The Flashes football team is a quarter of the way through their season, and somehow, they look worse than last year, when they were 1-11, with that one win being against an FCS opponent.
Three games into head coach Kenni Burns’ second year, here’s where the Flashes ranked amongst major statistical categories: dead last in yards per game (201.3), 123rd of 134 teams in passing yards per game (147), 132nd in rushing yards per game (54.3), and 128th in points per game (13.7). Add up all those rankings, and their average offensive rank for those four stats is 129.25. No team has a lower average.
Somehow, it gets worse on the defensive side. Kent State is last in yards allowed per game (569.7), 121st in passing yards allowed per game (281.7), last in rushing yards allowed per game (288), and last in points allowed per game (49.7). Their average rank defensively is 130.25. Again, the lowest average. Odds are the upcoming road trip to face No. 10 Penn State (2-0, 0-0) in front of over 100,000 fans is not going to help improve these stats.
Game Recaps
In their first game, the Flashes traveled to Acrisure Stadium to play the Pittsburgh Panthers (3-0, 0-0) as 23.5-point underdogs. Kent State went down 28-7, but showed fight, cutting the score to 28-21 in the third quarter. After Kent kicked a field goal later on to make the score 35-24, the Panthers scored the game’s final 20 points on their way to a 55-24 victory.
Though they lost by 31, the fight the Flashes showed late in the second quarter and into the third quarter had fans believing that this team was different from last year’s. Those fans were proven wrong seven days later.
In the home opener against Saint Francis (1-2, 0-1) of the FCS, Kent State again started poorly, going down 17-0 early in the second quarter. They were able to cut the lead to 20-14 at halftime, but they were not able to cut it any further and eventually lost 23-17.
Last Saturday, back on the road, Kent State was part of a historic game for the at the time No. 7 Volunteers of Tennessee (3-0, 0-0). The spread was 49.5, and it was covered. The amazing part was how quickly it was covered. It took the Vols just over 23 minutes to cover that 49.5-point spread. The Flashes were down 65-0 at halftime and lost 71-0 whilst giving up 740 yards of offense. Over 500 of those came in the first half.
Biggest Problems
Obviously, there’s a lack of talent in the program, however, the players are not all to blame. The offense hasn’t necessarily been given great play calls. Similar to last year, most passing plays are either way too deep or way too short. There is no intermediate game in the 5-12 yard range. A two-yard run on first down leads to an overthrown deep ball on second down which is followed up by a 3-yard flat route on third down.
The play calling does not put the team in the best position to succeed. A deep ball is good now and then, but not on second and long. It’s a low percentage play, so odds are you’re setting yourself up for third and long. Second and short is prime time for a deep ball, but there aren’t many opportunities.
The Flashes have had 44 second down opportunities when the game is within 24 points. Of those 44 times, a second and three or less has only occurred 10 times, which means about 77.28% of the time, Kent State is setting themselves up with second and medium or long.
20 of those 44 second downs have been second and ten or more. What does that mean statistically? It means that when the Flashes face any given second down, it is twice as likely that they find themselves with second and ten or more that it is for them to find themselves with a second and three or less.
To dive even deeper, eight of those 20 second downs where the Flashes have faced ten or more, have been more. Some of those have been on penalties. There have been times where they have gained yards on first down, but a penalty set them back to a second and 10+ situation. Nonetheless, those eight out of 44 second downs that have been longer than ten yards account for nearly 20% of their second down situations, almost the same as the 22.73% of the time that they have second and short.
The drive is essentially already over when Kent faces a second and 10 or more. When they gain nothing or lose yards on first down, they pick up the first down just 20% of the time. However, when the Flashes face a second and less than ten, of any distance, they have picked up a first down 14 out of 24 times, nearly 60%. Just by simply going forward, the odds of picking up a first down nearly triple
The point still stands. The play calling does not set the team up for success. The offense is very predictable, with either a very short pass or a handoff often occurring on first down. With that said, the players haven’t exactly done their part either.
When thinking about players who have underperformed, redshirt junior quarterback Devin Kargman is one the first names that comes to mind. Yes, maybe the play call on third and eight shouldn’t have been a quick throw to the tight end in the flat, but an accurate throw would at least give the play a chance.
Kargman has thrown his fair share of inaccurate throws this season, and his stats show it. He has a completion rate of 55.6%, which is 112th in the country and averages just 5.3 yards per attempt. To his credit, he has only thrown two interceptions on the year.
