Zipsrifle

Found this article on Paul Winters. Good example of how quickly things can change in your life: http://detnews.com/article/20111119/SPORTS...ootball-revival

On thing I love is that we are a "Small School", but nobody bothers to compare our enrollment to some of the "Big Schools"".

NIU has a history of winning in the MAC and I'm sure that helps. Solich has turned a loser program into a winner....here is a case for getting an experienced coach from DI-A. Our program has a long DI-A history of losing. One wrong move in 2005 (by anybody, not just us), and we would never have a MAC Championship and still not have gone to a DI-A Bowl game. Our past 3 coaches have been assistants, I want someone who has been HC experience and was successful.

The campus atmosphere is quite a bit different now, then it was in the 70s. So they don't show up in 2011,why? Winning or not in our case apparently is the variable. Point was that students still don't come out in any significant number just to watch football. More might show up if there is a winner. But just to watch a football game? Obviously not. Well,time to go unhitch the buggy and head for the general store y'all. Like it or now, students at UA have not been exposed to Akron as an exciting football program. Every weekend we have the top programs streamed into our homes and people who are passionate about sports will typically gravitate to one of these teams. The teams on TV are there because they make money and they make money because they WIN. Walking into The Big House your first time with 100,000+ fans is an amazing experience. Walking into the Info with 5000 fans is depressing. We can't expect the students to support their team while they are losing. They don't need to be national champions, but something worthwhile must be on the line, like a MAC Championship. I am one of the people who believe we are a sleeping Giant....we just need to put it together and hope Can't doesn't get there first!

I would like to see Paul hired too but I am total agreement with Hiroad1. We need to do our homework. But given the situationa and our financial resources...I think Paul is our best option. But you really can't say that unless you go through the process. +1 Get the best guy we can for the money we have. Isn't that what every hire at every company is about???

Rocco does seem like a good candidate. I took a glanced at their records, and I wonder what happened in 2005? the two years prior to that they had 6 wins and then, bam, 1 win. Maybe they were very young that season? So maybe the team wasn't as much of a project as WSU was...hard to say. Anyway, Rocco intrigues me and I like the fact that he has been winning in DI-AA whereas Winters has been winning in D-II.

Since it worked so well the first time.... I'm trying to get excited, but really so names really give me hope. When it comes to Winters, how many casual fans would you think even know about him? Unless they followed the Zips back when he was on the team, I don't think most fans today would take that as a selling point. Not to mention the jump from D2 to FBS is quite a jump. Even FCS to FBS makes me a little nervous, unless it was a guy who won multiple championships. There was no search committee for Rob I, he was TW pick. PW was OC at Akron for a few years and man, did we put up points! For me, he has sufficient experience in the MAC to put me at ease.

I trust the search committee will select the best coach for Akron. I have not done a lot of Homework, but I have to admit I am pulling for Winters. I like the HC experience, the fact that he has rebuilt a program that was in shambles and that he is an Akron guy. I want a KD for our Football Program. With any luck, we'll play in 5 straight MACC games!!

Paul Winters is 33-13 in the past 4 seasons, 19-5 in his last two, and currently competing for the national championship. If that's mediocre, I'll take mediocre. Compare that to Shane Montgomery's recent coaching records and you'll see the absurdity of the statement. I'm not supporting Shane Montgomery as our next coach. Just pointing out that he has two divisional titles at a D1-A school as a head coach. But, I also won't take your suggestion here and judge Winters tenure at Wayne by conveniently selecting the best few years, while ignoring the rest. I could probably make a case for just about any coach by utilizing that formula. So when you buy a car, all you look at is the price then?? Look, when PW took over the WSU program, they were at a historical low point in terms of winning percentage, having a losing record for almost a decade. He was rebuilding the program which is why his overall record is not that good. Any coach here would have the same job ahead of him. So, if anything, what he has done at WSU should be encouraging as ANY coach who is here next year will have a similar low winning percentage the first few years. A record of 33-13 is not a poor record. It is a really good record. When you factor in where Wayne State was at when coach Winters took over the program it is a remarkable record. This is a major reason why he needs to be considered for the open Akron job. Can Akron fans take a slow rebuilding process without taking Winters to task? Agreed That is all I wanted RI to do. Last year, he had a pass. This year, my bar was 4 games. I would rather take 6 years to build a consistent MAC Champion than take 3 years for a flash in the pan. BTW, by my count PW has a 47-41 overall record at WSU (8 years). 33-13 only covers the last 4 years. Still, not too shabby!

