Director of New Media
The questionable calls and the near misses of Saturday were heartbreaking, but there is still reason to be excited about the future of Kent State Football following Saturday's overtime loss to Marshall.
I would have loved to see what would have happened if Holley and Murray were on the field at the end. Both were disqualified from the game on questionable personal foul penalties while last week's MAC defensive player of the week left the field on a far more dangerous rugby ruck that probably should have blown dead when forward progress had been stopped.
The play of some younger defensive backs in the absence of the starters should have KSU fans excited about the depth on that side of the football. The relentless work from the front seven in the absence of those veteran defensive backs showed some impressive grit. To take pressure off of the young replacements in the secondary, the Flashes pass rushers pinned back their ears and attacked the quarterback. Along the way, Waugh further established himself as the next in a long line of dominant pass rushers at Kent State in the mold of James Harrison, Monte Simmons, Justin Parrish, and many others.The defensive line is physical, strong, athletic and deep. That's exciting.
While the offense may not be quite where the fans would like to see it, the offensive line is improving with every game. That unit opened some big holes on Saturday. The running back corps is as deep as we have seen in a very long time at Kent State. How many times in years past have watched a Kent State team lose its top ball carrier and then watched young backs who weren't ready to take over the rushing load struggle in that absence?
The Flashes would love to be better than 1-3 right now, but after taking Minnesota and Marshall down to the wire in back-to-back weeks there is reason to believe Kent State can be a factor in the Mid-American Conference.
Nobody in the MAC is going to have any fun playing against this defense.
It's an entertaining football team, and I'm already looking forward to next week's Homecoming game against Miami.
Here are links to what others had to say following yesterday's game:
- Elton Alexander's take in the Plain Dealer
- Michael Bevin's piece in the Akron Beacon Journal
- Allen Moff's game story in the Record-Courier
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