Tom Arth

[hammb]

My opinion is that defensive minded head coaches are generally not prepared to run a modern offense. All too often they prefer to "control the ball" and avoid turnovers on offense, all in an effort to protect their baby, the defense. Give me an offense first head coach that realizes some occasional turnovers are ok so long as you're capable of dropping 50 on any given night.

Now obviously your defense needs to be able to occasionally get some stops, but I don't see that as mutually exclusive either.

Above all I want to see a head coach that will come in here and run a modern offense. I want tempo, I want RPOs, I want zone reads. I just don't think you can hope to win, especially at BG, without running that sort of offense. When I look at our successful teams in the past Urban, Brandon, and Babers all ran cutting edge (for the time) offensive schemes. Clawson's offense was more of a throwback, and to me that is why he was very successful in conference, but very unsuccessful against any better competition.

Obviously you need that offensive mind to bring in a legit defensive coaching staff, and to recruit upper tier defensive talent. I actually think Pelini could be fine on defense here if we got him any talent. You cannot field a competitive D1 defense with your entire DL being both undersized and not ridiculously speedy. From the one and a half games I've watched this season our DL is completely outmanned, and that alone is enough to destroy anything our DC might try to do schematically. You just cannot scheme to make up for a DL that lacks the talent to get push against Eastern Kentucky.

[mbenecke]

The more you say about this, the more I start to agree with you.

Example:

Right now, would you rather be Ohio State or Michigan? Michigan's all defense and no offense, Ohio State's big-time offense, solid defense.

Honestly, take the names of the teams out of it, I would take the latter every time. Elite offense and solid defense are the best fit for modern football.

[hammb]

It is so difficult to project our brand of college football for how it compares to the upper echelon of the Big10, but to your point, I agree whole-heartedly. Give me current OSU over current UM any day of the week. And as much as I love Harbaugh as a coach otherwise, his insistence on traditional NFL style offense is killing him at UM, and I'm not even sure it will help him if he wants to go back to the NFL...the NFL is embracing far more of the college style offense than it ever has.

Just to keep it with the Buckeyes. Tressel built a very good program. They were among the best in the country, and consistently at or near the top of the Big10. Urban, by bringing in that new offensive philosophy has elevated it well beyond anything Tressel ever had.

[kdog27]

No, some of these posts have been funny. I am not Tom Arth's agent and have never met him. I have read posts on here for a while, but have never created an account until now. I am just the son of two Falcon alumni. When I was a student at BGSU, the football team was very exciting under Urban Meyer after the end of the Gary Blackney years. We were blowing so many teams out.

I agree with the one post about the 2013 season. It was such a magical run the team was on the second half of the season and for like the first time since I followed the Falcons, we had a defense. Jerry "Boo Boo" Gates was one of my favorite players then. He was so dynamic. He could take any ball to the house. I still remember the Buffalo game at the Bills Stadium the day after Thanksgiving. As soon as you wiped the snow off the seats, they would be covered again. I think that East Division clincher was like 21-7.

I always hope to bring in former Falcons as the coaches and Greg Studrawa was one of my thoughts too. Matt Johnson could be good with like 5 more years of experience. Do we get an older guy who is looking to stay at one place or a younger guy who is on his way up?

I wonder how many other colleges can say that all of their past head football coaches since 2001 are all current head football coaches? (Meyer, Brandon, Clawson, Babers) I haven't done the research, but I can't think many. These past 2+ seasons have just been hard to get excited about.

Good talk, Tom.

[lookimrory]

You bring up a good point about not being able to match P5 schools in the trenches. That's a very fair point, and it's a battle we would never win.

I just feel like defense can win in the MAC. And I would rather be 8-4 or 9-3 in Detroit every year than 6-6 with a flashy offense that upset someone like Purdue. Ya know what I mean?

That's fine. I'll readily admit (and have for years) that I got more joy over our big wins over Purdue, Maryland, and IU than I ever have from a MAC championship. I will always believe if you build a team that can compete with and beat those P5 teams, then winning the MAC should come with it. We've seen it work out that way in recent years as well.