That is horrible! My condolences to the family!

Understanding that if we get a coach that wins, they will likely leave, I think it is beneficial to get a coach that develops not only kids, but other coaches. Personally, I don't see much opportunity to hold onto a winning coach for an extended period of time (even if we get Winters). If this coach also develops the coaches under him, then, we promote from within. The program has continuity and with any luck, we continue to win. I think THAT is the scenario we will have to stumble into in order for us to move from bottom feeders in the MAC to a consistent MAC Champion that can take down BCS schools in Bowl games. The problem with all this is that we need to get the ideal candidate. Put me in the camp that thinks we won't be able to hire an adequate "Name" coach because of the cost. So we are left with picking a relative unknown, unfortunately. Considering how complicated and lucky we would have to be, "Just Win" is what we need to focus on for the next few seasons. Start the coaching search when the "Winning" coach leaves and start over again...... Personally, I've only really looked at PW and reviewed Matt Campbell's biography on the Toledo Website. I don't know much about Campbell, but one down side to me is how short his coaching experience has been to date. I mean, it looks like he started in 2003 as a GA. is the guy capable of putting a staff around him? I am one who looks at a head coach like the CEO of a company, they don't do the work, they get the right people in place below them to do the work. I'm not ruling the guy out and if anything will take any information anyone can provide. I like Winters because of what he has done at WSU and, if he is successful at UofA, then maybe he will stay here because of his Roots like KD. He has shown me that he can turn a program around (which is exactly what we need) and man, I loved watching the Zips play when he was OC! I want those times BACK!

Paul Winters is 33-13 in the past 4 seasons, 19-5 in his last two, and currently competing for the national championship. If that's mediocre, I'll take mediocre. Compare that to Shane Montgomery's recent coaching records and you'll see the absurdity of the statement. I'm not supporting Shane Montgomery as our next coach. Just pointing out that he has two divisional titles at a D1-A school as a head coach. But, I also won't take your suggestion here and judge Winters tenure at Wayne by conveniently selecting the best few years, while ignoring the rest. I could probably make a case for just about any coach by utilizing that formula. So when you buy a car, all you look at is the price then?? Look, when PW took over the WSU program, they were at a historical low point in terms of winning percentage, having a losing record for almost a decade. He was rebuilding the program which is why his overall record is not that good. Any coach here would have the same job ahead of him. So, if anything, what he has done at WSU should be encouraging as ANY coach who is here next year will have a similar low winning percentage the first few years.

ZNO must be a petri dish 'cause the infection is growing quickly!

