Friday, September 06, 2002
Golden Flashes relish shot at Ohio State
By RUSTY MILLER
AP Sports Writer
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Kent State coach Dean Pees wants his players to enjoy the moment but not be awed by it.
With more than 100,000 expected at Ohio Stadium, Kent State will be playing before its largest audience ever on Saturday when it takes on No. 8 Ohio State.
“We've played around the country in certain stadiums but there's nothing like playing in Ohio Stadium, especially for a bunch of Ohio kids,” Pees said. “It's just a thrilling opportunity: the crowd, the pomp and circumstance, the tradition. All those sorts of things. I think it's a great thing for our entire program, not just only the players but everybody involved.”
Kent State beat New Hampshire 34-7 last week — the Golden Flashes' first win in a season-opener in seven years. Sophomore Joshua Cribbs — a run first, pass later quarterback — collected 191 of Kent State's 399 rushing yards. Eddie Beccles added 104 yards and Antonio King had 65 on the ground.
And the Golden Flashes were without starting tailback David Alston, who sat out while nursing an ankle injury. He is listed as doubtful for the game against the Buckeyes.
Cribbs will serve as a focal point for an Ohio State defense which had seven sacks against Texas Tech's acclaimed quarterback, Kliff Kingsbury, two weeks ago in a 45-21 victory.
“Just when you expect to put that big hit on him Cribbs will make a move and make you miss and make you look very foolish,” said Ohio State linebacker Matt Wilhelm.
The Golden Flashes have won six of their last seven games. To put that into perspective, it took them 42 games to win six times prior to the current hot streak. It has been 25 years since a Kent State team has played so well over so long a time.
In its only previous games against Big Ten teams, Kent State lost 51-0 to Iowa last year and 45-10 to Purdue the year before.
“The difference here is we finally won some games,” he said. “If I had gone in there with a team with a 1-10 or 2-9 record that's just been thumped by Iowa 51-0, I don't know if I could say anything to them. The difference I think now is that we've won six of our last seven games. That's not happened here in a long, long time. Hopefully that in and of itself will help the kids to have some confidence to make plays.”
The heavily favored Buckeyes will be trying not to look ahead to the game seven days later against No. 11 Washington State.
“If we overlook Kent for Washington State, they're going to come in here and give us a good run for our money,” Ohio State defensive tackle Tim Anderson said. “Next week we'll work on Washington State.”
Historically, Ohio teams have been little more than cannon fodder for the Buckeyes.
They haven't lost to an in-state school since 1921, a 7-6 setback against Oberlin. Of course, Ohio State did not play any schools from the Buckeye State between 1934 and 1992 before it was decided to keep the money in the state.
The football team at the state's largest university has met at least one team from inside the border each of the last five years, winning the six games by an average of almost four touchdowns a game.
With Washington State and quarterback Jason Gesser coming to town on Sept. 14, who could blame a bunch of 20-year-olds for looking ahead?
Ohio State coach Jim Tressel, for one.
“We don't look at playing Kent as a preparation (for WSU),” Tressel said.
Ohio State smothered Texas Tech with an aggressive defensive front and then played keepaway with its running attack. Freshman tailback Maurice Clarett rushed for 175 yards and three touchdowns in his debut. Maurice Hall added 74 yards rushing and Lydell Ross scored twice and added 40 yards. The Buckeyes will add redshirt freshman JaJa Riley to the mix this weekend.
Quarterback Craig Krenzel was the epitome of efficiency against the Red Raiders, completing 79 percent of his passes (11 of 14) without a turnover.
Krenzel said he didn't think the Buckeyes would run basic plays against the Golden Flashes so they could save the bulk of the playbook for Washington State.
“The beautiful thing about college football is it doesn't matter who you're playing week in and week out. Any team can beat anybody,” he said. “We know these guys are going to play us tough and do some good things. We have to be ready. It's obvious the most important thing for us is to get a victory.”
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Golden Flashes relish shot at Ohio State
