BC-Kent State preview

The question of Year 1 was could Jags win with TOB’s players. The question of Year 2 is can Jags win despite the gaps TOB left behind. We start getting answers Saturday night.

Kent State is an ideal team to start the season. While technically a road game, the game will be played in the Browns Stadium in Cleveland. The setting has two advantages:
1. Our players are more familiar with big stages.
2. If the game is close, the half-filled, sanitized environment won’t have the same intensity that Kent State would generate at their home field.

I hope the team uses this as a nice building block to start a memorable campaign.


Narrative talking point that you’ll tire of by the end of the game. “Kent State running back Eugene Jarvis is really short.” Jarvis is 5’5 and looks even smaller when surrounded by his fellow DIA football players. Although he was not highly recruited, Jarvis was far from a under the radar high school player. He tore up the Pittsburgh Catholic League. Big programs were reluctant to give him a shot because he was so small. However, the MAC Thumbelina’s size won’t matter after kickoff. Kent State will either move the ball or they won’t…regardless of his size. My fear is we’ll be hearing how small he is the whole game.

Three simple keys
1. Contain Jarvis. Kent State isn’t expected to air it out. If we stop Jarvis (say hold him to less than 70 yards), we should control the tempo and scoring.
2. Establish the run. Although we had a few games where the team broke 100 yards on the ground last year, it was never easy or methodical. I would like to see us use a combination of the zone-stretch run, a few Crane options and a draw or two to get some confidence in the running game. Our offensive line style is supposed to excel in running the ball. We need to start leveraging that scheme this weekend.
3. Protect the ball. The turnover stories from the scrimmages gave me indigestion. Let’s hope it is out of the system. Each time we turn it over it will be a confidence blow to us and a boon for the Flashes.

Gambling Notes
-- BC is 8-2 in their last ten season openers
-- BC is 3-4 in games played in Ohio
-- BC has only lost once to a MAC team (I don't count Temple or Buffalo's preMAC days)
The current line is BC-10

Factoid
There are now 120 schools playing DIA football. By checking Kent State off the list, BC will have played 64 of them.

Scoreboard Watching
The team we need to follow will be Georgia Tech. But there game is Thursday. So on Saturday pay attention to the Central Florida score. They are just around the corner and it will be interesting to see if their offense takes a step back.

I hope to see…
A conservative, well-played game with mistake free special teams. This doesn’t have to be a message game. Just get out of Cleveland with a clean win.

BC is in trouble if…
Crane turns the ball over early. Matt Ryan threw a pick 6 to start last season. We still won. If Crane does it here, I think the hole will be a little deeper.

Bottom Line
Last year’s opener told us a lot about Jags, Matt Ryan and the season we were about to have. I think this game might tell us as much about this year’s team. Let’s hope it is a solid start. There is no reason BC should lose. We have more talent, experience and have a coaching edge (the master-pupil dynamic with Logan and Martin). I think the defense contains things and while the offense won’t look like Matt Ryan, they play well enough for BC to control the game.
Final Score: BC 27, Kent State 13

Phil Steele’s Cliffs Notes: Kent State

While the national media expects very little from Kent State, Phil Steele is somewhat bullish on the Golden Flashes. College Football’s contrarian expects them to finish third in their division and bounce back from their lousy 2007.

Since Steele specializes in his own formulas, facts and figures and skips some of the narrative fluff that fills the other preview magazines, I thought I would share the data that stood out to me.


Nuggets and notes of interest
-- Kent State has decent experience: eight offensive starters return and eight defensive starters return. They also have 43 other lettermen returning.
-- They had a -11 turnover margin last year meaning they were somewhat unlucky last year and potentially better than their 2007 record.
-- They’ve been awful in odd numbered years (3-9 in 2007, 1-10 in 2005) and decent in even numbered years (6-6 in 2006 and 5-6 in 2004).
-- The Golden Flashes return their top three rushers, their top three receivers and three of their four leading tacklers.
-- The MAC school is 1-7 vs BCS teams
-- They haven’t played a neutral site game in eight years
-- Steele projects KSU to be among the most improved in points scored (15th in his ranking)
-- Steele’s strength of schedule formula has them at 111th nationally
-- They are 82nd in his power rankings
-- They were 82nd in his 2007 special teams rating


BC connections: Their Head Coach Doug Martin coached with Jags and Logan at East Carolina. Their backup Quarterback is Anthony Magazu – brother of current BC wide receiver Dom Magazu and son of former BC offensive line coach Dave Magazu.

Kent State scouting reports and other links

Here is a pretty comprehensive look at Kent State from the New York Times. I did not realize their head coach Doug Martin worked under Steve Logan at ECU. Should make game planning a little easier.

Like last season, Rivals is ranking all the teams in college football. Kent State comes in at 113.

Explain how this works: Logan is considered a Top 20 offensive coordinator. Spaz is considered a Top 20 defensive coordinator. Jags is nowhere to be found on this list.

Sailing came up just a little short in their bid to win three titles in one week.

One house keeping note: someone sent me an email today with a subject line regarding BC tickets. Unfortunately it went to my Span folder and I deleted it before I had the chance to open. Sorry. If it was important, please send it again.

Kent State game will be televised!

Fear not those who cannot get to Cleveland for Labor Day weekend, the Kent State game will be on TV. The game is set for prime time on ESPN U.

I know some die hard sports fans hoped to create their own baseball/football double header by going to the Indians game too. The Tribe plays Seattle at 3:55 PM. You could probably catch seven innings before having to walk over to the Browns stadium in time for kickoff.

One more observation...with all the talk of conferences creating their own networks, there hasn't been much speculation about the ACC. At this point I don't think it is needed. We have the ACC network -- it's called ESPN U. They seemingly pick up any ACC football or basketball game they can get their hands on.