#83 Akron

Akron, OH

InfoCision Stadium

October 11, 2025

Miami (OH) 20 - Akron 7 (ESPN Recap)

5am wake up to catch a flight from DFW to CLE with zero room for error, and I got lucky everything was on time. Landed on time, rental car pickup went smooth, and I rolled into the Akron stadium during the opening drive of the game. When parking in a free parking garage a block from the stadium, you would not have known there was a Division 1 football game being played that day 200 meters away. Felt a lot

like UMass or San Jose St in terms of it being a non-event in the community.

Purchased a $16 General Admission ticket on SeatGeek and sat 7th row at the 48-yard line on the Miami OH sideline since I bet Red Hawks -11. It was a beautiful, 65 degree and sunny afternoon in Ohio for an in-state MAC battle (though the schools are 4 hours apart).

Despite the distance, Miami OH fans outnumbered the home crowd at about 2:1, with maybe 200 for Akron and 400 for Miami. High school vibes for sure.

The Akron opening drive ended with an interception thrown in the end zone. Miami took didn’t go anywhere, got a second wind with offsides on Akron on punt formation, but it still led to nothing and was emblematic of Q1, which finished 0-0.

In the midst of the offensive struggles in Q1, I live bet U38 and U35.

Got to see Dequan Finn in the MAC…again. The 24-year old, 6th year, “Senior” who leads FBS in total career touchdowns responsible despite one year wasted last year at Baylor where he was benched after the third game. He will not be a NFL QB but he can game manage MAC wins like the best of them!

The game was still 0-0 heading into the 2-min warning of 1H, where the second-most important play of the game was a missed FG for Akron. It felt like I was watching an entirely different sport from last night’s scoring fest in Denton.

The Akron jumbotron operator either was absent today or just didn’t care. There were no replays of good plays or reviewed plays on Jumbotron. No highlights or replays all. Just the logos of the two schools interspersed with a few local ads.

It was 3-0 Miami at halftime, but a fair score probably should have been 10-3 Akron (end zone INT and missed FG).

Miami came out of halftime looking much sharper with a play selection that really had Akron back footed. Quick score to go up 10-0 and then great defense and ball control the rest of the way.

I spent halftime and most of the 3rd quarter on the grassy knoll which is an underrated aspect of catching CFB games (See: SMU post).

At the end of Q3, I was back right behind the Miami bench and there was one funny moment where the offense and Dequan completely forgot about the play clock and took a delay of game in the red zone. HC Chuck Martin screamed “WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!?” loud enough for every single one of the 600 fans to hear.

I stayed until about 3 mins left in the game where Miami had the ball, fresh downs, the cover and under in hand and essentially taking knees in opponent territory for the 20-7 win. Had to high tail it out of there for a 20-minute drive to Kent St to see that mess of a football game. That Akron stadium is far too large for Akron football.