UAZipster0305

I wrote to my state representative and state senator on this topic. I encourage anyone interested to do the same. Perhaps this could become an alumni campaign dedicated to the long-term best interest of the University. Here is a link to find your elected state officials and their contact information: https://www.legislature.ohio.gov/legislators/district-maps

Perhaps scheduling 2-4 money games every year would be an acceptable compromise? Seriously. Maybe this helps attract recruits like it did with Frye? Players not recruited to play P5 but still with that chip on their shoulder could play roughly half a P5 schedule every year. Perhaps that could be a recruiting advantage relative to the rest of the MAC? And you know if we play more of those games, we win more of them as well. Had we played the Nebraska game and with how we were playing at the beginning of the year, we very well could have had two B1G wins this year.

I am fine with that too. We could still get our money game every season while downsize on salaries and scholarships. Altering athletics for the benefit of academics and the overall financial well-being of the University is what I'm saying needs to happen.

SC needed a game and so did we. It worked out. I can't anoint someone a hero for doing their job. If SC paid us $1.3 million for the game, it was obviously worth it to them from a revenue perspective. We were lucky they needed a game. I have not seen anything publicly posted about getting paid for the Nebraska game. I'm fine if it was half now while avoiding litigation, I just have not seen that.

SC was revenue neutral. We still have not been paid by Nebraska. If we saved money on KD's contract, it should be redirected to academics rather than expanding or reinvesting in athletics. As I posted above this, but after yours, I'm all for contracting other sports to shrink the athletics budget. And just to be clear, I LOVE the Zips. I've attended many football and basketball games and have traveled many times to watch men's soccer. I think it is great that we have top-25 track rifle, and swimming and diving teams. However, I do not think that a sizeable and important portion of our academic programs should be cut while athletics expand and waste money. Athletics are a luxury.

Solid post. Sometimes a more prestigious title can justify a pay cut. There are more things valuable to a job than just the money. Independence, creativity, stability, and location all come to mind. Who knows what Getsy felt about those things, but it was a conversation worth having . After Bowden's next year, if more of the same, I would have backed the AD making Getsy an offer that was comparable to Bowden's...provided a financial solution could be found not involving the football program. Amen. When 80+ academic programs get cut, we are at that point. Unfortunately, I think we should go as far as to consider suspending football and doing the same for a Title IX commensurate number of women's programs that have not been successful. Once the University has financially recovered, these programs could be reinstated. The discontinuation and subsequent reinstatement after a few years absence has worked miracles for UAB's football program.

If you are loyal to the University as a whole, then you should recognize that sports are a luxury for an academic institution and push for the preservation of scarce resources. Firing a football coach who brought us back from the abyss with several years left on his contract is wasteful and detrimental to the University. There is no other way around that.

No, Arth and the situation should be blamed on the AD, which I have clearly done. I'm not actively rooting against Arth, I just have zero confidence based on what he has achieved in his career so far. I also know that the resources associated with his buyout from FCS and Bowden's buyout are a tremendous waste that would be better spent on just about anything else at UA. The Browns are finally looking good, and are poised to be on the fringe of the playoffs for the first time in a decade. If they make it, I believe it will only be the second time in the past 25+ years. In addition to their epically bad, record-breaking losing seasons, the Browns are the worst franchise in the NFL during that period. Similar things could be said regarding the Zips though until very recently, EMU may have been worse.

With the status quo, I'd agree. I think forcing the replacement of Milwee would make a tremendous difference. If not, moving on after the end of a contract as opposed to having to buy it out makes a big difference.

I appreciate that you feel that way, but I do not. Bowden earned my loyalty, at least for another year. What have the Browns fans gotten for all their loyalty over the years? Blind loyalty enables malevolence and the repetition of history.

Logical explanation is hardly crying. If your side had logic in its favor, there would be no need for such discussions. You won't see me on the game boards for sure, but I will be back to say, told you so. Success as a coach at the high school or D-III level has little to do with running a dominant MAC program unless these things are part of a greater resume that includes consistent dominance at all levels of coaching including FCS.