This thinking is wrong. I am a premium member on another site and a gentleman that writes and reports on Ohio recruiting has said Akron is the bext job in the MAC and the 2nd best in Ohio. The facilites, stadium and local talent pool would make any good coach a winner almost immediately. Then give him a few years to get his players in and recruit even better after having a winner and Akron could move out of the MAC. This is a very respected neutral football guy saying this. FWIW So if it's so easy to win here, why can't we seem to do it? Why are we talking about leaving the MAC? We haven't even won our division in FB in a convincing manner, EVER! I never said it was easy. I said it's the best job in the MAC. We just got our new stadium a couple years ago and hired a moron as coach. The right coach will be able to turn this thing around. If I am a high school player and I look at 2 straight 1-11 seasons and then I visit and see 1000 people in the stands, I am not going to Akron. However, if the program starts winning, then we will look better to recruits and there will be more people in the stands and we won't be the laughing stock of CFB. We need the right coach to get it started. Miami was nothing before Schnellenberger got there. Florida was nothing before Spurrier got there. The list is long and endless. If you remember, Cincy was nothing until Dantonio got there and got them turned around. Then they got Kelly and continued it. Once the winning started it kept going. They are usually close to if not a top 25 team. We have better facilites, stadium and talent area than Cincy. Being a good team is like getting rich. You have to spend money to make money. You also have to have a good coach to get the train rolling. Once the train is rolling it keeps picking up speed and nothing can stop it. If there is a good young proven coach that really wants a stepping stone to prove his worth, Akron is the perfect place for him. He can take the worst program in America and turn it around. Once the turn around is complete then we can continue to bring in better coaching talent. Akron is a sleeping giant for football. There are so many positives that we have going for us. We know this team sucks so we can't picture it not sucking. But get the right coach and all that would change. I don't know who that coach is. That's above my paygrade. Imagine a winning Akron team with a good coach, the facilites, stadium and beautiful campus recruiting against any other MAC team. It would be no contest. We would also get our share from the Big East, Conf USA and middle to lower B10. Everybody here knows I am not a sunshine pumping homer, but this really is a good job for a good coach to prove himself at. I also believe that Akron is a sleeping Giant. But the key here is getting "The Right Coach". Every school is looking for "The Right Coach" and people with the qualities of "The Right Coach" are few and far between. By the time it is recognized someone is "The Right Coach" they aren't looking for a job in the MAC. We need to find "The Right Coach" but how do we do that? We can pay out the nose for what we think is "The Right Coach", but only if we have the money and even then it is a gamble. If we don't have the money (most of the time, we don't) then we have to guess on who will be "The Right Coach" and that is the trick. It's one thing to talk about "The Right Coach" and another to actually get "The Right Coach". We had a coach that many people wanted to sign to a big, fat long term contract. He was "The Right Coach" and his name was JD Brookhart. He had an amazing field house, a MAC Championship and stadium so new, it wasn't even built yet. We canned him after a 3-9 season, he wasn't "The Right Coach". Our most recent, generally acknowledged "Recruiting Guru" completely tanked with the shiny new facilities. I don't believe this is a simple fix, that a "Good" coach can come in here and win immediately. I don't care how nice the facilities are, we are fighting every other MAC school just to stay relevant in the FBS and we are quickly losing our facilities advantage. Before we start talking about moving conferences, we need to be dominant in FB in our own conference all the while keeping our dominance in Soccer and Basketball. It's going to take us some time to become dominant in football.

This thinking is wrong. I am a premium member on another site and a gentleman that writes and reports on Ohio recruiting has said Akron is the bext job in the MAC and the 2nd best in Ohio. The facilites, stadium and local talent pool would make any good coach a winner almost immediately. Then give him a few years to get his players in and recruit even better after having a winner and Akron could move out of the MAC. This is a very respected neutral football guy saying this. FWIW So if it's so easy to win here, why can't we seem to do it? Why are we talking about leaving the MAC? We haven't even won our division in FB in a convincing manner, EVER!

Personally, I just don't see how we are going to land one of these "Big Name" coaches being we are so horrible and in the MAC. I haven't really done a lot of research on the other coaches (which is why they pay a search committee) but I do like Paul Winters. IMO, he hasn't been slightly above average, rather, he has taken a team that was below .500 for almost a decade and has them in the quarterfinals right now. He's an Akron guy and man, did we have some fun games when he was around. We could put points on ANYBODY!! I put together a plot showing how WSU has fared over the years and it's pretty clear to me that he has turned their program around. Paul_Winters_at_WSU.doc

So what you are saying is that he managed to keep two guys who wanted to stay by giving them what they wanted. Now, he should just "Rubber-stamp" the search committee recommendation. After this is done, he will go on You Tube to broadcast what has been done.

So let me get this straight, we're the worst team in college football two years running, and we are signing Tressel and moving to the BE? Flying the blimp sounds perfectly logical!

The phone system couldn't even handle all the calls after the announcement was made. Infocision could have it's phonelines contracted out to take the ticket orders, and they would be overrun Could Infocision handle the phones? The sad part is that the people at the Info probably wouldn't know why they were getting flooded with phone calls!

Ha. That's how I am. Being such a huge sucker for the Zips, even though I wanted iCoach gone so badly I was to the point of anger, I would have still none-the-less been torn in buying season tickets if iCoach was retained. Now that they've relieved iCoach of his duties, they could hire Chuckles the Clown & I'm in! Yea, I was in the same dilemma for a while. I finally made my mind up that though I consider myself a diehard fan, I could not "Support" what I viewed as a flawed decision from the get go. I had had enough and decided to still give my money to UA, just somewhere else.

