In the ever-evolving age of college football, every day brings something new. Akron is the latest to test the waters of the sport with a fan promotion unlike any other: One season-ticket holder can be the "offensive coordinator of the game."
The Zips announced the unique promotion Tuesday, in which the winner can script the opening drive of Akron's home opener against Robert Morris on Sept. 12.
All current season-ticket holders are automatically entered into a random drawing for the promotion, according to Akron. For every new season-ticket holder a current one successfully refers, they'll receive additional entries. A winner will then be selected at random on Aug. 19 from eligible entrants.
The idea came from Andrew T. Goodrich, Akron athletic director, and Matt Pottorff, Akron's senior deputy athletics director and chief operating officer. The two were flying home after Akron faced Texas Tech in the men's basketball NCAA tournament's opening round when their minds shifted to preparing for football season.
"I think the mindset was, 'Ynow what, we're going into football season now, so we need to go ahead and make a splash,'" Pottorff told ESPN on Thursday. "And we got to come up with some crazy ideas, we got to get some interest going, we got to get some buzz, and just spitballing the craziest ideas that we could think of."
Goodrich asked Pottorff a simple question: "What happens if we could name a random fan the offensive coordinator of the game?" Pottorff had his hesitations, quipping: "I'm pretty sure we're going to get fired if we do that." So, they toned it down to the opening drive and that if they did it right, it could work.
They went to Akron President RJ Nemer, who thought it was "a really cool idea," Pottorff said.
They had to then check with the general counsel's office and run it up the ladder. But, most importantly, head coach Joe Moorhead had to agree.
Moorhead had a number of questions initially and was incredulous. But, once the department walked him through it, he jumped aboard and prepared to sail alongside an unknown figure for one drive. Moorhead joined "The Pat McAfee Show" on Thursday to talk about the promotion.
"I think it's brought a ton of excitement to the program. I think his team is excited about it," Pottorff said. "I think it's brought some buzz, and it's only been a good thing. So, once we walked through how it was going to play out and how it was going to work, he thought it was a cool promotion and has been really supportive of it."
The program sat on the idea for months, waiting for the perfect time in the news cycle before putting the call out. Team officials hoped for the best, and thought success would be like a million social media impressions on their announcement. Just over 48 hours later, that number was dwarfed.
Five hours after the announcement, Goodrich called Pottorff and asked: "Have you looked at these numbers?"
It had eclipsed 2 million. The team then gathered to map out a game plan for the next day of how they'd look to maintain all of the sudden attention. By the time Pottorff woke up Wednesday, the post had exceeded 6 million.
As of Thursday evening, the post has produced 22 million views -- and counting -- on X.
"Did not anticipate this to have exploded the way it did," Pottorff said. "And it's just been incredible."
Pottorff compared Akron's current phase to a tsunami as it reviews its current impression to prepare for an even larger impact. It has been "an incredible two days of ticket sales," but the impact has also been felt in other areas. Sponsorships and donations have increased, and suites are sold out for the season. It's still early to predict the volume of media requests for game week, but Pottorff said he anticipated there would be a lot more interest.
Moorhead is also all the way on board. He will work directly with the contest winner to help design the plays -- for better or for worse.
"I'm looking forward to collaborating with the season ticket holder who wins this contest," Moorhead said in a news release Tuesday. "This will give our fans a behind-the-scenes experience that has never been done before anywhere, so I'm excited to show them how to put together the opening script and see what they can do."
"If we score a touchdown I might hand him my damn call sheet and headset 😂😂
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) August 6, 2026
Everything is a possibility" ~ @BallCoachJoeMo#PMSLive https://t.co/oIvvFFzyKS pic.twitter.com/ZgOglylxl9
Moorhead has the background to help even a fan script succeed. He served as Akron's playcaller last season as the Zips averaged 353.5 yards per game, fifth best in the conference, as well as 22.3 points, good for eighth best in the MAC. Their highest-scoring performance came in a home game against Duquesne on Sept. 20 when they won 51-7.
Before becoming the head coach at Akron, Moorhead was a team's primary offensive playcaller for 14 of the previous 15 seasons, including two (2021 and 2022) at Oregon. Moorhead served as Penn State's offensive coordinator when Saquon Barkley played for the Nittany Lions.
He also called plays for the Zips in 2005 when the program won the conference championship and secured its first bowl game appearance. Now, he'll embark on a task he probably has never done before -- coordinating his plays with a fan.
They'll have a low bar to clear, too. Akron's opening drive during its first home game last season was a five-play, 21-yard effort that resulted in a punt. The Zips went on to lose 10-0 to Wyoming.
Akron went 5-7 last season, including 3-3 at home. Any hope of a strong home start now partially lies in the mind of an unlikely -- and unknown -- figure.
"I can't think any program across professional, collegiate, any sport [that] has done something like this before," Pottorff said. "And so, being the first is always going to be an interesting ride, but it's been a ton of fun."