Game 8- Buffalo

[1981 grad]

At the start of the game, Gibson had time but threw some bad passes, held onto the ball too long and threw into double coverage.  We then went to Irons after 2 series and he promptly fumbled the ball on his first series.Our defense held the first couple of series and stopped Buffalo.  They also held Buffalo to a field goal after the first Irons fumble.  After that the defense could not stop Buffalo and the offense could not move the ball and it got ugly.  We actually moved the ball at the end of the half and then we commit a personal foul.  How many times has that happened when this team finally makes a play only to be brought back by a stupid penalty.  I was really surprised to see Gibson struggle since he had been throwing the ball really well.  

 

I wanted to go to the game but thought that we could not competetive.  It is easier to turn off the tv when it becomes unwatchable which seems to be almost every game.  This team is not built to compete at the D1 level unless everything goes right.  Short and quick passes to cover up the fact that our offensive line cannot hold their blocks very long.  I think that was the orginal game plan but Gibson was off.  Irons simply could not run the ball and that is his game.  I enjoyed the 75 yard run from scrimmage but that was about it.  

 

I remember when Arth got hired they interviewed a football guy from the area who thought that it was a great hire and Akron was going to win the MAC.  He indicated that Arth was successful his entire career.  Wrong!!!!

 

 

[72 Roo]

You know. Um.

 

Arth and his DIII staff have no future at Akron. He is in way over his head and it is obvious to all. I have visited with Charles Guthrie. He is a class act and has the vision, leadership and experience to right our situation. What I found especially interesting is that he sees football as an opportunity to turn  around a failed program and make all athletics better. He will make a change. I wouldn't be surprised to see it soon so the search can begin as soon as possible. That being said don't believe for a minute that he is not exploring who he needs in a coach and who fits the profile. I know for a fact he is already being contacted about the job. Unfortunately football will once again rebuild, but that is the price of stopping the bleeding and saving football at Akron. Arth has come close to killing it. Guthrie will not allow that to happen.

 

If you can find  time to sit with Charles you will be impressed. He is the right guy for the job. He has told all the coaches that he expects them to be competitive in the MAC and if you aren't you are in trouble. Many coaches are nervous, especially the classic underproducers. On the other hand Guthrie gets along great with the coaching performers such as Embick, Mitchell, Groce, Parisi. Guthrie has been successful at every school he has been at. He has laid the foundation for success at Akron by restructuring the AD staff. Next he will make a football change at Akron and get a good coach in. I also expect him to be goobled up by a P5 program after 5 years. He is young and talented enough to make another move. I haven't believed in our AD like this since Mac Rhoades. More improvements are coming and Charles will earn our support.

 

You know?

[Hilltopper]

35 minutes ago, 72 Roo said:

You know. Um.

 

Arth and his DIII staff have no future at Akron. He is in way over his head and it is obvious to all. I have visited with Charles Guthrie. He is a class act and has the vision, leadership and experience to right our situation. What I found especially interesting is that he sees football as an opportunity to turn  around a failed program and make all athletics better. He will make a change. I wouldn't be surprised to see it soon so the search can begin as soon as possible. That being said don't believe for a minute that he is not exploring who he needs in a coach and who fits the profile. I know for a fact he is already being contacted about the job. Unfortunately football will once again rebuild, but that is the price of stopping the bleeding and saving football at Akron. Arth has come close to killing it. Guthrie will not allow that to happen.

 

If you can find  time to sit with Charles you will be impressed. He is the right guy for the job. He has told all the coaches that he expects them to be competitive in the MAC and if you aren't you are in trouble. Many coaches are nervous, especially the classic underproducers. On the other hand Guthrie gets along great with the coaching performers such as Embick, Mitchell, Groce, Parisi. Guthrie has been successful at every school he has been at. He has laid the foundation for success at Akron by restructuring the AD staff. Next he will make a football change at Akron and get a good coach in. I also expect him to be goobled up by a P5 program after 5 years. He is young and talented enough to make another move. I haven't believed in our AD like this since Mac Rhoades. More improvements are coming and Charles will earn our support.

 

You know?

Chuck has really impressed me so far. He is the polar opposite of Williams. Very open and right to the point on his expectations of the coaches. With the amount of money we spend nothing less than top 3 and appearances in conference tournaments will be acceptable. 

[clarkwgriswold]

The 11 sacks given up by the Zips Saturday were the most by any FBS team since 2019 when the Zips gave up 12 in a game.  Sigh.

[LoyalZIP]

Well said on Guthrie. He is a go-getter and he doesn’t want to be at Akron long. He wants to right the ship and make a couple of good hires then move on up the ladder, it’s exactly what this mess of a department needed. I’m looking forward to see how he manages this football situation. The hire could literally make or break his career, that’s the kind of pressure I like to see. 

