Akron Football: Nowhere to go but up for the Zips in 2020

Akron football cratered to 0-12 in 2019 under first-year head coach Tom Arth. The Zips will be looking to build up from rock bottom in 2020.

Whenever a team goes winless over the course of an entire season, it can be tough for fans and players to motivate themselves and go back out to the stadium hoping for a better result this time around. Last year, Akron was the first team since UTEP in 2017 to suffer through a season filled only with lowlights.

What made Akron’s season particularly disappointing was that 2019 began with the promise of a new head coach. Tom Arth, the former Division III coach at John Carroll before spending 2017 and 2018 in the FCS at Chattanooga, moved up to the FBS ranks and promptly laid a goose egg in his first year at the helm in Akron. Arth was the first coach to go winless in his first FBS season since David Beaty at Kansas in 2015.

Coaching at a school like Akron, where the Zips have only reached bowl eligibility three times in the past 15 years, is always going to be a Sisyphean battle. After cratering completely in 2019, though, Arth and his staff have nowhere to go but up in 2020 as they continue to rebuild the program.

Can Zips fans hope for a dramatic turnaround and bowl eligibility in 2020? Should they temper their expectations and hope for incremental growth under their second-year coach? Can they at least break their 17-game losing streak?

Let’s dive in to look at the offense and defense at Akron before breaking down the 2020 Zips schedule and making some predictions on how the next campaign will play out.