Zipgrad01

I will lose a lot of respect for Wagner if he abandons his teammates and goes to play for the man that ruined Akron football. I hope he does the right thing and stays here where he belongs. He will get just as much exposure here as he will in Kansas.

I agree 100%. If Bowden can come in and win with JUCO's right off the bat it brings legitimacy to the program. The better Ohio hs players will be far more likely to come here. That is how we will build sustained success.

Who cares? The guy has won at every level. The proof is in the pudding. Nothing to be leery about.

I have to believe that the recruiting impact will be felt immediately. I can't wait to see how quickly we get our first verbal because of Bowden.

Are you kidding? McCoy was a 3rd round pick! That kid is not as bad as the media is making him out to be.

Reinforces our belief that folks here on ZNO could've done the job for FREE that UA has now squandered $75,000 on: search committees. We were calling for Bowden two years ago, let alone a month ago when this process started. Like you, CK, I do wonder if TW ever even had Bowden on his wish-list. If he did, then why did he drive to Detroit and offer the job to a guy he snubbed two years ago? Did he somehow think Winters would do something for UA that a top talent like Bowden would not? How deluded is that thinking? No, I rather suspect that TW fell into this one back-asswards, and may come out smelling like a rose thru no effort of his own. You know the old saying....sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.

I wouldn't be surprised if people misunderstood and we actually did hire terry auburn!

Is it a coup to hire somebody nobody else looked at? I'm not saying it's a bad hire, just don't think you could call it a coup. The guy went 11-0 in the sec one season and had auburn in the top 25 in all of his 5 full seasons. This is enormous.

I wish I knew.

There has been a lot of investigating and his name has not come up. Penn State is a mess right now. Bradley is doing all the recruiting and trying to keep the program afloat. I bet a few penn state recruits or transfers would think about following him.

Bucknuts is saying that Penn State interim coach Tom Bradley may be in the mix for the Akron job.

Footballscoop is still reporting today that Scot Loeffler will be named our head coach.

False equivalency. Wayne State doesn't compete with Akron in any way. Has your head been in the sand for the last 24 hours? We just competed for a head coach and they won.

I sure as hell would hope so.

Interviewed not offered.

After reading that I fully understand how and why he made the decision he did. Hopefully we find the right guy that can connect with this university and the players like winters has done at Wayne state. That is the foundation of trust and committment that will lead to sustained success.

Those postings I had are from last off season. It just shows that he has drawn some interest from some pretty prominant programs.

Not a problem. We are good. It is an emotional time to be a Zips fan and it is easy for things to go overboard.

He can spin it any way he wants it. It is glorified high school ball. He is content with being the big fish in a little, little pond. That is not the type of guy we need to lead this program.

I’m stunned, for certain. I wasn’t in the room but I can’t imagine Paul getting a great offer and saying, “That’s a great offer, no thanks.” So I conclude there wasn’t an offer made that was good enough to lure him out of a comfortable situation. I’ve been thinking his options were Akron or Wayne, but who knows, in 12 months there may be another couple dozen openings better suited for him. I can see Paul feeling a certain obligation to his school, but not this athletic department. Who knows, there may be a time when Akron & Paul’s needs align. Hopefully the faithful here won’t hold this against him, he wasn’t involved in the hype & excitement of this site; he didn’t snub you. I however, did participate to feed and feed off the excitement of his possible hire. I really wanted to enjoy UA football again. But without the PW buzz, I don’t think this will be as fun. Take care all. This was a one shot deal. Paul Winters will never be offered this job again. The administration can ill afford to have a D2 coach, let alone a former player and alum say thanks, but no thanks. It is an enormous black eye to the program. I have already gotten several texts from friends today talking about how pathetic our football program is because we couldnt even get a former player to come here that is coaching D2 in the slums of inner city Detroit.

I'm inclined to agree with you, based on the various statements he's made. But you better be sure you're not interested before pulling yourself out. Plus, he was somewhat preoccupied for the last few weeks. My feelings came from some of his statements as well.

http://annarbor.com/sports/um-football/ex-...e-college-game/ http://www.nola.com/lsu/index.ssf/2011/01/...florida_co.html Maybe we should give this guy a chance.

Sorry Big Zip, this is Browns fan logic. Paul has done nothing wrong. He looked at the job and decided where he was was a better fit for him. I disagree. Paul Winters knew Akron was courting him. It was in numerous articles in Ohio and Michigan. If Paul Winters was not interested he should have said so 3 weeks ago. We potentially lost out on a better candidate because Paul Winters didn't say no from the outset. How do you know whether Paul didn't really make his mind up until last night or this morning? I'm sure he was torn either way. It's not too hard for me to believe that he needed to be squarely faced with the offer, and all the details associated with it, before he could make an educated decision. You could be right, however, I highly doubt he thought Akron was going to come in with a 7 figure offer. He knew the range of money they were willing to pay and he knew it wouldn't be that much higher than he would make at Wayne State with a salary negotiation. Granted, I don't know all the details, but I get the feeling that he was never seriously considering this job.

I will wait and see who gets hired as the coach before I would even think of firing the AD. If you want the football program to completely fall apart go ahead and try to hire a new coach AND an AD. That would be a disaster and no coach in their right mind would ever come here.

Sorry Big Zip, this is Browns fan logic. Paul has done nothing wrong. He looked at the job and decided where he was was a better fit for him. I disagree. Paul Winters knew Akron was courting him. It was in numerous articles in Ohio and Michigan. If Paul Winters was not interested he should have said so 3 weeks ago. We potentially lost out on a better candidate because Paul Winters didn't say no from the outset.