Thoughts and Grades from Kent State

Editors Note: I was this close to letting Conrads new, and wonderful, post game meal stand as our weekly post game wrap up. Conrad asked that I share in the pain, so here it is. This is the last time this season I will devote any serious effort to the Kent game.

Grades: Everyone But Branden Oliver, Alex Neutz, and Khalil Mack get an F.

Oliver get's an incomplete. He was on his way to another A despite the fact the Bulls have no passing game. Honestly the fact he managed anything given the face Kent lived in the box was worthy of an A... Ok scratch the incomplete and give Branden an A-. If he shows up for class against UConn we will bump that to an A.

Mack gets an A. He did not play a perfect game but in the second half Khalil Mack was the only thing worth watching on either side of the Ball.

Neutz gets a B. He was fantastic on the Hail Mary but was not getting a ton of separation from Kents very limited defensive backfield (most of the guys were in the Box).

The coaching staff gets an F--, yes an F-minus-minus.

Weather it was the unoriginal play calling or the unbelievably bad game situation decisions UB's players were hung out to dry by the coaches.

I'd like to think I am not a conservative person when it comes to sports. I love going for in on fourth down! But with nine minutes left, when you're within two scores, you don't go for a fourth and 10 from your own 40 yard line. That was, and I kid you not, the worst play call of the Jeff Quinn era.

Alex Zordich seriously regressed and it did not help that even when he was on his receivers were killing him. Of course after having the ball thrown three feet over their head all day maybe the shock of a catch-able ball distracted them from the task of... well.. catching the ball.

Receivers ran the wrong routes half the time and even when they ran the right routes the call was so predictable they were blanketed.

I suppose that maybe Devin Campbell and Brandon Murie deserve some credit for in game improvement. When they first went in they were *literally* just running into the line. By the end of the game, perhaps because Kent softened their defense, they were mildly effective.

Defensively our backfield was porous. Every one of them seemed a step behind the play and unable tackle well most of the time.

I've been saying Kent is a good team, maybe good enough to win 7 or more games this year. The problem is we sill play Toledo, NIU, WMU, UConn, Pitt, and Ohio. All of these teams are better then Kent (maybe not Pitt). Right there were talking eight losses.

We play Miami and Bowling Green who may not be winners this season but sure look better than we have.

Finally there is UMass, and that game scares me badly! Do you remember losing to Akron in 2010. A Winless Akron team got to hang their hat on winning their final home game. This season UMass finished with Buffalo and then CMU. I'd hate to be the only win that UMass registers this year.

Absolute best case scenario this year is not 4 wins, five if we up and surprise someone. Anything other than that would be only because the team does a complete 180.