2017 recruiting

[72 Roo]

2 hours ago, Blue & Gold said:

Idk, I don't really trust those sites.  Jemarulin Suggs is definitely signing.  Same with DeAndre Brimage.

 

(Unless they're both non-qualifiers, or something. But they're both definitely planning on playing ball for UA.)

Blue and Gold, if Bubba is such a good player, as evidenced by his Plain dealer defensive POY, how did we get him as a walk on and no scholly? Not trying to be a smart ass here, just trying to see how we did it. perhaps you know.

[zzx]

According to the Sun Sentinel

 

CB Jeffrey Lubin is down to Akron and Minnesota  

[Blue & Gold]

7 hours ago, 72 Roo said:

Blue and Gold, if Bubba is such a good player, as evidenced by his Plain dealer defensive POY, how did we get him as a walk on and no scholly? Not trying to be a smart ass here, just trying to see how we did it. perhaps you know.

I have absolutely no idea!  And since he's just a PWO, I'm totally amped he decided to walk on with us instead of at Ohio State!  

 

Kinda like CB Jeffrey Lubin is down to either accepting a scholarship with us, or accepting a PWO w/ Minnesota, I thought that was the boat we were in with Bubba.

 

Fantastic, no-risk get by the Zippers.

Edited February 1, 2017 by Blue & Gold

[zipsoutsider]

3 hours ago, Blue & Gold said:

I have absolutely no idea!  And since he's just a PWO, I'm totally amped he decided to walk on with us instead of at Ohio State!  

 

Kinda like CB Jeffrey Lubin is down to either accepting a scholarship with us, or accepting a PWO w/ Minnesota, I thought that was the boat we were in with Bubba.

 

Fantastic, no-risk get by the Zippers.

I wonder if he was offered a PWO with the expectation of it becoming something else, very soon.

[LZIp]

Looks like Bentley will be on scholly.

[zipsoutsider]

Maxi Hradacny signed with Duquesne.

[ZippyRulz]

Dre Williams (WR, Florida) finds a home, accepts offer from Terry Bowden, Akron

 

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/florida-recruiting/blog/os-dre-williams-accepts-offer-terry-bowden-akron-20170202-story.html

Edited February 3, 2017 by ZippyRulz

[LZIp]

23 minutes ago, ZippyRulz said:

Dre Williams (WR, Florida) finds a home, accepts offer from Terry Bowden, Akron

 

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/florida-recruiting/blog/os-dre-williams-accepts-offer-terry-bowden-akron-20170202-story.html

Good stuff, thanks for sharing. True freshman with instant eligibility. He instantly becomes the highest rated prospect in our class, but it won't show up in any of the recruiting rankings that people look back on as they are already set. I wouldn't mind a few other guys that fell through the cracks.

http://247sports.com/Player/Andre-Williams-57233

Edited February 3, 2017 by LZIp

[kreed5120]

18 minutes ago, ZippyRulz said:

Dre Williams (WR, Florida) finds a home, accepts offer from Terry Bowden, Akron

 

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/florida-recruiting/blog/os-dre-williams-accepts-offer-terry-bowden-akron-20170202-story.html

According to this we offered him in May 2016. I'm not sure if we pulled that offer or what, but he must of been on Bowden's radar at some point.

 

http://247sports.com/Player/Andre-Williams-57233/TimelineEvents

[Balsy]

Just looking at the classes, I'd be willing to bet that next recruiting class LB and OL will be a big point of focus.

Edited February 3, 2017 by Balsy

[K92]

1 hour ago, ZippyRulz said:

Dre Williams (WR, Florida) finds a home, accepts offer from Terry Bowden, Akron

 

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/florida-recruiting/blog/os-dre-williams-accepts-offer-terry-bowden-akron-20170202-story.html

Strange.  Did all offers get pulled including Akron and then we circled back around and reoffered?

 

Great news, though.

[zipsoutsider]

5' 10"/173

40: 4.5

Meet Dre Williams

He is elusive, for sure:

 

 

[Blue & Gold]

Well, this makes me feel a little bit (a LITTLE bit) better about our WR corps after it got gutted this off season.

 

Honestly, my optimism about next year was based on a healthy Woody throwing to those three P5 guys I thought we had waiting in the wings.

[LZIp]

4 hours ago, Blue & Gold said:

Honestly, my optimism about next year was based on a healthy Woody throwing to those three P5 guys I thought we had waiting in the wings.

Agree...I don't know I am still holding out some blind hope though that at least 1 of them will be here. All 3 transferring here, sitting out a year, and then deciding to either quit football or transfer and sit out again (i believe) seems unlikely. Even more so when you consider the fact that there is plenty of opportunity at the position and a pretty good QB should be throwing to them.

