The Kent State football team opened its MACtion schedule with a 41-0 loss to the Ohio Bobcats (6-3, 4-1), extending its nation-longest losing streak to 18 and holding its spot at the bottom of the CBS Sports College Football Rankings.
“I’m disappointed in the loss,” coach Kenni Burns said. “I was pleased with our guys’ effort. I thought they played hard throughout the whole game. They made some youth mistakes and need more repetition at certain positions, but overall, I think the team watched the film and said, ‘We’re closer than what the score looked like.’”
For the third time this season, the Flashes were unable to get on the scoreboard, and the team only gained 114 yards.
After the defense allowed the Bobcats to score 20 first-half points, the kick-coverage units surrendered a kickoff return for a touchdown and a punt return for a touchdown in the third quarter, putting the game out of reach.
Though the defense only gave up 27 points, the second lowest of the season, it continued its streak of allowing over 400 yards to 10 games, giving up 407 yards in the loss.
Wednesday, Kent State will play the Miami RedHawks (5-4, 4-1), the last of four consecutive games in which it faces the four teams tied for the best record in the Mid-American Conference. Kent State won in Oxford in 2012 and has lost three straight games in Oxford since.
Since starting its season 1-4, including a 30-20 loss to Toledo (6-3, 3-2) in its conference opener, Miami has won four straight games to put themselves in the race for a spot in the MAC Championship.
The RedHawks have two common opponents with the Flashes: Eastern Michigan (5-4, 2-3) and Ohio. Miami defeated the Eagles 38-14 Oct. 12 then defeated the Bobcats 30-20 one week later, giving them the head-to-head tiebreaker, should they need it.
Quarterback
Burns has not named a starter for the matchup with Miami. Junior quarterback Tommy Ulatowski sat out last week’s game due to injuries, so true freshman Ruel Tomlinson got the start. Tomlinson went 8-of-18 passing for 62 yards and an interception, but Burns liked what he saw.
“He played solid, honestly, for a true freshman going out there and starting his first career start. He didn’t put the ball in danger,” Burns said. “We’ll see how Tommy is this week. He is the next guy up. We’ll see if he’s full strength. If he is, we’ll move on with him. If he’s still struggling and struggling to move around, we’ll go with Ruel again.”
If Tomlinson gets the start, the Flashes will have a quarterback making his second career start while on the other side, Miami will have a sixth-year quarterback in Brett Gabbert, who has 48 starts. Gabbert has spent all six seasons of his college career with the RedHawks.
Gabbert will look to break the 10,000-yard mark on his career against the Flashes, as he will enter the game with 9,839 yards through the air.
He is fifth in the MAC in passing yards this season with 1,946, 141 behind the leader, Cole Snyder of Eastern Michigan. Gabbert’s 16 touchdowns are the second most in the conference while his rating og 136.8 is fifth, making this the fourth straight game in which the Flashes’ defense will face a top-five MAC quarterback in terms of quarterback rating.
“What’s most impressive is his command and leadership. You can tell the offense is running through him,” Burns said. “I’m sure he puts in a lot of checks and gets them in the right play, and he’s a guy who hasa lot of reps under his belt, so we’ll have a challenge of trying to do some things to disguise our coverage.”
Running back
As it has been most of the season, Kent’s run game against Ohio was ineffective, picking up just 52 yards on 34 attempts for an average of 1.53 yards per rush.
Senior running back Ky Thomas led the way with 50 yards on 15 carries. Thomas crossed the 100-carry mark on the season against the Bobcats. He now has 107 carries for 439 yards to average 4.1 yards per carry. He is 13th in the MAC in rushing yards and 16th in yards per carry among carriers with at least 50 attempts.
Miami’s main back is five-foot-seven senior Keyon Mozee, who has accounted for 57.21% of the team’s rushing yards. Mozee has averaged 6.02 yards per carry on 108 carries to put him at 650 yards to this point. He is third in the MAC in yards per carry among carriers with at least 50 carries and fourth in the conference in rushing yards. As a team, Miami has only rushed for five touchdowns this season, but Mozee has two of them.
Receivers
With Tomlinson only throwing for 62 yards, there was not much for Kent’s receivers to hang their hat on. Redshirt sophomore Chrishon McCray was the team’s leading receiver against the Bobcats, taking in three passes for 28 yards. Graduate student receiver Luke Floriea also had three receptions, but was only able to pick up 16 yards.
Both are still in the top 10 in the conference in receiving yards. McCray is seventh with 594, and Floriea is 10th with 515.
“It was uncharacteristic of us – we had more drops than normal, so we have to figure that out, and help the kid (Tomlinson) out a little bit,” Burns said.
Gabbert is able to spread the ball around very effectively, as three RedHawk receivers are over 500 yards. Sophomore receiver Javon Tracy is just ahead of his teammates, leading the team with 514 yards on 37 receptions and five touchdowns.
Next up is junior Reggie Virgil, who has 510 yards on 27 catches and six touchdowns. Finally, senior receiver Cade McDonald has 507 yards on 38 catches and a pair of touchdowns.
Tracy leads the team in yards, Virgil leads in touchdowns, and McDonald leads in receptions. The three receivers make up 78.67% of Gabbert’s passing yards and are 11th, 12th, and 13th, in the MAC in receiving yards.
Defense
The two scores the Flashes special teams units gave up may have made the defense look worse than it was. With that, the defense still gave up 407 yards. It was unable to stop the run, allowing the Bobcats to run for 258 yards on 44 carries for an average of 5.86 yards per rush.
The Flashes still rank last in the MAC in total yards allowed per game, rushing yards allowed per game and points allowed per game. They are ahead of only Ball State (3-6, 2-3) in passing yards allowed per game.
The Flashes will be going up against a top-three defense in the MAC in terms of yards per game, as the RedHawks give up 335.44 yards per game. The 194.11 yards per game allowed through the air also place Miami third in the conference while the 141.33 yards per game allowed on the ground put them at fourth. Miami ranks second in the conference in points per game allowed, giving up just 20 points per game through nine outings.
“We’re going back to work,” Burns said. “That’s the good thing about having a youthful team, they don’t know any better but coming back to work, learning and getting better. We’re excited about the chance to go play a good Miami team this week.”
Demetri Manousos is a reporter. Contact him at [email protected].