I was unaware of this; however, it changes my impression very little. If it were at Mount Union with a 40-3ish record and a couple of National Championships followed by success at the FCS level, I'd feel differently. Instead, I feel that our pool of coach applicants was pretty shallow.

Sounds strangely similar to the hype when iCoach was hired.

Bowden didn't get that excuse in his favor, neither does the new guy.

This is a potential disaster. No real notable credentials and we expect this guy to outshine Bowden? Are you kidding me?! AND we have to buy out his other contract? Amidst a financial crisis that has resulted in significant academic reductions, this is criminal. At least we aren't hearing about what a great "recruiter" he is. The AD and football program no longer have my support or confidence. They are both detrimental to the overall best interests of UA. As evidence by the reactions here, this hire does nothing to inject excitement into the fan base, which is ironic given that this was part of the justification for Bowden being fired. Sounds like the same kind of logic used in explaining the program cuts while admitting they don't actually save UA money. Something universally toxic seems to be afoot. I could have supported Getsy being hired, but not a guy who has no experience at this level and whose only head coaching experience includes taking a good FCS program and making it worse while carrying player injuries as an excuse. An excuse that was not allowed for Bowden during one down season after several seasons of success. Oh the hypocrisy!

It's been a busy few days wrapping up the year in the office, and I haven't had a chance to share my thoughts until now. Several people from my office here in Maryland watched the game and gave us a lot of respect. That always feels good. As others have said, the game being on ESPNU was disgraceful, especially considering the programming alternatives on ESPN and ESPN2 at the time. What a disservice to the sport, the schools, and the NCAA. I have a fairly complete sports cable package and still had to go out to watch. As for the game, we started playing our style in the first ten minutes or so. However, I suspect Maryland then made a few changes and a commitment to not let us be comfortable on the ball. From there, we were under pressure, being fouled, or played physically all over the field. There were a small handful of very minor injuries by our players after contact was apparent, and I think it strongly influenced their confidence. Maryland's size, particularly across the back line, was problematic for us too. Egbo and Kahsay never got going. There weren't many chances for either team. Our best was in the first half coming in from the corner of the box on the left side. The shot was low and off the goalies' foot and then out of bounds just outside of the post. Had that been put high, it would have been in, and the rest of the game would have been different. It's amazing how soccer is so strongly determined by singular events. Against MSU, every one of those seemed to go our way. Not so against Maryland. Oh well. Both teams were fairly evenly matched, but Maryland likely deserved to win. However, they won for the wrong reason. As a former state licensed referee, I am qualified to say that the first PK was terrible, especially considering the context of a championship game. There appeared to be very little contact, and the Maryland player was clearly embellishing. An indirect free kick from the spot of the foul as a result of dangerous play for the high kick would have been appropriate. Unfortunately, this call determined the game and the strategy of both teams from there on. The second PK was also questionable...very little contact, if any, with the Maryland player going down easily. Lundt should have done better to lead with his hands for the ball rather than his legs; great save for him on the PK though. The red card was also garbage. The foul was not malicious and our player had not even been verbally warned for misconduct and the offensive player was headed more towards the corner than the goal. A yellow would have been fair. The timing of these events really prevented us from getting organized and making a strong push to attack. In spite of the perfect storm of poor officiating and Maryland's physicality disrupting our game, I was happy that we still played hard through it all. Going forward, Embick needs to figure out how to adjust when the other team decides to chop the game up by being excessively physical. Porter never quite figured this out either as evidence by the 0-0 loss against UVA in 2009. We may have won 3+ National Championships by now if it weren't for teams nearly or every bit as skilled as us playing defensive, physical, and direct soccer. It worked multiple times for Stanford and now for Maryland. While this strategy for other teams won't generally be effective in the MAC because the talent disparity is too great, it is becoming a consistent recipe for beating the Zips in the NCAAT. The future is bright, but figure this bugaboo out, and 2+ National Championships in the next five years is a real possibility. Kudos to the seniors for leading the turnaround. Surprising run to end a now great season. At the beginning of November, I was already looking towards next season. What a pleasant surprise! Embick has my full confidence. Go Zips!