For me football is all about offense. Hell, as Gregg Brandon's greatest detractor I could even see the case that he may have been ahead of the curve in that regard. Yes, you need to get some stops or turnovers on defense to win games, but I don't think building a team around a defensive mantra is the right way to do things anymore. For decades, probably since the beginning of the sport, we've heard it preached that "defense wins championships" and "a good defense will stop a good offense." I just don't think these things are really true anymore. Today's modern offenses, the spread concepts, the proliferation of athletes, the better QB play, the RPOs are, to be quite honest, NOT truly stoppable. At least not consistently. Even the OSU/Alabama's of the world that have prized themselves on defense (and basically put out NFL probowl teams worth of NFL players) have games every year where they cannot stop the opposing offense. Offenses nowadays are just too good.

Like, I said, if you find a "defensive minded" head coach that is willing to embrace modern offense, then that's fine. But to me attempting to play defense first, and protect the defense offense, is a fool's game. Simply looking at MAC champions every champion for the last decade or more has fielded an offense that could score 40+ on any given Saturday. I don't care how good of a BG defense you build you're probably still going to have days, even in the MAC, where you have to score 40 to win.

Hammb, I agree wholeheartedly that upsetting those P5 schools is more gratifying. I know that wins will always outrank close losses, so I want to remind you and everyone else about a game in October 2013: We lost to a Dak Prescott-led Mississippi State team by ONE point, holding them SCORELESS in the 2nd half.
I had a blast watching BGSU score at will against Maryland in 2015. The Indiana game is one of the best memories of my sports life. Having said that, even though we lost to Mississippi State, I still remember that game as what we can be on defense.
Can you imagine that defense with our 2015 offense? Wishful thinking, I know but...it puts a smile on my face thinking about it.

And if I were the AD I'd go get Bo Pelini. No coordinators. I want a coach with previous head coaching experience at the college level.

[Schadenfreude]

And if I were the AD I'd go get Bo Pelini. No coordinators. I want a coach with previous head coaching experience at the college level.

I agree that head coaching experience is a big plus. Pelini is a very recognizable name. That said, the Penguins are 1-3 right now.

[Warthog]

My opinion is that defensive minded head coaches are generally not prepared to run a modern offense.

Gary Patterson would like to disagree with you.

[hammb]

My opinion is that defensive minded head coaches are generally not prepared to run a modern offense.

Gary Patterson would like to disagree with you.

Certainly, he's fantastic.

Never said there aren't exceptions. I even explicitly stated I'd welcome a defensive head coach if he WAS an exception.

But if you're going to come in here with the philosophy of becoming a running team, controlling the clock, and defense wins championships I want nothing to do with you. The primary qualification of any coaching hire (to me) is they need to see the value of scoring points in bunches and embrace it philosophically. If they come from a defensive background but hand the offensive keys to an OC with that sort of philosophy, I'm fine with it.

[Schadenfreude]

Please, please help me get the word out about my choice: Tom Arth. He has to be strongly considered for the BGSU Head Football coach position. If we don’t hire him, I could see him beating us every year at Akron or Ohio when those coaches retire / step aside. He has Mid American Conference Champion written all over him. He checks all of the boxes I’m looking for.

1) Previous head coaching experience. In 4 seasons as a head coach at John Carroll University (a D-III school) his career record was 40-8. I believe 3 of those 8 losses were against Mount Union. However, he also defeated Mount Union in 2016. Currently in his second season at FCS school UT Chattanooga, he was 3-8, but is already off to a 4-1 start this year. He lost his first game this season Saturday to ETSU (whose only loss was to Tennessee). 6th year as head football coach!

2) Previous experience working in this part of the country. Tom Arth grew up in Cleveland, OHIO and played high school football at Cleveland Saint Ignatius. After graduating college, he spent 3 years as Peyton Manning’s backup QB with the Indianapolis Colts. Then he went back to his alma mater, John Carroll University in University Heights, Ohio (a suburb of Cleveland), and worked his way up to head football coach. He has spent time working in football in two of the states BGSU football should be heavily recruiting from (Michigan and Pennsylvania the others). Worked in football professionally in both Ohio and Indiana!

3) Defeat your rival. Tom Arth and John Carroll beat rival Baldwin Wallace in 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016 = EVERY SEASON! In 2016, John Carroll even beat the best team in the league: Mount Union. 4-0 against rival!

