Clemons Visits Akron

[Captain Kangaroo]

Wide receiver Toney Clemons, who has received 17 scholarship offers and said he will make a decision at the end of the season, has been quite the attraction at Valley. Approximately 10 coaches have visited the top prospect during the school day. Coaches such as Michigan's Lloyd Carr often call his cell phone just to keep in touch.On an unofficial visit to Akron, Clemons called a play at practice. "Four vertical," he shouted, before four receivers went flying at the sound of Clemons' voice and quarterback Luke Getsy connected with his target for a deep touchdown.The recruiting process makes Clemons feel like a star. The always-humble senior likes the attention, because he said, "It makes you feel like all of your hard work paid off."He said he fields 15 text messages each day from coaches. His mother complains because 15 letters a day fill the mailbox and she doesn't get half as much mail."You just have to keep going hard and keep working," Clemons said. "You never want to get your head in the clouds. You just have to keep a level head."

[Buckzip]

Unfortunately the only way we get his is if the big schools pass on him because of grades. Then he will probably end up like a very high percentage of our last 2 classes. Never playing a down for the Zips. Sorry to be negative, but there is a trend here.

[SoFlaZip]

If I'm not mistaken, approximately 25% of each Zip recruiting class of qualifed students never play a down for the Zips (and most other colleges as well). My question is , what difference does it make if they don't report, leave after the first year or after the second year. Looking at what appears to be the current recruiting philosophy, if 25% of the so called non-qualifiers make the grades during their first year and become ACADEMICALLY QUALIFIED STUDENTS we then develope over a four year period a cadre of 3 star and 4 star ACADEMICALLY QUALIFIED STDENTS ATHLETES augmenting the so called qualified students allowing JD or his successor to continue to take the program to a level we have only dreamed of. I support what appears to be the current recruiting philosophy whole heartedly. When I read post on this board about tailgaters at the Brown's game talking about the Zips and fessing up to watching the Zips on TV, I can only say thank God for JD. and his recruiting philosophy. Now to get them to Zips games, but that a post for another day.Do you believe we will ever fill the U of A Giant Eagle - Acme - Goodyear- GoJo, or whatever Stadium (God forbid) going back to recruiting IAA and D2 qualified students from the Surburban and Federal League.

[KentZip]

I've wanted to post a similar argument for a while now but you beat me to it. Well said and I agree. If you have the option to take a 3 or 4 star non-qualified athlete in the hopes you make a percentage stick, you do it. If they don't show up or can't make grades, the scholarship becomes available again immediately and you play the numbers game again the next year. The walk-on qualifier from the local area then becomes your fallback position rather than your primary recruiting target.

[Buckzip]

Look at the guys over the last 2 years that didn't make it.Marshall, Hight, Garner, Boone, Sharps, Henderson, Jackson, Lemon, Smith, Stoudamire,That is just a start off of the top of my head. There are many others too.Most of these guys are the highest rated players in the class.Very few if any of these guys will ever be on the team. I am not arguing with JD's results, just the percent of qualifiers.

[Captain Kangaroo]

Look at the guys over the last 2 years that didn't make it.Marshall, Hight, Garner, Boone, Sharps, Henderson, Jackson, Lemon, Smith, Stoudamire,That is just a start off of the top of my head. There are many others too.

You are wrong, but misrepresenting the facts suits your argument, so go ahead and have at it: Henderson, Lemon, Smith, Stoudamire are all expected to be a part of the Zips football team next season. Jackson may be too, depending upon his Prep School results.Boone had a family situation that required he drop out of school the final semester of his senior year. He needed to care for his sick father. Marshall, Hight & Garner didn't pan out. Every team has stories like this. Andre Jones did pan out. Ditto David Harvey. That is what SoFlaZips is saying above. Read his post and learn.

[Buckzip]

Wow captain. I though you were above deleting posts that corrected, or disagreed with yours. I have always respected your posts and opinions and have been greatful that you brought us few this board.I guess if someone disagrees with you their post just gets deleted. What next, a ban?I guess this board is just for the positive and not the negative too.Well, at least now I know how it is. I'm sure this will get deleted too, but at least you will have read it first.