[exit322]

3 hours ago, clarkwgriswold said:

The 11 sacks given up by the Zips Saturday were the most by any FBS team since 2019 when the Zips gave up 12 in a game.  Sigh.

 

See?  Progress!

[LZIp]

What “rebuild” is needed? We need to bring in talented players that can compete right away. If I’ve got to wait another 3 years for the Zips to be competitive, I’d rather give Arth another year to see if he can learn from his mistakes/his bets on playing all these underclassman pays off.

 

Regardless of who is coach next year, I want bowl eligibility. There are players who have a lot of experience on this team who are pieces to work with moving forward. Some of the starters can be supplanted by transfers, but they still provide depth. Not to mention the majority of the rest of the conference is going to lose a lot of experience next year while Akron is not.

[clarkwgriswold]

16 minutes ago, LZIp said:

What “rebuild” is needed? We need to bring in talented players that can compete right away. If I’ve got to wait another 3 years for the Zips to be competitive, I’d rather give Arth another year to see if he can learn from his mistakes/his bets on playing all these underclassman pays off.

 

Regardless of who is coach next year, I want bowl eligibility. There are players who have a lot of experience on this team who are pieces to work with moving forward. Some of the starters can be supplanted by transfers, but they still provide depth. Not to mention the majority of the rest of the conference is going to lose a lot of experience next year while Akron is not.

 

There's never been a better time to make use of transfers than the last year but for some reason they opted not to go in that direction (or did so and failed miserably).  Somebody posted how this was the ...... consecutive year that we've been told that the line is young but was developing for the future and I am beginning to feel that way about the entire team.  Also, with as bad as they have looked I suspect that some of the young talent is going to jump ship.   

[RowdyZip]

1 hour ago, clarkwgriswold said:

I suspect that some of the young talent is going to jump ship.   

Someone better be all over Mumpfield.  

 

Edit:  Who, incidentally, has no bio on gozips dot com.  🤦‍♂️

Edited October 26, 2021 by RowdyZip

[LZIp]

35 minutes ago, RowdyZip said:

Someone better be all over Mumpfield.  

 

Edit:  Who, incidentally, has no bio on gozips dot com.  🤦‍♂️

I saw his sister just committed to Georgia State for softball. Akron should have been recruiting her if there was any sort of forethought.

[Zippyroo]

27 minutes ago, RowdyZip said:

Someone better be all over Mumpfield.  

 

Edit:  Who, incidentally, has no bio on gozips dot com.  🤦‍♂️

As good as Mumpfield has been, even he did not play well against Buffalo....These guys seem to play badly together but when they are all on the same page (rarely), they can ball.  Trick is to get them to all play together and not implode for an entire game.  I think this is where Arth has failed.   There is some talent on the team at various positions but these guys are not talented enough as a team to overcome self inflicted mistakes. 

[zipsoutsider]

2 hours ago, LZIp said:

What “rebuild” is needed? We need to bring in talented players that can compete right away. If I’ve got to wait another 3 years for the Zips to be competitive, I’d rather give Arth another year to see if he can learn from his mistakes/his bets on playing all these underclassman pays off.

 

Regardless of who is coach next year, I want bowl eligibility. There are players who have a lot of experience on this team who are pieces to work with moving forward. Some of the starters can be supplanted by transfers, but they still provide depth. Not to mention the majority of the rest of the conference is going to lose a lot of experience next year while Akron is not.

You should not have to wait and Arth shouldn't still be here.

 

Bowden has over 50 new players on the squad at ULM and they have gone from 0-10 last year to starting off at 4-3.

 

I do believe there have been problems with administration. Hopefully the new AD is rectifying those, but the failure to use the transfer portal and the regression seen this season are enough reason to let him go, even if it just means finding a cheap interim coach. Allowing him to continue continues to rip any shred of respect away from the program than remains.

 

I honestly can't believe he hasn't been fired, yet.

[Captain Kangaroo]

42 minutes ago, zipsoutsider said:

I honestly can't believe he hasn't been fired, yet.

You must have missed the first half of the OU game. I think that bought him another season or two.

[GP1]

26 minutes ago, Captain Kangaroo said:

You must have missed the first half of the OU game. I think that bought him another season or two.

Well, it is a building process. 

[Zippyroo]

2 hours ago, zipsoutsider said:

You should not have to wait and Arth shouldn't still be here.

 

Bowden has over 50 new players on the squad at ULM and they have gone from 0-10 last year to starting off at 4-3.

 

I do believe there have been problems with administration. Hopefully the new AD is rectifying those, but the failure to use the transfer portal and the regression seen this season are enough reason to let him go, even if it just means finding a cheap interim coach. Allowing him to continue continues to rip any shred of respect away from the program than remains.

