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Showing content with the highest reputation on 10/22/2019 in all areas

  1. There are very few Kehres out there. Most coaches who have success at a lower division want to chase the money, prestige, challenge, etc. that a higher division provides. This leads to the best coaches trickling upwards. The MAC isn't immune to this either. Look at all the coaches MAC schools have lost to P5 schools over the years. For this reason I'd say the average FBS coach is a better recruiter, in game adjuster, better at getting the most out of his players, and game planner than your average D3 coach.
    2 points
  2. Leipold made the jump just fine. A good coach is a good coach.. It's just an easy talking point to say he isn't ready yet. I'm not saying he's a great hire or not yet, but to make any sort of conclusion this year is premature.
    2 points
  3. I would have liked to see Arth keep some of the old staff, namely Mounds, but can understand why he didn't as who knows if those guys would have had some sort of resentment towards Arth. I do think it was a mistake Arth bringing in all his equally inexperienced cronies. He should have went out and gotten at least 1 experienced coordinator to be his right hand man. It probably would have helped ease his transition.
    2 points
  4. Gene Chizik was hired at Iowa State and brought his fishing buddies with him. It was terrible. He recruited pretty well and the fan base got energized, but he coached horribly once the games actually started. Despite his claims of "being firmly entrenched" (which in Ames means "to lie to your face"), he was on a plane to Auburn within a few days. At the airport, he was greeted by someone with a sign that had his Iowa State record "3 and 19." Apparently, he needed to be in the right place with the right team. Give him Scam Newton, he wins a national championship in his first season there. So perhaps you need better bagmen! Seriously, Chizik stands out to us as a bad coach who got moved along by circumstances without us having to fire him. Maybe there is some hope in that for you. Here is a specialty beer can to commemorate our experience: Note the phone with Auburn colors that is ringing at the "firmly entrenched" press conference. There was talk about it having an ABV of 3.19, both to commemorate his record and to mock him as being weak. Even in our losing, our fans find a way to be energized. Hoping the same for you guys.
    1 point
  5. I have not posted much this fall. Depression may have something to do with it. Here are some thoughts on our football program. You may like them and you may hate them, but they reflect what I have seen and feel. Our team is bad. They have poor talent and are not prepared each week. We are young and that may change in years to come, but for now we are bad. Arth is not ready for D1 football. The coaching staff is not ready for D1 football. Should we fire Arth? Hell no. Give him time to grow into the position. We do not have the money to swallow a hire that may prove poor. But it also may prove good if Arth has the smarts to correct the team's weaknesses. That is the same problem Bowden had. He failed to make the changes he needed to make. Think Milwee. It cost him his job. I'm glad he's gone. Arth has to surround himself with better coaches. His first change must be to get a better O-Line coach. Coach Z has proven to be incompetent in solving our atrocious line play. Friend or no friend of Arth he has to be replaced/reassigned. Can Arth make the hard calls for the betterment of his program? If we have a turnaround it will be slow and painful. This program is bad and will take a lot to heal. It can be done, but only with laying the fundamentals that are not sexy and are not readily apparent. Athletes will not come here until they feel they can win. Forget the crap that we are sold that athletes want to come here so they can play early. They eventually don't care about winning and they will play down to that expectation insuring losses. We love Akron and can see it's potential. Recruits only love themselves and see us as losers, which we are. We will not get the better ones until we can show that we are committed to winning. The jury's out on that. Football must succeed at Akron for other athletic programs to flourish. We aren't dropping football so let's find a way to win. The schools we consider our peers are doing OK (Toledo, Miami, OU, NIU, CMU) so we need to emulate them. Our AD and his staff need to be given time to see if this hire (Arth) can work out. If not, they need to go. I did not like the secretive process they employed, not because I felt the alumni/supporters needed to be informed. On the contrary I think the alumni/supporters need to be left out. But I do feel that in the hiring process there needs to be a feedback mechanism that opines whether the staff is on the right path or not. This hire seemed to be solely focused on one candidate, the guy they wanted and that's it. We are in a world of hurt. It pains me to know that Akron football is the worst in the country. Yet if Arth can turn it around I am willing to give him the time to do so. Still I look at Ohio State and see that since Woody Hayes in the late 50's losing is not tolerated. I hope to see a culture emerge at Akron that feels the same way.
