Akron announces its 'Offensive Coordinator of the Game,' who will help Joe Moorhead script opening drive vs. Robert Morris

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Week 2 of this year’s college football slate features games between Ohio State and Texas, Oklahoma and Michigan, BYU and Arizona, Texas A&M and Arizona State, Kentucky and Alabama as well as Tennessee and Georgia Tech.

A midday matchup pitting FCS Robert Morris against Akron is also circled on the calendar.

The first drive, at least, will be appointment television — on ESPN+, that is. Akron is entrusting Martin Alan Whims II to be the “Offensive Coordinator of the Game.” Whims, an Akron grad and longtime Zips season-ticket holder,will help head coach Joe Moorhead script the Zips’ opening series of their home opener on Sept. 12.

Whims won a viral contest among Akron football season-ticket holders that debuted this summer. A random drawing, in which participating candidates earned an extra chance to win with every new season-ticket holder they referred, whittled the pool down to nine contenders last week. Among that lucky group was Barstool Sports personality Dan “Big Cat” Katz, the host of the podcast, “Pardon My Take,” and popular YouTuber James Bordeaux, who has grown a significant following rebuilding teams on college football video game titles, including EA Sports College Football 27.

The Zips announced the winner on Tuesday.

When Akron football first posted to X about the contest on Aug. 4, news of the opportunity spread like wildfire. That inaugural post now has 23.1 million views. It wasn’t long before the Zips saw a significant uptick in season-ticket sales.

The Akron Beacon Journal’s Nate Ulrich explored the origin of the contest and what exactly it will look like in a comprehensive piece for the outlet.

The school’s athletic director, Andrew T. Goodrich, told the Beacon Journal that the idea of the promotion stemmed from a brainstorming session on a trip back from the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. He wanted to cultivate the same kind of energy Zips fans showed during March Madness when the football season rolled around.

“It just maybe was such a late night and long day and maybe we were delirious, but we just believed it could work and thought this is really cool,” said Matt Pottorff, Akron senior deputy AD and chief operating officer, per the Beacon Journal.

“We knew that we needed to wait until the right time, though, and so we've had this idea [for months] before we launched it. We just wanted to make sure it was going to be the right time before the season started. We thought we were going to have maybe a lull in the media, and we could at best maybe get a million views.”

Goodrich and Pottorff’s lightbulb moment created a much greater impression than that, but it wasn’t ever going to work without the approval of Moorhead, an accomplished coach who has previously coordinated offenses at the likes of Oregon and Penn State.

At first, Moorhead, now in his fifth season as the Zips’ head coach, was staunchly against the concept; however, he quickly warmed up to it once he understood the guardrails that would be put in place. It’s important to keep in mind that Moorhead doesn’t have an OC on staff at the moment and that he is the team’s play-caller.

That isn’t changing, not even for the jointly scripted drive in Week 2, except Moorhead told the Beacon Journal that he doesn’t want to “shortchange” the contest winner.

“I'm going to sit this person down, and I'm going to actually take them through the Robert Morris scouting report,” Moorhead said. “I'm going to show them their tendencies on first and second down by formation. [I'll say], ‘These are the plays that we like for each formation. This is how I've constructed the openers to attack them and why. Let's see what you have and if there's anything that we're able to kind of translate into our system or terminology.’“

He continued, per the Beacon Journal: “I'm going to have the openers scripted, and they're going to have their ideas. I don't know if it would be a reordering, or, quite frankly, they may have a freaking great idea that fits what we do offensively. And I'll say, ‘Alright, well, let's substitute that play for this one.’”

Moorhead, naturally, will have the final say. That doesn’t mean Whims won’t have their own stamp on a much-discussed opening drive in Akron’s InfoCision Stadium.

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