Recordpub.com - KSU's Morgan plays through pain, gains more respect

Giorgio Morgan’s left ankle was throbbing in pain during the second half of Kent State’s season opening win over Coastal Carolina last week.

With his primary backup injured and available only in the case of an emergency and the Golden Flashes still planning on redshirting the next best option at quarterback, KSU was in a tough position.

Morgan made all decisions easy on the Flashes’ coaching staff by refusing to leave the game, and in doing so the sophomore may have built up some valuable equity with his teammates.

“He certainly earned a lot of respect,” said Kent State head coach Doug Martin. “Now our guys know you are going to have to cut his leg off to get him out of there.”

Morgan was injured when he was tackled from behind on a second-quarter sack.

“He was certainly hurting, but he never asked to come out,” Martin said. “I talked to him about it at one point, and he was adamant he could go in and make plays, so we kept him in there.”

Despite a noticeable limp that seemed to get worse as the game moved on, Morgan still managed to post some respectable numbers (21-for-35, 201 yards) in his first start since his true-freshman season in 2007. Those numbers would have been better had he not sailed some balls over the heads of open receivers because of the difficulty he found stepping into throws. Even with the pain affecting his performance, he refused to back down from his decision to keep playing.

“You see it all the time on ESPN when they show other teams,” said Morgan. “The quarterback doesn’t come out when he has a sprained ankle. That’s your leader.”

According to Martin, Morgan didn’t really need to prove himself to his teammates. He had already earned their respect during the Flashes’ preseason camp.

“I think he had that from the beginning,” said Martin. “Being voted a team captain as a sophomore is a huge compliment to him. And (playing injured) was another big piece. For those guys to see he is going to go out there and give everything he’s got to them was another big piece of being a leader.”

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LET’S NOT MAKE IT A HABIT — Morgan may be willing to play when hurt, but Kent State would prefer to keep the rifle-armed sophomore healthy in his first full season as a starter.

Unfortunately, there are still some questions regarding the Flashes’ ability to protect the quarterback.

According to Martin, Kent State’s offensive line only graded out as “average” in the 18-0 win over Coastal Carolina.

“The pass protection was where I was really disappointed,” said Martin. “It wasn’t a physical thing. It was mentally busting assignments. The one Giorgio hurt his ankle on, we had a tackle who didn’t fan out to the guy he was supposed to block, and he just turned him loose on Giorgio.”

The Flashes’ line needs to improve in a hurry with Boston College waiting on Saturday. The Eagles’ defense graduated several stars, but it is still a big, strong, physical and fast group.

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MIXON HONORED — Cobrani Mixon’s 12-tackle performance against Coastal Carolina earned him Mid-American Conference East Division Player of the Week honors. The junior linebacker set up the Flashes’ first score by forcing Coastal running back Tommy Fraser into the waiting arms of Kevin Hogan for a first-quarter safety.

More important may be the way Mixon continues to fit into the role as the emotional leader of the KSU defense.

“In the first half, our defense was kind of quiet and going through the motions,” said defensive lineman Aaron Hull. “Cobrani and (safety Brian) Lainhart kind of gave us a speech, and we started rolling after that. Cobrani said ‘look, we want a goose-egg out there.’ ”

Kent State had not shutout an opponent since 1994, so Mixon “was trying to fire everybody up to get that goose egg,” Hull said. “We wanted it bad.”

The shutout was just the second for Kent State since 1976.

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INJURY UPDATE — Starting defensive lineman Sam Frist is close to returning from a foot injury, but he still may be held out of Saturday’s game at Boston College.

“Frist is going to practice on Wednesday,” said Martin. “I don’t think we’ll play him in this game unless something really strange happens, and he really looks good. I think he’ll need a little while. We should have him back for Iowa State (Sept. 19 at Dix Stadium).”

The Flashes expect to have Alan Vanderink back in the lineup this weekend. The former Crestwood star has missed almost a month with a lingering back injury.

H-back and holder Leneric Muldrow, who injured his leg in a preseason scrimmage, returned to practice on Sunday. According to Martin, he will be back at full strength against Boston College, although he probably won’t return to his duties as the holder on place-kicks for true freshman Freddy Cortez.

“Freddy is feeling comfortable with (Anthony) Magazu right now, so I’m going to leave that to his discretion right now,” said Martin.

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David Carducci can be contacted at dcarducci@recordpub.com