2023 Outstanding Offers

[ZippyRulz]

JUCO OL..

 

 

[catdaddyp]

35 minutes ago, ZippyRulz said:

JUCO OL..

 

 

Thanks! Added as an OT, but I suspect he’d end up at OG with us. We are the 3rd MAC school to offer and he’ll have plenty of options ahead of him by the time his recruitment is finished.

[Blue & Gold]

I think he verballed to FIU back when Coach J-Rod was FIU’s OL Coach. So hopefully there’s still a good relationship there & we have the inside track.

[catdaddyp]

Colin Van Rooy decommitted from Pitt, so he’s back on the list.

[Zipmeister]

On 8/12/2022 at 10:18 AM, catdaddyp said:

@Blue & Gold is doing an awesome job tracking the 2023 commitments. I didn’t want to keep cluttering up his thread with outstanding offers. I’ll continue to up date this list as we go, but I’m not sure how many more HS prospects we will take in the 2023 class. All prospects listed below have offers from the current staff and I’m also working on getting them rated.

 

I'm with you; making any more offers to high schoolers at this point is likely to be ineffective. I'm also thinking the probability of getting anyone on your list to sign with Akron is going down with each Zip loss. Add to that, the staff's heavy focus on the portal has to have a depressing effect on attracting high schoolers. Hopefully, the staff is spending more time trying to prevent decommits rather than obtaining more high school commitments.

[catdaddyp]

15 hours ago, Zipmeister said:

 

I'm with you; making any more offers to high schoolers at this point is likely to be ineffective. I'm also thinking the probability of getting anyone on your list to sign with Akron is going down with each Zip loss. Add to that, the staff's heavy focus on the portal has to have a depressing effect on attracting high schoolers. Hopefully, the staff is spending more time trying to prevent decommits rather than obtaining more high school commitments.

Moorhead basically said he was looking to take about 15 HS prospects and 10 portal if I remember correctly. If that’s the case, we should be close to finished with this prep class. With that being said, I think a few of these kids are still “takes” regardless of the numbers. With the recent offers out to more 2023 prospects I wonder if the staff is expecting some more of our players to hit the portal at year end. I’m not sure if the losses have much effect on this year’s class. I’d guess the staff is pitching playing time and the building process.

Edited October 31, 2022 by catdaddyp

[LZIp]

3 minutes ago, catdaddyp said:

Moorhead basically said he was looking to take about 15 HS prospects and 10 portal if I remember correctly. If that’s the case, we should be close to finished with this prep class. With that being said, I think a few of these kids are still “takes” regardless of the numbers. With the recent offers out to more 2023 prospects I wonder if the staff is expecting some more of our players to hit the portal at year end. I’m not sure if the losses have much effect on this year’s class. I’d guess the staff is pitching playing time and the building process.

Nobody has decommitted..yet, so that’s promising I suppose.

[catdaddyp]

Just now, LZIp said:

Nobody has decommitted..yet, so that’s promising I suppose.

I doubt they will, unless they receive some P5 offers and choose to go that route. Just thinking back to the beginning of the year and to what the HC, OL, and DL coaches were saying. They made sure not to hype expectations and focus on the building process and getting better day by day. They all strayed away from talking about the roster itself as much as possible. That’s why I feel like they are really pitching playing time and the building process. We already have the facilities, band, and a fan base that wants to support. Put a winner on the field and watch things really pick up.

[catdaddyp]

Edge Toddrick Brewton to FIU.

[catdaddyp]

Staff offered JUCO CB Trenton Yowe. Second offer issued to a JUCO CB in a weeks time. Pretty clear we’re looking for immediate help there.

[LZIp]

8 minutes ago, catdaddyp said:

Staff offered JUCO CB Trenton Yowe. Second offer issued to a JUCO CB in a weeks time. Pretty clear we’re looking for immediate help there.

In general, do you think most programs have a preference of Juco/transfer portal targets? Obviously should be assessed on a player by player basis, but seems like the transfer portal has yielded more notable results.

[catdaddyp]

16 minutes ago, LZIp said:

In general, do you think most programs have a preference of Juco/transfer portal targets? Obviously should be assessed on a player by player basis, but seems like the transfer portal has yielded more notable results.

It used to be JUCO because the portal wasn’t really a thing that was used often. Now there are so many more players to choose from the portal compared to JUCO. I imagine this year there will be even more talent in the portal. If the rumblings are true, we are going to see a number of 4 and 5 star kids entering because they didn’t get what they perceived as promised their freshman year. Not to mention all the grad transfers, who the portal was originally geared towards in the first place. It really is going to turn into the Wild Wild West until some type of entity puts parameters on it. 
 

I like offering talented kids out of JUCO that could help us right now. Coaches can build relationships and find out more about them and make sure they are a good fit. From the sounds of it, they have far less time when dealing with portal players to make sure they are bringing in the right kind of guys.

[bigjim]

8 hours ago, catdaddyp said:

Moorhead basically said he was looking to take about 15 HS prospects and 10 portal if I remember correctly. If that’s the case, we should be close to finished with this prep class. With that being said, I think a few of these kids are still “takes” regardless of the numbers. With the recent offers out to more 2023 prospects I wonder if the staff is expecting some more of our players to hit the portal at year end. I’m not sure if the losses have much effect on this year’s class. I’d guess the staff is pitching playing time and the building process.

In the NFL you build a team through the draft and supplement it with free agents.  In College football, you build a team with HS recruits and supplement with the portal.  Last year, Akron signed 20+ players through the portal and we cannot beat a FBS team.  My guess is that Joe will shed some more players and sign more than 10 through the portal, if the rules allow.  I am concerned that the process being used is not sustainable.  

Go Zips!!!

