Possible Candidates

[LoyalZIP]

I believe the upcoming games at OU and South Carolina will be the final of Bowden's tenure at Akron. If Williams can get Terry to move on from Milwee, then maybe we'll only be looking for someone new to run the offense. Maybe there's even some changes that can be made at the position level, I'm not sure. I think we can all agree there need to be some changes though.

 

I've listed a couple of candidates I feel are reasonable for head coach. I'm not too sure about coordinator candidates, so I didn't list any names because that is a much different hire. 

 

Vince Kehres, HC at Mount Union--80-4 with a couple titles. Not as accomplished as Leipold was at Whitewater, but you can see what winning culture has brought to a former football wasteland at UB.

Scot Loeffler, OC/QB coach at Boston College--Local guy and a pretty good offensive mind. He's been around a lot of success and been instrumental in some nice offenses. He's had success in the MAC as well.

Matt Canada, Interim HC/OC/QB coach at Maryland--I wouldn't be surprised if Maryland kept him because he's done pretty well with the difficult hand he was dealt this year. He's been around success in the MAC and is more than qualified. I suspect he'll get looks at much bigger jobs though.

Luke Getsy, OC at Mississippi State--Doesn't really need any explaining. I think this hire would get a lot of people fired up that have lost interest in the program. Worked for Fleck at WMU for a year and was the receivers coach in Green Bay for a few years. But is he ready to lead a whole program? 

 

You might say I'm starting this thread too early, but the reality is that a week and a half from now, we're gonna be learning a lot about the future of this program. Go Zips!!!

 

Edited November 28, 2018 by LoyalZIP

[LZIp]

Good topic. I was thinking about this the other day actually. Really like the Kehres suggestion. Follows the Buffalo mold that has been shown can obviously work, should be cheap, and has great connections.

 

Another one I'd add, though would likely be on the more expensive side, would be Jake Spatival (OC) at WV.

[kreed5120]

It's too early for me to cast judgement, but I trust Larry Williams to make the right choice. 

[Lee Adams]

30 minutes ago, LoyalZIP said:

I believe the upcoming games at OU and South Carolina will be the final of Bowden's tenure at Akron. If Williams can get Terry to move on from Milwee, then maybe we'll only be looking for someone new to run the offense. Maybe there's even some changes that can be made at the position level, I'm not sure. I think we can all agree there need to be some changes though.

 

I've listed a couple of candidates I feel are reasonable for head coach. I'm not too sure about coordinator candidates, so I didn't list any names because that is a much different hire. 

 

Vince Kehres, HC at Mount Union--80-4 with a couple titles. Not as accomplished as Leipold was at Whitewater, but you can see what winning culture has brought to a former football wasteland at UB.

Scot Loeffler, OC/QB coach at Boston College--Local guy and a pretty good offensive mind. He's been around a lot of success and been instrumental in some nice offenses. He's had success in the MAC as well.

Matt Canada, Interim HC/OC/QB coach at Maryland--I wouldn't be surprised if Maryland kept him because he's done pretty well with the difficult hand he was dealt this year. He's been around success in the MAC and is more than qualified. I suspect he'll get looks at much bigger jobs though.

Luke Getsy, OC at Mississippi State--Doesn't really need any explaining. I think this hire would get a lot of people fired up that have lost interest in the program. Worked for Fleck at WMU for a year and was the receivers coach in Green Bay for a few years. But is he ready to lead a whole program? 

 

You might say I'm starting this thread too early, but the reality is that a week and a half from now, we're gonna be learning a lot about the future of this program. Go Zips!!!

 

Ahhhh yes, US buzzards are circling already. Hopefully people will not be too offended at this pure speculation. One would have to assume that quality AD's especially in the MAC have a list of possible coaching candidates each season...just in case. Obviously as Johnny Carson use to say it's locked in a mayonnaise jar in Funk and Wagnall's refrigerator'. Or something like that. I assume Williams has lots of connections he could call on.

Anyway,I have kind of paid attention to where Luke Getsy has been since he left Akron. In addition to the above, also spent some time at Indiana University of Pennsylvania(DII). Thats another proverbial winning program.IF there were to be a change made here he seems like he has gathered enough experience in the past 12 years to be ready to take on a HC job at this level. He is from Western PA. He is familiar withe the areas Akron recruits from.Now one might assume he also has developed some connections in the South. He is still young and hopefully energetic. He is familiar with recruiting. The problem obviously would be money. At Mississippi State I have read the head coach pretty much does his own play calling. So,if he wanted to take on a HC job this might not be a bad place to jump in.

Might also want to keep an eye on what happens at Ohio State. Could be some assistants looking for work.

But,2 more wins this year its all moot.

[zippy5]

Canada ain't coming here. Anyhow, this is a pointless exercise until we are actually in the market, if we get to that point

[Let'sGoZips94]

Matt Campbell

 

Lincoln Riley

 

Condoleeza Rice

 

 

Oh wait... Wrong team... 

[ZippyRulz]

I think Milwee would be an excellent HC and TB is just holding him back 

 

[g-mann17]

So, one year removed from a MAC East Championship and a bowl appearance...after a 2016 contract extension, we are somehow going to fire Bowden for under achieving?

