The Falcons football team will face the Kent State Golden Flashes Tuesday night, as the team looks to halt a two game losing streak.
“They’re playing hard, they’re playing good defense right now,” Falcons head coach Mike Jinks said. “They’re playing with some confidence, they found a way to get a couple of explosive plays versus Miami and get a victory. … Kent’s always going to have some talent outside, some talent at running back, searching a little bit themselves to find the guy at the quarterback spot. They’ve rotated a couple of guys at the quarterback spot. One’s a junior and one’s a true freshman.”
While the team won in their most recent road game against the Miami RedHawks, the team struggled in their two game home stand, falling to the Ohio Bobcats and Northern Illinois Huskies.
“It was a tough stretch from a physical and mental standpoint,” Jinks said. “Give NIU all the credit, they beat us, and they came out here and they took it to us. It was kind of a culmination of all of the things that have gone wrong throughout the year.”
The team was also able to take advantage of a one-and-a-half week break between games to get an opportunity for the players to rest, and spend some extra time with analyzing themselves as a team.
“It’s great to come in and get some guys healthy, first and foremost,” Jinks said. “To get some extra film time review with some of the guys who are going to be taking their places, because, as we talked about in previous weeks, when we talk about the reps of ones and twos, you’re looking at 70 to 30 percent. That’s not just at the quarterback position, that’s at the offensive line and that’s at the skill on multiple levels.”
The team also defeated Kent State last season 42-7, the team’s largest margin of victory that year. However, the team feels Kent State will be ready to play this time around.
“I know Coach (Paul) Haynes a little bit, and he’s a very prideful man,” Jinks said. “I don’t think last year’s game sat well with him or his football program at all. They’ll be at home, it’ll be the first game of MACtion, primetime, they’ll be fired up and ready to play, and we’ve got to be sure that we match their intensity.”