Preseason All-MAC receiver Chrishon McCray has been quiet as well. Though his 12 catches for 121 yards aren’t terrible, he has not met expectations. He is not even statistically the best receiver on the team.
The offensive line has been decent in the passing game as Kargman has been sacked just five times, but the run blocking has been awful. The Flashes’ leading rusher is senior Ky Thomas, who has 89 yards on 36 carries for an average of 2.5 yards per carry. As a team, Kent State averages 1.7 yards per carry.
The team’s third down efficiency is atrocious as well. They have come up on 42 third downs this year and converted 7 of them. That is yet another category where they rank last in the country.
Defensively, it’s hard to find a bright spot. 569.7 yards. That’s an incredible amount of yards to be giving up each game. There’s just not much to say about it. After giving up 24 of 48 third down attempts to their opponents, Kent State has earned itself a spot in the bottom ten of the FBS in the defensive third downs category. The 24 conversions given up are the second most in the country.
The Flashes are in the bottom third of the FBS in opponent fourth down percentage and only 10 teams have given up more conversions than them.
Scarce Bright Spots
Graduate student Luke Floriea has been the Flashes’ best receiver. He has caught 15 passes for 209 yards and two touchdowns. He has done what he can to make himself available to Kargman. He is generally sure-handed and tough to bring down after the catch. Add it all up and the result is the team’s leading receiver.
Though the offense has many struggles, they have gotten better with turnovers each game. They turned it over twice against Pittsburgh, once against Saint Francis, and zero times against Tennessee. In each game, the opponent has turned the ball over the same number of times as Kent has. Of the 107 FBS teams that have played three games to this point, only 33 of them have turned the ball over less than Kent State.
What may be the best team statistic for the Flashes is the penalties. They have committed just nine penalties for 55 yards through three games, less than what some teams do in one game. They rank second in the nation for least penalties per game and penalty yards per game. The season certainly hasn’t started how they wanted, but they have been very impressive in the penalty department.
With that said, usually when a team ranks as low as Kent State does in major offensive and defensive categories, it’s because they shoot themselves in the foot with a surplus of turnovers and penalties. The Flashes have kept those numbers down, meaning they can’t even point to penalties and turnovers as a major factor in this forgettable start to the season.
Despite being horrendous on third down, the Flashes are solid on fourth down, converting three of six attempts this season.
Andrew Glass, the senior kicker, was 15 of 17 last season and six of seven from over 40 yards last season. This season, however, he is just two of four, though his two misses did come from 40 and 51 yards. He is typically reliable and is still viewed as such despite a poor percentage at the moment.
The biggest positive for Kent State is that after the matchup with Penn State, conference play begins. All of the non conference disasters can be put behind them. The Flashes are swimming at the bottom of most statistical categories, but they are even with everyone in the Mid-American Conference standings and still will be no matter what happens in Beaver Stadium.
Looking Ahead
After the road trip to Happy Valley, Kent State will return to Dix Stadium to kick off conference play with their homecoming matchup against the Eastern Michigan Eagles (2-1, 0-0) on Sept 26. Though the record looks good for Eastern Michigan, their two wins have come against UMass and Jacksonville State, a pair of 0-3 teams.
The Flashes will then have their first of two bye weeks before playing again at home on Oct. 12, this time against the Ball State Cardinals (1-1, 0-0). In their first game, the Cardinals had to come back from a 14-7 deficit against Southeast Missouri State of the FCS. The fourth quarter featured 48 combined points, but it was Ball State winning 42-34. The Cardinals then lost 62-0 to Miami (3-0, 0-0) who was ranked No. 10 at the time.
The three and a half weeks Kent State will spend at home between the Penn State and Bowling Green (1-1, 0-0) games will be the longest amount of time they have spent off the road since before the season started. Perhaps the time at home will help the team.
Kenni Burns inherited a difficult situation when he took the job as the head coach. Last season, the fans seemed to be pretty understanding. He at least beat FCS Central Connecticut State. This year however, the loss to Saint Francis was an early sign of regression and fans are not pleased.
With any program, if there is consistent progress, the head coach should stay because it will only be a matter of time before the program is where it wants to be. This season in conference play, Burns needs to make some progress by grabbing a minimum of two wins. It may not seem like it, but there are some teams in the conference that the Flashes can beat and yes, two wins should be considered progress, especially after going winless against MAC opponents last year.