4) Anything else? Tom Arth was both the 2016 Ohio Athletic Conference Coach of the Year and the 2016 NCAA Division III National Coach of the Year! In 4 seasons at Division III, made the playoffs three years. 2018 Recruiting Class was tops in the conference.

Help me get the word out so we can get the BGSU Football program turned around!

Check out his UT Chattanooga bio and another article about him.


https://gomocs.com/coaches.aspx?rc=760&path=fb" target="_blank

https://www.ignatiuswildcats.com/news_a ... how/735984" target="_blank

Will this member change his name to "Akron Athletics Nut" now, or nah?

[BGSU Athletics Nut]

Good question….I’m not changing my name to anything Akron Zips related even though my choice for the head coach of Bowling Green is going to be their next head coach. I went to 9 games BGSU played in, 3 games at Toledo, 2 at Akron, 2 at Ohio, 1 at Kent, and 1 at Ohio State in 2018. When you are a BGSU alum graduating from “The House That Roars” Anderson Arena and both of your parents are BGSU alumni too, you don’t change teams. (When I went to grad school I automatically eliminated Akron and Kent State because they were in the MAC. I can only have 1 MAC school to root for!)

Would I have preferred a guy with previous head coaching experience at any level? Yes, I would have. Some people prefer coaches with Power 5 experience. I would have liked someone who did more with less in a lower division. So far I think there has been a relatively even split between hiring coordinators from the Power 5 Schools versus hiring FCS school head coaches.

Bob Moosbrugger was looking for someone with many of the same qualities I was: former qb, offensive guy, from northeast Ohio, some NFL experience, many years of college coaching experience, etc…

How many D-1 recruits does Barberton High School produce every year versus St. Ignatius? I’m not saying that Coach Loeffler can’t recruit there, but would those guys want to play for an unknown (to them) guy or an alumnus of the school? Chuck Kyle, the St. Ignatius head coach, was the head coach when Tom Arth was the starting QB at the school. I was just hoping that pipeline of leftover D-1 recruits (after the Big 10 takes them) would become Falcons, not Zips. This is coming from a guy whose public high school team is in Division 1 Region 1 and plays in the playoffs almost every year (the same bracket as St. Ignatius).

I am going to give Coach Loeffler a chance before I say “I told you so”. I have to being a diehard Falcon fan!

I predicted Robyn Fralick was going to be the BGSU head women’s basketball coach a full year before she actually was hired.

Here are 2 others I want:
1) Andy Tracy needs to be the next head baseball coach at BGSU. He has previous managerial experience when in 2012 he managed the Williamsport Crosscutters of the New York Penn League. He has connections to several Major League baseball clubs and was a roving instructor for many seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies. To me, every BGSU baseball player should aspire to play in the minors (and then majors) one day. I don’t know when it happened, but Andy Tracy is listed as working for the Cleveland Indians now.
2) On October 17, 2015 I met and talked to Antonio Daniels at the Stroh Center. I talked to him about the dreaded drought since 1968. He said they should’ve gone to the NCAA Tournament at least once during his years as a Falcon. I told him that I wanted him to be the head coach. He kind of laughed it off. Being the #4 pick in the entire NBA Draft would have shown that if he could play at BGSU and get drafted, so could they (the recruits). He would have brought name recognition to the program having spent 13 seasons in the NBA.
(It was painful to watch Chris Jans make the NCAA tournament last season!!!)

A nice article about former Falcon Todd Reirden if you haven’t read it:
https://www.nbcsports.com/washington/ca ... hind-bench" target="_blank


Just because I don’t post comments, doesn’t mean I don’t read posts. Being in northeast Ohio I don't get much BGSU sports information. I rely on this website to get my BGSU information (outside of hustlebelt, bgsufalcons.com, etc...)

[Falconwriter]

Please don't strain yourself waiting to say "I told you so" by letting too much time go by.

I get wanting your choice to be coach because you feel he's a can't miss candidate, but it seriously sounds like you'd rather be right than have Loeffler be successful.

As for Daniels...assuming most of us are correct and Huger is let go this year or next, I'd prefer they do a full-scale search before simply picking someone who is a former Falcon and/or an NBA player.

[Schadenfreude]

When you are a BGSU alum graduating from “The House That Roars” Anderson Arena and both of your parents are BGSU alumni too, you don’t change teams.

Fair enough. Don't be afraid to post!