Football

A lot of people were surprised last year to see Akron land quarterback Sean Hakes from Texas.

Those people would really be shocked to see an Oklahoma player has interest in Akron. In fact, Plains, Okla. receiver Zack Brown only wants to go to a Midwest school, according to ESPN.com.

Akron is his No. 3 choice, behind Ohio State and Bowling Green. Penn State and Michigan are fourth and fifth, respectively. I can’t find anything else about him on other recruiting sites.

• Another Texas quarterback also has interest in coming to Akron. He is Giovanni Vizza. Read about him here if you have ESPN Insider. If not, I’ll summarize. Akron is Vizza’s fifth choice behind Army, Utah State, Colorado State and Northern Iowa. He seems like a good playmaker and athlete. His downfalls seem to be mechanics and holding onto the ball too long.

Football

The university has announced times for the 2006 Zips home games. As you can see, people who sleep in Saturday mornings might feel a pinch.

I know the athletic department tries to schedule games so they don’t conflict with Ohio State. It’s sad, but I’m sure it helps attendance if you’re not competing with the Buckeyes.

Miscellaneous

I’m coming to you live from Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. I’m covering a WNBA Indiana Fever game.

This stadium is unbelievable. Each seat in the lower bowl looks like a great place to watch the game. It’s the most intimate place to watch basketball I have ever seen, and that includes Rhodes Arena and my high school stadium.

Football

Rontez Miles looks to have the size and speed of a good safety.

Miles runs a 4.5 in the 40-yard dash. He is 6-foot-2.

Just give this guy a cheeseburger.

At 185 pounds, Miles looks to be a few buffets away from more scholarship offers. For now, he has Akron, Kent State and Temple offers from which to choose. Other schools of interest include Pittsburgh, Arizona State, Cincinnati, Syracuse and West Virginia. Rivals.com says Miles’ interest is "high" for Pitt and Akron. The others are "medium."

• David Arnold, the focus of an ABJ series, left a Michigan camp without a scholarship offer from the Wolverines. Arnold will attend an Ohio State camp on Friday, he writes in his Ohio.com diary. I tip my hat to ABJ sports editor Rich Derosiers and reporter Gary Estwick for coming up with this idea.
• Quarterback target Cody Catalina verbally committed with Syracuse, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. His finalists included the Orangemen, Akron and Vanderbilt. ESPN.com ranked Catalina fairly high. Here is my profile on Catalina.

Golf

Vaughn Snyder and Ryan Gutowski recently won a best-ball tournament at Good Park Golf Course in Akron.

That is quite an accomplishment, especially from my perspective. That %#$^$ course killed me every time in high school. I don’t think I ever broke 42 on the back nine. I always wound up in a group with some stuck up kid from Walsh, too. (No offense, Walsh grads.)

Baseball

I just got home from a college summer league game in Indianapolis. Ironically, GoZips.com updated fans on how some Zips are doing in similar leagues.

• Pitcher Tom Farmer threw six shutout innings for the Bourne Braves of the Cape Cod League — one of the nation’s most prestigious. Look for Farmer to possibly step up and be the Zips ace in 2007, despite poor numbers this year.
• Outfielder Charlie Lenhard hit two home runs in ONE inning for the Jamestown Jammers of the Cal Ripken Sr. Collegiate League — also a very prestigious league. Lenhard is hitting .292 this season, good for 14th in the league. This is a wood-bat league, so it means all the more that Lenhard is excelling.
• First baseman Doug McNulty is not so hot, hitting .118 in the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League.
• GoZips.com doesn’t mention outfielder Rashard Graves, who is playing in the Midwest Prospect Baseball League in Indianapolis. Graves is taking a summer course at UA, so he hasn’t joined his team yet. However, I spoke with the league director Mike Eagen today. Eagen mentioned Graves as one of the league’s stronger players, despite his lack of playing time for Akron in 2006.

Football

Stop production on Getsy for Heisman signs.

CollegeFootballNews.com listed its top 100 Heisman Trophy candidates. No Zips athlete is among them.

I only found one MAC player — Miami receiver Ryne Robinson.

This site is, by far, my favorite for college football tidbits.

Here is their preview for the Zips season. With analysis like this, I seriously have to think they have a Zips coach writing it.

Football

The list of recruits with Akron scholarship offers grew recently.

Those players are cornerback Vondre Griffin from Pittsburgh and offensive lineman John Fieger from Pennsburg, Pa.

