Kent State football Head Coach Mark Carney has been a part of plenty of rivalries as a player and a coach. Growing up on Cleveland’s west side, Carney competed in of the top high school rivalries in the state of Ohio, if not the country between St. Edward and St. Ignatius.
Tuesday night he will get his first taste of the Wagon Wheel rivalry, as the head coach anyway, between Kent State and the Zips.
Carney was asked when he was first aware of this storied rivalry at his press conference on Friday.
“I think the first time it was probably on my radar was the Charlie Frye era at that place,” Carney said. “It’s impact on local football, as a young guy I was privy to the Ed’s/Ignatius matchup, and then you go to college there’s a Jesuit, Fordham vs. Holy Cross matchup, and then you go to BG and its BG/Toledo. All of those games, anytime you play for a trophy, anytime you play for a trophy, that’s special.”
Kent State looks to bounce back from a disappointing 17-13 loss at Ball State last week, where penalties, clock management issues and other self inflicted mistakes robbed the Flashes of victory.
Meanwhile, the Zips are playing their best football of the season, coming off two straight wins, and their best record in MAC play at this point in the season since 2017.
The Zips improved play, combined with the new found energy of the Kent State program makes for an exciting storyline in Tuesday’s game, that has been historically played between two downtrodden programs. One team is going to get a huge boost in the momentum of their program.
“Absolutely,” Carney said when asked if the game has added juice with both teams improved. “This is a game I think both fan bases look at as a spring board moving forward. These are two teams going in a really good direction right now. There’s not a lot of margin for error for either program if we wanna continue to build and grow where we need to.”
If Kent State is going to head on the road and get a win Tuesday, it’s going to take a complete effort. Complimentary football in all three phases of the game must be on point, included in that is game management and the coaching staff and decision making.
“It’s going to take every guy in the program, every person in the program,” Carney said. “Finding some way, somehow, some little nugget in the course of prep to impact this team positively. Whether that’s sideline energy, or a tip or a tell from something we glean on film, it’s going to take all of us and again, road game, this one feels a little different because it’s not a five hour bus ride, it’s a place that’s thirty minutes down the road.”
“We’ll get to treat it like a de facto home game, and stay in our own beds. There’s a little bit of comfort in that, but it’s going to take everybody.”
CONNECT WITH THE PAST, WIN THE PRESENT:
I have been anxious to see how this staff handles this game, and the importance that’s put on it. The previous staff didn’t seem to grasp the gravity of the game. With Carney being a Northeast Ohio native and many of his staff members also, I expect they understand the importance of it.
I’ve seen different KSU Head Coaches come and go through the years and approach it different ways. Sean Lewis had extraordinary swag, and his teams backed it up. Paul Haynes understood the rivalry better than anyone being a former player, but his teams couldn’t always measure up, shy of a magical win on November 28, 2014.
Darrell Hazell went 2-0 vs. the Zips. The 2011 win helped spring board a special 2012 season. The 2012 game was shocking early, as the huge underdog Zips took a two score lead, before the much more talented Flashes came back to win in what I call “the season of dreams.”
Carney mentioned he may have some special speakers this week, but didn’t divulge who that might be.
“You continue to connect this current roster and locker room with locker rooms of the past that have experienced it, successes and failures and lessons that they’ve learned along the way. This isn’t a rivalry game that I played in but it’s one you can rely on past lessons, so we’ll engage some of those folks.”
DeSHIELDS BOWL:
One of the many interesting subplots in this game includes KSU QB Dru DeShields squaring off against his brother TJ, who is an offensive analyst for the Zips. TJ started his career for the Zips, before ending at Mount Union.
Mike Popovich details the matchup between the two brothers here.
CARNEY AND MOOREHEAD BOTH RAMS:
Carney followed Zips’ Head Coach Joe Moorhead in the Bronx as Fordham quarterbacks with Moorhead graduating in 1996 and Carney in 2001.
ICE, ICE BABY:
Kent State will be wearing some slick, white uniforms Tuesday with the throwback ‘K’ logo on a white helmet. It’s a fresh look for the ever changing, “look good, feel good, play good” Flashes.
A win against your rivals, and the fit will be remembered for a long time.
KEYS TO THE KINGDOM:
Kent State must protect the football, and win the turnover margin. They don’t have the margin for error to give away possessions. The Zips lead MAC play in 11 turnovers forced. Kent State only has four takeaways in MAC play.
Kent State must create explosive plays. In order to do that, they’ll need to establish some type of ground game. This can help open up the RPO and play action passing game.
With that said, KSU is 11th in league play in red zone offense, and Akron’s defense is fourth in red zone defense.
Kent State’s defense is going to need to limit Akron’s ground game and make QB Ben Finley beat them.
The X-factor in it all is Kent State’s special teams with the ever dangerous return threat of Da’Realyst Clark. Kent State must make a splash play on special teams, and at the very least, avoid the big mistake, and capitalize should the Zips make a mistake.
ON AIR:
The game will be televised on ESPNU at 7:30pm with Chuckie Kemp and Darius Walker on the call.
Kent State radio will have it covered on AM 1350 with the pregame show at 6:30pm with Dane Richardson and Rob Polinsky on the call.