Of the supposed "finalists"... Who's your choice

[Dave in Green]

@skip-zip, forget about D2 coaches for a minute.

What would you think of an experienced D1A (FBS) offensive coordinator who ran an offense that ranked 7th nationally in passing offense (311.3 yards per game), 9th nationally in total offense (470.2 ypg) and 11th nationally in scoring offense (36.2 ppg)?

What if that OC was so good that he was twice nominated for the Broyles Award, a national honor recognizing the nation’s top D1A assistant coach?

What if he had accomplished all that at a school with no history of winning in D1A?

Now, would you hold it against that successful D1A OC if he went to D2 to get head coaching experience and had the same success with a D2 school that previously had no history of winning?

At some point you probably caught on that the person being described is Paul Winters, a man who has accomplished much more in his long career than just taking a perennial loser D2 team into the national championship game as a head coach.

The man has a long body of work that deserves to be considered alongside all the other candidates' bodies of work.

Toss out the D2 work if you think it's irrelevant. Compare only his D1A accomplishments to the D1A accomplishments of other candidates who have no college head coaching experience at any level and whose D1A assistant and coordinator successes have been largely accomplished at schools with much stronger football programs than UA.

No emotion here. Just the facts.

Then why does it appear that you spent your evening digging up everything positive that you could find to support Winters?

His D-1A "accomplishments"? Those "accomplishments" must have been pretty incredible if they landed him a job at a D-II school in the pits of Detroit. Apparently myself and 120 D-1A schools all missed an opportunity a few years ago.

I don't agree with you that he should be a D-1A coach, for many reasons. What else do you want me to say?

I didn't spend an evening researching that. It was all in one place. There was no emotion involved at all. I do not know Winters personally and have no emotional attachment to the man.

There have been plenty of emotional statements about Winters on this forum, both pro and con. So I went looking for facts and found them in 5 minutes.

There are pro and con facts to be found about Winters and every other potential candidate.

Like you, I do not find Winters' WSU D2 accomplishments by themselves to be compelling. But adding consideration of his previous accomplishments as a D1A OC begins to paint a more complete picture.

I expect the UA search team will dig even deeper into the facts on all the candidates before making their decision.

[Doug Snyder]

Hmmm...I know I am OLD and probably have failing memory but I seem to recall you hammering Ianello shortly after the hire and hammering TW fo not hiring Fickell. The Fickell issue lasted into this year for you. Now?? You hate Fickell. "Tainted/Loser" The point is...it is a crap shoot and nobody knows for sure. The guy you advocated for would have been just as big of loser (per where you stand now). Caleb Porter took heat his first year.

Things changed. Two years ago, Fickell could play up his connection with OSU and his personal endorsement from Tressel when recruiting kids to Akron. Now he can't do any of that. He would have been better off coming to Akron and he would have been more successful than he was at OSU last season.

Maybe you form an opinion of someone and stick to it even when absolutely everything has changed about that person, but I'm not afraid to re-evaluate my thoughts on people after several years of seeing them change.

Revisionist memory. You were touting Fickell and slamming TW for the decision in September of this year. let's see... September, October, November and December. Years?? Months!! But it shows you are growing. You should be able to change your mind. I am glad to see you are maturing. I remember you ridiculously stating you "would NEVER give a guy a chance".

Why do I think that you will shortly start a similar rant and crusade against Paul Winters (who you oppose)?? Maybe some of your peers that like you will persuade you to back off for the good of the program.

I have already broken Rule # 1 twice today. Time to start adhering to rule # 1..."Thou shall not debate Zach"

[Dr Z]

I would have to interview all four and hear their plan to bring Akron football to a level the fans can be proud of.

If I were YouTube, I would be racking up the Continental miles this week.

Without interviewing, with what I know about the four, which is VERY little,

I selected MJ in this poll. I have never spoke a word to any of these guys other than PW.

It amazes me how adamant some are without all the information.

Interesting development, If YouTube isn't sleeping, I'm hoping he was/is on the phone tonight.

[InTheZone]

I would have to interview all four and hear their plan to bring Akron football to a level the fans can be proud of.

If I were YouTube, I would be racking up the Continental miles this week.

Without interviewing, with what I know about the four, which is VERY little,

I selected MJ in this poll. I have never spoke a word to any of these guys other than PW.

It amazes me how adamant some are without all the information.

Interesting development, If YouTube isn't sleeping, I'm hoping he was/is on the phone tonight.

Maybe I missed it, what are we supposed to take from this article??

[hiroad1]

I would have to interview all four and hear their plan to bring Akron football to a level the fans can be proud of.

If I were YouTube, I would be racking up the Continental miles this week.

Without interviewing, with what I know about the four, which is VERY little,

I selected MJ in this poll. I have never spoke a word to any of these guys other than PW.

It amazes me how adamant some are without all the information.

Interesting development, If YouTube isn't sleeping, I'm hoping he was/is on the phone tonight.

Maybe I missed it, what are we supposed to take from this article??

This stat from the article has nothing to do with Akron, but I found it astounding......

