72 Roo

To date I haven't commented on Charles leaving, not that anyone cares what I think which is fair enough. From my viewpoint I see posts that are unfortunate because they are making fun of a man who genuinely tried to do what he thought was best. Like Moorhead Charles came at a time when the sands of the position shifted. For Moorhead it was NIL. For Guthrie it was repeated budget cuts due to enrollment. Charles did not want money games, but he had to take them to keep from cutting even more. He took the OSU game when he found he was losing $3M in the budget. University administration wanted him to take the game. In fact the week before Charles resigned UA administration asked him to schedule another money game for next year. Charles was the one AD who could think big. To get there he improved facilities, went thru the rebranding, found new sources of funding (Summit Circle, Children's Hospital) and held coaches accountable. He wanted all coaches to be in the top three of the MAC. Some give him credit for soccer going to the BE. I give the credit to Jared for working the BE soccer coaches and having them work their AD's. Still Charles had to support it and he did. Just as he supported Bud Wentz forming a collective for basketball. He brought in professionals to run athletics. Nearly all of Williams staff was replaced except for Paul Hammond, assoc. AD for facilities. Once Hammond retired he farmed his duties out to his staff, again due to budget cuts. He worked the deal with Children's Hospital to build a clinic in Stiles Fieldhouse and staff all our trainers. When our longest serving trainer, Brent Draper, was close but not yet qualified for retirement Guthrie saw to it that he received full retirement and got him a job with Children's as their trainer for soccer, which he had been for many years. The rebranding seems to be a hot spot for some. They let us know about it in every post. Yet it needed to be done. Like Hilltopper I sat on the alumni committee that reviewed the final product. I preferred the Z and argued for it. It was unique and solely ours. Guthrie said he was told by the board of trustees he could not consider it as our primary logo. That had to be an A. They wanted closer linkage with the city of Akron. Hence Zips is no longer in one of the end zones at Infocision. Both ends say Akron. I still prefer the Z, but I have come to like the new A. I see the Z in it and that helps differentiate it in my opinion. I will not crucify him for doing what he thought was best. That's what a leader does. Akron is not an easy place in which to be a leader. You make decisions and then listen to the criticism. Guthrie's hires have been encouraging. I would say that w/o football he has done well. He kept Embick, Peresie, Groce, King and Engle. Good new hires are Gensler and Nicholson. Jones, Kiptoo and Faulds appear to be encouraging. Bad hires seem to be Moorhead, Simonetti, Gonzales and Norton. Everyone, including me, praised the hiring of Moorhead. No one knew he would be so prickly to deal with and inflexible in adapting his coaching style to the needs of the team. Still that is a hire he made and it is bad. Was Charles the best we could get at the time. I'll let you answer that one. As for me it took me a year to understand what he was doing, what he was dealing with and how he was planning ahead. I feel he was good for us. He made mistakes and rubbed people the wrong way. He didn't explain his thinking and actions well. The collapse of football ruptured his plans. That coupled with Miller resigning and the recent death of his dad led to him leaving. He is from Albany and his wife from Binghamton. Charles is close to his mom and sisters. Moving to Akron from Green Bay was a blessing for him because he could get home more often. Now he felt a need to be even closer. Fordham doesn't fit his career trajectory, but it does put him four hours from home. I wish him well. Charles introduced change to an athletic dept that needed it. Some say he was all about himself. I can see that, but if he was making athletics better I feel some leaders are like that. We will be better off for what he did in his time here though I sincerely doubt we will find a better AD with the state of the university. I could give more, but that's enough.

The win over EMU is like water in the desert for us. It is something to be celebrated, but reality reminds us that the fundamental weaknesses of this team were also on display: player control fouls, a stupid hand gesture penalty, interceptions, fumbles, tackling, rushing three men on D allowing the QB all the time in the world to pick us apart, discipline related issues, etc. We still have the same problems that are not being cleaned up as the season progresses. Until that happens we only have a shot at 4 wins. Forget about a bowl.

Only started 2 games this season. Was he injured?

I don't have a strong feeling one way or the other on the women's program other than I want to see them win big like the men. However I do feel the coach deserves another season before judging her leadership.

We all know the players are coached on how to field punts. We all see the poor decisions the players are making game after game after game. Inescapable conclusion: the players are ignoring the coaches. Why? Pick one: no respect for the coaches, no discipline, no consequences for bad decisions, no hope for a better future at Akron so do whatever you want. You pick the answer.

I thought this was the case, but after talking with Toledo's director of operations he has said Toledo runs a number of fundraisers to support NIL. How they administer the money was not discussed.

I admire your optimism. I find myself agreeing with almost all your posts. For this one I take a different view. I believe Joe stays, as long as he desires to, for the full length of his contract, which I think is 5 years. At the end of it he is gone one way or the other.

No one coaches to catch the ball inside the ten. Still players do it. Sportsmanship and character issues still plague this team. Why? The answer is simple. No discipline. There are no consequences for violating behavior issues (think Gaithings all last year). You can correct the punt fielding, player control fouls and unsportsmanlike penalties by having no tolerance and showing those players the bench. A soccer coach I learned under said his best assistant was the bench. Players learned real fast what was expected.

