Earlier this week, the players on the Otterbein football team received a mass text from their coaches. The text instructed the players to gather in the Rike for an impromptu meeting that evening. As the team sat on the Rike bleachers waiting to hear what was going on, Head Coach Joe Loth stood in front of them and told them the news: He accepted a position as head football coach at Western Connecticut State University.
Jonathan Busby, who just wrapped up his junior year as the center on the team, said Loth sounded sad. “You could definitely tell that it was hard for him to say goodbye to everyone. He’s always been that kind of guy that believes in family.”
Loth, Otterbein’s head football coach since 2003, accepted the position at WCSU last week. Otterbein Athletic Director Dawn Stewart announced Loth’s resignation in a press release sent to all of campus Thursday night.
According to Loth, he informed the Otterbein Athletic Department about six weeks ago that he was considering taking an offer at WCSU. He interviewed with the university two weeks ago and was offered the position last week.
Loth said that he and Ed Farrington, the athletic director at WCSU and a personal friend of Loth, discussed the position in January at this year’s NCAA convention.
Loth said it just seemed like the right time to make the change. “I’ve been frustrated with some things in the last three-four years,” he said. “I’ve always told my staff, if you’re not happy 100 percent with how we’re doing things, instead of complaining, you might want to look for other opportunities. I found a point where I was complaining too much about things. In reality, it was time to move on.”
He also said that this was an opportunity to move back to Connecticut, where his wife and kids were born.
WCSU is a public university in Danbury, Conn., located approximately 600 miles from Westerville. More than 6,000 full-time and part-time students are enrolled there. Loth was a defensive coordinator at WCSU from 1993-1997.
The WCSU football team finished its latest season 0-10, with a 0-9 record in the New Jersey Athletic Conference. The team has won a total of four games in the past four years.
“I would be considered a program builder,” Loth said. “The challenge of turning around a program intrigues me.”
Loth, an Otterbein graduate, coached Otterbein to the NCAA Division III playoff in 2008 and was named OAC Coach of the Year twice in his career. When Loth first came to Otterbein in 2003, the football team had won only one season in the previous 23 years.
WCSU announced in February that its head football coach and offensive coordinator will not return in August. Ed Farrington, the athletic director at WCSU, said, “Sometimes in this business, you have an index card somewhere of people, if you have ever have an opening, you may seek out, and Joe was always one of the people.”
Farrington said he hopes Loth will help turn the WCSU football team around. “We wanted to get someone who we thought could begin to rebuild the program who had been through a rebuilding situation before so they would be emotionally prepared to weather the difficulties that happen when you take over a program that’s struggling,” he said.
Busby said he really liked Loth as a head coach. “He made me feel welcome when I was a freshman,” he said. “He was very warm, he would talk to you on a daily basis, try to make you feel more comfortable.
Stewart said that Loth has been a great leader for the football program. “He always had a very good understanding of the Divison III philosophy, and very much implemented a balanced approach to his program, meaning that his kids very much understood the importance of their role on the football field but also in the classroom and in the community.”
Stewart said that the position has officially been posted internally for the next five days. She said the Otterbein campus can expect an announcement in the coming weeks.
“We will certainly be giving some consideration to members of the current staff,” she said.
Stewart said she wants a coach whose expectations match her own. “There’s no reason why Otterbein football shouldn’t be at the top of the OAC year in and year out,” she said. “Overall, I want our total sports programs to be regionally and nationally competitive on an annual basis, so football obviously would have similar expectations.”
Loth said he recommends that Otterbein hire Tim Doup, the current offensive coordinator of the Otterbein football team. “He was my top assistant for the past eight years,” Loth said. “He’s organized, he’s a leader, the players respect him. It’s hard to find a guy on the team that wouldn’t expect him to be the next guy and want him to be the next guy.”
Busby said the new coach needs to have a strong motivation ability. “I want to see someone who knows what they want after our losing season,” he said. “We need someone who is willing to step in and get on board with what we’re doing. We just need a good, strong leader.”
Stewart said she doesn’t expect Loth’s resignation to get in the way of the Lauren’s First and Goal football camp at Otterbein in June. Allan Moore, the co-defensive coordinator of the Otterbein football team, will be taking the reins for that event. She also said the change will not affect football practice, which starts in September.
Loth said he has received numerous emails, Facebook messages and calls from his former players congratulating him over the past couple of days. “That’s meant so much to me,” he said. “I really had a great experience at Otterbein. It was the toughest decision of my life, but this was too good of an opportunity to turn down.”
