Kent State welcomes in St. Francis Saturday for the 2024 home opener at Dix Stadium. Kick off is set for 2:30pm. The Flashes will look to show progress and bounce back from their 55-24 setback last week at Pittsburgh.
Offensively, the Flashes will look to establish a running game that was held in check by the Panthers. Getting Ky Thomas going early and often behind a young but improving offensive line will be key. If the Flashes can establish the run, that will help set up their play action and RPO pass game. Getting off schedule early and not being able to run the ball were key in the Flashes going just 3/17 on third down conversions against Pitt with an average yard to go on third down of 9.8.
Getting the ball to playmakers will be key as Thomas, Chrishon McCray and Luke Floriea need touches to make the offense go. Look for Kent State to get back to their no huddling style and signaling the plays in from the sideline. The Flashes huddled up at Pittsburgh because an ex KSU staffer was on the Pittsburgh staff and they knew the offensive signals. Calling plays at the line allows offensive coordinator Mark Carney to adjust, look at the defense and put the Flashes in the right play.
Devin Kargman will look to build on his start to the season after earning the respect of all his teammates after the gutsy performance he had at Pitt, taking big hit after big hit.
“I thought, if anything out of the game, there was a lot of negatives and i was down on a lot of things, the coaching, myself and our players but the one thing I’ll say is I was really proud of that kid,” Kent State Head Coach Kenni Burns said. “He didn’t flinch. He’s like ‘we’re right back in this thing, let’s go’, he told the defense ‘give me the ball back’ and that’s the Devin that I know now. That’s the guy he is. He’s got to keep building off of it, battling, he’s in there watching tape trying to find ways to beat St. Francis and I’m very comfortable with that guy being the quarterback right now and I know he’s going to respond and be better. He knows he can play better and I think he’s going to respond and do what he needs to do this week.”
Defensively, the Flashes need to continue to be opportunistic and create takeaways. Burns said they left some “meat on the bone” in week one with a chance to make several more big plays that they didn’t make. Being sound in alignment and assignment, taking away big plays, limiting the missed tackles and takeaways will be points of emphasis Saturday and all season moving forward.
But the biggest thing the Flashes need to do is play together and play complimentary football. If the defense creates a takeaway, the offense needs to capitalize with points. If the offense makes a mistake, the defense can’t hold their head. If something bad happens in the game, and it will, the Flashes response mechanism must be on point. Complimentary football and how the team responds this year are major themes going forward. Kent State watched film as a team Sunday as Burns tries to drive the point home with his still, very young football team.
“We watched the game as a whole team,” Burns said. “Typically you split offense-defense, you split into your position groups and you really break the film down but I think our team has to understand complimentary football and that’s no disrespect to the people or the staff that was here before me but we were really one sided, it was the offense score points and the defense if you’re going to get scored on, get scored on as quick as possible. That’s not what we’re trying to do. That’s not to me championship caliber football. The offense has to work with the defense and the special teams has to be the bridge that brings it together. Saturday we did not do that. We got closer the second half but we’re not there yet. We have to understand how it all works together so our response mechanism was better but it still wasn’t where it needs to be.”
It’s a Gold Out at Dix Stadium as the first 1,500 fans will receive replica gold jerseys. It’s also Parents and Family Day, along with Greek Day. The game will be televised on ESPN+.