 

The defense should be quite improved/healthy again which will help and I think people are sleeping on the RB situation as well. Ball is the real deal, in MAC play at worst. He gained 70 on Wisconsin in a half. Even if he gets hurt there is now another P5 guy who has shown promise behind him as well. i don't have any real expectations because there are a lot of newcomers, but I'm not pessimistic, just have a wait and see attitude I guess.

Edited February 4, 2017 by LZIp

[zzx]

Some background on Andre Williams WR:

 

Orlando WR Andre Williams nets offers from UNC, NC State, Kentucky

 

Orlando University High WR Andre Williams sidelined with broken ankle

 

WR Andre Williams is healthy and ready to roll at Winter Park

[Tiger for Life 88]

Andre Williams plays in the 8A classification in FL. Those schools in his area average 2800 kids or better and that District is one of the toughest in the state with Apopka and West Orange. He is legit!

Edited February 5, 2017 by Tiger for Life 88

[72 Roo]

I am watching the Superbowl at Fidel Murphy's, an Irish bar on West bay road on Cayman Island. The Falcons are leading the Pats 21-3 at half and all I can think of is that the Zips need to have a hell of a Fall season, which I think they can do. TB's class this year is good but not great. He is far more shrewd than we give him credit. I believe he knows the chips are down and he is under-promising and over-delivering this fall. We could have a dynamic team that is improved on both O and D. My biggest concern is that he is committed to Milwee as his OC. I think Milwee is not capable of delivering what we need. History supports my feelings but that is TB's decision not mine and I support TB. I support TB and believe he is the best Akron can do. We are not he best progrum in the MAC. We are the best potential progrum in the MAC, but all on this site know that. 

 

I can't wait for the fall and hope the Zips will be kicking some serious ass. Keep the faith ZNO. Now back to another Caybrew Ironshore Bock. The best beer on Grand Cayman.

 

Go Zips! 

[kreed5120]

Recruiting rankings are far from a perfect system, but I do feel they are a useful tool if for nothing else to see where the top rated players are going. As you can see in the below link Akron has 3 of Ohio's top 100 rated players (#94, #95, & #100). What I noticed is we are losing a lot of guys in our own backyard to low P5 and G5 schools.

 

Todd Sibley #15 - Pitt

Danny Clark #18 - Kentucky

Kadeem Trotter #46 - Syracuse

Travis Koontz #47 - Bowling Green

Kyle Vantrease #49 - Buffalo

Tyrone Chambers #51 - Toledo

DeAmonte King #61 - Toledo

DeCavilon Reese #64 - Marshall

Coby Bryant #65 - Cincy

Vincent McConnell #73 - Cincy

Chris Anthony #75 - Kent State

Domininique Robinson #81 - Miami (Oh)

Jabari Taylor #83 - Cincy

Adam Mahelic #84 - Miami (Oh)

John Speelacy #86 - ECU

Donte Taylor #91 - Miami (Oh)

Jimmy Daw #92 - Ball State

 

http://247sports.com/Season/2017-Football/CompositeRecruitRankings?State=OH

Edited February 6, 2017 by kreed5120

[LZIp]

23 minutes ago, kreed5120 said:

Recruiting rankings are far from a perfect system, but I do feel they are a useful tool if for nothing else to see where the top rated players are going. As you can see in the below link Akron has 3 of Ohio's top 100 rated players (#94, #95, & #100). What I noticed is we are losing a lot of guys in our own backyard to low P5 and G5 schools.

 

Todd Sibley #15 - Pitt

Danny Clark #18 - Kentucky

Kadeem Trotter #46 - Syracuse

Travis Koontz #47 - Bowling Green

Kyle Vantrease #49 - Buffalo

Tyrone Chambers #51 - Toledo

DeAmonte King #61 - Toledo

DeCavilon Reese #64 - Marshall

Coby Bryant #65 - Cincy

Vincent McConnell #73 - Cincy

Chris Anthony #75 - Kent State

Domininique Robinson #81 - Miami (Oh)

Jabari Taylor #83 - Cincy

Adam Mahelic #84 - Miami (Oh)

John Speelacy #86 - ECU

Donte Taylor #91 - Miami (Oh)

Jimmy Daw #92 - Ball State

 

http://247sports.com/Season/2017-Football/CompositeRecruitRankings?State=OH

You are including Cleveland and Youngstown as our own back yard? I'd suggest starting with Akron/Canton (in which we certainly missed some guys...Taylor, Taylor, Vantrease, and King off of the top of my head) and go from there. I also am not sure how fair it is to count players that we didn't offer against us. Same with those players who went P5. Those classes were ranked 29, 35, and 55 respectively. Not exactly slouch programs. I think its fair to compare how we are doing vs MAC or G5 programs with Akron or Canton recruits with where the program is now.

