Fans were given a chance to direct comments and questions to Director of Athletics Thomas Boeh last night on two local radio call-in shows.
In the midst of criticism toward Ohio Athletics in the form of a series of advertisements running in The Post recently, Boeh was given a chance to respond to the public's concerns about the football and basketball programs on 970 WATH-AM and 107.7 FM sports chats.
The people have been hungry for an opportunity to talk about the winning percentages for football and basketball
said Tony Castricone, host of the WATH show. Those questions were addressed for the first time in a way that the public could listen and hear what the athletic director had to say.
Yesterday's half-page black and white ad, which was paid for by Ohio Fans in Self-Imposed Exile suggested seven questions that callers could ask Boeh on-air. Castricone's callers especially touched on the topics listed in the ad and also on message boards such as bobcatattack.com.
The lack of wins in both the football and basketball programs so far this year has left some fans unsatisfied with the coaching hires in recent years. The hiring of men's basketball coach Tim O'Shea was one of the main topics Boeh discussed during the shows. O'Shea, who is in his third year, was given a seven-year contract but has not produced to the level expected from some fans. Currently the Bobcats are 5-11 overall and 2-4 in the Mid-American Conference. Boeh responded to the concern of the length of O'Shea's contract.
Coach O'Shea when he came to Ohio
was slam dunk
the most sought after coach on the East Coast
Boeh said. Several coaches from the Big East and the Big Ten all told me that Tim had a special talent for recruiting; he was always successful at Yale
Rhode Island and Boston College. He was and is very good. It was important to us at that point to show that we wanted things to be done right
change the culture within the program. We knew that was going to take a few more years.
Football coach Brian Knorr was also the target of discussion on the shows. This fall, after a 2-10 season, some fans on bobcatattack.com were calling for a head coaching change. Instead, Knorr was kept onboard and offensive coordinator Greg Gregory was fired. Drew, a caller from Akron on the WATH show, pointed out that Knorr inherited a team that was 7-4 when former coach Jim Grobe left and still had a number of returning players in Knorr's first season as coach.
If you look at it from that year (2000) to the following year (2001
Knorr's first season)
sure (the transition) didn't go very well
Boeh said. A lot of those games we lost in the final minutes. We just could not get over that hump. That was bad luck; we didn't make the play we needed to