    1 point
  6. Fleck played D1 ball and recruited/coached for 6 years in D1 FBS before coaching for a year in the NFL and then getting the WMU job. He coached under Tressel, Novak, Kill and Schiano and was on a coaching staff that played in the BCS National Championship Game. Campbell recruited/coached for 7 years in D1 FBS, including 4 bowl games, before becoming the interim head coach at Toledo. Head coached under Brandon at BG and was a part of the 2007 MAC East Title. Arth coached for 7 years in D3 and had two losing seasons in FCS before being bought out to become the head coach at Akron. Arth has never been to a bowl game as a coach and has not coached under anyone who has won a game coaching at the D1 level. Again, undisputed facts.
    1 point
  7. The difference in the game has been the same story all season - bad OL play, and a non-existent pass rush. Every game, I marvel at the time the opposing QB has to throw...and the size of the pocket he throws from...compared to that of the Zips . On the season, we have 4 sacks for 17 yards. Our opponents - 31 sacks for 163 yards. That's amazing. I liked Gibson's arm strength. I liked how, under duress, he constantly looked down field, trying to make something happen. Like Loyal Zip said, he needs to protect the ball better. And he will. For a true Freshman, running for his life, in his first start, he did a great job. Just when you think we found a starting RB, he injures his shoulder after an 8 yard gain. We convert on 33% of our 3rd downs. Our opponents are at 50%. We've lost 10 fumbles. Our opponents have lost 2. Just tough to watch...
    1 point
  8. Of course the Forum guests who have been screaming about how bad the football team/program is making the U look won't give a hoot, because, you know, they're not MAJOR sports, Olympic sports, no one cares, blah blah blah....but if you didn't already know the outcome of the football game before you even watched or attended, then you had your head someplace else. But you should have paid attention, or at least given a nod here and there, to the Women of The Zips (I mean, Zippy is a she afterall). The biggest surprise of the Fall has to be the Volleyball team. They've won their last 3 matches, are 14-5 overall and in first place in the MAC at 7-1. This weekend they clobbered NIU 3-0 Friday and won a thriller 3-2 (7-6 final set) over WMU Saturday. Then the slowly but steadily women's soccer team, had WMU on the ropes Friday night leading 1-0 but gave up 2 late goals, almost saving a draw with great attacks in the final 5 minutes. They then bounced back yesterday to trounce NIU 3-0 at First Energy Stadium, with Carly Pcholinsky getting a brace, her second so good you'd of thought you were watching the MSOC team of 2018. It may not seem like a lot if you haven't watched them the past few seasons, but at 3-4-1 in the MAC and 7-8-1 overall it's a continuing improvement and making the Zips dangerous in WSOC. The least surprising of the weekend wins by Women was the Swim team dominating the pool in the 2nd annual Akron Zips Classic with Cleveland State, Xavier, Miami, and NCAA D2 Champs Dennison. After 7 of last year's Zips left and Maddi Myers still injured, Coach Peresie just keeps reloading, adding some quality freshmen to the mix, and it sure looks like a train wreck is all that will prevent a 7th straight MAC title. Did I mention that WSOC and WS&D are now attracting International players and interest? Oh, that's right, U of A is the "laughing stock" of College Athletics..... Stop grieving over an already lost football season and a wounded MSOC team that still has life in them, and maybe show some pride of the "lesser" sports.
    1 point
  9. This entire disaster is on Williams' shoulders.
    1 point
  10. I doubt the President and Trustees are as disinterested as you portray them. At the end of the day, they have to be results-oriented and we are talking out of both sides of our mouth if we fired Bowden based on results and don't hold Arth and William's accountable. Recruiting for the worst team in D1 will be an uphill battle and the transfer portal shows a lack of confidence in Arth. Tge suspension of Nelson and Sands, who should be leading the team is also not a good sign. The Zips need a miracle to resurrect the program. Arth wiped out all of the gains we made under Bowden. I do not know where we go from here. It's not like we have a marquee QB to build the program around. Gibson looked OK, but he is not going to be an all-star. What are some practical measures that can be taken to improve the quality of play?
    1 point
  11. Wanting the Zips to win and believing they will win are 2 different things. Not wanting to face what a disaster we are in is just foolish.
