Captain Kangaroo

Those red cushioned seats look soooo comfortable.

Defense travels. Dating back to WMU, Great last 55 minutes (and counting) of D from the Zips.

Doesn't everyone already, or is it just me?

And just when Dambrot leaves.... Is KD the Ken Lolla of Akron hoops?

Paying off Bowden’s contract one parking space at a time...

From the Pluto article - I recall several years ago that the MAC had a rule the it's programs were not allowed to play away games against FCS programs? Wonder if it is no longer enforced?

Season's Greetings and Thank You to all who participate on the board! ZN.O is what you make it. If it were not for you taking the time to post your thoughts and content, it would be nothing. Like the Kent board. We have a good group of contributors now. I enjoy waking up in the morning and scrolling through all of your thoughts and links to Zips-related news. There was a time not to long ago when that wasn't the case. We're definitely grateful for everyone's contributions!

Missed too many bunnies

On Thursday December 20th, new Zips Head Football Coach Tom Arth was kind enough to allow me a 30 minute interview. While I would have loved to garnered details such as recruit names and a detailed list of staff candidates, unfortunately neither was possible. Trust me, I tried. Until things are official, and contracts are signed, we all simply need to put the puzzle pieces together ourselves from Twitter and other similar sources. That said, I though he provided some great insight into his personal life, his football mindset and the DNA that will make up Akron Zips Football in the Arth Era. I hope you enjoy it. Note to Dr. Z: Regarding photography at scrimmages - Coach Arth was quoted as saying “Still photography is great.” Unlike the Bowden scrimmages, where only the initial 15 minutes of warm ups were open to photography, you should now be able to take plenty of action shots. Hope Santa got you a sweet new sports lens for Christmas this year! Coach Arth Q & A

I took the afternoon off work today and was able to meet with coach Arth. I’ll have a story posted sometime this weekend. On the topic of the existing recruits he said he didn’t want to pressure them to commit to a coach and staff that they’d never even met. And likewise he didn’t want to extend an offer to a student athlete that he’d never met. Zips fans will need to wait for the February signing date to see the 2019 class. It’s just the way it has to be. The new early signing period is really unfair to anyone involved with a coaching change. Whether your coach is fired, or he leaves on his own for a better opportunity. I can say he’s an extremely nice guy. Very gracious and a good listener. I was a big proponent of Luke Getsy being hired, and a lot of the positives I liked in Luke are also in Tom Arth. I think we hired a good one.

Good for him.

If someone promised to pay me $600,000, I ain’t retiring and forfeiting it. Especially not to the place that fired me. Bowden would have been happy to coach the next two seasons, but UA told him to hit the bricks. UA knew the deal...they wrote it. If if you want to play “big boy” football, you know eating the last two years of a fired coach’s contract is part of the deal. A $600,000 dinner bill is chump change in D-1 football. If it isn’t for UA, it isn’t Bowden’s fault. If Arth doesn’t pan out, the buyout will probably be $1,000,000. I hope he pans out ...not to save the money...but because it would be fun. It’s been a long time since Zips football has been bandwagon-inducing fun.

I don't know that any of the previous staff would be kept, but Wattley and Nemec are two that would make sense. They're local HS football coaches without any legacy ties to Bowden. I'd think they have some great value.

I can't see it working out any other way. By the time 2025 rolls around that will be a 1.5 million dollar payday. Maybe more.

Ok, now I see Banks in street clothes too. Wonder what’s up?

Banks nowhere to be found? Toles in street clothes?

I disagree. There's a point where you're waiting too long. And I don't think there will be a bevy of talent remaining after this upcoming week's signing day. At the beginning of this year Bowden wasn't expecting to get fired. He had a lot of redshirts and gray shirts sitting out 2018 in expectation that he'd be coaching them in 2019, so it will be interesting to know how many scholarships are available. Maybe half the class is already on campus? Then we need to see how many incumbent guys bail. I look at Jabari Arthur's story, and the change from Owens to Brookhart really pissed him off. He wanted to transfer. And it ended up being the best possible thing to happen to his football career. I hope once our new coach is selected, the incumbent guys take a deep breath and interview the new staff themselves before making a their transfer decision.

I think accepting the CBI or CIT invitation depends on your team. I would loved to have seen the Dru/Rome 25-win team get any sort of post season chance to strut their stuff. I'm sure they would have too. But for other, disinterested Dambrot teams it was a complete waste of money.

I just fired the coaching staff that won the MAC East in 2017. How are you going to make me look like I made the right decision?

Zips Interview, and Huff Rebuffs

I wonder if they got Huff and Getsy screwed up?

In football? They haven't had a decent coach since Don James. You could make arguments for Dean Pees or Doug Martin, but they fired them. So even when they hire a decent guy, they're too dumb to keep him. Darrell Hazell? Two seasons at Kent. Bombed at Purdue.

Why is it so unfathomable the Kent State could pass on a good football coach? They've never shown any acumen when it comes to judging coaching talent.

So you think we'd wait until almost 2 weeks after National Signing Day to announce our coach? I'd be horrified. We shouldn't be in a hurry to select our new coach, but we need to be quick. If we didn't have a coach named by Monday December 17th I'd be profoundly concerned.

Zips are always enamored with Notre Dame re’sume’s. He’s gotta be the front-runner.