Getting excited to get takeout and watch the Zips get that second star! Take it to 'em, boys! Watching from Baltimore, MD and rooting for the Zips is an interesting paradox. No team I'd rather beat in this game than UMD because they knocked us out in 2003 and 2005. We are yet to beat them in the NCAAT. We are overdue and playing so so well! Game on!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2018/12/08/maryland-soccer-is-taking-its-redemption-tour-ncaa-championship-game/?utm_term=.c9027251121e

After beating NW and playing ISU tough, everyone thought we were headed there this season. The starting talent was there, but then there were injuries, and we are not yet deep enough to sustain those losses. Most MAC teams are a few key player injuries away from being the top or close to the top of the MAC to below average.

My point exactly. I feel this decision was made more towards personal gain than the University's and program's best interests in mind.

Though not recently, upon opening of the Info, there was plenty of talk about being the Boise State of the midwest. We played for a MACC. Think about that relative to not even being average FCS with iCoach. That's how far we've come with Bowden. Because we have a down year, you doubt his abilities to take us any further?

Given the situation of one year left on Bowden's contract, the AD micromanaging the situation and removing Milwee would have been appropriate. And what if that happened and we went 8-4 next year?

Yes, hard to compare sports, and it's likely more difficult in football in my opinion because there are so many more personnel and less games. One bad game has much more of an impact on evaluating the success or failure of a season in football than basketball. With regard to Buffalo basketball, as you point out, they were "getting close". Akron football was by far the worst program in the country for several seasons. We may not have even been an average FCS program. TB was taking us from the cellar to average. So all else being equal between sports, the comparison doesn't hold. We are getting to average. We could have held on another year and then made a change after Bowden's contract expired. That's all I'm saying.

And what CK observed and was aware of indicated otherwise. A change needed to be made and that was an intervention with Bowden to demote Milwee. Agree to disagree.

No, you stay grounded in reality and move forward. For Akron football that means having the perspective to realize we will never be Boise State. As I've expressed in another post, geography alone dictates that. The recovery from the worst D-1 program in the country to where we are now has been worthy of our loyalty to the coach who made that happen, especially given the current financial challenges of the University. After financial recovery or Bowden's contract expires or he chooses to leave, then we consider the possibility of taking the next step to grow into an NIU or Toledo. In another program, we have more than Boise State in football or Gonzaga in basketball; neither of those programs have ever won an NCAAC. Think about it...Boise State and Gonzaga are not even the Akron soccer of football or basketball. And here we are on the verge of capturing our second NCAAC tomorrow night. In terms of universities in Ohio and other than OSU, I believe only UC has won more than one team national championship and those two were over 50 years ago. No other MAC program has ever won a national championship. Point being, we already have the national prominence you desire; it just doesn't happen to be in your favorite sport. Nonetheless, this is the essence of our athletic culture! Good football and championship soccer are not mutually exclusive, but let's have some perspective. I feel that unless we have a MACC in football every year, some of you won't be happy, and you don't think we can get there fast enough. It has taken soccer forty years of consistent winning and highly stable coaching tenures to get to this point. Now is not the time to fire another football coach prematurely and introduce the strong possibility of regressing to where Akron football has almost always been and further compromising University finances to do it. We need to establish ourselves as a consistent above average MAC football program, and that's where Bowden was taking us. For right now, we are inconsistent, and that's exactly what you'd expect from a program recently getting itself out of the cellar. Think about this: Bowden beat the B1G west champs in the same season that we fired him. That is absurd! When have we ever beaten even the worst of the B1G programs in football? That's right, never. It's rare that we've even been competitive let alone won.