2018 Spring Football

[Jkeith]

2 hours ago, LZIp said:

I'm probably just being picky, but I would really like to know the 4 players who will be competing at center and the 3 who will be competing for RT. Austin Sample, a walkon as far as I know (and listed at 200lbs), is apparently 1st string center based on the depth chart in the spring prospectus. I have a little trouble buying that.

Sample is 300#. You are correct though, he is a preferred walk-on. 

[Captain Kangaroo]

3 hours ago, LZIp said:

I'm probably just being picky, but I would really like to know the 4 players who will be competing at center and the 3 who will be competing for RT. Austin Sample, a walkon as far as I know (and listed at 200lbs), is apparently 1st string center based on the depth chart in the spring prospectus. I have a little trouble buying that.

I'll be curious to see if the 225 lb weight listed for Maverick Wolfley is accurate. That's more 30 lbs below where he was at in September. Wonder if that weight loss opens up some options for him outside of H-back? 

 

Also so interesting to see O'Leary still on the roster. I would have thought he'd walk away after falling out of favor last season.

[Hilltopper]

5 hours ago, Captain Kangaroo said:

 

Also so interesting to see O'Leary still on the roster. I would have thought he'd walk away after falling out of favor last season.

Where does this guy fit in?

http://gozips.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=5653

 

[CDMac]

Scrimmage Observations

 

Made it to the 3/22 practice/scrimmage and here are my observations/thoughts.

 

Disclaimer: I was mostly watching the QBs/Offense and these are in random order/stream of consciousness

 

Warren Ball was on hand to watch practice

Nick Johns working as TE

Maverick working at TE

UGIII may be bigger and faster than he was last year (could have just been my close proximity to the players)

Bubba Arslanian is a beast too (see comment below about height/weight on spring prospectus)

Mykel Traylor-Bennett looks to be fast and explosive coming off the line - he had several deep ball opportunities during the scrimmage

Defense is ahead of offense (which is true 100% of the time in Spring Football)

This was their first day in full pads so still very early in the process

RBs and LBs/DBs cracking pads today despite first day in pads

Offense looks to be installing some different personnel packages and formations

19 looked like he had a good day - very shifty in and out of breaks and with ball in hands

7 is FAST looks more decisive and really fast. did I mention he was FAST?

TEs all got significant work/opportunities and looked good =)

TB gave the boys the Spring Break safety brief after practice

13 Defense (Butler) led team prayer after TB spoke

 

There was only 1 TD in the scrimmage so we'll be looking for more consistency and efficiency out of the offense going forward.

Neither the 1st team offense nor the 2nd team with some starters sprinkled in did a whole lot as far as moving the ball effectively. To be fair, the play list was scripted so it wasn't like they were playcalling for down/distance, etc.

 

@LZIp mentioned being curious about listed weights on the Spring Prospectus. My thoughts:

 

I don't know if this is true for every player, but I know for sure there are several who have gained considerable weight compared to their reported weights on the Spring Prospectus. I think they just have the heights/weights listed from their 2017 fall measurements (this is the case for a couple of the guys) and may update the roster later.

[ZipsVoice]

20 hours ago, CDMac said:

Warren Ball was on hand to watch practice

Warren is now the Academic Coordinator for Football, working for Athletics under Anne Jorgensen, so I expect he'll be at most of the practice sesions to begin the process of making sure they "make the grades".

[ZippyRulz]

On 3/25/2018 at 10:48 AM, ZipsVoice said:

Warren is now the Academic Coordinator for Football, working for Athletics under Anne Jorgensen, so I expect he'll be at most of the practice sesions to begin the process of making sure they "make the grades".

 

Does that mean there's no chance he'll try to continue playing somewhere?
 

[94zipgrad]

4 minutes ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:

Excuse me? Happy Easter? This is a public forum. How about "Happy first Sunday in April"? 

 

Seriously, when does the real QB competition start?

What do you mean?  I don’t know of any QB’s coming in,  We are very young & vulnerable at QB, IMO we need Kato to stay healthy, 2 redshirt freshman behind him & from what I’m hearing they are not ready, it’s early though & hopefully they progress

[ZipsVoice]

On 3/31/2018 at 12:04 PM, 94zipgrad said:

What do you mean?  I don’t know of any QB’s coming in,  We are very young & vulnerable at QB, IMO we need Kato to stay healthy, 2 redshirt freshman behind him & from what I’m hearing they are not ready, it’s early though & hopefully they progress

I’m hearing they’re a lot closer to ready than Kato...entitlement issues?

[Let'sGoZips94]

On 4/1/2018 at 7:58 PM, ZipsVoice said:

I’m hearing they’re a lot closer to ready than Kato...entitlement issues?

 

This wouldn't surprise me in the least. That's why I'm so interested in the QB competition. 

 

 

[Blue & Gold]

Another nice article from GT: UA Football: Zips defense adjusting to life after departure of old-school coordinator Chuck Amato

 

GT also mention LB DeMarcus Lloyd as a player to watch who's made his presence felt this spring.

[LZIp]

1 hour ago, Blue & Gold said:

Another nice article from GT: UA Football: Zips defense adjusting to life after departure of old-school coordinator Chuck Amato

 

GT also mention LB DeMarcus Lloyd as a player to watch who's made his presence felt this spring.

