The unofficial online home for fans of the Kent State University Golden Flashes. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

Insider has a long analysis of every DI football team. To give you some indication of the detail - it's ten printed pages. Since the site no longer allows saves or copies, I'll post grades and highlights here with quotes from Martin.

Offense: B (This was written before Cribbs' situation was resolved)
Defense: D+ :(
Special Teams: C+
Intangibles: B
Bottom line is that they think we have a shot at third in the East with Cribbs' return.

Quote:Cribbs is obviously the key. If he comes back, the Golden Flashes can build on last year's improvement and move forward.
Dowrey will make plays for anyone and the rest of the receiving corp is solid.
The OL can hold its own.
Mayle can deliver in the clutch, and the Flashes will have some close games.
The defense almost has to get better just because of individual talent and experience. Some new faces and ideas on the sidelines will help.
Look to see more defensive zone and less blitz.
Moving back to a 3-4 on defense

Based on call outs from Martin, look to see a lot more of these guys (leaving out the obvious here like Mahl and Young):

Smith at WR when he isn't playing QB
Tom Sitko, a RS frosh QB. (Martin seems to really like him. Nice size at 6-2, 230)
Kevin Beverly ( FIDO, didn't you talk about him, too)
Rasheed McClaude, true frosh RB
Najab Pruden as a deep threat at split end
Jon Drager moves from DB to WR. ( He is IKESHALLRETURN's guy.) I didn't know he ran for over 2,000 yards his senior year in HS and was second in PA in TD's.
Jon Sessler at LB ( Martin said he had the best spring of anyone on defense)
Barry Drakeford at DB'

Interesting quotes from Martin:

Quote: We came out of the spring with maybe the three best running backs in the league.

We've got the ability to throw the ball deep, but we are going to make our living throwing underneath to everybody.

Speed is the number one thing we are recruiting.

(Regarding Criibbs) In the past, everyone wanted him to throw the football. Then he became so much more dangerous to defend because he proved he could.

Should be a very interesting season!

I really think the defense is better than a D+. They have to be taking past performance into account. A change of attitude/coaches will go along way in the improvement. Letting guys like Sessler let loose within the lines of the system is going to be fun to watch.

I am glad to see Martin talking positive about Sitko. When he first came in I was not impressed by anything but his size. I thought they would move him to TE. But it does take some time for QBs to develop and he does have a strong arm ... a change up to Cribbs/Smith will be great.

I completely agree we have great athletes at RB. McClaude was redshirted, Beverly had a decent freshman year, and Alston needs to stay healthy. They all bring a little something different ... Alston is lightning quick, Beverly is fast and powerful, and McClaude is a combo but a little more like Beverly. Also excited to see Drager on offense. He played ok on defense but his best play of the year won the game at Akron, an unbelievable punt return to set up a field goal.

One of the best thing's about Martins offense when he came was how he loved to throw deep. It is a little bit of a distraction because he does use the underneath routes a lot more. There are plays where you just knew going deep was the only option, and Cribbs would just rear back and gun it. I recall one day in winter conditioning when he first arrived when he had all the QBs on the goal line just throwing deep ball after deep ball, and he was giving them tips. That is when I knew things were changing.

August 10th .... camp starts!

I think this team will be a lot like the Jose Davis led teams in the mid-to-late-90's We will see a TON of scoring from both sides of the ball. That's how smaller programs win. Lots of yards in the air. Plus a mobile QB and half decent running. The scoreboard operator is gonna earn his pay this year.

Seems like Martin agrees with you, radioboy.

[quote]The Flashes return 19 starters from their team that went 5-7, 4-4 in the MAC. Senior quarterback Josh Cribbs is one of those starters, after being reinstated to play with a one-game suspension.

Cribbs’ top target, Darrell Dowery Jr., and running back David Alston are also back. Alston struggled with injuries each of the last two seasons, only playing a combined nine games. The returning options should allow Martin to add production to an offense that improved by 10 points and almost 100 yards per game. Martin said he plans to throw the ball even more than last year.

“Having a year in the system now, in particular our quarterback, will have an even better chance of throwing the ball and feeling a little more comfortable in the system,