'5" & can really throw the ball.  Unfortunately he's verbally committed to UMass.

 

 

Yeah I remember us offering Keye Thompson and was a little bummed he chose OU. Maybe we can get lucky and change his mind.....

 

Looks like Collier is a senior. I wonder why he transferred to East from Hoban. Per 247, he has an offer from Minnesota and YSU.

 

Brimage to me sort of looks like a man amongst boys whenever it seems that East uses him (I've only seen highlights, and I imagine he doesn't get much use on a team that is run heavy like they are).

 

I thought I remembered us offering Williams. Maybe I'm mistaken.

 

Apparently not showing any interest at all in Pallotta is a little disheartening, considering we don't have a QB yet for this class. Seems to have great size and has FBS offers to WKU and UMASS.

Edited October 5, 2017 by LZIp

[72 Roo]

Collier left Hoban because he did not take care of his academics. Approach him with caution. He cared little about being a student and we should not tolerate that regardless of the stress we see our program in. 

[LZIp]

I really want Keye Thompson. Holding out hope we can lure him from Ohio.

[LZIp]

Buchtel had a big upset of East last night.

https://www.ohio.com/akron/sports/high-school/city-series/high-school-football-buchtel-15-east-13-brandon-mcginnis-devin-west-lead-griffins-to-city-series-victory

 

Powers, Buchtel's coach, had good things to say about Floyd (and Bridges).

[Blue & Gold]

I was at that game last night.  Good game.  Buchtel really did a good job selling out to stop the run & force East to beat them by passing the ball.

 

A Buchtel junior who really stood out to me was WR Zayir Keen.  Zayir is 6'2", fast & has great hands.  He's pretty thin though, at only 170.

[LZIp]

 

[LZIp]

2 hours ago, LZIp said:

 

Really don't understand how Treon Sibley has one offer.

http://www.hudl.com/v/27xHd4

[zipsoutsider]

1 hour ago, LZIp said:

Really don't understand how Treon Sibley has one offer.

http://www.hudl.com/v/27xHd4

Maybe grades? We might be willing to take a kid who has to spend a year at community college.

[LZIp]

Am not going to start a new thread, but if you won't be at any of the playoff games tonight and want to watch, you can choose from 10 or so here. Must be a Spectrum/TW subsriber. Barton/Hoban and Mentor/Iggy are very intriguing to me.

http://www.myspectrumsports.com/oh/northeastohio.html