“I really did (want to stay at Miami), but the good Lord put me in a stressful situation, put me out of my comfort zone and made me challenge myself,” Bath said. “It worked out the way it was supposed to go.”
After two years as offensive coordinator at Ashland University under head coach Lee Owens, Bath is back at Miami as the tight ends and running backs coach.
Bath remembered his departure from Miami in 2008 without bitterness.
“I didn’t look back. I couldn’t allow myself to look back,” he said. “And I really did wish the young men the best.”
For years Bath had been a popular fixture on the Oxford campus.
As a sophomore quarterback he helped lead the RedHawks to a 10-1 record in 1998. As a junior he passed for 2,525 yards and 24 touchdowns. As a senior he became Miami’s all-time passing leader with 6,524 yards, a record broken by the man who followed him, Ben Roethlisberger.
Following a stint in the Arena Football League 2, Bath returned to Miami in 2004 as a graduate assistant and two years later became tight ends coach.
Ironically, it was after Bath was forced to search for a new job in 2008 that the two Miami tight ends with whom he had worked most closely made it in the NFL. Tom Crabtree won a Super Bowl title with the Green Bay Packers earlier this year and Jake O’Connell plays for the Kansas City Chiefs.
Bath, meanwhile, prospered at Ashland, an NCAA Division II team that averaged 37.7 points and 427.9 total yards per game last season.
Bath said he figured he might have an opportunity to return to Miami one day but wasn’t dwelling on it.
“I was having a great experience at Ashland,” he said, “and when coach (Don) Treadwell got the job at Miami — I had never met coach Treadwell — I was not expecting to leave Ashland, didn’t think it was a possibility. I was not looking to get out of Ashland.
“But when coach Treadwell called, it was, wow, unbelievable,” Bath said, “and it’s been a blessing every day since.”
Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2197 or pconrad@coxohio.com.
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