Well, if the Sun Belt had the best recruiting classed, definitely don't hire one of their coaches. Who was usually tops? MTSU, FIU, North Texas??

Ahh, I hate posts like these. So enigmatic. Can you elaborate at all? What makes you say this? Frat house rumor? An overheard conversation? twitter/internet rumor? Pure speculation? I'm hanging on to any Jim Tressel rumor because I want it to be true. Luke Fickell would normally be my first choice. Have we forgotten that Luke has already coached at Akron? He did well enough to get himself hired on to the Jim Tressel bandwagon at Ohio State. Kudos. Paul Winters seems to have won his spurs resurrecting a truly moribund program at Wayne State. Paul sure has support in the Akron camp. However, if he is willing to take the Akron job one man stands alone. Jim Tressel. Whether you like him or not is not relevant. What coach Tressel can accomplish for Akron is relevant. Coach Fickell is basically untried. He has no recruiting experience. He coached a tainted Big Ten team for a season. And, all things considered, performed pretty well. Coach Winters has done an outstanding job at Wayne State. Kudos. Unfortunately, coach Winters has zero recruiting experience with division 1A caliber kids. I am fearful that he would be stuck with the same one and two star kids that Ianello could reach. And, that spells the same problems coach Ianello had. Little real talent. Is this fair to Akron or coach Winters? Coach Tressel has many years experience recruiting three and four star caliber kids. His name carries a mountain of credibility. He can recruit these kids to play for him at Akron. If your goal is to be mired in the lower echelon of the MAC or even slide back to division 1-AA by all means show support for coach Winters. Coach Fickell could probably elevate Akron to the upper tier of the MAC a few years sooner than Paul Winters could. Maybe. Coach Tressel can put the Zips at the top of the Mac in three or four years at the most. More importantly, coach Tressel could lead the Zips up and out of the MAC and into a far better conference. Yes, for real, the Big East where Akron actually belongs. I am older than most of you. I remember the days of being the big dog in the Ohio Athletic Conference. You know this conference, its division three and where Mount Union currently rules. Is this where you want to be? For years we put up with then old foggies who constantly lamented that Akron belonged at that level. And at every step upward they whined that Akron could not succeed at the new, higher level. Yet, Akron has. And, some will respond to this post with the same woeful doomsday predictions that it can not be done. Now, I ask all of you, which do you prefer; to be national champs in division three football or National Champions in division one soccer? National champs in division 1-AA football (ala YSU) or national champs in division one soccer? And, a sports program member of the Big East where your Infocision stadium had to be expanded to its full 68,000 capacity because you have more than 45,000 season ticket holders? What is your vision? Short sighted, hopeless or visionary and always looking upward? Do not coach Porter and coach Dambrot deserve and have earned the opportunity to coach their programs at a higher level than the MAC? For me, I want to see coach Jim Tressel lead the University of Akron into the Big East and the caliber of sports that many thousands of fans point to as their school. Go Zips. Well stated. From a pure football standpoint, no doubt, I would take Tressel. But, how do we keep him "In Check"? Maybe I am too idealistic, but I want to win WITHOUT cheating. Second, I really don't know why Jim Tressel would come to Akron? Obviously he is the one who can make the decision, but consider the following: 1) We are the worst FBS team in the country two years running. 2) Historically (FBS-wise) we are losers. 3) He probably could get a job at a higher profile (relative to the MAC) FBS school. 4) He has the skill to move up in the NFL coaching ranks. Hopefully, I'm wrong....

Though there are many valid points in the article, what exactly defines one as a "National Writer"?

Clearly I was wrong. I am surprised, but perhaps it was the ugly nature of the final game that made the situation untenable for the administration. As for Fickell, I would avoid that hire. Here is a guy who has had very little experience outside of the OSU bubble. He has worked with a very small group of assistants, all of whom have worked primarily in C-bus. I think you want a guy who knows a lot of people and can put together a staff of very good assistants with varying levels of experience. Fickell doesn't have that reach at this point in his career. These are some of my concerns as well. With that said, this is why we need a thorough evaluation of our options with the national candidate search. People who are WAY more knowledgeable than I (and TW) about football coaches should influence in who we hire.

+1