 

Don't see us buying him out of 2019 & 2020

 

Base compensation

2017 guaranteed pay: $406,000

Total contract pay: $3,630,000

Contract length: 9 years

Start date: 12/22/2011

Last amended: 8/1/2016

Expires: 2/28/2021

[UA1987]

Maybe with all these money games, we can use part of the cash to get an OC in here that can get this offense going and pay other good coaches a little more to stay. I think our talent on the offense next year would look appealing to a good OC. Stroud will have a job next year rebuilding the defense. I would not like to see a wholesale firing of this staff. No need to worry about Milwee as he might surprise everyone and pick up a job at a lower level.       

Edited November 21, 2018 by UA1987

[kreed5120]

50 minutes ago, g-mann17 said:

So, one year removed from a MAC East Championship and a bowl appearance...after a 2016 contract extension, we are somehow going to fire Bowden for under achieving?

 

Don't see us buying him out of 2019 & 2020

 

Base compensation

2017 guaranteed pay: $406,000

Total contract pay: $3,630,000

Contract length: 9 years

Start date: 12/22/2011

Last amended: 8/1/2016

Expires: 2/28/2021

He's had 1 winning season in 7 years and as another poster mentioned ~35% winning percentage against FBS schools.

 

I can't remember who it was, but someone said the buy out is only $300k. Someone start a gofundme, I'll kick in some money.

Edited November 21, 2018 by kreed5120

[zippy5]

That's a cherry picked stat. One of his "non-winning seasons" included a MACCG. Not that 2 out of 7 is great, but..

[clarkwgriswold]

Kehres' dad would never leave Mount Union.  I have a sneaking suspicion his kid is cut from the same mold.  Hard to break away from a national championship every other year or so to jump into an uncertain situation.

 

I like the Loefller suggestion.

 

Here's a reach- how about a high school coach that's won 4 straight Ohio high school championships?  He's also right here in Akron.

Edited November 21, 2018 by clarkwgriswold

[kreed5120]

17 minutes ago, zippy5 said:

That's a cherry picked stat. One of his "non-winning seasons" included a MACCG. Not that 2 out of 7 is great, but..

Cherry picked? Would you prefer me saying 5 losing seasons and 1 .500 season in 7 years? You are what your record says you are. Either way we win about 35% of our games against FBS competition despite playing in arguably the worst division in FBS.

[zippy5]

It is. Nick Saban wouldn't have had a winning season in his first two years here.

[kreed5120]

1 minute ago, zippy5 said:

It is. Nick Saban wouldn't have had a winning season in his first two years here.

Bowden had a better record in year 2 than we're most likely going to finish with this season...

[zippy5]

1 minute ago, kreed5120 said:

Bowden had a better record in year 2 than we're most likely going to finish with this season...

I didn't say this season has been good. If I were to give a grade on Bowdens tenure through September, I along with a lot of others I'd presume, would have given him an A. Inheriting what he did, getting to two bowl games, a conference championship, owning Kent, beating NW, recruiting on the upswing, etc.. it looked pretty darn good. Whatever happened the last two months has obviously been tremendously bad, and made this season a failure. No way around it. I'm not ready to fire him over a failure of a season. You may be, and that's fine. I think the OC and probably OL coach need to go, and then give TB next year to see what happens. If he doesn't want to make any changes, then this is a different convo.

[kreed5120]

1 hour ago, zippy5 said:

I didn't say this season has been good. If I were to give a grade on Bowdens tenure through September, I along with a lot of others I'd presume, would have given him an A. Inheriting what he did, getting to two bowl games, a conference championship, owning Kent, beating NW, recruiting on the upswing, etc.. it looked pretty darn good. Whatever happened the last two months has obviously been tremendously bad, and made this season a failure. No way around it. I'm not ready to fire him over a failure of a season. You may be, and that's fine. I think the OC and probably OL coach need to go, and then give TB next year to see what happens. If he doesn't want to make any changes, then this is a different convo.

An A? He's been here for 7 seasons, that's a lifetime in the coaching world. What I've learned from his whole 7 year, not just a 2 month period, tenure is that you can expect a perennial 5-7 win team who even in their best years will still get blown out by the better teams of the MAC. Maybe for you that's good enough, but for me it's not. We have the best facilities in the MAC by a wide margin, and we play in the most fertile recruiting ground in the MAC by a wide margin. The right coach could turn this into a consistent 8-10+ win team real quick.

 

I appreciate Bowden got us out of the rut RI put us in, but he's taken us as far as he can. We need fresh blood to make us a consistent MAC contender. It seems so many are scared of change despite the fact Larry Williams managed to snag us a high caliber men's basketball coach and perhaps a quality women's basketball coach. Football is his bread and better. I'm confident he'll make a high caliber hire.

 

Edit: I've always been one to stay out of the the recruiting hype and just wait 2-3 years to see how good a recruiting class really was. I still went ahead and looked at the recruiting sites to see if there was any legitimacy to your claim that we're recruiting better. 247 has us 8th in MAC recruiting rankings and Rivals has us dead last. It seems you stating we're recruiting better is pure specualtion on your part as the people who get paid to do it thinks we're still in the bottom half of the MAC in that department.

