LoyalZIP

Big one tonight. I don't think anyone was expecting the Zips to struggle like they have, and if it's going to be more of an up-and-down year, they've got to defend home court well. I need to see something from KJ Walton tonight. Other than that, all I've had on my mind lately is the coaching search so I haven't paid as much attention to this one as I should. But I'm excited to be back at the JAR! GO ZIPS!

Their last one came in 1972, four years after Ohio U’s!

And that they haven't won a MAC title since 37 years before Akron's only title.

This whole coaching search has been nuts. Quiet, but nuts. Now we have the AD leaving some crumbs on Twitter?! This feels like Big Time College Football! 😂

So true. Melissa is awesome, Akron is lucky to have a person like this leading student-athletes. But it's not working out on the basketball side of things. The Zips have constantly been in far worse physical condition than their MAC opponents, and they completely lack a play style and identity. I'm running out of hope that this can be turned around.

Brett McMurphy is reporting that VaTech has been filled by Penn State defensive coordinator Brent Pry. You may recognize the Pry name, as his father Jim was Akron's QB coach and OC during the 2004 and 2005 seasons. Another one off the list.

What an ugly game. Though Akron didn't have Dawson, my concerns of another year without any growth or progress in player ability seems to be holding true. Martindale looks to be a more complete player, but there seems to be zero chemistry. I don't think this team will crack the top 8 by the time March rolls around.

Not a peep on Wilson or any other plan. I heard through the grapevine that Eddie George was reaching out to Akron, not the other way around. And before Arth was even fired, I along with many folks at UA were expecting a name like Tony Alford to get more traction. While I like the idea of Alford, it’s clear that Guthrie is punching a good deal above that weight class. Guthrie demands excellence out of all programs. He is so different from Larry Williams. It’s taken a lot of folks by shock and even rubbed some the wrong way, but once you’re used to a decade plus of Wistercill and Williams, it’s not necessarily a bad thing to have someone come in and ruffle some feathers. It’s clear he is not playing around with this search, no matter who ends up getting the job. The names we’re hearing speak volumes to the ineptitude of the previous hiring committee. Their top 3 were Arth, the Navy OC, and Texas RB coach, with the committee swooning over 9-13 UTC Arth. A member of that committee told me that it was a slam dunk no brainer after the final round of interviews. The biggest thing that won them over for Arth was his commitment to turn around the culture of poor academic and character standards. The fear they had with the Navy OC Jasper was that it would be far too drastic a change in culture that would set the program too far back. Yeah, I should’ve known right there this was going to be a mess. This search, however, is unrecognizable by Akron standards.

The search function on the Twitter machine has been my best friend for about 24 hours now trying to dig for info. I’m growing tired of seeing all of the “he’s too qualified for Akron!” Well, yeah. But people seem to forget that: 1. Coaches are people. Will you always go to the money or do you also value feel and where you feel comfortable? 2. Akron is not a bad job (at all, IMO) because all the coaches have failed, it looks that way because they’ve had dysfunctional coaching and admin No bleep Akron is probably the least “enticing” of Moorhead’s options. But these know-it-alls fail to recognize that Akron jump started an amazing career for this guy. Maybe he wants to bring it full circle? Akron fans sure hope so.

This is what I'm hearing. I have some UA connections still, but this search has been so silent that info is very hard to come by, even for folks high on the totem pole. Almost deafening. Thank you to everyone in this thread for doing your best to find info. I do worry a bit that with the coaching carousel being so nuts, the chances of getting this done fade by the day. I hope I'm wrong on that, though. Now this right here^^^ is great investigative journalism my friend, @Let'sGoZips94! Nice catch. This gives me hope too. But I'm tired of hope. I want ink to meet paper.

Good luck to Zach. That BG game was a lot of fun this year, and he was almost a hero against Ball State and WMU. Hate to see him go as a player, but he was a big time Arth guy and was going to go wherever Arth went. Perhaps he will wind up back at Akron after a coach is named. But I'm at peace seeing him go, I can't disagree with his decision in any way.

Definitely a misinterpretation. I'll only believe it once it's released on GoZips.com or by a blue-check mark CFB reporter (Feldman, Thamel, Rittenberg, etc.)

I wouldn't go as far as "average" but he won a lot of big ball games there. The 2018 title over that Buffalo team was very impressive.

Agreed on too good to be true. I'm trying like hell not to get my hopes up before it's made official. This would be so tremendous for this place. Come on Chuck!!!!

I've said it before, but I don't look too much into crying poor when UA makes these decisions. The university has rightfully made it clear at the top that they are reducing the budget and taking measures etc. Gary Miller was brought in to fix that issue, and he brought his guy Guthrie to straighten out athletics. If they couldn't afford to do what they're doing right now, they wouldn't be doing it. Akron has an insane opportunity right now. Kaulig is all in on the university, not all schools at this level are fortunate to have donors like that. Utilize it!!!

