AKRON, Ohio — The University of Akron reportedly made a change to the leadership of its football program on Thursday morning. Head coach Tom Arth has been fired after two and a half seasons on the job leading the Zips. The Athletic was the first to report the news.
RELATED: More sports coverage from WKYC
In Arth’s time at Akron, the team went 3-24, including a 2-17 record in Mid-American Conference play. His only two victories over FBS opponents came via wins over Bowling Green State University in 2020 and this season. Arth’s first season leading the Zips was an 0-12 campaign, the school’s first winless season since 1942 when the team went 0-7-2 under Otis Douglas.
The Zips now have a head coaching opening at a school that has struggled on the gridiron for much of the last 20 seasons despite being located in a football hotbed. Akron should be able to attract a higher caliber of talent than it has, and it’s on the next head coach to right that ship.
Here are a few candidates to take over the University of Akron football program:
Vince Kehres, co-Defensive Coordinator, University of Toledo
Kehres has been a football lifer in the state of Ohio. He played at Mount Union under his father, Larry, in the late 1990s, before returning as a coach beginning with the 2000 season. He coached under his father until his retirement following the 2012 season.
After his father’s retirement, the younger Kehres took over as the head coach for Mount Union. Kehres led the Purple Raiders to a 95-5 record in his seven seasons as the head coach. He won six Ohio Athletic Conference titles, compiling a 62-1 record inside conference play. Kehres also won a pair of NCAA Division III National Championships, taking it all in 2015 and 2017. His teams reached the title game in five of his seven seasons and only had one season end before the national semifinals.
After Kehres left Mount Union, he took a job at the University of Toledo where he has been the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach for the past two seasons.
Tim Tyrrell, Head Coach, Akron Archbishop Hoban
Tyrrell has turned Archbishop Hoban into a national power in his tenure, winning OHSAA titles in five seasons, including four straight from 2015 through 2018. He’s also turned out a number of Division I recruits in his time there.
Previously, Tyrrell was the head coach at Chaminade-Madonna College Preparatory School down in Hollywood, Fla. He spent five seasons there, amassing a 39-18 record.
Tyrrell is a native of Youngstown, where he graduated from both Ursuline High School and Youngstown State University, where he played football and was part of three different Division I-AA National Championship teams. He previously was a candidate for the head coaching job at Youngstown State prior to the 2020 season.
Charlie Frye
Who better to lead Akron out of the dark times than the best quarterback in school history? Frye was a four-year starter at Akron from 2001 until 2004, where he broke 54 different school records, including completion percentage for both a single season and a career, most passing yards in a season and a career, as well as attempts and completions.
Frye played in the NFL from 2005 until 2009 before beginning his coaching career down in Florida at Jones High School in 2012. He’s worked his way up the coaching ladder and currently is the quarterbacks coach for the Miami Dolphins. He previously spent time at Ashland University and Central Michigan as well.
Frye is one of the few people that knows what it takes to be successful at Akron, and bringing him back, if he’s interested, could be the best move for the school.