Edited November 21, 2018 by kreed5120

[ZipsVoice]

What about one of the Pelini brothers?  I kinda joking,y mentioned offering Dan the job after they beat us last week, but I know little about this subject depth-wise to do much but throw out names.

Edited November 21, 2018 by ZipsVoice
Spelling

[LoyalZIP]

People on this board tend to over hype Akron's facilities as the "best in the MAC" or some variation of that. That could be said ten years ago, but schools have since followed through with indoor facilities of their own that are much better than ours, and more of those are coming. That's not an excuse for the lack of talent we have and the inability to develop players skill-wise, but it's worth noting that Akron doesn't have the edge in that department that it used to.

[Balsy]

8 hours ago, LoyalZIP said:

That's not an excuse for the lack of talent we have and the inability to develop players skill-wise, but it's worth noting that Akron doesn't have the edge in that department that it used to.

 

Correct.  Because universities just continue to dump $$$$$ into facilities, on programs that they spend $$$$$ on and pass on the bill to the student body in their student debt. 

[WD UA 2015]

Seems the best move is to have Milwee replaced first before they think about replacing Bowden. Obviously the weak link is the offense. We'd be winning more if that good defense had some help. Watched Zips football with Terry Bowden show. First time I've seen him in the show be vocally critical of the offensive ineptness and not make excuses.

[Blue & Gold]

On 11/21/2018 at 3:55 PM, clarkwgriswold said:

Kehres' dad would never leave Mount Union.  I have a sneaking suspicion his kid is cut from the same mold.  Hard to break away from a national championship every other year or so to jump into an uncertain situation.

I would be very excited to see what Kehres Jr. could do.  But I'm with you, Clark.  He's got a great (and easy) gig and Mount.  I doubt he'd want to leave that safe harbor for a great unknown.  But maybe he's bored with such a low level of competition?  Idk.  It'd be worth a shot, for sure.

 

On 11/21/2018 at 3:55 PM, clarkwgriswold said:

Here's a reach- how about a high school coach that's won 4 straight Ohio high school championships?  He's also right here in Akron.

*3 straight.  But unless someone pulls a major upset, it'll be 4 straight here in another 2 weeks.  

 

Coach Tyrrell is great at coaching the fundamentals and his team is always motivated and disciplined.  They play fantastic high school ball.  But Tyrrell's Hoban teams are mainly so dominant because they simply waaaaay out-talent everyone they play.  Earlier this year they beat St. Ignatius without their starting QB playing a single snap.  McKinley won't play them anymore after getting completely steamrolled 2 years in a row.  In fact, here is a quote from Avon's head coach regarding the Hoban Knights.

 

"When it comes to players and personnel, they can line up and just bully people, and that’s what they do in a sense of being faster, stronger than the opponents. It’s nothing fancy. They just line up and believe their kids are better than your kids and push people around.”

 

It'd probably be much more difficult for Tyrell to simply out-talent everyone at UA than it is at the high school level at Hoban.  

Edited November 23, 2018 by Blue & Gold

[clarkwgriswold]

1 hour ago, Blue & Gold said:

I would be very excited to see what Kehres Jr. could do.  But I'm with you, Clark.  He's got a great (and easy) gig and Mount.  I doubt he'd want to leave that safe harbor for a great unknown.  But maybe he's bored with such a low level of competition?  Idk.  It'd be worth a shot, for sure.

 

*3 straight.  But unless someone pulls a major upset, it'll be 4 straight here in another 2 weeks.  

 

Coach Tyrrell is great at coaching the fundamentals and his team is always motivated and disciplined.  They play fantastic high school ball.  But Tyrrell's Hoban teams are mainly so dominant because they simply waaaaay out-talent everyone they play.  Earlier this year they beat St. Ignatius without their starting QB playing a single snap.  McKinley won't play them anymore after getting completely steamrolled 2 years in a row.  In fact, here is a quote from Avon's head coach regarding the Hoban Knights.

 

"When it comes to players and personnel, they can line up and just bully people, and that’s what they do in a sense of being faster, stronger than the opponents. It’s nothing fancy. They just line up and believe their kids are better than your kids and push people around.”

 

It'd probably be much more difficult for Tyrell to simply out-talent everyone at UA than it is at the high school level at Hoban.  

 

Oops, jumped the gun!  LOL.  I would not be in favor of Tyrell but figured it was just a matter of time before we started hearing the name.  I think there's a step on the ladder between Hoban and a place like UA that he's have to do, like a D2 or D3 school, before I'd feel comfortable with him here.

[ZippyRulz]

Kehres won't budge. Pelini is only 4-7 at YSU...Tress himself would be the better option here at Last Chance U.

 

 

Edited November 24, 2018 by ZippyRulz

[Lee Adams]

2 minutes ago, ZippyRulz said:

Kehres won't budge. Pelini is only 4-7 at YSU...Tress himself would be the better option.

 

U R kidding....right?