Akron reveals nine finalists for "Offensive Coordinator of the Game" promotion

UPDATED at 8:24 p.m. to include social media clips with the various finalists.

UPDATED at 8:46 p.m. to reflect Dan Katz's comments regarding his selection.

The season ticket promotion which caught the attention of the entire college football world is one step closer to fruition.

In case you may have missed the news, Akron unveiled a unique promotion which gave fans the opportunity to potentially draw up the first drive of the Zips' home-opening game against FCS opponent Robert Morris. If you bought a season ticket (the lowest of which went for $75 a pop), you would get an entry equal to the amount of tickets you purchased.

The campaign was wildly successful, as Akron sold out the suite inventory at InfoCision Stadium for the first time in program history, nearly sold out club and loge seats and have eclipsed their typical season ticket numbers a month-plus before kickoff in September. The original post, which got over 2,000 quotes on X, had over 16 million impressions within a few days of posting.

Athletic director Andrew T. Goodrich confirmed at the unveiling the university sold over 50 percent of their season tickets within the last two weeks after the initial announcements. (Season tickets were first made available in January.)

On Wednesday afternoon, the University of Akron held a press conference to reveal their nine finalists for their "Offensive Coordinator of the Game" promotion. It was originally meant to be the reveal for the winner, but there were so many entries, they had to shorten the pot.

(Unfortunately, no one at By The Belt made the list, though we did have some ideas about what we might do if we got the call.)

The university's accounting department handled the lottery, with athletics being told of the results afterwards.

The nine finalists who were confirmed by the university are:

• Brandon Wiggan
  • A native of Bellevue, Nebraska, Wiggan has not answered inquiries from the university about his availability.
• Dan Katz
  • Known as Big Cat, he is a Barstool personality.
  • Previously confirmed to have bought eight season tickets, valued at $600 USD. Confirmed on Wednesday he actually bought 18 tickets, valued at $1,350 USD.

• Would not reveal what his gameplan was when called.
• Jack Rooney
  • From Long Island. Works with Salesforce.
  • Guaranteed a touchdown on the first drive.

• James Bordeaux
  • Known by his username "Bordeaux", he is a content creator on YouTube who primarily makes content centered on the "EA Sports College Football" franchise.
  • Bought one ticket to qualify.

• Martin Alan Whimms II
  • An Akron native who has had season tickets since InfoCision first opened in 2008. Earned an accounting degree from the University of Akron.
  • Affectionately known as "Marty," he was in attendance for the unveiling.

• Mike Beck Jr.
  • CEO of Polymer Valley Chemical who is a decades-long season ticket holder with Akron.

• Sean Struncius
  • A former college football player who played at D-III Ursinus before transferring to Monmouth
  • A native of New Jersey, has now settled in Kansas City, Missouri
• Short passes are his specialty, and he wants the guys to "speed up with the ball."

• Steve Moyer
  • A 1989 graduate of Akron, with season tickets to both football and basketball.
  • Will "allow Joe Moorhead the flexibility to be his own boss" if he wins.

• Tim Sharfman
  • An Austin, Texas native who works with TaxFile
  • Promised to run the ball "despite his bad knees."

Another candidate, who remained anonymous, dropped out of the running upon getting the call, leaving the finalist list at nine– as opposed to the 10 initially planned.

The winner, who will be one of the nine names above, will be unveiled on Tuesday, August 25th.

When asked about if the game would be nationally-televised, Goodrich said "I would not be shocked" if the ESPN family of networks cut in to live action of the game.

The game is currently set for Saturday, Sept. 12th, at 3:30 p.m. Eastern time, with ESPN+ broadcasting.

General admission tickets to watch the game in-person can still be purchased as well.

The full video of the unveiling can be seen here.

As the names were transcribed from a livestream with no captioning, certain name spellings could be wrong. These will be updated if the university releases proper spellings after publication.

We apologize for any potential inconvenience this might cause.