ALTOONA, Pa. -- One day after one of the most important Penn State assistant coaches of the James Franklin era, Brent Pry, landed a great head coaching job at Virginia Tech, perhaps the most important assistant coach in recent years also has landed a head coaching job.
This one, however, doesn't make as much sense.
Joe Moorhead is close to being named the new head coach at Akron, according to reports.
The same Moorhead who helped Penn State win the 2016 Big Ten title as offensive coordinator before becoming head coach at Mississippi State and then offensive coordinator at Oregon.
And the same Akron that is one of the worst FBS programs in the country.
SOURCE: Akron has zeroed in on Oregon OC Joe Moorhead to become the Zips next head coach. The Zips are expecting to hire him this weekend after the Ducks play in the Pac-12 title game. The Pittsburgh native, a former Zips OC, spent five years at Akron.
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) December 1, 2021
There are a lot of people on social media wondering the same thing I am with Moorhead: Why Akron?
The Zips just fired Tom Arth after going 2-10 this season. But that actually was a good season for them, compared to recent years. This is how Akron has fared lately:
• 2021: 2-10
• 2020: 1-5
• 2019: 0-12
• 2018: 4-8
Akron lost its final five games in 2018, then all 12 in 2019 and the first four in 2020, for a losing streak of 21 games. That finally ended with a victory over Bowling Green in the next-to-last game in 2020. The team has gone 3-32 in its last 35 games.
The program has been bad, obviously. And Arth was only making $500,000 a year, putting him in the bottom 10 of FBS coaching salaries.
Moorhead, 48, is making $1 million this year as Oregon's offensive coordinator.
So again, why would he want to come to Akron?
Hiring Moorhead would seem to be a home run for the Zips. But given his track record, it's hard to believe Moorhead didn't have better options available than this job.
Moorhead is from Pittsburgh, so perhaps he just wanted to get back closer to home. And who knows what will happen with Oregon head coach Mario Cristobal, who could wind up at Oklahoma or somewhere else. Maybe Moorhead wanted some kind of assurance given Cristobal's situation.
Oregon plays Utah on Friday night for the Pac-12 championship. Moorhead was asked Tuesday about the Akron job and other parts of coaching uncertainty. Here are some of his comments, per Duck Territory:
"Certainly it's the time of the year where the carousel is spinning, very quickly in some instances," said Moorhead. "I've heard or seen my name attached to multiple openings this cycle and quite frankly the last two years. All I can say is that all my focus and attention is on doing things that are necessary to help our offense to prepare and play well on Friday.
"The three criteria I use (for jobs) are personal, professional, and monetary. How does this decision affect you and your family, how does it benefit them? Progressionally, a chance to go somewhere and either sustain success or rebuild, and like you said, the monetary part. Everyone likes money.
"My Dad was a steelworker, had three jobs, we were the lowest end of middle class you can be. I still don't know my ATM code. I have to ask m wife for money. The money part of it, we have some, but I don't have any in my wallet and I have to ask her for an allowance so that part is a little further down the trough right now."
