Recordpub.com - Flashes could earn bowl trip with win today

By David Carducci

Record-Courier staff writer

Doug Martin put it right out there.

As if the opportunity to clinch a winning season for just the third time since 1972 wasn"t enough, the Kent State head coach chose to tweak his team"s hopes by bringing up the word "bowl" for the first time all season as the Golden Flashes prepared for today"s regular-season finale at Ball State.

If the Flashes can win and post a 7-5 overall record, the school could be rewarded with its first bowl berth in more than three decades.

"No matter what happens against Ball State, we have had a great year," said Martin. "But we can sure put an exclamation point on it."

A win combined with an Ohio University loss at Miami of Ohio today would also give KSU the right to lay a claim as co-champs in the Mid-American Conference East Division. But even with matching 6-2 division records, Ohio would still represent the East in the MAC championship game on the basis of its Oct. 28 head-to-head victory.

The real prize for KSU is the hope of an invitation to play in a bowl. That hasn"t happened since 1972 when the Flashes qualified for the Tangerine Bowl. The school"s only other post-season appearance came in the Refrigerator Bowl back in 1954.

"I"ve really put it out there to the players that the possibility is there," said Martin. "These last couple of weeks, we wanted to put pressure on them to win. We wanted them to start handling those situations. We put the bowl possibility out there for them, and hopefully they will meet the challenge."

Handling pressure is the next step in KSU"s development as a football program that doesn"t just post a winning season once every five or 10 years. Martin wants to win and contend for a bowl game every year.

But how likely is KSU to find a bowl offer even with a 7-5 season?

Talk to different experts and you are likely to get a different answer.

As division champs, Ohio and Central Michigan are locks to end up in the Motor City and GMAC bowls. Western Michigan is a likely bowler if it gets to eight wins with a win at Akron today. Victories by Northern Illinois (at Eastern Michigan) and KSU today would give the MAC five teams with seven or more wins in a year when major conferences like the Big Ten and ACC are having a hard time filling their bowl affiliations with seven- and six-win teams.

The MAC has agreements with the Motor City (Detroit), the GMAC (Mobile, Ala.) and the International Bowl (Toronto), but it will more than likely receive at least one more offer.

The Poinsettia Bowl has been scouting the MAC as a possible source for its at-large bid for more than a month, and the Papajohns.com Bowl in Birmingham may also have a spot if the Big East and Conference USA can"t send an eligible team. The ACC won"t have an eighth bowl-eligible team to fill its spot in the MPC Computers Bowl in Boise, Idaho, and that could be a good fit for a MAC school.

In fact, in ESPN.com"s current bowl predictions, analyst Ivan Maisel has KSU targeted for a matchup with San Jose State in the MPC Computers Bowl on New Year"s Eve. USA Today likes Northern Illinois for that MPC spot.

The International Bowl could also seek out KSU, considering the school"s many ties to Canada. Athletic Director Laing Kennedy is a native of Canada, and several former Flashes football players like Herb Page, Jim Corrigall, and O.J. Santiago have hailed from the Great White North.

Kennedy and Martin have both been told they are on the bowl radar.

"What a way to finish off the season," said Martin. "To go from 1-10 (last year) to a bowl game. That"s pretty spectacular."

But entertaining that dream may be putting the cart a bit before the horse.

First, the Flashes need to beat Ball State, and that"s no bargain.

The Cardinals (4-7, 4-3) may be the best four-win team in the nation. Just ask the University of Michigan. The No. 2 Wolverines narrowly escaped a stunning loss to Ball State in the Big House. The Wolverines won by a slim 34-26 score only after Cardinals quarterback Nate Davis threw incomplete on fourth-and-goal with 2:46 remaining in the game. He had another chance to tie in the closing seconds, but a desperation heave failed to find its target.

KSU fans may have seen Davis hanging around Dix Stadium seven or eight yeas ago, watching his brother, former Flashes star Jose Davis. Little brother has shown off some similar talent in his freshman season, helping the Cardinals pass offense rank No. 1 in the entire MAC at 258.5 yards per game.

That sets up an interesting matchup against KSU"s No. 1-ranked pass defense (149.0 per game)

"We are going to have to get pressure on the passer, which is going to be difficult because they really do a good job protecting the quarterback," said Martin. "And (Davis) does a really good job. He doesn"t play like a freshman. He has a really mature manner."

The key to a KSU win will come on the other side of the football, where the Flashes need to exploit a Ball State defense that ranks dead last in the MAC against the pass (264.8 per game).

Fortunately for the Flashes, sophomore quarterback Julian Edelman appears to be almost completely healed from a sternum bruise that forced him to sit out against Virginia Tech two weeks ago, limiting the Flashes to a vanilla ground attack in a 14-6 win over Eastern Michigan last week.

"Julian is feeling a whole lot better," said Martin. "(Wide receiver) Najah Pruden (ankle) is also better. Really, other than (second-string running back) Tony Howard (out with a shoulder injury), we are pretty healthy. Defensively, we are very healthy."