September 4, 2012

Jeremy Birmingham
KentStateReport.com Staff Writer

It's 542 miles from Towson, Maryland to Lexington, Kentucky, and this Saturday when Kent State takes the field against the Wildcats of the SEC, that distance might seem like nothing compared to the difference in competition on the playing field.

In Kent State's 41-21 victory over Towson State a week ago, the Flashes capitalized on six Tiger turnovers to cover up their own offensive inadequacies. This weekend against Kentucky, the underdog shoe will be squarely on the other foot.

For Darrell Hazell and his coaching staff, it's a matter of trying to maintain their identity while walking into the belly of the BCS automatic qualifying beast. To do that, his staff is making sure they aren't trying to reinvent the wheel, despite a lackluster offensive game a week ago. "I watched it in my office, the defensive staff was watching it together," Hazell said about how the team prepared for Kentucky with a few extra days rest. "We had it on on in the coaches room last night. It definitely helps, you can see some signals you can't typically see on regular game film, the way they shuffle people in and out." Kentucky (0-1) struggled in their own right against in-state rival Louisville on Sunday afternoon, despite gaining 373 yards of total offense (their best total since the first game of November last year). The loss to the hated Cardinals has had a season-impacting effect on Kentucky teams in the past; and head coach Joker Phillips is trying to make sure that doesn't happen this time around. His team will be ready for their home opener.

"It was easy today," Phillips said about returning attention to Kent State. "It is a long season and we still have a lot of games to be played. Today wasn't hard at all. I think the attitude is good. I like the locker room. I just don't like how we executed all the time on the field (on Sunday)."

Part of that poor execution was on the defensive side of the ball; as one Kent State media member advised Hazell about during his Monday press conference. He mentioned that all four of Louisville's touchdown runs were to the right side of the defense. Hazell, for his part, had missed that.

"I didn't notice that?but..I appreciate the help (Laughing)," Hazell said. "We're studying the film and we're figuring out the best things that we can do to hopefully be successful."

A major part of being successful for Kent State is an improvement in the running game, which mustered only 101 yards on 38 carries against the FCS Tigers.

"In a perfect world, we'd like to give the ball to this guy (Trayion Durham) 30 times, and still give the ball to Dri Archer 12 times. If the game was closer last week he (Durham) was probably gonna get another 8-10 carries. The strength of our offense is going to be running the football."

Durham himself noticed that he wasn't himself against Towson State. Kent State's leading rusher as a freshman in 2011, Durham only managed 54 yards on 20 carries.

"I need go through my reads a lot faster, and hit the holes instead of just dancing," Durham said. "I just need to go."

The meeting between Kent State and Kentucky on Saturday night will be the seventh meeting between the two schools, and Kentucky has won the all six of the previous matchups. The most recent meeting, in 2007, saw a dominant 56-20 Kentucky victory. Overall, Kentucky is 26-7-1 against the Mid-American Conference. The Wildcats are 92-23-6 in home openers in their history, and have won their last six dating back to 2005. The 'Cats will honor all military, fire, police and other first-responder personnel with "Heroes' Day" inside of the stadium.

Kent State's Archer was named MAC Eastern Division Special Teams Player of the Week for his 2 kick return, 155 yard effort (including a 98 yard touchdown) against Towson State last week.