    1 point
  12. Sort of like we had to put up with the Bowden hating? Sorry, as long as the loser AD and pitiful coach are in place, this conversation is worthy of continuing. Lol. Have you considered why it has no responses? There is nothing to look forward to. They will lose and likely lose big, again. Who wants to dwell on that? Please join the rest of us? It sounds like no one is discussing? Lol
    1 point
  13. Blah, blah, blah... you are the only one pushing this given up crap...if you were pushing firing Bowden, you darn well better have a great solution. Williams did not.We are now the worst team in college football.
    1 point
  14. The same people who wanted Bowden gone now are defending Arth. Very strange.
    1 point
  15. The problem with this board has become this pipedream that firing Bowden would result in hiring a superior coach. No one is willing to own up to the idea that the odds were against us. Great coaches dont grow on trees and William's obviously doesn't have the talent for finding them.
    1 point
  16. No, I am not someone who was fired or related to anyone who has ever worked at U of A. I'm a Class of '89 alum and a parent of two Zip alums. I am a fan, and perhaps, if you actually were "thinking" about the facts I have presented, you would reach the same conclusions. Maybe some of you are fine with Zips Athletics mediocrity in Football and Men's Basketball... Is the current track of non-achievement mediocre? True/False. On Williams' watch two new sports have been added that will not be funded by the U of A at competitive levels against MAC opponents, in fact, they are presented as non-scholarship sports. This has been pushed forward despite the U of A suffering decreased enrollment and amidst claims by the U of A Upper Administration that future cuts to athletics are likely in the near future. What part of this is not factual? https://www.athleticbusiness.com/college/akron-likely-to-see-sports-cuts-with-new-budget-plan.html Men's Soccer is a non-revenue sport, despite making the College Cup, as there are no revenue shares from the NCAA or ticket sales that total even the benefits costs of Jared Embick's salary. At the end of the day, men's soccer brings in no more NET revenue than women's swimming and actually costs the U of A budget more. Williams gave a huge raise to the men's soccer coach despite Embrick having no other offers of employment, and now Embrick makes $300,000 per year, which is almost 3 times the average salary of a U of A Full Professor. https://www.insidehighered.com/aaup-compensation-survey/school-detail/university-akron-main-campus Is the men's soccer success pushing additional revenues to cover this salary bump? We would know if the Athletic Department published an annual report, but that has not happened the last two years. UA offered a buyout to 47 percent of its faculty in March, though some departments, including Athletics, were not eligible for the package. The university is also trying to address its dropping enrollment, now at a 10-year low, and has a history of financial problems as we all know. Officials originally predicted a deficit of $16 million for next year, though that was updated to $3.6 million earlier this Spring. Officials cited selectively filling vacancies and being “cost-conscious” with non-personnel costs as the reasons for the drop. The University of Akron spent $923,517 during the 2018-19 school year to pay three former presidents: Matthew Wilson, Scott Scarborough, and Luis Proenza, so the money that is being donated to U of A is truly going right out the door for no good of the students, academics, or athletics. Add in paying off Bowden and Arth's UTC exit fee... stop the insanity for a football program that sells less than 3,000 season tickets a year. That's right - the season ticket gross revenue for 2019 would not even cover the Bowden Buy-Out. The school owes Bowden, who was fired with two years left on his contract, $630,000. And it's giving Arth, a five-year deal that the Beacon Journal said is worth about $500,000 per year. Thus, in the next two years, Arth will be paid at least $1 million, Bowden will make $630,000 and Akron will be paying Arth's former school about $370,000. That's $2 million for a university that in August said it was projecting a $3.6 million budget deficit for this fiscal year, 2019-2020. Criticize me all you like, but if William's said football was his #1 priority when he was named AD then why are ticket sales, attendance and wins all going backwards in year 4 of his tenure. This is not sour grapes, is someone standing up for Zip fans and saying we deserve better.
    1 point
  17. Here is Northern Illinois' Athletics 2018-19 Annual Report, still waiting to see if Larry Williams will put one out for 2018-19 after not doing one in 2017-18 https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sites/niuhuskies.com/documents/2019/10/1/2018_2019_Annual_Report_Final.pdf
    1 point
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