Zip football is maddening for anyone to watch, but it is heartbreaking for anyone who wants to see the Zips win. Under Joe I ask myself why do we find ways to lose? He is a knowledgeable, good coach. He has assembled quality talent vis-a-vis the rest of the MAC. He has a good staff. The culture seems to be getting better. Yet we find ways to wrestle defeat from the jaws of victory in unbelievable fashion. You may not agree we with, but I have come to believe it's all about discipline. Joe expects discipline from his players, but he does not demand it. All winning coaches demand commitment to discipline. They are almost maniacal about it. There is a right way to play and when things go haywire, if you stick to doing things right, that discipline will somehow carry the day. How can these unfathomable mistakes still keep arising on this team? I'll answer that by quoting a coach I respect who said when the same negative issues keep coming up "You are either tolerating them or coaching them. " It's time to start correcting them. There is no curse here. This team should be winning.

This will never happen because : 1) It makes too much sense, and 2) no schools in the P4, especially Big Ten and SEC, will give up the huge money they enjoy, both now and in the future. Bring on a G5 championship and forget about them.

Brilliant article! Darlington writes with a passion that is genuine and relatable. The more you learn about Darlington, the more you realize he is one incredible human being. It is a blessing that he once decided to play for the Zips.

We once again have a problem at QB. Our inability to move the ball on offense is equally divided between the ineffective offensive scheme (Moorhead) and the QB (Finley). Is it time to look to Roggow, who is raw, or Tahj, who can't throw. Either way a hurting, nervous, happy-feeted Finley is not the answer. Should we rest him, allow him to heal and look to the others? What can it hurt? We are a bad team now.

I watched the entire game. I have read all the posts on this disaster, most of which I heartily agree. My greatest fear is that this loss was most determined by the coaching. That is a fact. Yet any turnaround for this season can only come thru better coaching. I am not confident that will happen. Prior to this game I have been a staunch believer in Joe's vision and path to achieving it. Now I worry that he has checked out. How else can you explain a once universally heralded offensive genius coaching the way he does? I refuse to buy the idea that Akron is a program destined to always be in the bottom ten. The right coach can lift us out of this malaise. The wrong coach will keep us there. Once again I challenge Joe and staff to prove they are right for us.

I always get a kick out reading Catdaddyp's review of how much playing time former Zips get with their new clubs. After reviewing all the transferred players I've come to the conclusion we didn't lose as much as what we gained thru the portal. Still I wish we could have held on to a few, especially RT Nate Williams. He would have improved our weak OL. I can't help but wonder how good our DB's would have been if Tyson Durant and Corey Thomas had stayed. We picked up good replacements, but depth is a luxury we need against this schedule. Overall, the talent is improving under JoMo and I believe that will continue if Jo hangs in there. Still, I hate losing good ones, but I can't blame them for wanting to play for winning programs and possibly have the chance to get NIL dollars, which I hate.

Thank you for sharing once again. This time I went thru it page by page. Very interesting reading.

This is so riddled with falsehoods it is close to comical. No one who witnessed Arth's programs would ever make these statements. Talk to the athletes, the support staff, the asst coaches, the administrators, they all spoke of a program floundering, one that was lost because Arth was. Of his ten coaching hires he had a total of 9 years of D1 coaching experience. He could not recruit in the MAC. He had a budget bigger than Moorhead had today. The enrollment decline had not hit athletics yet. His teams were terribly prepared for games and in the off-season. Guthrie cares about winning. He has told all the head coaches they must have a viable plan to be in the top three in the MAC. A quick look at athletics finances will show they have no money to buy out coaches. They weren't even willing to buy out Melissa Jackson last year, even though she was out-coached in every significant game and her record against the .500+ teams in the mAC was terrible. Moorhead needs to show the team is improving every week, which it has not. Yet we are where we realistically should be after four games. Firing him and his staff is stupidity extreme. They can coach and recruit. They present the best chance to turn around football. Please care enough to do research and spell his name correctly.

I stand by what I said. Tressel would have been so much better than Scarborough that it isn't even up for debate. Somehow Miller has been brought into a discussion of events five years before Gary came here. I did not criticize him nor the job he did. I think he was very good for Akron following what Wilson left him. Please criticize someone for what they say, not what you think they say. I do appreciate Zippy 5 for his advice to read all the posts before commenting. He/She is right. I should have read ahead. But he/she did call me "brother" and I appreciate getting all the family I can.

We should seriously investigate what YSU did to increase enrollment. Any program they instituted when done by Tressel. The same guy who wanted to be president at UA but was opposed by the AAUP. He would have been great here.