[LZIp]

32 minutes ago, bigjim said:

In the NFL you build a team through the draft and supplement it with free agents.  In College football, you build a team with HS recruits and supplement with the portal.  Last year, Akron signed 20+ players through the portal and we cannot beat a FBS team.  My guess is that Joe will shed some more players and sign more than 10 through the portal, if the rules allow.  I am concerned that the process being used is not sustainable.  

Go Zips!!!

I think the process is to build a foundation and will be used to supplement later. Arth relied heavily on HS recruits and we know how that worked out. 

[catdaddyp]

2 hours ago, bigjim said:

In the NFL you build a team through the draft and supplement it with free agents.  In College football, you build a team with HS recruits and supplement with the portal.  Last year, Akron signed 20+ players through the portal and we cannot beat a FBS team.  My guess is that Joe will shed some more players and sign more than 10 through the portal, if the rules allow.  I am concerned that the process being used is not sustainable.  

Go Zips!!!

I think most teams are following along the same ratio Moorhead is using. Don’t want too many developmental players and ideally the portal/JUCO guys will contribute immediately and have a few years of eligibility left. The 1 year guys should at the very least reliably fill a hole. Regardless of how it’s done, a good class usually has 2/3 of the players panning out. 1/3 typically fall by the wayside. 
 

Looking at our 2022 class, we landed some high end players out of the portal at receiver, but failed to land the same caliber elsewhere. All the freshmen outside of Landers are developmental and most players from the portal have at least contributed.

The DL has improved over last year, but the pass rush is still close to nonexistent. Forget sacks, the DL itself has only 8 quarterback hurries and 16 total as a defense. That puts a lot of pressure on a secondary that has its own issues. Robinson is a project. Harper, Holt, Thomas, and Jones have all been solid, but we need more. 

 

LT has been a revolving door, although it looks like Landers (freshman) now has it locked down when healthy. LG has been meh, when we thought Banes would excel. Whigan has been solid at RG. Assuming the freshmen live up to their potential, we should be better along the OL next year. Maybe we land another player or two of Whigan’s caliber from the portal.

 

Terry solidified the LB spot by Bubba, but again nothing spectacular. McCoy (freshman) looks like a star in the making and Fish certainly has all the athletic ability needed to be successful.

 

Safety took a few games to get it together but Thompson and Martin have come on strong and Woods has contributed when he’s had an opportunity.

 

Cornerback play combined with a poor pass rush has killed us. Golden-Nelson seemed like a solid pickup but he’s missed so much time. We really needed Threatt to produce, but that hasn’t happened. This position turned out to be the biggest whiff due to the returning players not playing up to par and the transfers not living up to their potential (or healthy). Solid CB play with a sliver of pass rush would have probably flipped a few games in our favor this year.

 

We haven’t needed Undercuffler in a competitive game, so I’m not sure how he’d be classified (outside of being good for an FU). Banks has started every game at TE, while Clark has some developing to do. 
 

We had so many holes to fill before Moorhead took over and still have a few that need filling. On the bright side, it seems the staff is determined to rectify that.

[bigjim]

2 hours ago, LZIp said:

I think the process is to build a foundation and will be used to supplement later. Arth relied heavily on HS recruits and we know how that worked out. 

Not an Arth fan.  But at this point in each of the last two seasons, his team beat an FBS opponent.  Moorhead cannot say the same this year.

Go Zips!!!

[catdaddyp]

DT Jovan George committed to Holy Cross.

[zippy-claws]

16 hours ago, bigjim said:

Not an Arth fan.  But at this point in each of the last two seasons, his team beat an FBS opponent.  Moorhead cannot say the same this year.

Go Zips!!!

I know you're right, but from from my perception as a "non-Xs-and-Os" fan, I'm enjoying watching the games a heck of a lot more this year, although still frustrated.

[Blue & Gold]

4 hours ago, catdaddyp said:

DT Jovan George committed to Holy Cross.

We already have 15 verbal commitments from current high school seniors, so, with the Transfer Portal additions still to be made, I wonder how hard we’re actually recruiting these remaining players?

[94zipgrad]

9 minutes ago, Blue & Gold said:

We already have 15 verbal commitments from current high school seniors, so, with the Transfer Portal additions still to be made, I wonder how hard we’re actually recruiting these remaining players?

I would say not very hard, these guys he is posting are going FCS, it’s there turn, within the next couple of weeks you will start seeing D2 commits

[catdaddyp]

6 hours ago, Blue & Gold said:

We already have 15 verbal commitments from current high school seniors, so, with the Transfer Portal additions still to be made, I wonder how hard we’re actually recruiting these remaining players?

My guess is the focus is now on the recent offers. A few players we offered earlier in the year messaged me on Twitter and we don’t seem to be going after them at this point. I haven’t spoken to Harlem Howard but from outward appearance it seems we are still pursuing him. We were able to get Barrett Maddox on campus and I thought he would pull the trigger, but he’s been racking up offers since then. Including a P5 one from Kansas.

 

All that being said, my best guess for the realistic “takes” left on this list are Harlem Howard, Taylor Wein, Bruno Dall, Vincent Jackson and the JUCOs. But we’ll see.

Edited November 2, 2022 by catdaddyp

[catdaddyp]

Recent offer out to JUCO CB Jaheim Jenkins. He supposedly has 3 to play 3.

[catdaddyp]

Recent offer to JUCO RB Jeffery Pittman.

[blueandgold]

Can we just find a "Barry Sanders" who can make amazing plays and doesn't need an offensive line to block for him? Lol

[Captain Kangaroo]

2 hours ago, blueandgold said:

Can we just find a "Barry Sanders" who can make amazing plays and doesn't need an offensive line to block for him? Lol

You mean like Teon Dollard, but without the police blotter appearances.