Kent State's defense has the look of being an anchor to a title-contending team.
Quinton Rainey (48, recovering a fumble against Boston College on Sept. 4) and the rest of the Kent State defense are showing signs of leadership for a team that has designs on contending in the MAC this season.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- After two games, Kent State's defense has the look of being an anchor to a title-contending team, if the offense can catch up. The Golden Flashes (1-1) are particularly strong against the run, holding Murray State to minus-65 yards rushing in the opener and then Boston College to 85 yards last Saturday.
Overall, the defense has averaged 249 yards of total offense allowed in the first two games.
Kent's defensive line is a rotation of eight players so it's hard to accumulate gaudy stats. But one player who raises an eyebrow is true freshman defensive tackle Roosevelt Nix (6-0, 255 pounds). He only has seven tackles in the two games, but four have been for losses, two resulted in sacks and he has forced three fumbles.
In two games, Kent has six sacks. The one area where Kent may be lagging behind is interceptions. The Flashes only have one pick so far, after 15 in 2009.
Offensively, head coach Doug Martin says lack of ground production rests with his veteran tailbacks. Against Murray State, Martin said his tailbacks (senior Eugene Jarvis, junior Jacquise Terry, sophomore Dri Archer) failed to make defensive players miss in the secondary. Against BC (4 yards rushing) Martin said the line blocked well, but the tailbacks failed to hit open holes. KSU had 137 yards on the ground against Murray State, just four against BC.
On the plus side, Martin said the pass blocking at BC "was the best" since he has been at Kent State.
Hit the ground running: For the 0-2 Akron Zips, hope for improvement would appear to be the ground game. Despite losses to Syracuse and Gardner-Webb, the Zips have rushed for 279 yards in their two games behind the tandem of Alex Allen (110 yards, 3 TD vs. Gardner-Webb) and Nate Burney (119 vs. G-W).
After rushing for just 55 yards a week earlier against Syracuse, success vs. Gardner-Webb was a welcome sight. Akron ran out of multiple formations, including a power attack (two tight ends and a fullback) that very effective. Coach Rob Ianello put the marked improvement in the run game on QB Patrick Nicely.
"We executed much better," he said. "We didn't have breakdowns at the point of attack, physically. And we didn't have some mental errors occur on some of our plays. And I thought Patrick in particular, on a lot of the 'check with me's' did a better job in week two than week one of getting us into the right play, or getting us out of a bad play. He was much more comfortable under center."
Kentucky topped Western Kentucky, 63-28, last week, allowing 187 rushing yards. WKU (8 of 15 passing, 97 yards ) was one-dimensional, so the Wildcats almost certainly had eight or nine in the box and still gave up a lot of yards on the ground.
Best of the week: Toledo sophomore linebacker Dan Molls (Padua) had a pair of interceptions against Ohio, plus one sack and 11 tackles. ... NIU quarterback Chandler Harnish rolled up 178 rushing yards and a TD plus 146 passing yards (14-of-25, 1 TD, 1 INT). ... OU QB Boo Jackson threw for 234 yards (24-of-39, 1 TD). ... With two field goals (45, 41 yards) at BC, Kent State's Freddy Cortez is 14-of-15 over his last seven games. ... WMU QB Alex Carder was 24 of 33 for 298 yards and five TDs vs. Nicholls State.