Greetings from the lab, Zips fans. Hollister "Zip" Grubbs here, polymer-science grad, tread-depth gauge in my shirt pocket and a little rubber dust on my sleeves. For the uninitiated, here's my whole philosophy: when a season starts to look bald, you don't throw out the car. You check the pressure, rotate the tires and drive to Kent. That's this week.
It's Wagon Wheel week.
Part 1: Bald Spots in Oxford
Miami (Ohio) beat Akron 34-14 on Saturday at Yager Stadium. We're 1-6, 0-3 in the MAC, and AP notes it's five losses in a row. I'm a scientist. I report the data.
But first, the sticky tread. Our first drive was gorgeous. Eleven plays, 97 yards, and Brayden Roggow finished it with a 6-yard touchdown pass to Marcel Williams with 5:18 left in the first quarter. Ninety-seven yards! That's not tread. That's a full set of new radials.
And Miami's offense threw for only 65 yards all day. Caleb Heavner went 8 of 16. Our defense did its job against the pass, and Donelius Johnson made 10 tackles. He has 67 for the season, which is a lot of rubber meeting a lot of road. Cyrus Durham had 1.5 sacks. Brandon Hills returned a kickoff 71 yards in the third quarter to set up Jordan Gant's 10-yard touchdown run. And we had the ball for 32:04, longer than Miami did.
Now the bald spots. Miami ran for 324 yards at 9.3 a carry, and Rodney Nelson had a career-high 142 yards and two touchdowns on just 13 carries, including a 58-yarder. Roggow threw for 234 yards but was intercepted four times, and Blayne Myrick returned one for a touchdown in the third quarter. We went 6-for-17 on third down and ran for just 81 yards. Those are the readings. A good engineer doesn't argue with the gauge.
The season so far has been a long drive on a gravel road. We lost to Wake Forest, Minnesota, UNLV and Central Michigan, beat Robert Morris 45-10, and lost to Eastern Michigan by two, 25-23. Two points, friends. That's one air-pressure check away.
Part 2: The Wagon Wheel, and a Very Muddy Origin Story
Saturday, 1 p.m. Eastern, ESPN+, Akron visits Kent State at Dix Stadium. The Golden Flashes are 2-5 and 1-2 in the MAC.
This is the Wagon Wheel game, and I need you to hear the legend, as Akron Athletics tells it. In the spring of 1870, John R. Buchtel, an Akron industrialist, rode out to Kent looking for a site for a new college. His wagon got stuck in the mud, right about where Kent State is today. The horses broke away, and pieces of the carriage were scattered, including one wheel that stayed wedged in the mud. Buchtel went home to Akron and founded Buchtel College, which became the University of Akron. In 1902, workers building a pipeline dug up the wheel. And in 1945, a Kent State dean suggested making it a trophy.
Friends, our founder went to Kent, lost a wheel, and decided the whole thing would work better back in Akron. That's the best scouting report in Ohio history. Since 1946, Kent State has been playing for a piece of our founder's car. Every spoke has a plaque with a game score on it, per Akron Athletics. I'd like a few more of those plaques to say Akron, please.
Now, the honest part. Kent State won it back last November, 42-35 in overtime at our place, per Kent State Athletics. So the Wheel sits in Kent. But Akron had won the two before that, 31-27 in 2023 and 38-17 at Kent in 2024. And before last year's game, Akron Athletics counted the Zips ahead 37-28-2 all time. We know the road.
The Tread Report on Kent State
Let's put the gauge on the Flashes. All numbers from AP's preview.
Kent State averages 12.0 points a game, 138th in FBS. It averages 273.1 yards, 137th. It runs for 102.6 yards a game, 132nd. That's not bald tread. That's a donut spare.
Last week, according to By The Belt, Kent State lost 29-2 at South Florida and became the first FBS team to score exactly two points in a game since 2020. The two points came from a safety by the defense, true freshman Dion'Dre Taylor. The offense drove inside the USF 30 four times and got no points, according to USF's postgame notes. The Flashes went 0-for-4 on fourth down. They reached the USF 1, fumbled the snap on a quarterback sneak, and USF's C.J. Hicks returned it 96 yards the other way. Kent State's three non-conference FBS opponents have outscored it 145-5 this year. Five points in three games. My tire gauge reads higher numbers than that.
And Kent State commits 72.6 penalty yards a game, 120th in FBS. We're 66th at 56.1. Flags are friction, and friction slows you down.
To be fair, and science is fair: Kent's defense held USF to 78 rushing yards and got four sacks. Wayne Harris has 396 receiving yards. Rocco Nicholl has three sacks, Hayden Dawahare has 35 tackles, and Kent State beat Ball State 26-13. Our run defense, at 200.4 yards allowed a game, ranks 130th, so we have work to do too.
But Jordan Gant has 456 rushing yards and four touchdowns. Marcel Williams has 31 catches and three touchdowns. And against an offense that scores 12 a game, one long drive changes everything. We just had a 97-yard drive. Run it back.
Tales From Two Towns
Akron. This is the Rubber Capital of the World, according to Wikipedia. B.F. Goodrich, Goodyear, Firestone and General Tire all had headquarters here, and Goodyear still does. Akron has 190,469 people, the fifth-most in Ohio. Its name comes from the Greek word for summit, because it was founded in 1825 at the summit of the Ohio and Erie Canal. Our teams were called the Zippers in 1926, after rubber boots made by B.F. Goodrich, and became the Zips in 1950. We have the Akron Art Museum, Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens, the Akron Zoo, and Derby Downs, where the All-American Soap Box Derby has held its races since 1936. Kids build cars and roll them downhill. In Akron, even the children know about tires.
Kent. Kent is a pleasant college town of 28,215 on the Cuyahoga River, and Wikipedia says it calls itself "The Tree City," because it's home to the Davey Tree Expert Company. It was known for years as Franklin Mills, before it was renamed Kent in 1864 in honor of a local businessman, Marvin Kent. So Akron makes things that roll. Kent grows things that stand still. Think about that before you watch the Flashes' offense.
And Kent's football team was briefly called the "Silver Foxes," per Wikipedia. Kent won its first and so far only MAC title in 1972. Akron won its own in 2005. One of us is 33 years more recent. That's science.
Lab Notes
1. Take the ball for long drives, like the 97-yarder. 2. Protect the football. Turnovers are punctures. 3. Bring the Wheel home. It was ours first, and it was stuck in Kent's mud.
Check the tread, Zips. That's some sticky tread.
My call: Kent State Golden Flashes 26, Akron Zips 22.