The Kent State football season moves on this week with a trip to SEC Country to take on the #7 nationally ranked Tennessee Volunteers at 7:45pm in a game to be televised by the SEC Network.
The Flashes will look to bounce back from their disappointing loss to FCS St. Francis on Saturday 23-17. In order to do so Saturday and all season, they will have to get off to better starts in games. Getting off to poor starts for a young football team with a history of losing can be detrimental to a group as they will start to question themselves and their ability. On the flip side good starts can increase confidence and belief.
Kent State and their coaching staff must be ready for what an opposing team might be doing to them early on in the game according to Kent State Head Coach Kenni Burns.
“I think the bigger thing is making sure our guys have a good grasp on the understanding of what the team were playing is going to do,” Burns said Monday at his press conference. “They (St. Francis) came out and they obviously watched the Pitt game. There a team that had been a team that huddled that did not go up tempo and they came out the first drive and they go fast, they go up tempo and now they’re doing things that we weren’t prepared for.”
Kent State and its fan base are hoping that Saturday’s embarrassing loss can be a positive for the Flashes, in terms of them learning, growing and improving. Burns and his staff are staying the course and looking to improve. After all, that’s all you can do.
“We’re not looking for a quick fix,” Burns said. “I know people are frustrated in the fan base and all that stuff but for us here as coaches, we’re staying the course. We believe in what we believe in. We know the administration is backing but what we believe in. They know what we’re doing. We went out and recruited a lot of young players. We didn’t replace them with transfer kids, we replaced them with other freshmen, and young guys. And we got to build those guys up. We got to teach them how to play, how to win, how to warm up, how to take on a game and how to develop. So we’re staying the course and we’re going to do what we do and find ways to do it better.”
I don’t think fans are looking for a quick fix. They understand the situation that Burns inherited. But they are looking for improvement, and they expect the team to beat an FCS team at home. And it’s OK for them to question things. Some of the people questioning what is going on with the team are some of their biggest supporters. People that spend their hard earned money, and give up their time to support their football team. The worst thing you can have as a fan base in apathy. So the fact that people care is a good thing.
Truth be told, Kent State shouldn’t be evaluated in these next two games against Tennessee and Penn State. The next fair evaluation will come September 28 against Eastern Michigan on Homecoming, and another good chance for the Kent GRIT program to make an impression on their community.