Recordpub.com - Flashes look to rebound against Eastern Michigan

By David Carducci

Record-Courier staff writer

Doug Martin has played the dual role of head coach and team psychiatrist during the last week.

In the wake of Kent State’s fourth-quarter collapse against Bowling Green, the biggest challenge for the Golden Flashes’ head coach has been to get his players emotionally ready to get back on the playing field today at Eastern Michigan’s Rynearson Stadium.

“That was a tough defeat,” said Martin. “We can’t carry that with us all week and into Eastern Michigan to the point where we are just going through the motions. Honestly, and I’ve told our players this. That has happened here. That has happened here in the past, and this has to be the group to stop that.”

In fact, it happened just last year.

One week after a fourth-quarter meltdown against Akron early in the conference season, the Flashes suffered from the hangover in another loss to Ohio University. Just like that, KSU’s hopes of competing for an East Division title evaporated.

In giving away a game to Bowling Green last week, the Flashes (2-4, 1-1) blew an opportunity to start off the Mid-American Conference season at 2-0.

Follow that with another win today over winless Eastern Michigan (0-5, 0-2) and Kent State would have built some serious momentum heading into the season’s second half.

At 1-1, Martin insists KSU is still very much in the East-Division race. One of his duties as unofficial team shrink this week was to convince his team of that fact.

“I think Ball State last year is one of the few teams on the East or the West to ever win the conference undefeated,” said Martin. “You are going to lose a game or two and still win this conference. Those are the issues that are important to our football team right now.

“What we need to be is 2-1 in the conference after Saturday,” Martin said. “If we go out and we take care of ourselves emotionally and get ready to play go out and play with a full heart, that will happen.”

Get to 2-1, and next week’s trip to second place Ohio University (4-2, 2-0) becomes a key game for positioning in the East-Division standings.

While Martin insists Eastern Michigan is “a good team that has played some tight games and just not been able to crack the win column,” Kent State has to believe getting to 2-1 can become a reality.

Eastern Michigan ranks near the bottom of every statistical category in the MAC. The only exception is pass defense, and that’s only because opponents rarely have to go to the air when the Eagles’ defense is allowing 262 yards per game on the ground — the worst average in the league by 70 yards per game.

Kent State’s defense hasn’t been much better in recent weeks. The Flashes allowed more than 500 yards of total offense in both of their conference games. They should have an easier time slowing down an Eastern Michigan offense that is missing its most dangerous weapon. Quarterback Andy Schmidt suffered a season-ending knee injury in a 45-17 loss at Michigan on Sept. 19.

“Andy Schmidt was really an excellent quarterback,” said Martin. “He was really playing well. They were a bit of a different team when they had him and they probably lost a big leader there as well as a physical presence. But they are a lot more balanced now on offense than they were. They are running better than they were early on.”

With Schmidt, Eastern played it close against Army (a 27-14 loss), Northwestern (a 27-24 loss) and Michigan for two quarters (trailing 24-17 at the half). Without him, the Eagles followed a 24-12 loss to East-Division leading Temple by getting blown out 56-8 by West-Division leading Central Michigan last week.

“Even though the score doesn’t indicate it, we actually got better at some things last week,” said first-year Eastern Michigan head coach Ron English. “Our big issue was not making plays when guys were in position to make plays.”

KSU had the same problem last week when safeties Brian Lainhart and Dan Hartman and cornerbacks Danny Sadler and Josh Pleasant all missed tackles on a key 45-yard touchdown reception by Bowling Green’s Freddie Barnes late in the fourth quarter.

“(The Flashes) are struggling a little bit on defense,” said English. “They have given up some big plays. But I’ll bet they’ll keep getting better. This should be a good game from the standpoint of whichever defense plays better is going to have a good chance to win.”

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David Carducci can be contacted at dcarducci@recordpub.com