AKRON, Ohio — Tom Arth, 37, returns to the football hotbed of Ohio when he was introduced Monday as the new head coach of the Akron Zips. He will be looking to rekindle the long lost fire for a once proud small college program under Jim Dennison and others, that has had only sporadic success since becoming Division I in 1987.
"Having the opportunity to return to Northeast Ohio and to coach at the University of Akron is so special,'' Arth said. “I am both excited and motivated by the challenges ahead to lead our program and student athletes to great success on the field and off.
"This opportunity is everything and more that I could dream of.”
According to Akron AD Larry Williams, Arth will have a base salary of $500,000 for five years.
Arth, a native of Westlake, and product of St. Ignatius High, will be the sixth head coach in the D-1 era for the Zips and none has yet to deliver a winning record.
“His job now is to re-create that old culture,” said Arth’s St. Ignatius High School coach, Chuck Kyle, who indicated Arth’s Northeast Ohio roots will be invaluable. “I think that is extremely valuable for his next step here. He can walk into any high school in Northeast Ohio and people know him.
“It’s pretty exciting. I think Tom will be a spark, no doubt about it. I would hope Akron would start coming into our schools. Our kids are good players. We’re used to the attitude of Ohio football.”
In the process Arth can also return the glow to his own coaching embers that burned brightly two years ago at his alma mater John Carroll University, but have cooled the last two tepid seasons as head coach at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga Mocs.
Arth fits the profile of many recent head coaching hires in the Mid-American Conference, bringing head coaching experience at lower division ranks to the job. Yet he also comes to Akron with a half-empty, half-full head coaching resume. Arth’s coaching reputation was built on 40-8, four-year stint at his John Carroll. But it was not enhanced with a two-year, 9-13, tenure at Chattanooga.
Yet Kyle said don’t judge his former quarterback completely on two years at UTC.
“The learning curve I think is the area here,’’ Kyle said of Arth’s jump from D3 to FCS. “I think any kind of judgement would be way too soon on what he just did. It takes some time to implement your philosophy. And who knows what was left in the talent pool, especially in the tough league he was playing in.’’
Arth inherited a UTC program that won three straight Southern Conference titles and a second-place finish the previous four seasons, and also advanced to three straight FCS Playoffs. He was being asked to reload, not rebuild.
His first season at UTC he finished 3-8 with a team snakebite by quarterback injuries to three of his top four quarterbacks early in the season. Arth’s second season the Mocs began 4-0, but finished 6-5. The team did not defeat any of the teams in front of them in the SoCon standings. And after that 4-0 start, the Mocs scored more than 14 points only twice in the final seven games.
It’s almost a mirror of the final run for ousted Akron head coach Terry Bowden. After opening the 2018 season with two straight wins, including a road upset over Big Ten Division champion Northwestern, the Zips finished 4-8. Akron failed to score more than seven points in three of its last four games as part of a five-game losing streak to end the season.
Under Bowden, Akron’s offensive issues revolved around the lack of a running game. He never had a 1,000-yard rusher as head man for the Zips. And the Zips were inconsistent offensive scorers.
At UTC, Arth’s offenses also struggled to get the 30-points a game most feel is needed for modern day football success, and much of that was also due to lack of a running game. In 2017 the team averaged 78.1 yards rushing per game with just eight rushing TDs, and 17.7 points a game. The Mocs averaged 98.4 yards rushing in 2018 and had just 11 rushing TDs, averaging 21.5 points a game.
Akron AD Larry Williams, making his first football hire in 12 seasons as AD at Portland, Marquette and Akron, is likely pointing toward Arth’s 40-8 overall success at John Carroll as a picture into the Zips football future. Where Arth inherited a title contender at UTC and struggled, he turned the Blue Streaks into a power.
"Tom’s experience in leading two programs and his ties to Northeast Ohio made him an exceptional candidate to elevate our program,'' Williams said. “Not only does Tom have a tremendous football IQ, but he cares deeply about the student athletes and their future endeavors.”
The four years prior to Arth taking the head JCU job in 2013 the Streaks finished 6-4, 5-5, 5-5 and 3-7. When Arth, took over JCU went 9-2, 11-2, 8-2 and 12-2, ending 2016 advancing to the D-III semifinals and Arth earning D3Football.com National Coach of the Year honors.
The cash-strapped university is obligated to pay Bowden $630,000 for the next two seasons, plus another $370,000 to buy Arth out the final years of his UTC contract. It’s understood the Zips finally got $650,000 from Nebraska for the season opener that was not played due to weather. Minus the $165,00 in September expenses the Zips will net $485,000 from what was originally a $1.17-million payday from the Cornhuskers.
However, the Zips did get $1.3-million from South Carolina for the season-ending game that replaced the Nebraska contest. Combined, that’s $1,785,000 to cover Bowden’s ouster, Arth’s UTC payout plus the cost of hiring and moving the new head coach and his staff.
Akron interim president John C. Green noted it costs to get quality people, particularly with Northeast Ohio roots, and Arth fits that profile.
"Welcome home, Tom,'' he said. “Let’s show them what we can do together.”