"How, for instance, do you begin to explain Oregon? Kelly's Ducks averaged 73 plays per game this year while finishing dead last nationally in average time of possession, 25 minutes 3 seconds."

Wow, they score fast.

[Dave in Green]

Was looking for a comment about Mike Johnson and didn't see him mentioned. What did Dr Z see that we're missing?

[Blue & Gold]

I would have to interview all four and hear their plan to bring Akron football to a level the fans can be proud of.

If I were YouTube, I would be racking up the Continental miles this week.

Without interviewing, with what I know about the four, which is VERY little,

I selected MJ in this poll. I have never spoke a word to any of these guys other than PW.

It amazes me how adamant some are without all the information.

Interesting development, If YouTube isn't sleeping, I'm hoping he was/is on the phone tonight.

Maybe I missed it, what are we supposed to take from this article??

+1. I don't understand what "development" you're getting at.

Interestingly, the article spells out why GP1 never thought a Pro-set offense would work at UA - and he was right about that. A spread is needed to equalize the talent. This is one reason I'm a Paul Winters supporter. He's a master at running the spread & his former UA offenses would be right at home in the wide-open PAC-12.

[mes102]

Maybe he was talking about Norm Chow?

[eguins]

Is Mark Stoops the 4th candidate or is that just speculation?

Two years ago, Mark Stoops was very close to becoming the head coach at Youngstown State. YSU was going to offer him between $250,000-280,000/year to coach here. Many websites and even sources close to the Stoops family said it was down to whether he got the Defensive Coordinator position at Florida State, which paid close to $500,000 according to report. In the end, he got that position and has done pretty well down there.

As you can see, money seemed to be a sticking point with him.

Source: http://www.vindy.com/news/2009/dec/01/land...-ysu-athletics/

I would say Narduzzi is a good choice. The guy's father coached at Youngstown State, but the young Narduzzi is not too fond of YSU for firing his father. He played here one season before transferring to Rhode Island. It got us Tressel so how anyone can still be upset about that is beyond me!

Did you guys read the article on Akron-Narduzzi in the Vindicator from Sunday?

http://www.vindy.com/news/2011/dec/11/nard...leys-toughness/

[akzipper]

Who cares about Youngstown State?

[ZachTheZip]

Did you guys read the article on Akron-Narduzzi in the Vindicator from Sunday?

http://www.vindy.com/news/2011/dec/11/nard...leys-toughness/

You mean the article where he doesn't say anything one way or the other?

[eguins]

Who cares about Youngstown State?

Monday baby!

[mes102]

Who cares about Youngstown State?

Monday baby!

Sunday as well...

eguins, you just proved to me that you don't read the threads here...all you do is post without actually reading...We already discussed the Narduzzi article in the Vindicator...

Also, Mark is a supposed "finalist". We have no idea if he actually is or not. TW is keeping this so hush hush that we don't know if any of these 4 names are even going to get the job...

[Captain Kangaroo]

TW is keeping this so hush hush that we don't know if any of these 4 names are even going to get the job...

Lets see...Johnson...Stoops...Narduzzi...all three could have signed on the dotted line a week ago. Yet they haven't.

Winters needs to wait until after the D2 playoffs to make any public comment.

Gee...who could be our next coach?

Boy is Twitter Tom angry that footballscoop.com and ZN.o both announced, and thoroughly discussed Iannello's firing days before he officially announced it.

[Zip Watcher]

Possible Winters won't even talk to TW until Sunday?

[ZachTheZip]

I think that's more than likely, ZW.

Akron is waiting until they have interviewed all the candidates before announcing. Doesn't mean Winters is getting the job. UA just wants to wait until they have interviewed him and compared him to the other candidates before making a decision.

[Zipmeister]

Could be. Remember The Urban didn't talk to The OSU until the very last moment before they did their deal.

[Dr Z]

I would have to interview all four and hear their plan to bring Akron football to a level the fans can be proud of.

If I were YouTube, I would be racking up the Continental miles this week.

Without interviewing, with what I know about the four, which is VERY little,

I selected MJ in this poll. I have never spoke a word to any of these guys other than PW.

It amazes me how adamant some are without all the information.

Interesting development, If YouTube isn't sleeping, I'm hoping he was/is on the phone tonight.

Jim is starting to fill his staff with other coaches. Somebody could be out of a job soon and looking. I still don't think it will happen.

From Footballscoop.com: UCLA: Sources close to the situation to us to expect Steve Broussard to join Jim Mora's staff. We are also told that Mora has offered the offensive coordinator position to Noel Mazzone. Mazzone, we hear, is waiting to see what happens at ASU before deciding.

[Captain Kangaroo]

I think that's more than likely, ZW.

Akron is waiting until they have interviewed all the candidates before announcing. Doesn't mean Winters is getting the job. UA just wants to wait until they have interviewed him and compared him to the other candidates before making a decision.

You also think that former position coaches under contract through February will destroy our football budget.

I will stick with my theory.

[Dr Z]

I would have to interview all four and hear their plan to bring Akron football to a level the fans can be proud of.

