On a late March flight from Tampa, Fla., to Akron, Ohio, Andrew Goodrich was deep in thought.
The Akron athletic director was heading home after watching his men’s basketball team lose 91-71 to Texas Tech in the first round of March Madness. But the defeat didn’t occupy his mind. Instead, the fervency of a fan base he witnessed hundreds of miles from campus did.
“We had this great fan interaction (in Tampa), and when I sat on the plane, I was like, ‘How in the world do we bring that kind of energy to a football game?’” Goodrich told The Athletic. “How do we do it? Honestly, it’s a long flight back, and you’re just racking our brains.”
Somewhere during that flight, the idea of an “honorary offensive coordinator of the game” took root. Goodrich pitched it to senior deputy athletic director Matt Pottorff, sitting beside him.
Pottorff “very appropriately said, ‘No, that’s a bad idea,’” Goodrich recalled.
Still, the conversation refused to die.
Pottorff countered with a more modest suggestion of letting a fan call a single play. Goodrich wasn’t convinced that would inspire the kind of investment he envisioned.
Head football coach Joe Moorhead said Goodrich and Pottorff pitched the final, bolder idea to him only a week before the promotion went up on social media: Let a fan help script the opening 10 to 15 offensive plays.
“Initially I thought it was ridiculous,” Moorhead said. “Once the shock value wore away, and we discussed some benefits, now you see it spoke for itself. It’s a really unique opportunity that’s created a lot of positive publicity for our program.”
On Aug. 4, Akron unveiled the promotion on X, where it has since garnered 22 million views. Every season ticket holder is automatically entered into a raffle, with the winner announced Aug. 19.
Make history and be the lucky season ticket holder to design the opening drive of the home opener when @ZipsFB hosts Robert Morris‼️
🗞️https://t.co/G5aTUlVpzT#GoZips🦘#MakeTheClimb pic.twitter.com/Qzu1w0R29O
— Akron Football (@ZipsFB) August 4, 2026
That fan will spend Thursday and Friday leading up to Akron’s home opener — a Week 2 matchup against FCS program Robert Morris — inside the football offices and watching practice. They’ll sit in game-planning meetings alongside Moorhead and offer their vision for the opening script, collaborating to find viable plans to execute said ideas.
A joyous reprieve from the legal battles that have consumed collegiate athletics.
“College football hasn’t been a ton of fun over the past six months,” Goodrich said. “There’s lawyers and Congress and bills and the transfer portal. A lot of negativity.”
Shortly after unveiling the promotion, Akron recorded its largest increase in season-ticket sales since opening on-campus InfoCision Stadium in 2009, according to Goodrich. Fans from across the country also purchased season tickets, hoping for a chance to call plays.
National attention is unfamiliar territory for a program that has rarely occupied it.
In 1987, Akron became the first standalone program to transition directly from Division I-AA (FCS) to Division I-A (FBS). Since then, the Zips have reached just three bowl games in 39 years. Their last .500 or over season was a 7-7 year in 2017 under Terry Bowden. They haven’t won more than five games in any season since.
Hired before the 2022 season, Moorhead has led the Zips to 4-8 and 5-7 finishes over the past two seasons.
“(This raffle) allowed the light to shine bright on Akron football,” Moorhead said. “The momentum we built heading into the season, taking over the worst program in the country four years ago, and being a game away from bowl eligibility heading into this year.”
As Akron prepares for Robert Morris, Moorhead hopes the winning fan arrives with ideas for plays and sequencing they’d like to use. At their disposal will be North Texas graduate transfer quarterback Reese Poffenbarger (No. 112 in The Athletic’s QB tiers), three returning wide receivers and senior running back Jordan Gant, whose 1,032 rushing yards ranked second in the MAC last season.
Moorhead assured his players he won’t “let the circus roll into town” or make a mockery of the game. He’ll oversee the entire process, approving or modifying any plays the fan suggests.
The Zips have seen a historic ticket surge after announcing the promotion. (Jeff Lange / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
The administration is still sifting through the specific NCAA rules, but Moorhead hopes the winner spends the first half “attached to my hip” on the sideline before moving into a luxury box after halftime.
Moorhead wants the fan to understand armchair coaching is fun, but it feels different in the line of fire against shifting defenses. After 29 years as a coach and 19 as a playcaller, including two years (2020-2021) as Oregon’s offensive coordinator, he understands the sentiment.
“You have to contingency plan,” he said. “It’s not what you prepare for; it’s what you adjust to when the picture changes during the game.”
Ron Moses’ first day as Robert Morris’ athletic director was Tuesday, the same day the promotion was announced.
“It’s the home opener, right, and we’re an FCS program, right? So I understand this is the one where they probably feel like, ah, we’ll probably win this one. But we’ll kind of go and see. It puts the pressure back on them, not us,” Moses said, adding it provided some “bulletin board material” for his team.
Moses and Goodrich previously worked together at USF, so he wasn’t surprised when he saw the news, knowing Goodrich had experience and talent for marketing.
“It accomplished the mission, right? So I think it was genius,” Moses said.
Moses said the school is planning a response — in fun, he added — but declined to provide details as nothing is finalized. But Morris, located in Pittsburgh, is considering possibly including ESPN personality and Pittsburgh native Pat McAfee in response to Akron’s promotion.
The school aims to mobilize its own fan base, some of whom bought Akron season tickets in the hope of winning the raffle and possibly sabotaging the Zips’ opening drive.
“I told them they’re gonna meet with you and give you a script. Some people know that, some people don’t,” Moses said. “They’re not gonna let you run a trick play, right?”
Goodrich understands why the promotion may have affronted Robert Morris. It wasn’t his intention.
“We mean zero disrespect,” he said. “We never thought the people outside of our own little family were going to know about this. When you’re sitting down, and you’re dreaming about this thing, I was so focused on making it fun for our fans and bringing some excitement.”
Nor did he fully anticipate the financial upside.
Goodrich said that a yet-to-be-disclosed “major company” has reached out to discuss a potential jersey patch sponsorship because of the promotion’s visibility. The campaign has generated a possible revenue stream and an open invitation for fans to dream of their own offensive ingenuity.
“I think this gave everyone an opportunity to just say, ‘Hey, you know what? If I had this chance, this is what I would run,’” Goodrich said. “It made it very personal for every person who read the tweet.”
The athletic director wants the promotion to become more than a one-off viral marketing campaign. He hopes it rekindles the fervor and fan engagement from March Madness and propels the Zips to their first winning season and postseason appearance in nearly a decade.
The same idea that occupied him during a two-hour flight home from Tampa now carries the hopes of an entire football program.
If only for a drive.