It seems I have started a bit of a wildfire here, much of which is spinning out of reality. Here are some thoughts: It seems Guthrie is the focus of many disgruntled fans. I do not believe, nor have I seen, any evidence that he cut the MSOC budget for FB. Athletics took a $3M hit that Charles is trying to make up thru big paycheck games. Still FB had its budget cut by nearly $1M. All sports took a 10% budget hit. I think Charles is doing the best he can in face of declining enrollment, resources and struggling FB. Most schools that are elite do have a Dir of Operations. We don't have one supposedly because the women would also need one funded. That's too much to spend. Charles thought about hiring one for both programs and found that unworkable. The equipment budget (primarily gear and Uni's) is less than most other schools with D1 football. When Louisville tried to hire Jared away they revealed they were getting double what Akron got. The disparity has grown in light of the contracts given to the P4 football schools with soccer. Soccer has benefited at those schools. Coaching counts. The NCAA has allowed full-time soccer coaching staffs to expand and many schools have taken advantage. Akron can't afford more coaches, just like its DoO position. The renovations to the soccer locker room have been funded by the alumni and day of giving. That has taken place over two years and two fundraising campaigns. The former players are generous and are to be thanked. The university did not fund the improvements and it has not happened all of a sudden. NIL money is a growing issue. We lost a kid last winter/spring who wanted money to live off campus. We couldn't afford the $ he wanted nor the precedent it would set. Contrast that to the University of Kentucky. They have set up a collective for soccer. My relative, a CFP and former captain, sits on the collective board. I only sought to offer a fuller perspective as to the challenge Akron faces. We can debate the hell out of it on this forum, but at the end of the day, the coaches have to figure a path out of this and back to elite performance.

Same old troubles: discipline, player control fouls, poor decision making, mouthing, poor performing OL. The staff is either tolerating it or coaching it because they are not fixing it. A great coach once told me his best assistant was the bench. If you are playing contrary to how you are coached you will be on the bench. He said it is surprising how fast the players corrected their mistakes. Discipline comes from the coaches, not the players. The coaches must demand it, then young men will give it. We will not win games because Joe is an offensive genius. We will win games because the players are well prepared down to the smallest detail. I still think we can go 4-8

This thread is fueled by frustration as well it should be if you care about Zip soccer. I am not an apologist for the staff, but I think they are being asked to keep the standards on an elite level w/o elite backing and resources. They have no director of operations that all top programs have. They are short a full-time asst coach and have no GA's. They are now losing players to NIL offers because they can't match them. The recruiting budget has been cut. Their equipment budget (uni's, gear, jackets, backpacks, field equipment, etc.) from Nike is nearly half what Nike offers the elite programs. Those are a lot of limitations to overcome. The talent pipeline has shifted from elite high school players to 1) transfer portal D3 & D2 players wanting to upgrade, and 2) overseas club players who have been told they are not going to make the top professional side. Academy players are being told to steer away from college as the academy route offers a better way to the top MLS team and money to boot. This does not give our staff a pass. They have underperformed. If the same problem keeps coming up they are either coaching it or allowing it. They need to correct it. I hope they do. In the meantime don't expect a savior to come in if a change is made. Our program is devolving into a stepping stone for a coach on his way to an elite program. We cannot compete at the financial level that an elite program now runs. Our best hope is for Jared and company to fix it.

I admire your optimism, but the MAC is not improving, the better teams are. As a whole the MAC is crap and the bottom is getting crappier. The top teams, Toledo, NIU, Miami, are figuring it out. The rest are not.

AS I watched Joe's presser the one overriding impression I got was here is a guy who is not happy in what he is doing. When Joe came to Akron one of the factors was that he and his wife really enjoyed their previous 5 year stay when he was OC under JD. Their quality of life was good and the job was very fulfilling. Joe came to Akron as a HC when the fundamentals of the college game in D1 were about to shift big time. He didn't sign up for that, it just happened. Turning around a program that was losing, but had potential became a herculean task under the new conditions. I could see Joe fulfilling his contract and exiting to an OC position at more money and less headaches, like he had at Penn State. I am beginning to wonder if Joe demands the discipline needed in the long run to turn this around. Our players do not show much discipline. From player control fouls, offsides, delay of game and (my pet peeve) lack of pride in appearance with blue undershirts hanging out against white uni's I see an issue. Last year we all saw the tolerance of Gaithing's lack of self control. It was continued all season even with Joe acknowledging it needed to be fixed. Discipline is an issue he can fix. NIL, talent or our opponent have nothing to do with it. It is on Joe to fix it. I hope he does because it is foundational to turning around football.

It is. They took away the permanent ads/signage on either side of the video board. With the new board they can run ads on the side if they want or switch to a huge video display. This gives more flexibility in what they wish to display. My hope is that they will stop shying away from replaying controversial plays, penalties and sidelines stupidity. The home TV audience sees them repeatedly on replay, but the folks in the stands apparently may riot if they see a controversial play.

You are correct in Akron having little in football NIL. I was told by Guthrie that the MAC had decided not to play that game. All they would be doing was driving the price up for talent the bigger schools want. Well apparently that is not exactly the case. The Director of Operations at Toledo has stated they are in the game. To that point, this past Tuesday night Toledo held yoga on the 50 yard line led by Crandle's wife. All the money went to NIL. Toledo has a good, admirable program. Akron needs to model their future on them. In basketball we are well prepared. The best NIL in the MAC. All thanks to the leadership of Bud Wentz.