Marty Whims II won Akron’s Offensive Coordinator of the Game competition on Aug. 25 and spent Friday learning how to help shape the Zips’ first drive from Joe Moorhead before Saturday’s game against Robert Morris. For one day, a season-ticket holder who once watched Akron from the stands was put in the room where the opening script gets made.
The role is unusual by design. Akron created the competition so one fan would be drawn in and given a real look at offensive play-calling, and Whims was the one selected. He will help script the first series against Robert Morris, making the search around Akron football less about a novelty and more about what it looks like when a loyal supporter is handed a coach’s notebook, even for a single drive.
Whims is not a random guest. He is an Akron alumnus from the class of 2002, the CFO of Stark Enterprises and a multi-decade season-ticket holder who was automatically entered because he held a single season ticket. He said he attended the 2005 Motor City Bowl, when Akron narrowly lost to Memphis, and named Charlie Frye as his favorite Akron football player, a nod to a former Zips quarterback who also played for the Browns. That background helps explain why he was the one sitting with Moorhead on Friday instead of just watching from afar.
The surprise is how little technical football knowledge Whims brought with him. Moorhead said the exercise would have broken down completely if someone had walked in like Henry Winkler in The Waterboy with a green notebook and demanded the triple option 24 hours before kickoff. In other words, the choice was never about turning a fan into a full-time play-caller; it was about finding someone who could learn fast enough to fit inside a working offense without forcing it to become something else.
That matters because Akron is trying to move on after a 38–16 loss to Wake Forest in its opener, and Whims sounds like a fan who has watched enough losing and enough hope to know the difference. He said the program feels close to turning a corner and said he hopes the Zips can get to six wins and maybe reach a bowl game again. On Saturday, the first test of that optimism will not be a speech or a slogan. It will be the first drive, and Whims will have a hand in deciding how Akron starts it.