• Griffin also has offers from Division-I lowlifes Kent State and Temple. He is also considering Pittsburgh. Rivals.com lists Griffin as an athlete, who runs the 40-yard dash in 4.56 seconds. The site says he has high interest in Toledo and medium interest in Arizona State, Maryland, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Syracuse and West Virginia.
• Fieger has offers from Pittsburgh and Akron. Scout.com says other schools of interest include Connecticut, Rutgers, Temple, Virginia and West Virginia. Fieger seems to be a second option for Pitt, who wanted a different recruit instead.

Neither site ranks Fieger or Griffin at this point. However, I told you yesterday about a couple receivers who Scout.com did upgrade. I looked into my Offensive Skill Position Targets list and couldn’t find either. So here are their profiles…

• Chris Givens, a 6-3, 190 receiver from Chillicothe, Ohio. He has offers from Akron, Cincinnati and Miami (Ohio). As I said yesterday, I cannot recall a Zips recruit ever ranked higher than three stars. Rivals.com has not yet ranked Givens, but says he runs a 4.43 in the 40. That contrasts Scout.com, which says it timed Givens at 4.62 at their combine. At that combine, however, Givens won MVP, which is likely the reason for his status boost. Other schools of interest for Givens include Kent State, Louisville, Michigan State, Ohio and Purdue. A story on FoxSports.com indicates Givens prefers to attend a big school. This story predicts Givens’ stock is about to skyrocket.
• B.J. Cunningham, a 6-1, 185 receiver from Westerville, Ohio. According to Scout.com, he has offers from Akron, Toledo, Miami (Ohio), West Virginia and Cincinnati. Other schools of interest include Michigan State and Syracuse. Cunningham was an honorable-mention all-Ohio winner in his junior year, where he caught 41 passes for 700 yards and 15 touchdowns. The site ranks Cunningham as a three-star receiver. In the past couple years, Akron has grabbed handful of three-star recruits. Rivals.com adds Ohio State, Penn State and Ball State as candidates. His interest is highest in Miami and Cincinnati, the site says.

Football

Sometimes you wonder what sportswriters are smoking. I’m sure you have thought that about me.

But Phil Steele must be puffing something unknown to mankind. This guy says Kent State will win the MAC East. In football.

Allow that to soak in. Kent   F#$(%##*   State University.

Steele, I’m going to break this down for you. You either…

• know nothing about MAC football
• made this prediction to fix Vegas odds on your side
• are on coke
• have some kind of future-telling ability, which would make Kent State the biggest surprise of the year in any sport.

Football

Scout.com has upgraded four more of Akron’s 2007 recruiting targets.

Chris Givens and Kyle Jefferson are now four-star wide receivers. Scout moved cornerback Chris Rucker and receiver B.J. Cunningham to three-star status.

Click here for the link to my profile on the receivers. Click here for the secondary.

To the best of my knowledge, no Zips player has received higher than a three-star status while being recruited.

• On a sad note, a potential future Zips lineman was killed after a van struck him. Tyrone Johnson seemed like a good kid.
• Zips target David Arnold, the focus of an ongoing Akron Beacon Journal recruiting series, received a scholarship offer from Eastern Michigan.

Miscellaneous

A new Zips blog has started.

Someone posted this link on ZipsNation.org. Anyone who wants to post is free to. My guess is that a large company started the blog, and many like it for other schools.

The blog pimps itself as "so unofficial it hurts," which somewhat is in contrast to this blog. In the interest of full disclosure, the university pays me to run Rasor on the Zips.

I’ll use this opportunity to ask my readers to give me any suggestions on how I can make the blog better. You can post ideas in my comments section or just e-mail them to me.

Football

You are likely to read that headline more than once in the coming months as Akron and Pitt are targeting many of the same recruits.

Dominic DeCicco, a two-way player from Jefferson Hills, Pa., chose the Panthers after coach Dave Wannstedt said he could see DeCicco playing wide receiver, as well as safety.

I never profiled DeCicco, as he is not listed as a Zips target on Scout.com. However, the site gives him three stars and says he is one of the best athletes in the nation. DeCicco had offers from Akron, Arizona State, Cincinnati, Georgia Tech, Indiana and Vanderbilt.

This story comes from Kevin Gorman at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, one of the best football recruiting reporters in the region. I find more good football recruiting stories about Akron from him than anyone in Ohio.

Football

Greg Nosal is one of at least four offensive linemen whom Akron has offered a scholarship.

So far, all of Akron’s targets have only one star on Scout.com. That changed today as the site upgraded Nosal to three stars.

As I mentioned, Nosal probably won’t come here, so the point is moot.