 When Kent State Head Coach Doug Martin leads the Golden Flashes onto the field at Cleveland Browns Stadium against Atlantic Coast Conference power Boston College Saturday night in the second FirstMerit Patriot Bowl, he is hoping there is some truth to the old adage about lightning striking twice.
Last season in their opener Kent State went to Ames, Iowa and shocked the Big 12's Iowa State Cyclones, 23-14. The win was KSU’s first over a BCS school since 1987 when they defeated Kansas, also on the road. This year they will be looking for their first win against ACC opposition since 1975 when they defeated Virginia Tech at Dix Stadium, 17-11
The Golden Flashes look to rebound from a tough 2007. They opened the season winning two of their first three games but a 27-20 loss in their MAC opener to bitter rival Akron started Kent State on a tail spin that saw them lose seven straight games and eight of their last nine to finish at 3-9 overall and just 1-7 in MAC play.
“We had a great summer camp, probably the best camp as far as competition, definitely as being a healthy football team and in depth. I think we have a lot more depth than what we had. We are really looking forward to this football game,” Martin said when he addressed the media this past Monday.
Kent State brings back sixteen starters collectively. Offensively, they have six returning starters led by first team all-MAC running back Eugene Jarvis.
The junior from Pittsburgh rushed for a school record 1,669 yards and 10 touchdowns in 2007. He had nine 100-yard rushing games, including five straight to open the season, culminating with his 230-yard two touchdown performance at Ohio.
In addition, Jarvis caught 23 passes for 306 yards and three scores. When everything added up at the end of the season, Jarvis totaled 1,975 yards in total offense and 13 total touchdowns.
Jarvis comes into 2008 as the leading returning rusher in all of the Football Bowl Subdivision with those 1,669 yards. He begins the season sixth on Kent State’s all-time rushing list with 2,467 yards.
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| Kent State senior QB Julian Edelman |
The man at the controls of the offense is senior quarterback Julian Edelman. The native of Redwood City, California started the first eight games in 2007, but saw his season cut short after breaking his right arm against Bowling Green on October 20. Edelman had initially injured his arm in the loss at Kentucky back earlier in September.
Edelman looks to recapture the brilliance that saw him named KSU’s offensive player of the year and second team All-MAC quarterback in 2006 when he completed 55 percent of his passes for 1,859 yards and 10 touchdowns.
In eight games last year, Edelman completed just 51,9 percent of his passes for 1,318 yards and only seven touchdowns compared to nine interceptions.
In his two seasons since coming to Kent State from the College of San Mateo (CA), Edelman has passed for 3,177 yards (sixth on the Flashes all-time list), 17 touchdowns (sixth overall), a 53.8 completion percentage (fifth) and 4,290 total yards (fifth overall).
When asked about Edelman, Martin remarked, “He is playing the best football since he has been here particularly throwing the football where we have to get better if we are going to be a decent offense”
Even though this is the Flashes’ first ever game at Cleveland Browns Stadium, they are not foreign to the North Coast. They played twice in old Cleveland Municipal Stadium in 1975 (losing to Bowling Green 35-9) and in 1976 (defeating Air Force 24-19)
The Patriot Bowl clash will be a battle of friends as both Martin and Boston College head coach Jeff Jagodzinski were on the same staff at East Carolina under Steve Logan who is currently serving as Jagodzinzki’s offensive coordinator at BC.
Martin said of Jagodzinski ‘Even though he was a real young offensive line coach (at ECU) you knew he was going to move up fast!”
The Eagles are coming off of a phenomenal 2007 season that saw them win their first eight games and reach second in the polls. Losses to Florida State and Clemson ended any chance the Eagles would have had to make it to the BCS Championship Game but they did capture the ACC Atlantic Division and a birth in the Championship Game (losing to Virginia Tech 30-16) and defeated Michigan State in the Champs Sports Bowl 24-21. They finished the season 11-3, the school’s first 11-win season since 1940 and were 10th in the final Associated Press poll and 11th in the ESPN-USA Today poll.
This season the Eagles will have a new face leading the offense as Quarterback Matt Ryan has left and gone on to the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons. It is hard to replace someone who in his four years at Chestnut Hill passed for 9,313 yards and 56 touchdowns. Those 9,313 passing yards rank third all-time at BC behind Doug Flutie and Glenn Foley.
The new man under center is senior Chris Crane who was Ryan’s backup last season and played in nine games. Jagodzinski said of Crane “Every guy at some point is going to be a starter. This is Chris Crane’s turn. When you are a backup, you never have the chance to lead a team or run it in practice. It is his team now.”
The Eagles bring back six starters on offense led by senior tight end Ryan Purvis who caught 53 passes a season ago for 553 yards and four touchdowns and wide receiver Rich Gunnell who had 64 receptions in 2007 for 931 yards and seven scores.
NOTES: The game will be the first ever meeting between the two schools and will be nationally televised on ESPNU…Kent State is 2-4 lifetime against the ACC (1-2 vs. North Carolina State and 1-2 vs. Virginia Tech)...Kent State’s first ever ‘home’ game against the ACC…Kent State begins its 86th season of intercollegiate football (34-44-7 lifetime in season openers)…In the 2007 FirstMerit Patriot Bowl, Akron defeated Army 22-14…Boston College is 62-44-3 in season openers and 41-9-2 lifetime against the MAC (2-0 vs. Ball State, 1-0 vs. Bowling Green, 6-2 vs. Buffalo, 2-0 vs. Central Michigan, 1-0 vs. Northern Illinois, 0-1 vs. Ohio, 28-7-2 vs. Temple, 1-0 vs. Toledo)..BC last faced the MAC on the road August 31, 2006 defeating Central Michigan 31-24. |