I like the mention that he is making his presence felt, but I wouldn't call him a newcomer. He played in 11 games in 16 and 3 last year before the injury.

[94zipgrad]

 

[94zipgrad]

13 hours ago, 94zipgrad said:

 

Recruiting class of 2017 showing out in this highlight 

Ramart - throw TD

Burkhart - catch TD & block for Wolfley run

Wolfley - nice catch & run

Williams - catch & run &

Arslanian - hitting Williams with some authority 

Brimage - with tackle for loss

Edited April 12, 2018 by 94zipgrad

[CDMac]

8 hours ago, 94zipgrad said:

Recruiting class of 2017 showing out in this highlight 

 DemBoys looking good man!!

 

Brimage and Bubba on the double A-gap blitz is kinda nasty, right?

Edited April 12, 2018 by CDMac

[Blue & Gold]

Hmm... GT perhaps worried about his job security? Lol.  Here's another good article, this time on the DL.

 

UA Football: Zips counting on better line play to fortify defense

[CDMac]

GT is here today for another scrimmage so expect another article or two from him this weekend. I’ll take some notes as well. 

[UAZips]

7 hours ago, Blue & Gold said:

Hmm... GT perhaps worried about his job security? Lol.  Here's another good article, this time on the DL.

 

UA Football: Zips counting on better line play to fortify defense

 

With the ABJ changing ownership hands, he's probably trying to avoid the question asked by the consultants in Office Space:

*Reviews Zips coverage from past seasons*

"So, what is it.....you DO here?"

[UAZips]

[94zipgrad]

 

[94zipgrad]

https://ohio.com/akron/sports/university-of-akron/university-of-akron-football-zips-scrimmage-features-miscues-big-plays

[Cykron]

On 4/15/2018 at 8:22 AM, 94zipgrad said:

https://ohio.com/akron/sports/university-of-akron/university-of-akron-football-zips-scrimmage-features-miscues-big-plays

 

 

Thoughts about the miscues? 

 

Good for the offense to learn how to push its limits? 

Bad for the offense because those mistakes shouldn't have happened? 

Good for the defense as they stepped up? 

Bad for the defense in that it may make them feel like they are farther along than they are?

Just mistakes that don't really tell us much?

 

Those who were there, how are you spinning it?

Edited April 16, 2018 by Cykron

[94zipgrad]

46 minutes ago, Cykron said:

 

 

Thoughts about the miscues? 

 

Good for the offense to learn how to push its limits? 

Bad for the offense because those mistakes shouldn't have happened? 

Good for the defense as they stepped up? 

Bad for the defense in that it may make them feel like they are farther along than they are?

Just mistakes that don't really tell us much?

 

Those who were there, how are you spinning it?

From what I heard there was 2 pick six’s on fairly simple bubble type passes & a WR fumbled after a catch the defense picked up & returned for a score, the positive was they worked on the running game after that & it seemed to work pretty well / the negative would be our defense had trouble stopping the run game

 

Excited for Spring Game & Surplus Sale

 

Go Zips 

Edited April 16, 2018 by 94zipgrad

[CDMac]

2 minutes ago, Cykron said:

Those who were there, how are you spinning it?

I hadn't gotten to put my thoughts down yet, but my take is that these scrimmages are microcosms of football in general.

 

Sometimes things don't work as planned; sometimes they work better than expected.

 

I thought that the offenses (they primarily had a 1's and a 2's team with some guys mixing into both groups off and on) weren't as efficient as they had been the previous week.

 

I'm not sure whether that means the offenses were worse or the defense was better this go-round, but it mimics the ebb and flow of football in general.

 

In both last week's scrimmage and the one held this past Saturday, there were times that the offenses looked great; good runs on early downs keeping them ahead of the chains and passing game hitting key big chunks to move the ball effectively. Then there were miscues and turnovers that wiped out several drives.

 

I thought both QBs were more effective on April 7th than they were on the 14th but I don't know the "why".

 

TB mentions that they were running some plays that they hadn't worked on much in practice so maybe their comfort level with the plays and the timing for the offense as a whole was affected by the lack of practice with these plays. As TB stated, we have to eliminate the turnovers and I'm sure ball security will be a heavily weighted criteria determining who gets playing time and who does not going forward.

 

The good news is that we've got an offseason and Fall camp to work out the kinks (I know they are working on it as there was a group of offensive players that went in to watch film together over the weekend).

 

As TB stated in the video, during the Red Zone portion of the scrimmage, the offenses scored on every possession (he's taking some liberties with a couple of scoring plays that were not called as such by the refs, but I agree with TB that they were indeed scores despite what the refs saw). One specifically was on a seam route by Wolfley into the back of the end zone that the refs ruled out of bounds but it sure looked like he got a foot (maybe both) down before being pushed out by the defender.

 

Overall, I've been really pleased with the efforts on both sides of the ball. The defense does appear to be outpacing the offense at this point but I expect that for every team early in the season. This is especially true because our offense (more so than the D) is looking to find the guys to step in and step up; they are having to replace more starters on that side of the ball.

 

I didn't take notes this week but overall I am very excited for this year's version of the Zips.

[CDMac]

Looking ahead a bit, looks like we could benefit from Mother Nature speeding up the warming trend by a day or two:

 

 

[94zipgrad]