Recordpub.com - KSU's defense begins to lay down the hammer

By David Carducci

Record-Courier staff writer

The day of the pillow is over at Kent State.

This year, the Golden Flashes have adopted a new and appropriately more violent image in an attempt to inspire a turnaround, and so far it’s working.

Ever since a collapse in the final five minutes of a humiliating loss to Bowling Green, Kent State’s defense has lugged a large sledgehammer painted in the team’s blue and gold colors to every practice and every game.

“Our captains, Brian Lainhart and Cobrani Mixon came up with the idea,” said KSU defensive lineman Monte Simmons. “The idea behind it is we want to have the attitude of being like a sledgehammer. We want to come in to every game trying to hit and destroy everything in our path.”

So far, KSU’s defense has done just that. Since surrendering two touchdowns in blowing a late 12-point lead to Bowling Green, the Flashes’ defense has kept two consecutive opponents out of the end zone. The last time a KSU defense played eight straight quarters without giving up a touchdown was in 1982, and that team finished with an 0-11 record.

Kent State pounded Eastern Michigan 28-6 two weeks ago thanks in large part to a fierce goal-line stand. They then set a new school record by holding Ohio University to negative-9 rushing yards in a 20-11 win in Athens last week. In the same game, the Flashes recorded seven sacks against a Bobcats offensive line that had not allowed a sack in its previous five games.

Kent State now leads the Mid-American Conference with 26 sacks, and 11 of those have come in these last two games.

The back-to-back road wins moved the Flashes (4-4, 3-1 MAC) to within one game of Temple in the Mid-American Conference East Division standings. Kent State won both of those games with the sledgehammer in toe, and the defense is convinced that is no coincidence.

Last year, Kent State head coach Doug Martin forced his players to take two pillows to every practice and every game after a particularly pedestrian effort led to the media comparing KSU’s “battle” with Ohio to a pillow fight. The players carried those pillows almost as if they were wearing scarlet letters.

Holding the sledgehammer has become a badge of honor.

After every game, a different player is selected as the caretaker of the menacing mallet by an informal vote by his teammates and coaches. He then takes on the responsibility of lugging the hammer from the locker room to the sideline then back again at every practice and every game.

“If you get the biggest hit in the game, you get to carry the sledgehammer for that next week,” said Simmons, who was in charge of the hammer during Ohio University week. “I had it because of the hit I made in punt coverage on Eastern Michigan’s No. 15 the week before.”

That unlucky Eagle was senior wide receiver Jacory Stone. Ohio quarterback Theo Scott was the victim of the “sledgehammer hit” last week.

“Dorian Wood got it this week because of the hit he put on Scott, the one that knocked him out of the game in the third quarter,” said Simmons.

As one of the masterminds behind the idea, Lainhart has been thrilled by the way his teammates have embraced the sledgehammer imagery.

Lainhart admits to borrowing the idea of a football team carrying a sledgehammer from Georgia Tech, but he and his teammates have added a few distinctively Kent State twists.

“We took the idea and added to it,” said Lainhart. “The idea to vote on the biggest hit, that is ours. You can get it if the hit comes on defense or on special teams. I like that because a big hit can change a game on special teams just as much as it can on defense.”

After the loss to Bowling Green, Lainhart and Mixon decided to make a visit to WalMart, where they found a particularly imposing sledgehammer. They unveiled it the next day at practice where they explained the theory.

“We said we want to take on the personality of this sledgehammer,” said Lainhart. “We want to break people’s will on defense and making them not want to play anymore.

“The guys really loved it. This last week, everyone was arguing over who had the biggest hit and who should get the sledgehammer.”

Lainhart and Mixon originally painted the metal of the hammer yellow and the shaft blue.

“As we started winning, guys started saying ‘let’s paint the scores on the handle,’ ” said Lainhart. “So we did that. Adam RIchey said let me take it home, and I’ll really paint it up. He did and it looked great. Guys really added to it, and I’m really happy they are embracing it.”

If Kent State keeps winning and the defense continues to dominate, the sledgehammer could grow into a Kent State tradition, similar to the “Blackshirts” awarded to starters and key players on Nebraska’s defense since the early 1960s.

“I’d love to see this become the kind of thing where we hand the hammer down from class to class,” said Lainhart. “That would be great.”

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David Carducci can be contacted at dcarducci@recordpub.com

KSU's defense begins to lay down the hammer - literally