[Captain Kangaroo]

Wow captain. I though you were above deleting posts that corrected, or disagreed with yours. I have always respected your posts and opinions and have been greatful that you brought us few this board.I guess if someone disagrees with you their post just gets deleted. What next, a ban?I guess this board is just for the positive and not the negative too.Well, at least now I know how it is. I'm sure this will get deleted too, but at least you will have read it first.

In case you haven't noticed, many of your posts have been deleted or edited lately. Your endless, back-and-forth Ohio State-based posts have generated numerous complaints to the moderators. They clutter the board and don't reflect well on the ZipsNation.In this instance a premier HS recruit has visited the University of Akron. The thread gravitated towards SoFlaZip explaining that JD takes a caculated risk on 5-6 members of each recruiting class who's grades may not be up to snuff, but who have tremendous physical talent. He further stated that even if only something like 2 of 6 of thse players "make it" the Zips team is far better off than if it took 5-6 undersized players with decent grades...hoping they panned out. That is solid logic. Your hyperbole that JD's losing recruits left and right is getting old. It was a judgement call to delete your post. If you hadn't had such a terrible track record recently it probably would have stayed. Stop with the condecending comments towards the Zips, towards JD's recruiting and with the OSU stuff on the Akron Zips message board and you will see your posts hang around rather than disappearing.

[Buckzip]

Captain, although you are correct on a couple of your points, you are wrong on the OSU part. There is a certain poster on here that decides to put down OSU non stop. I am merely responding to him. This is the same I would do on any other board that would put down UA. Every single one of my posts that has to do with OSU is in response to someone elses posts. If there are in fact, "complaints" maybe you should look into it, and see that those individuals are the ones starting the rant. I have never, I repeat, never started any OSU discussion. I would hope that if you were on another teams board, you would defend UA if needed. There are many boards on the web, and fans from different teams visits those boards.I happen to be a grad and fan of both teams. I will defend 1 when it is being wrongly criticized.Again, I apologize. I didn't realize we were only supposed to be positive, and not critical also. Now I know.BTW, thanlks for responding. Many other board mods, would not.

[bobbyake]

if people can bash the Flushes, can't I bash the Suckeyes????

[Captain Kangaroo]

if people can bash the Flushes, can't I bash the Suckeyes????

You can bash OSU if it is tied to Akron. If you want to start a thread to bash OSU, or want to spin a useful thread to instead bash OSU, or you take up board space with 5,000 posts bashing OSU, then there's an issue.This is a Zips board. It contains a lot of quality information regarding Zips football that you'll only find here. I don't want decent Akron information pushed down or off the board because someone wants to post I HATE OSU 50 times per hour. And inevitably, someone replies "Why do you hate OSU so much?" 50 times per hour.If you want to create IHATEOSU.com, feel free to do so and post 1,000 times per day. ZipsNation.org isn't the place.You're a great Zips fan Bobby. But, please temper the OSU stuff. And also note - The moderators of this board really wouldn't care if an earthquake swallowed Columbus. We do care about the quality of the board.

[bobbyake]

I believe everytime I've bashed OSU (you might fine one or 2 but not more), it pertained to the Zips and was related to the thread until one of the OSU defenders got crazy with it. I always bring OSU up if it has something to do with the thread. For example; when we planned on going to Panini's or Johnny Malloy's, would we have to deal with OSU fans that think this is Columbus??? Everytime I speak against OSU, there's a couple posters on here that treat me as if I'm speaking against Jesus. That's when the discussion gets off topic.

[Captain Kangaroo]

Again, I apologize. I didn't realize we were only supposed to be positive, and not critical also. Now I know.

Stop playing the martyr. Look in the mirror. 99.999% of the posts on this board stay as-is, unedited. There are a million negative posts on this board and you know it. Topic locked. Please move on.

[Zip Watcher]

The moderators of this board really wouldn't care if an earthquake swallowed Columbus. We do care about the quality of the board.

Thanks CK. Needed to be said.Bobby, if you want to bash OSU here .. your free to run Smack in the Smack Forum. If you do it there, those that wish to defend the Sucks can follow you there and debate away. It isn't happening any longer in the main sports forums.