Brett McMurphy
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Terry Bowden has been fired after seven seasons at Akron, sources told @WatchStadium. Bowden, who coached Auburn to an 11-0 season in 1993, was 35-52 at Akron

(12-02-2018 02:00 PM)NIUSox10 Wrote:  Brett McMurphy
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Terry Bowden has been fired after seven seasons at Akron, sources told @WatchStadium. Bowden, who coached Auburn to an 11-0 season in 1993, was 35-52 at Akron

A lot of us saw this coming......

(12-02-2018 02:43 PM)lance99 Wrote:  

(12-02-2018 02:00 PM)NIUSox10 Wrote:  Brett McMurphy
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Terry Bowden has been fired after seven seasons at Akron, sources told @WatchStadium. Bowden, who coached Auburn to an 11-0 season in 1993, was 35-52 at Akron

A lot of us saw this coming......

I didn't.

Surprised after the win over Big 10 West Division Champion Northwestern and a MAC Championship appearance last year.

But I think this goes to show while wins over P5 at the G5 level are nice, if you're not winning Conference games it doesn't matter.

It was a near consensus opinion on the Akron forum that the change was needed. Even some of the most loyal Bowden supporters wanted him gone after the BGSU loss.

The team has plateaued under Bowden, and this year we regressed despite beating Northwestern. I'm grateful for him dragging the program out of the garbage heap, but it's just time to go in another direction.

Bowden is a solid coach who can hang his hat on a MAC title game his penultimate season and a victory over the B1G West champion his final season. Seems he got stale after 7 years, but at least he left the program in a better position than inherited.

Attendance probably also played a factor. At the palace they play in Akron needs to find a way to get the city showing up for the Zips again.

"https://gozips.com/news/2018/12/14/Tom_Arth_Named_Akron_Football_Coach.aspx?path=football"

(12-16-2018 11:29 PM)Ohio Poly Wrote:  "https://gozips.com/news/2018/12/14/Tom_Arth_Named_Akron_Football_Coach.aspx?path=football"

St Ignatius Alum

John Carroll Alum & Coach

Should have some NE Ohio Connections

I don't see why they'd pick him. That's quite a step up. If he was a former Zip, I could maybe understand.

He coached at UT-Chattanooga for the past two years, after they went 9-4 before he stepped in.

He then took them to 3-8, then 6-5. "Oooh, he'd make a great Akron coach!" someone must have said?

He was 40-8 and did quite well for 4 years prior to this at his former college John Carroll (D3). That can give you an extra edge working for your former college, but regardless, yeah he deserved to move up in the ranks from D3. Fine. But going to a D1AA/FCS school and not doing anything impressive for just 2 years -- I don't know what drew him into Akron. Confusing.

Pretty underwhelming hire imo in light of CMU just hiring McElwain and Akron having the nicest stadium in the MAC. A coach who takes over a program making the FCS playoffs three years running and follows up with two mediocre seasons doesn't scream big-time. All that especially considering how the Zips just canned a guy who built the program up from nothing and won the East last year (though I agree with Bowden being fired).

That being said, Auth won at John Carroll. Maybe it works out in a Lance Leipold sort of way, I hope it does so the program doesn't go back to square one.

Would’ve rolled the dice another year with Bowden if Arth was the best option. At least with Terry you’ll get a memorable moment (winning MAC East, beating B1G West champ) even if the program itself is spinning wheels.

Quote:A coach who takes over a program making the FCS playoffs three years running and follows up with two mediocre seasons doesn't scream big-time.

Problem is, he didn't make the FCS playoffs 3 years running. That was D3 playoffs 3 years out of the 4 he coached there. :)

In FCS, the past two years, he went 9-13 for two years -- after said team was 9-4 the year before he came in.

Ianello 2.0

Was silly to fire Bowden. Akron is tough to win at and he had them in the discussion and winning divisions and bowls.

This could set the program back again.

Quote:Was silly to fire Bowden. Akron is tough to win at and he had them in the discussion and winning divisions and bowls.

Depends what was going on behind the scenes, IMO. If they were giving him an unlimited budget to do what he could to rake in recruits and giving him more free reign that one would see for a HC, and that's all ya got in the end? I agree, it was time to go.

That said, it Was silly to fire Bowden if this new guy who went 9-13 for two years at an FCS ball club is his replacement.

IMO Bowden was a players coach who seemed too nice to compete highly. He recruited poorly, but had some decent JUCO transfers which resulted in giant graduating classes or very small classes. 7-7 with a MAC East title seemed like the ceiling. I would have gone the P5 coordinator route myself... We will see how Arth recruits a place he is familiar with.

I was pretty disappointed in the hire myself, but have slowly been coming around the more I've heard Arth and Larry Williams talk. Arth had a top 10 FCS recruiting class the last two years and even got some players who had P5 offers to commit to Chattanooga. Arth was brought here to recruit northeast Ohio. Bowden was constantly out recruited in our own back yard by other MAC teams. Larry wanted to see that changed.

Quote:Arth had a top 10 FCS recruiting class the last two years and even got some players who had P5 offers to commit to Chattanooga.

Yeah, but the last two years they went 9-13.

(12-20-2018 07:28 PM)toddjnsn Wrote:  

Quote:Arth had a top 10 FCS recruiting class the last two years and even got some players who had P5 offers to commit to Chattanooga.

Yeah, but the last two years they went 9-13.

I honestly don't know the full story about Chattanooga. I heard there were some injuries and other things that contributed to that. Apparently at 1 point Chattanooga was playing with their 3rd string QB. He was 40-8 at John Carroll the 4 years prior to that.

It's not a sexy hire and I by no means thinks its a sure thing he'll do good, but I at least like the plan of recruiting NEO. Bowden didn't do a good job in that department and many of those players found themselves on other MAC squads.