Five Things to Know About Akron Before Its In-State Matchup With Ohio State

By Griffin Strom on September 20, 2021 at 10:10 am
DJ Irons
Mike Cardew via Imagn Content Services, LLC
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On paper, Ohio State’s next opponent should provide the most painless challenge of the season for the Buckeyes.

The final non-conference foe of Ohio State’s regular season schedule is Akron, which opened on Sunday as a 53-point underdog against the Scarlet and Gray.

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A favorable matchup may be just what the doctor ordered for the Buckeyes, who are reeling a bit after a Week 2 loss and an underwhelming performance against Tulsa, but covering the spread has not been an easy feat for Ohio State as of late.

Akron is fresh off of its first win of the season in its own right, albeit over an FCS opponent in Bryant, and the Zips will enter Columbus attempting to give the Buckeyes a scare in the ninth all-time meeting between the two programs.

Here’s five things to know about the next team up on the Buckeyes’ schedule.

Zips just 2-19 under Arth

Simply put, success has eluded Akron since Tom Arth became its head coach in 2019. Akron is 2-19 under Arth’s watch, which includes an 0-12 ‘19 campaign and a 1-5 run a year ago.

The Zips allowed a staggering average of 55.3 points in their five losses in 2020, with the team’s lone win coming against a Bowling Green program that had the second-worst scoring offense and scoring defense in the country last year.

Akron got off to a similarly unsuccessful start to Arth’s third season, as the Zips gave up 105 points in both of their first two games to begin 2021, although the scheduling department did them no favors with season-opening matchups with Auburn and – to a lesser extent – Temple.

Arth, a former two-time OAC Coach of the Year at his alma mater John Carroll, picked up just his second win at Akron this past weekend, as the Zips notched a 35-14 win against Bryant at home.

Akron hasn’t had a winning season since 2015, and Arth and company would have to shock the country in a showdown with the 10th-ranked Buckeyes in order to avoid starting 1-3 in 2021.

A struggling defense

As shocking as the numbers were for the 2020 Akron defense, they weren’t much better for the Zips through the first two weeks of 2021.

Akron took a 60-10 beating at the hands of Auburn, giving up 613 yards of total offense along the way. That was followed by a 45-24 loss to Temple on the road the very next week. With Temple’s 432 yards of total offense, Akron gave up 1,045 yards in the first two games. Unsurprisingly, the 105 points allowed by the Zips was dead last in the FBS through the first two weeks, while the second stat ranked fourth-worst in the country.

Auburn had just about as well-balanced an offensive attack as any team could hope for against Akron, tallying 316 yards and five touchdowns on the ground while adding another three scores and 297 yards passing. Temple did more of its damage through the air, putting up 255 yards and two touchdowns with a solid 177 yards and two scores in the running game.

The Zips defense had a much stronger showing against Bryant, allowing just 146 yards and 14 points while also forcing its first turnover of the season. 

Top players on the Akron defense include returning second-team All-MAC linebacker Bubba Arslanian Jr. and Michigan transfer safety Jaylen Kelly-Powell, but the Zips will likely need much more than that to slow down even an inconsistent Ohio State offense.

Top offensive weapon dismissed

For those that might have scouted Akron over the summer in advance of the 2021 season, the one name on the Zips offense that deserved to be circled above all others was undoubtedly running back Teon Dollard.

In his first season with the Zips after a stop at Independence Community College on the junior college circuit, Dollard averaged 111 rushing yards per game in 2020 and punched in six touchdowns in as many games.

However, Dollard was suspended from the team this offseason due to a felony weapons charge dating back to March, and was removed from the team roster entirely by Aug. 30, according to reports from the Akron Beacon Journal.

Second-year Zip Jonzell Norrils has seen the bulk of the carries this season, but Michigan State transfer running back Anthony Williams is averaging a team-best 7.1 yards per carry for Akron through the first three weeks. The team’s leading rusher thus far has been quarterback DJ Irons, who we will discuss in greater detail below.

Impressive numbers for Irons

For a team that has struggled as much as Akron has through the first three weeks of the season, its quarterback has put up impressive numbers in 2021 just the same.

Fifth-year senior Kato Nelson started the first two games under center for the Zips, but it’s been Irons, a junior who has made stops at Eastern Kentucky and Iowa State Community College, that’s shined the brightest for Akron so far.

Irons, who is listed at 6-foot-6, 215 pounds, stepped in during the second half against Auburn to complete all 13 of his pass attempts for 129 yards and a touchdown. After Nelson left the Temple game with an injury, Irons stepped in to go 12-for-22 with 136 total yards, two total touchdowns and an interception in the losing effort.

Irons’ most impressive showing so far, level of competition aside, came in his first start for Akron against Bryant. The dual-threat weapon completed 19 of his 23 pass attempts, threw for 296 yards and three touchdowns and ran for another 136 yards and a score on just 15 carries.

Through three games, Irons’ completion percentage sits at 75.9, and his passing efficiency rating stands at 178.2 – higher than that of C.J. Stroud.

A healthy Nelson could certainly get back in the mix, but Irons seems to be building momentum quickly in the Zip program.

Akron has a win in Columbus

Should Akron complete the improbable upset Saturday, it would not be the first time the Zips have picked up a win over the Buckeyes in Columbus.

It would, however, be the first time they’ve done so since the 1800s, with Akron’s last win against Ohio State being a 12-6 affair in September 1894 – the fourth game in a five-year stretch in which the two teams met annually.

Ohio State took the first three matchups, including a win by the strange score of 4-0 in a December meeting in Akron in 1891, but the Zips took the fourth game in the all-time series when Frederick Ryder was the head coach of the Buckeye program.

The two teams did not play at all in the 20th century, but resumed the series in 2001, when Jim Tressel’s first Ohio State team won by just a two-touchdown margin, 28-14. Tressel and company topped the Zips again in 2007 en route to an eventual national championship game appearance, and Luke Fickell began his short head coaching tenure at Ohio State with a 42-0 win over Akron in the first game of the 2011 season.

Saturday’s game will be the first meeting between the two programs in a decade, and an Akron win would be its first over the Buckeyes in 127 years.

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