Recordpub.com - Kent State's Keys To Victory

No. 3: THE SIZE FACTOR — Coastal Carolina isn’t very big along the defensive line. The Chanticleers listed as defensive linemen on their current depth chart average just 267.5 pounds, and they don’t have a single player weighing in at 300 pounds or more.

“They were a little bit light up front in the defensive line,” Liberty coach Danny Rocco remembered in a recent video preview of his Big South rival. “They were criticized for not being able to stop the run ... The defensive line is quick, but they are just not real big. I think they are attempting to upgrade their defensive line and get a little better play up front in terms of stopping the run so that they can let their athletes in the secondary make some plays.”

The eight offensive linemen who expect to play for Kent State tonight average 295 pounds. After a shaky start to summer camp, that group has been playing well over the last few weeks. The Flashes should be able to open some big holes for star running back Eugene Jarvis while also giving sophomore starting quarterback Giorgio Morgan the time he needs to get rid of the football.

No. 2: THE JARVIS FACTOR — Assuming he finds those big holes, Jarvis will be tough to stop. The Chanticleers allowed 157 yards per game last year to finish in the bottom half of their conference. Even with a date at Clemson later in the year, the Chanticleers probably won’t see a back as elusive as Jarvis all season. Remember, the KSU senior is just one year removed from a sophomore campaign in which he rushed for a school-record 1,669 yards and finished fifth amongst the nation’s ground gainers at 139.1 yards per game.

Coastal coach David Bennett said he avoided showing film of Jarvis to his players, “because of how good he is.”

“He’s the second-leading rusher active in college football today,” Bennett continued.

Jarvis’ 3,268 career rushing yards are second only to the 4,287 of Southern Miss’ Damion Fletcher.

After an injury-plagued junior year, Jarvis declared himself “ready to go, 100-percent” earlier this week.

No. 1: THE TRAVEL FACTOR — It’s hard enough for an FCS school to beat an FBS program on the road. Coastal Carolina may have made its task even more difficult with its whirlwind travel plans. The Chanticleers will fly into Akron-Canton Airport on game day. They plan on flying right back to South Carolina tonight. That’s not an easy schedule even for the support staff who won’t have to grind out a game against an FBS opponent for 60 minutes. If the Chanticleers look like they have some tired legs in the second half, it may be from a schedule that saw them leave their campus at 8:30 a.m. this morning. They expect to return to their campus by 1:30 a.m. Friday morning.

Coastal is claiming it will save $15,000 by not staying overnight in Northeast Ohio. Based on group room rates at the hotel where they would have stayed and are still having their pregame meal, that number is a bit inflated. Bennett claimed his team was quoted a price of $168 per room. Outside of trips to Tallahassee, Fla. and State College, Pa., college football teams rarely pay more than $100 per room. And remember, Kent State is paying Coastal $350,000 for the game.

Coastal’s players don’t seem to mind the plan. At least not yet. In Wednesday’s Myrtle Beach Sun News, Coastal cornerback Josh Norman claimed he “heard Ohio is pretty boring anyway.”

“I don’t want to be stuck up in a hotel for a whole other day when I could be back here at Coastal,” he said.

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THREE REASONS WHY COASTAL CAROLINA MAY BE GAME FOR AN UPSET

No. 3: THEIR SPEED — Doug Martin has built his Kent State team on speed, even dipping into Coastal Carolina’s recruiting waters to find some of the burners on Kent State’s current roster. KSU starting cornerback Josh Pleasant is a player the Chanticleers once coveted.

But there are always plenty of high school players with speed available in the South, and Coastal has filled its roster with some burners of its own. If tonight’s game turns into a track meet, the Chanticleers can compete.

“I’m very familiar with the high school football (in South Carolina) and it’s a lot of speed,” said Martin. “Their corner, Josh Norman, is one of the better players I’ve seen. I think he is going to also return kicks for them. He has a lot of speed ... Tarvorris Jolly, who is a transfer from North Carolina, is another cornerback they are real high on. I think he’s had an ankle injury during camp, but he should be ready to go. The main thing for them is their speed on defense. They run well.”

No. 2: THEIR QUARTERBACK — Coastal QB Zach MacDowell is a transfer from Wake Forest who earned Preseason All-Big South Conference honors. He finished second in the conference in both passing offense (187.6 per game) and total offense (209.3 per game) while leading Coastal to a 6-6 overall (1-4 Big South) mark last season.

No. 1: THE CHIPS ON THEIR SHOULDERS — The Chanticleers won’t be intimidated the way they were when they walked into Penn State’s 107,000-seat Beaver Stadium at the start of last season. As in most David-vs.Goliath stories, they’ll be eager to prove they can play with the big boys of the FBS, and they know they’ll have a better chance against Kent State than they will later in the year at Clemson’s Death Valley.

“I’m sure they are looking at this game like their Super Bowl,” said KSU’s Eugene Jarvis. “They are going to want to come in and make a statement in their first game. We are going to be ready to play.”