Recordpub.com - Chance at first place has KSU football team motivated

Kent State is already billing its Saturday trip to Ohio University as a battle for first place in the Mid-American Conference East Division.

Technically, with their current 2-1 record in MAC play, Golden Flashes would still need some help to jump into first place by week’s end. Ohio and Temple are tied for the top spot in the East at 3-0, so a win by KSU combined with a Temple loss at Toledo would give the Flashes a share of the division’s top spot.

“I’m selling it to our guys that if we win this game, we will be 3-1 and probably be tied for first,” said KSU head coach Doug Martin.

That scenario would go against the odds based on early Vegas betting lines that have KSU as 101⁄2-to-11-point underdog at Ohio. Toledo, though, is a 11⁄2-point favorite at home.

Still, it’s easy to understand the excitement about the possibility it has created in Kent. The Flashes have not played many meaningful football games in the second halves of seasons during the last three decades. In fact, KSU has started 2-1 in conference play just four other times in the last 30 years, going 2-1 in both 1985 and 2003 and 3-0 in 1986 and 2006.

“It’s the end of October, and I don’t know how many times Kent State has been hanging around at the end of October,” said Maritn. “Is there any added pressure with that? Not to me. To me, that’s where the fun is. That’s the way we are going to approach it, and we are going to go down there and have fun this week.”

KSU safety Brian Lainhart called a game like this weekend’s Kent State-Ohio tilt, “the reason you play college football.”

“You play for late October and early November, for that chance to be in the title race,” said Lainhart. “We are still in position to achieve all of our goals.”

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LEARNING FROM THE PAST — The last time Kent State played a meaningful football game in October or November was in 2006.

The Flashes were in the driver’s seat for a division championship at 4-0 in MAC play before losing to Ohio University 17-7 on Oct. 28 behind a series of blunders.

One week later, the Flashes blew a 14-3 halftime lead at Buffalo in a disastrous second half. The Bulls 41-14 win was their only conference win all season long. Just like that, KSU’s championship hopes were put to rest.

Only a handful of players remain from that 2006 squad, but KSU’s coaching staff is convinced there are lessons to learn from the disappointment of that season.

According to Martin, the staff needs to do a better job of keeping players focused on the next game and the next game only.

“That 2006 team started looking down the line about this could happen or that could happen,” said Martin. “Well, you don’t control any of that. All you can control is Ohio this week, and going to practice tomorrow. When you start talking about you have Akron or Temple coming up, that’s when you start wavering and losing focus. That’s the biggest thing we learned as a staff.”

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SPEAKING OF AKRON — The Zips are so in need of quarterback help they have taken out an ad in the university’s student newspaper.

It reads, “Looking for ANY former HS Quarterback with SIGNIFICANT game experience.”

Akron was forced to remove senior starter Chris Jacquemaine from the roster on Sept. 23 for violating team policy. A little more than two weeks later, Matt Rodgers was lost for the season with a torn ACL, leaving the Zips’ offense in the hands of true freshman Patrick Nicely.

The Zips’ situation is not unlike what happened to Kent State in 2006. With quarterbacks Julian Edelman and Anthony Magazu injured, the Flashes were forced to turn to true freshman Giorgio Morgan ahead of schedule, burning his redshirt. KSU ended up having a hard time finding a healthy quarterback to run the scout team. A similar need is probably the reason behind the ad in Akron.

To their credit, the Zips have not given up on their season. Buffalo needed a late Mario Henry touchdown run to escape with a 21-17 home win over Akron on Saturday. Nicely was 17-for-34 for 200 yards in the heartbreaking loss.

With Nicely starting for the Zips and Spencer Keith for the Flashes, Kent State’s Nov. 7 trip to Akron could provide an interesting view of the future of college football in northeast Ohio. Nicely and Keith are true freshmen with intriguing upsides, and both expected to redshirt this season before being forced into early duty.

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David Carducci can be contacted at dcarducci@recordpub.com