Sun Feb 12 2012
By David Carducci | Staff writer
How big a concern is Kent State’s offensive line?
Immediately after a convincing 41-10 win over Murray State in last week’s season opener, the Golden Flashes’ run blocking was the only area to stir almost universal criticism from the coaches, fans and media.
In his postgame press conference, KSU head coach Doug Martin said his line “has to be more physical in the run game.”
By Monday, however, Martin didn’t seem quite so uneasy. Several days of studying the game film had forged a different opinion.
“We actually blocked pretty well up front,” he said. “It was more that ... Murray came in here with the gameplan of not letting us run. They did have eight and nine men at the line of scrimmage a lot.”
That commitment to shutting down KSU’s runners is a big reason why Flashes quarterback Spencer Keith was named the Mid-American Conference Offensive Player of the Week for his 24-for-35, 275-yard, three-touchdown performance.
The Flashes’ running game managed a respectable 137 net yards on 39 attempts.
But that number is somewhat deceptive considering Keith’s 17-yard scramble on a broken pass play and a 19-yard run by personal protector Brian Lainhart on a fake punt. Take those two plays away and KSU’s rushing total was 101 yards on 37 attempts — an average of 2.7-yards per carry.
Yes, it is difficult to run the football when a defense commits eight or nine defenders in the box. But against a Football Championship Subdivision team that traditionally has difficulties defending the run (105th in the nation in FCS last year) and played without its defensive leader (injured defensive lineman Lamar Theus), running the football shouldn’t have been so difficult.
“At times, we were hard-headed and just handed the ball off anyway,” Martin said, referring back to Murray State’s decision to overload against the run. “It was really their unblocked safeties who were making the tackle. We actually blocked their front pretty good, but there is always going to be an extra player when they commit that many players to stopping the run.
“The disappointing thing to me on that is we didn’t make that guy miss very often,” Martin said. “I think we have the caliber of running backs who should be able to make one guy miss in the open field. A couple of times, we made some bad cuts and hit it up inside when we should have taken the ball outside.”
Running back Jacquise Terry agreed with Martin’s assessment. Terry made several defenders miss, as he scored two touchdowns as a receiver, but as a running back he averaged just 2.7 yards on nine attempts.
Starting running back Eugene Jarvis posted what Martin called a “pretty respectable” 4.1 per carry average, but 20 of those 45 yards came on an early first-quarter run. Take away that one play, and the back with the most career rushing yards in the nation among active players, averaged just 2.5 per carry the rest of the game.
“We could have definitely helped our offensive linemen out,” said Terry. “With the talent we have in the backfield, there’s no way we should have that (few) rushing yards. We can’t blame everything on the O-line. We just have to go with our first instinct, try to hit the hole harder and try to break tackles and make explosion plays.”
It’s a good bet Boston College’s defensive gameplan on Saturday will be quite a bit different from Murray State’s. The Eagles are big enough and experienced that they won’t feel the need to load up the line of scrimmage against a mid-major program like Kent State.
KSU should know more about its offensive line after watching it matchup man-to-man against one of the ACC’s better defensive fronts. Technically, the Flashes’ line will have a bit of a size advantage, averaging 298.6-pounds in its starting unit. The Eagles don’t have the same big bodies they’ve had in the past, averaging 290 pounds at the defensive tackle position. Their starting defensive ends average 254.
Boston College’s biggest advantage may be its experience against KSU’s senior-free offensive line. Starting tackles Brian Winters and Kent Cleveland are both sophomores. Right guard Tyler Arend is a redshirt freshman. The veterans in the group are center Chris Anzevino and left guard Michael Fay, who are both juniors.
“This is going to be a big test for us,” said Martin.
Fortunately, Kent State’s offensive line may have a little more help on Saturday. Josh Kline was declared academically eligible by the NCAA prior to last week’s Murray State win. The 6-foot-3, 304-pound sophomore ended up seeing limited action in the opener, blocking on field goals and extra points, while redshirt freshman Arend saw his first college action as the starter at right guard.
On Monday, Kline was listed No. 2 on the depth chart, but Martin said he would be worked in with the first team during practice this week.
“We definitely want Josh to go compete for the job,” said Martin. “The nice thing about him is he can play several different positions for us. He really can play all of the positions. He’s done a lot of center and guard, and we may even use him a little bit at (left) tackle behind Brian Winters. Josh is a very valuable player. We get him back, but it’s like we really got two players back because he is so versatile and able to play different positions.”
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Contact David Carducci at dcarducci@recordpub.com
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