By Terry Pluto, The Plain Dealer The Plain Dealer
View full size Plain Dealer file photo Lee Owens, left, shown in 2001, had a 40-61 record in nine seasons at Akron, but was fired after a 7-5 season in 2003. Now he's the coach at Division II Ashland, where he has a 49-28 record.
Lee Owens and Jim Dennison.
Both were football coaches at the University of Akron. Both coached their last games for the Zips at the age of 47. Both would have loved to have coached a game at the stunning InfoCision Stadium in downtown Akron. Both never dreamed the campus would look as good as it does today, or that the Zips would have such a superb facility.
But both also have learned another lesson.
"The big time is where you are at," said Dennison. "Don't spend time wondering 'What if?' or thinking about another job."
Now the coach at Walsh University, Dennison coached his final game for the Zips in 1985.
Owens' last Akron game was in 2003, when he was fired after a 7-5 record and before Charlie Frye's senior season.
"I was hurt," said Owens. "It bothered me on and off for a few years. But I also ended up with a great job."
Owens is in his ninth season at Ashland University. He's coming off an 8-3 season and is the first coach in school history to lead Ashland to back-to-back Division II playoff appearances.
"I look around, and we have our own new stadium," he said. "We have a lot of new facilities. Since I've been at Ashland, we have spent $55 million on academic buildings and $25 million on buildings for athletics. We hosted our first [Division II] playoff game [in 2009]. It's been a great experience."
Owens is now 55.
"When I was fired at Akron, I wasn't sure what I should do," he said.
"I had a chance to be an assistant at some Division I schools in other parts of the country, but I didn't want to move my family. Then Ashland called. I grew up eight miles from there. I had friends telling me to get another team, don't just sit around and feel sorry for yourself."
He also talked to Dennison, who had helped start the football program at Walsh, an NAIA school in North Canton.
"Coach Dennison encouraged me to seriously consider [Ashland]," said Owens. "He said it was a good level of football, a good move for me."
So Owens took it.
In the past few years, he has had some offers to be an assistant at some Division I schools -- but that would mean moving and leaving a program that he has been building.
Dennison coached the Zips from 1973 to '85, when they played in Division I-AA. He had an 8-4 record in his final season with the Zips. They were ranked No. 10 in Division I-AA and made the playoffs. While he was respected and popular, the new school administration didn't deem him the man to take them into Division I football.
View full size Walsh University Since 1995, Jim Dennison has won 111 games as football coach at Walsh University. He was the head coach at Akron from 1973 to 1985, going 80-62-2.
When the school decided to move up to Division I, it wanted a "name" coach to attract attention. So Dennison was replaced by Gerry Faust, who had been fired at Notre Dame. Dennison was "reassigned" to a job in the athletic department.
But within a year, Dennison was named athletic director. You don't see that often: a football coach fired, then promoted to be the boss of the new coach.
"I'm proud that as AD, I was able to help Akron get into the MAC [Mid-American Conference]," said Dennison. "But I do admit, I missed coaching."
He was the athletic director from 1986 to '93. At 55, he received a lucrative buyout package, and Walsh came calling with the idea of starting a football team.
Like Owens, Dennison had no wish to drag his family across the country to follow his football dreams. But Walsh was right in his backyard. He was given full control of the athletic department and two years to put together a football team.
Nineteen years after stepping on a campus where they had no footballs, shoulder pads or any other basic equipment, Dennison is still coaching.
He has had only one losing season, and several of his teams have been nationally ranked.
"I'm really content," he said.
But wouldn't he have loved to be coaching Akron today?
"They have a great situation there now," he said. "But you won't hear me complain . . . PMA."
Any Dennison player will tell you that PMA is "Positive Mental Attitude." It has been his gospel for decades.
It's why he can sincerely say "the big time is where you are at."
At one point, Ashland was the only Ohio school playing Division II football.
But now, NAIA schools are moving into Division II. Findlay, Ohio Dominican, Tiffin and Lake Erie College have joined and compete with Ashland in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
Since 2003 when Owens was hired, Ashland has had the second-best record in the GLIAC.
"Our rival is Grand Valley," said Owens. "They are like Mount Union. We are 0-5 against them. That's our goal, to beat them."
Since 2000, Grand Valley is 102-7 with four national titles.
Next year, Walsh and Malone (in Canton) are expected to join the GLIAC.
"We give 22 scholarships," said Dennison. "But in the GLIAC, it goes up to 36. You divide them up among all your players. That means more opportunities for Ohio high school players -- because most of us recruit in our area."
Owens said: "Even though we can combine athletic scholarships with academic and other grants, every one of our kids has to pay something for school. I think that makes academics more important to most of these players because it does cost them something."
Owens added: "We are trying to go the Mount Union route in that we have about 150 kids and field a junior varsity team. There are a lot of opportunities in Division II for good players."
Owens was excited when Lake Erie College in Painesville joined the GLIAC, and adding Walsh along with Malone gives the league exposure in the Cleveland, Akron, Canton and Lake County markets.
Lake Erie coach Mark McNellie took the Dennison route, starting the program in 2007 with a club team. It moved into the GLIAC last season with a 3-8 overall record. Because of the football talent in Northeast Ohio and his aggressive approach to recruiting, McNellie could build Lake Erie into a GLIAC contender within a few years.
Former Akron offensive coordinator Paul Winters is another head coach in the GLIAC, at Wayne State in Detroit.
"Because we have been in Division I, I thought we'd come to Ashland and just be so much better in terms of X's and O's than a lot of teams," said Owens. "That turned out to be really wrong. There are some great coaches here."
The big time?
"Some coaches make the mistake of moving all over the country just to be at a major school," said Dennison. "I'm sure Lee and I would have loved for it to be different at Akron, but we also know we've been blessed to be at this level."
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