 

I honestly can't believe he hasn't been fired, yet.

Seriously?  Listen, I am not an Arth fan but his first year he came in he had slim pickens as far as recruits go since he came in so late in 2019 and 2020 was a mess because of COVID.  He has no excuses this year and for not tapping into the transfer portal more but you have to give the guy a few solid recruiting years to see if he can change course of the program. I know we are not improving as fast as everyone wants but be careful what you ask for.  If we fire Arth after this year it guarantees our fate as bottom dwellers in the MAC for at least 2-3 more years at best. I think I would role the dice on one more year with Arth and have the AD make it well known that he expects 4-5 wins or he is gone. In the meantime,  Guthrie can start looking for suitable replacement just in case.

[zipsoutsider]

1 hour ago, Zippyroo said:

Seriously?  Listen, I am not an Arth fan but his first year he came in he had slim pickens as far as recruits go since he came in so late in 2019 and 2020 was a mess because of COVID.  He has no excuses this year and for not tapping into the transfer portal more but you have to give the guy a few solid recruiting years to see if he can change course of the program. I know we are not improving as fast as everyone wants but be careful what you ask for.  If we fire Arth after this year it guarantees our fate as bottom dwellers in the MAC for at least 2-3 more years at best. I think I would role the dice on one more year with Arth and have the AD make it well known that he expects 4-5 wins or he is gone. In the meantime,  Guthrie can start looking for suitable replacement just in case.

But other coaches have managed turnarounds, with programs in worse shape. This is year 3. They are getting worse, not better. He chose not to take advantage of available talent in the portal. He lost players who are being productive for other schools. 

 

THERE IS NO HOPE WOTH TOM ARTH. 

[Zippyroo]

4 minutes ago, zipsoutsider said:

But other coaches have managed turnarounds, with programs in worse shape. This is year 3. They are getting worse, not better. He chose not to take advantage of available talent in the portal. He lost players who are being productive for other schools. 

 

THERE IS NO HOPE WOTH TOM ARTH. 

Not sure how you measure he is getting worse.....I can make the same argument that there are just as many or more coaches that have done the same or worse.  In addition,  none of us know how many players he has attempted to get from the portal but was unsuccessful. He has definitely got a few players from the portal just not as many as we all would like.

[LZIp]

21 minutes ago, Zippyroo said:

Not sure how you measure he is getting worse.....I can make the same argument that there are just as many or more coaches that have done the same or worse.  In addition,  none of us know how many players he has attempted to get from the portal but was unsuccessful. He has definitely got a few players from the portal just not as many as we all would like.

Whether or not it was the right decision in hindsight, he hasn’t taken the same approach as many other coaches, and there’s what, like 1-2 players being productive for another school? You can’t fault council for going to Auburn and WR is not an issue so it’s not like Boogie was some big loss. Boogie transferred because he wasn’t better than Mathison.

 

If I could pick Arth’s brain, I’d bet he isn’t where  he wants to be this far in,  but I can’t take anyone serious who can’t see he took the long approach in a rebuild. I imagine that plan was discussed in the interview process. Moving the goal posts in the middle of it and leaving no hope to escape the black hole of suck barring a miracle would be such an Akron move. His initial recruiting class is still underclassmen. If you’re gonna make a change, you can’t miss on the replacement. Given Akron’s history, granted Guthrie wasn’t a part of it, the odds aren’t in our favor.

Edited October 27, 2021 by LZIp

[clarkwgriswold]

I too was very patient.  When the sky was falling on here the last couple of years, I was one of the few that preached patience.  I like nothing more than to see it work out for Arth.

 

That being said, my measure of improvement is the team being more competitive than they were in his first year and I am not much seeing it.  In year three we should be seeing kids brought in for Arth's first season that are competitive against their MAC counterparts.  I don't expect them to be at the top of the MAC but they shouldn't be getting regularly embarrassed.  The junior college immediately to the east was in a very similar situation to ours a year earlier, hired a young up and comer and they've gone 2-10, 7-6, 3-1 and 4-4 since his hire.  That was my expectation and hope for Arth.

 

 

[zipsoutsider]

I am not sure what reality you are loving in. 11 sacks by Buffalo and blowout after blowout. 

 

If Bowden's performance was unacceptable, how on earth can you want to wait longer for Arth?

 

How bad does it have to get?

[zipsoutsider]

46 minutes ago, LZIp said:

Whether or not it was the right decision in hindsight, he hasn’t taken the same approach as many other coaches, and there’s what, like 1-2 players being productive for another school? You can’t fault council for going to Auburn and WR is not an issue so it’s not like Boogie was some big loss. Boogie transferred because he wasn’t better than Mathison.