If I were YouTube, I would be racking up the Continental miles this week.

Without interviewing, with what I know about the four, which is VERY little,

I selected MJ in this poll. I have never spoke a word to any of these guys other than PW.

It amazes me how adamant some are without all the information.

Interesting development, If YouTube isn't sleeping, I'm hoping he was/is on the phone tonight.

Jim is starting to fill his staff with other coaches. Somebody could be out of a job soon and looking. I still don't think it will happen.

From Footballscoop.com: UCLA: Sources close to the situation to us to expect Steve Broussard to join Jim Mora's staff. We are also told that Mora has offered the offensive coordinator position to Noel Mazzone. Mazzone, we hear, is waiting to see what happens at ASU before deciding.

It's Now Official

[GP1]

Could be. Remember The Urban didn't talk to The OSU until the very last moment before they did their deal.

Maybe he didn't, but I'm sure his lawyers did.

[Zipmeister]

Could be. Remember The Urban didn't talk to The OSU until the very last moment before they did their deal.

Maybe he didn't, but I'm sure his lawyers did.

No kidding?

[Buckzip]

Could be. Remember The Urban didn't talk to The OSU until the very last moment before they did their deal.

Maybe he didn't, but I'm sure his lawyers did.

This was a done deal over a month before it was officially announced. Don't believe coaches anymore than politicians.

[GP1]

Could be. Remember The Urban didn't talk to The OSU until the very last moment before they did their deal.

Maybe he didn't, but I'm sure his lawyers did.

This was a done deal over a month before it was officially announced. Don't believe coaches anymore than politicians.

I know. My brother is friends with people on the staff.

[zipboy]

I hope for Winters. My reasons . . .

1. He has been a successful head coach at a level with scholarships. None of the other names mentioned have. I have seen enough of assistants from BCS schools coming in and failing. Picking a good head coach in some ways is like picking a teacher. You do an all day interview and decide this one will be good. And you don't really know until they actually teach a few years.

2. If Paul had only been Div 2 his whole life and never coached at a MAC level, I would have more doubts. But he was in the MAC for almost 10 years. I remember watching a few NFL guys and several more fringe NFL guys over that span. It would be nice to see guys like Payne, Basch, Hendry, Frye, Washington, Irvin, Sparks, Cherry, Bailey, Brake, etc again. I am sure that Winters did not identify and bring all of those guys in but he knew how to use them and I am sure that he played a big part in recruiting many of them. He know what the MAC is and how to win in it.

3. Stability - I want someone good but someone who will be here more than 3 years. Tim Beckman, good coach, never in a MAC title game, gets a big job. NIU guy been there 1 or 2 years, looking to move. Jerry Kill, Mike Haywood, the norm now is if you are moderately decent you can parlay that into a bigger job in only a couple of years. Next year will be ugly whoever comes in. A pattern I see is 2-10 next year, 4-8, year 2, 6-6 or 7-5 year 3. Based off the stupidity of BCS ADs, that would be good enough to get a 750K job and most of the names mentioned would jump at that point.

4. Selfishness - I took a hiatus from Zips football this year. JD's last year and RI's first year beat me down. And thinking that we had at least another 3 years of RI, I gave up my season tickets after 15 years. With taking care of family obligations time is precious. And I easily found better things to do with my time and money this year than watch Zips football which I never thought that I would say. At this point I don't care about what Joe Akron thinks or moving to the Big East. I want to be entertained on a Sat afternoon watching exciting football, guys who play hard, a few NFL prospects, and a good chance that my team will win. And I feel Winters is the guy that gives that the best chance of happening.

5. Lee Owens - Lee improved things but it was time for him to go. It is unfair to have Winters pay for the shortcomings of Lee. He was part of the staff but he wasn't the head coach. He took over a much worse Div 2 program than LO and has them playing in the national title game today. To me he has shown that he will be more successful than Lee at Akron.

6. Program Builder - When LO and staff were dismissed PW could have gotten an assistant job at another D1 school or get a head job at a lower level. He chose to go to WSU (now that is a graveyard). MAC assistants don't get D1 head coaching jobs unless they get promoted at their school. The guy took a huge risk. Could he have looked to go elsewhere over the past 8 years? I don't know but I see him being an attractive candidate at a better D2 program or 1AA to some schools over the past few years. I admire someone who actually sticks it out and shows that he is not a one year wonder but proves he really has built a program. Kansas might have wanted to see that about Turner Gill and we will see how Beckman does.

7. Effort - Over the past 3 years I heard French call out the team for lack of effort more than the prior 10 years. I am sure there are good guys on the team and the atmosphere was bad this year. But 66-5 in the 3rd qtr against a mid level MAC team isn't just talent. Seeing guys laugh it up on the sideline during the JD era while getting drilled. . . hearing enough about Winters I don't see that happening. I will defer to ITZ and others who played for him but if you can't play for him I am guessing that you can't play for anyone.

Excited to see what happens next week. I will support whoever comes in but if not Winters, I will be disappointed. It is good to have hope again.