The Kent State football team played the second of four games of its MACtion schedule Wednesday against the Miami RedHawks (6-4, 5-1). The Flashes claimed their first lead of the season when they cashed in an early fumble for a touchdown to claim a 7-0 lead on the road.
However, the lead did not last long, and the RedHawks dominated the rest of the game, winning 34-7, keeping Kent at the bottom of the CBS Sports’ College Football Rankings.
“We started fast, and I thought we did some things in the middle that were good, but we really didn’t control the middle part of the game and let it get away from us. We have to come back and respond, and there’s no better way to respond than playing in a rivalry game,” coach Kenni Burns said.
The Flashes were out-gained by 296 yards, gaining only 183 and allowing 479. The team’s 193 yards are the second-lowest in Mid-American Conference play, with the lowest coming the game before against Ohio (7-3, 5-1) where the offense put up 114 yards.
Tuesday, Kent State will play its Senior Night matchup against the Akron Zips (2-8, 1-5) for the 33rd consecutive year in a rivalry series that Akron leads 36-28 all-time with two ties.
“They’re a much improved football team,” Burns said. “They’ve been competitive in almost every game. You can see the growth they’ve made, especially on defense. I think their defense is really solid.”
The Zips have four common opponents with the Flashes to this point: Ohio, Bowling Green (6-4, 5-1), Western Michigan (5-5, 4-2), and Eastern Michigan (5-5, 2-4). They beat only Eastern Michigan. Kent State has been outscored by a combined 112 points against those four teams while Akron has been outscored by 33.
Quarterback
Junior quarterback Tommy Ulatowksi will be making his ninth start of his career and his second against Akron. Ulatowski started conference play hot, going 32-of-64 for 739 yards, seven touchdowns and two interceptions in his first two starts.
However, in his last three starts, he has gone 29-of-72 for 274 yards, four touchdowns and five interceptions. His completion rate has dropped from 50% to 40.28% while his yards per game have dropped from 369.5 to 91.33. He will be looking to have a similar performance to what he did in last year’s Wagon Wheel game when he completed 15 of his 29 passes for 229 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions.
Fifth-year junior and two-time transfer Ben Finley will be making his first appearance in the rivalry game for Akron. Finley has put himself in fourth in the MAC to this point with 2,160 passing yards. He is tied for fifth in the conference with 13 touchdowns but is second in the MAC with nine interceptions. He is 11th in the conference with a completion percentage of 55.79%.
Running back
Senior running back Ky Thomas leads the way on the ground for the Flashes with 488 yards on 122 carries for an average of four yards per carry. Thomas is the first Flash to have 50 or more rushing yards in five straight games since Marquez Cooper did so in the final six games of the 2022 season.
Thomas will look to cross the 500-yard mark for the second time in three seasons.
Finley will not be the only fifth-year junior in the backfield for Akron, as he will be handing off to another fifth-year junior, running back Jordon Simmons.
Simmons has picked up 551 yards and two touchdowns on 99 carries, averaging 5.57 yards per carry, placing him seventh in the MAC among carriers with at least 50 attempts. He is also sixth among MAC running backs in receptions with 21 and fifth among MAC running backs in receiving yards with 183.
Receivers
As Ulatowski’s stats have not been as explosive as the conference schedule has progressed, neither have the stats of the receivers.
Redshirt sophomore receiver Chrishon McCray had 13 catches for 401 yards and five touchdowns in the first two MAC games, and graduate student receiver Luke Floriea had nine receptions for 207 yards and two touchdowns.
However, in the last four games, McCray has had 12 receptions for 90 yards and a touchdown while Floriea has had 12 receptions for 126 yards and a touchdown. McCray averaged 200.5 yards per game for the first two games on the conference schedule, and Floriea averaged 103.5, but McCray’s average has dropped to 22.5 while Floriea’s has dropped to 31.5 in the last four MAC games.
Despite a lack of recent production, both are top-12in the MAC in yards and receptions and touchdowns.
Like Ulatowski, the receivers will look to play as they did against Akron a year ago, when they combined for 10 receptions, 198 yards and three touchdowns.
Sophomore receiver Adrian Norton is tied for fourth in the MAC with 724 yards, and he has done it on 38 catches, putting him third in the conference with 19.05 yards per catch. He is also tied for fourth with seven touchdown receptions.
Junior Bobby Golden is the second-leading receiver on Akron’s roster and 15th in the MAC with 424 yards on 29 catches for an average of 14.62 yards per reception, which is ninth in the conference.
Defense
The Flashes’ defense was again unable to hold the opponent under 400 yards, but Burns had good things to say about the performance against Miami.
“(It was the best defensive effort of the year) by far. It was against a team that’s first place in the MAC. They have a veteran quarterback. We did some really good stuff,” Burns said. “I think it was our linebackers’ best game of the year.”
Though the Kent State defense is last in the FBS in points per game allowed (44.8) and yards per game allowed (521.6), it will be going up against an offense that ranks 11th in the MAC and 123rd in the FBS in yards per game (313.8). Akron also ranks 11th in the MAC and 125th in the FBS points per game (18.6).
Despite the stats, Burns believes that his defense will be facing an effective offense.
“[Coach Joe Morehead] calls the offense. He puts conflict on you with the RPO game, slipping the tight end out, giving the quarterback kind of a tripping option,” Burns said. “He slips the tight end out and gives the quarterback a ‘run to the running back,’ or a ‘running it himself’ option, which is really unique. They know who they are, and they do a really good job of playing to their strengths.”
Akron’s defense resides in the bottom third of the MAC, sitting at ninth in yards allowed per game with 422.8, and 10th in points allowed per game with 35.3. On a national scale, the Zips are 114th in yards allowed per game and 123rd in points allowed per game.
Again, despite the stats, Burns had good things to say about the rival.
“You can see the growth they made on defense and how hard they’re playing,” Burns said. “They’re being gap-sound, and they’re moving some pieces around to create confusion, which has allowed them to be in every game.”
The current senior class has had a rough go of it, but Burns had high praise of the group.
“After last year, guys got to make a choice on whether they wanted to come back, and this group knew the struggles that were going to be this year because we talked about our youth movement, we talked about playing a lot of young guys and they still made the choice to come back,” Burns said. “We have a lot of guys who believe in what we’re doing. They believed, they bought in and I’ll never forget them when we do flip this thing. It’s a group of guys that I will not forget their dedication and commitment, not just to me, but to Kent State University and the football program. We’re really excited and want to send them out the right way.”
The Zips are currently 10-point favorites – the second-smallest spread Kent has faced against an FBS school. This is statistically one of the best chances the Flashes have had to win all year.
In a year that has been full of injuries, historic losses and outside noise, the Flashes have an opportunity to check off two major boxes in one game: a win on senior night and a win against Akron to reclaim the Wagon Wheel.
“You have to come, and you have to play your best. Adrenaline is at the beginning of it,” Burns said. “You’re going to be playing with an extra spark because it is a rivalry game, but we have to play four quarters. It’s like anything – we know them, they know us. We respect each other, but we don’t necessarily like each other, so we have to go out there and be at our best, and I’m going to challenge our guys with that.”
Demetri Manousos is a reporter. Contact him at [email protected].