 

If I could pick Arth’s brain, I’d bet he isn’t where  he wants to be this far in,  but I can’t take anyone serious who can’t see he took the long approach in a rebuild. I imagine that plan was discussed in the interview process. Moving the goal posts in the middle of it and leaving no hope to escape the black hole of suck barring a miracle would be such an Akron move. His initial recruiting class is still underclassmen. If you’re gonna make a change, you can’t miss on the replacement. Given Akron’s history, granted Guthrie wasn’t a part of it, the odds aren’t in our favor.

I am not readjudicating his firing, but pointing out that he has been unable to go in and turn things around in short order. ULM was the worst team in D1 last year. Akron was far from in the worst shape in D1 when Arth took over. I am merely pointing out that if three years isn't fast enough for real progress, perhaps your standards are too low.

 

Arth has made Akron a more difficult place to recruit to, not better. And as for his supposed recruiting prowess, where is it? 

Edited October 27, 2021 by zipsoutsider

[LoyalZIP]

As the season began and Akron looked improved to an extent, I had some hope that Arth would convince me that we were a year away from him making some kind of breakthrough. However, after a glimmer of hope against BG that made me forget how atrocious the Ohio game was, I am fully out on Arth once again. I get that his freshmen are still underclassmen, but they have a lot of experience at this point for being so young. The offensive line is just as porous as it was in 2019, though there are a couple of flashes of good protection. The defense still gives up a billion points. I would agree on the QB play being a good bit better, but still not consistently good, the running game has shown flashes, but the best RB since Dennis Kennedy flared out with a legal issue and since then it's been a revolving door with a couple of good performances. I think the receiving corps is good enough to be considered decent in the MAC, but Saturday saw a horrible performance from them in their few chances to catch the ball. And overall, the penalties and lack of discipline are starting to show up again.

 

I do not think Arth is by any means getting worse, or the team is getting worse, it's just far too similar to what we've seen for I think 26 games now. Saturday was nothing short of appalling. There was zero hope of a win and the Norrils TD was simply a spritz of mild deodorant. Buffalo, who hired this coach 5 months ago and was without its best running back, looked like the Alabama Crimson Tide against what is undoubtedly an improved Akron roster on paper. Throw in the second half against Ohio, first quarter against BG, and pretty much the entire Miami game, and you can very clearly see a lack of competence. 

 

If you're brave enough to go to the Ball State game, make your way down to the front row behind the Akron bench, closer to maybe the 10-15 yard line on either side. You'll get as clear a look as you can possibly get of the coaching staff, particularly when Akron is on defense. You should hear how helpless Feeney & Co. are and you should see the horrid body language on the players after giving up another quick and easy score.

 

Let's look at the other MAC programs who hired head coaches before the 2019 season. BG and NIU. BG was in a closer situation to Akron having fired their coach instead of him leaving. Sub par 2019 seasons, BG beat Akron 31-6 and NIU beat Akron 49-0. Last year, Akron went 1-5 and BG and NIU combined to go 0-11 or 0-12, I can't remember exactly but the point still stands. All three programs are loaded with young players, and BG did fairly well in the transfer portal going into 2021. NIU has the best record in the MAC and BG and Akron are in the basement all with an unreal amount of freshman. 

 

NIU has found the kind of players they need and they don't try to do too much or prove any points. They just play their game. If you get the chance, go watch them play at Kent on 11/3. It could be a good one and you can see what a couple of successful rebuilds look like. 

 

Sorry for rambling. To make a long story a lot shorter, Arth has had adequate time to at least set a foundation of success, but given how 3 of the 4 MAC games have gone this year in addition to the Temple destruction and Bryant scare, it is clear to me that he is not capable of getting Akron to a place of sustained success. We are too far along to be losing MAC games by 35 points. Next up, he has the red hot defending MAC champs coming to town, then a trip to Pitt's only loss, then hosting his rival who has no other goal then to kick his ass. I have a hard time seeing any of these games be close. That's why I'm out. 

[John Ward]

All I know is there is some really good talent sitting in the transfer portal. So what if the young man will only give you 2 seasons of play. When your on the hot seat you try to pull wins anyway you can. What are we waiting for? Someone please tell me.

[ZIPFAN21]

All I know is that benching Gibson was a BIG mistake.  He may not be dynamic as Irons but clearly has more control of the offense.  To bench him when the score was 0-0 is just awful coaching decision.   How in hell can these kids gain any confidence when they get pulled after a slow start.  Irons had 5 fumbles (3 lost) , 1 INT, a 15yd Personal Foul and that is the guy they want leading this team???   No wonder Akron will not or cannot win.  This team has some talent that will be in the portal by December because of the inept coaching staff. 

[ZIPFAN21]

BTW, according to Pro Football Focus Zach Gibson was the 2nd rated passer in CFB in FBS and Arth/Gasser benched him in the 1st Quarter.  Make sense??