 

I also find it quite hilarious that Jabari Taylor was a NR prospect all through the recruiting process until he signed with Cinci.

Edited February 6, 2017 by LZIp

[Blue & Gold]

True. 24/7 now has Jabari Taylor ranked as a ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️ Prospect even though he and STVM's Eric Bentley are like twins. I still think we should have offered Taylor earlier in the season. But, to give Bowden the benefit of the doubt, I'm extremely biased toward the local guys.

[kreed5120]

1 minute ago, LZIp said:

You are including Cleveland and Youngstown as our own back yard? I'd suggest starting with Akron/Canton (in which we certainly missed some guys...Taylor, Taylor, Vantrease, and King off of the top of my head) and go from there. I also am not sure how fair it is to count players that we didn't offer against us. Same with those players who went P5. Those classes were ranked 29, 35, and 55 respectively. Not exactly slouch programs. I think its fair to compare how we are doing vs MAC or G5 programs with Akron or Canton recruits with where the program is now.

You can get to Cleveland or Youngstown in under an hour from Akron. If we want to build a successful program, these are areas where we will need to go and acquire talent. I feel you are misunderstanding the point I'm getting a crossed. I'm not labeling these as 17 failures. I just picked out 17 players that are within ~45 miles of campus who didn't accept blue blood offers. I'm not even saying we should have offered all 17. It would have however been nice getting 3-4 of them.

[Captain Kangaroo]

Did we "miss" on Kyle Vantrease? 

 

I don't see where it's a slam dunk that he's better than Ramart. And I'd take Johns over him any day of the week.

[LZIp]

48 minutes ago, Captain Kangaroo said:

Did we "miss" on Kyle Vantrease? 

 

I don't see where it's a slam dunk that he's better than Ramart. And I'd take Johns over him any day of the week.

I don't have a personal opinion on either, however I would call it a miss when we offer him a scholarship and they go to another similar caliber school. Time might go on and we may have gotten the better QB, but I don't think there is any denying we lost the recruiting battle there.

[Captain Kangaroo]

I think too - some kids just want to go away to college. I grew up in the Youngstown area, and would have rather put a bullet in my head than attended YSU. 

 

Pitt, Cinci, Marshall, Kentucky, etc. are all an easy drive from Akron, so kids don't need to stay in Akron for their parents to see them play. Schools like that are tough for the Zips to compete with in 2017. People can poo-poo them as "lower tier P5," but they're still putting guys in the NFL on a regular basis. and play highly competitive P5 schedules. Pitt beat Clemson and plays @ Heinz Field. Not much "lower tier" about that.

 

I was pretty happy with the local HS talent we kept this year. If we could do that year-in-year-out, we'd be in pretty good shape. Still hoping for a couple DL's to magically appear between now and August though...

[kreed5120]

23 minutes ago, Captain Kangaroo said:

I think too - some kids just want to go away to college. I grew up in the Youngstown area, and would have rather put a bullet in my head than attended YSU. 

 

Pitt, Cinci, Marshall, Kentucky, etc. are all an easy drive from Akron, so kids don't need to stay in Akron for their parents to see them play. Schools like that are tough for the Zips to compete with in 2017. People can poo-poo them as "lower tier P5," but they're still putting guys in the NFL on a regular basis. and play highly competitive P5 schedules. Pitt beat Clemson and plays @ Heinz Field. Not much "lower tier" about that.

 

I was pretty happy with the local HS talent we kept this year. If we could do that year-in-year-out, we'd be in pretty good shape. Still hoping for a couple DL's to magically appear between now and August though...

Sure there are some guys that will be wanting to go to places like ECU just to get away. Being able to talk more and better talented players to stay home will be key if we want to take the leap from being borderline bowl contender to serious MAC contender. It's how a school like Houston has been able to compete with the big boys for the past 2 years. 

 

Nobody said it would be easy. NEO is one of the more heavily recruited areas in the nation. That still doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement. We've done a better job of getting Summit County players this year. Hopefully we build upon that next year by adding more and hopefully expanding our footprint further out to the suburbs until it eventually extends from Canton to Cleveland and from Canton to Youngstown. Every year getting a little more selective. 

 

Edit: Urban Meyer has transformed OSU into more of a nationwide recruiting school. He passes on those upper scale 3* players that Tressel and prior OSU coaches targeted. It would be nice to land 1 here and there.

Edited February 6, 2017 by kreed5120