Temple has fired Rod Carey. Long sustained success at NIU didn't work in Philly. It will be interesting to see where he pops up.

I think when the Infocision contract is up it will be something like Leaf Fileter stadium. Or how about Rubber Bowl Stadium presented by Leaf Filter?!?! Let's bring back some magic!!! I'm getting ahead of myself haha, I'm so pumped and I need to see this be official

Fortunately for us, he's a much, much better businessman!

I'm thinking Leaf Filter is influencing this search in a very positive way

https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/news/sources-oregon-coordinator-joe-moorhead-top-candidate-for-akron-head-coaching-job-041843661.html

According to Pete Thamel on Twitter, Joe Moorhead has emerged as the leading candidate I didn't think he'd be on the radar simply because he's overqualified and too expensive. I like where this is headed!

Hot take: Akron is a great job. Unless there really is some curse or there’s some concept that’s over my head, Akron can be successful. Big time. The biggest knock on Akron is always “they don’t recruit local” and there’s a reason for that. It’s hard to recruit locally in such a hot bed region. No, it doesn’t make sense…but it actually does. The region is being recruited hard nationally, by Ohio Statw, by Ravenna U, by Toledo, by BG, by OU, by YSU, by all the D2-D3. Hell, a few years back NIU’s kick returner (a total STUD) went to Copley. As much as I’d love to see Akron dominate recruiting in Northeast Ohio, that’s a tall order. It would help immensely, but if you only focus on that aspect of recruiting, I fear Akron may end up scraping the bottom of the barrel until it becomes respectable. Maybe I’m wrong in that aspect. I don’t know, I’m just a schmuck on a message board. But could you imagine being a prospective head coach walking into Infocision stadium, thinking of the possibility of being the first football coach to build that place into a powerhouse and juggernaut? Coaches have HUUUUGE egos. That thought alone could be the difference in what makes a guy consider a job like that. What does turning Akron around get your in your career? That is an unknown. Turning portage county around landed a guy the Purdue job. Making WMU a NY6 participant gets you to Minnesota. Making Akron a feared G5 champion that packs 20k into the most beautiful stadium in college football would be pretty special, and could be the ticket for any guy to get wherever he wants to go in his career. I get excited just thinking about it. It’s the hope that kills you, right?

Nice post @Zipped Up The replay of the 2pt. conversion attempt is excruciating when you see that TE without a soul by him. It feels like watching the final play of the Michigan game and how incredible that would have been. I don’t mean to make Lewis into a God of some kind. And you’re right, they were 3 yards from being 6-6. My point on their turnaround is that it’s a complete culture change and they took that program from QB draw on every play to a well-oiled machine that scores a lot, but also gives up a lot. They are not as good as I thought they would be this year, but here we are. They opened as the favorite in the MAC title game. Also, I use them as an example of a quick turnaround. Yes, they were realllly bad in 2018 (his first year) but in the opener, they took Illinois down to the wire and you could tell it wasn’t going to be the same old Kent. Basically, they have a mentality that Akron teams haven’t had since JD Brookhart’s early years. They have a culture of toughness and if they can kick your tail, they will. Akron hasn’t had that in a long time. That’s what I want most. As for Martin, he’s built them into the most average MAC program. It’s crazy that they won a MAC title two years ago. They played a disgraceful game on defense yesterday, and they should be the ones going to Detroit. If they’re under .500 next year, I think that’s a place that can safely make a change and be successful so I wouldn’t be surprised to see that happen.

https://twitter.com/brucefeldmancfb/status/1464986676984356870?s=21

I'm not gonna get on Rodriguez too much. He, like most of the staff, was completely in over his head. Take an assistant that's in over his head and promote him to head coach, and that's what you get. Coach Rod is a tremendous person and a great story. I have no doubt he will be a great college football coach some day. Like most guys on this staff, including Arth, they benefitted from a very poorly done coaching search, and for Rod in particular, he jumped onto Arth's staff from D3 right before the 2018 season and then we know what happened from there. When you consider the timeline of how things have gone down with this program since the win over Ohio in 2017, it's like Murphy's law outside of the wins over Kent x2 and Northwestern. The program has been in the tank ever since they got blown out by Miami on homecoming in 2018. It's really quite remarkable. At the end of the day, when I think Akron football 2019-2021, I think "overmatched." Overmatched in every way. Got manhandled nearly every single game with a couple close losses and a couple of wins. I'm still baffled that Dustin Fox had the cajones to say Arth was about to turn the corner and that it was a terrible move to get rid of him. Nowhere else in America would Arth have survived too long past the 2019 year. I'm so tired of coach talk and speculation. This news release cannot come soon enough.