There is no telling how Ohio State will react after a shocking defeat to Texas last week, but Kent State coach Mark Carney knows what it means for his Golden Flashes — who have more than 50 Ohioans on the roster — to play the No. 6 Buckeyes in Columbus on Saturday afternoon.
“You sell it in recruiting,” Carney said. “The opportunity to go play the best in the country in one of the greatest venues in all of college football, and do it in front of your home fans, right? A lot of us grew up in this state. It’s a chance to put ourselves on tape against the best of the best in this state.”
The oddsmakers don’t give the Golden Flashes (1-1) much of a chance because the Buckeyes are looking to take out their frustrations after blowing a 20-point, fourth-quarter lead for a stunning 24-23 loss at then-No. 4 Texas last Saturday to topple from the No. 1 spot in the AP Top 25 poll.
Ohio State (1-1) opened as a 52 1/2-point favorite vs. Kent State for the final tuneup before the Buckeyes’ Big Ten opener on Sept. 26 vs. Illinois.
“We’ve got to do a great job this week of turning this thing around, having a great Tuesday practice, going out there and playing well against Kent State, and then building some momentum again,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said Tuesday. “Because the momentum that was built up was almost, like, right to the third quarter, and then it fell off.
“So we have to go get some momentum again. But we have everything we need here, and we just need to put it all together in a way that we can go make a championship run.”
Kent State, coming off a 36-15 win over FCS school Wofford on Saturday, knows it’s stepping back into Power 4 conference territory after opening the season with a 57-0 rout by South Carolina of the Southeastern Conference.
The Golden Flashes are led by quarterback Dru DeShields, who passed for 248 yards and one touchdown and rushed for two scores on a career-high 74 rushing yards against Wofford.
For the Buckeyes, Day is looking at the Kent State game as an opportunity to improve in every facet after the meltdown against Texas.
The defense throttled quarterback Arch Manning for three quarters, but scoring drives of 15 plays for 91 yards, 13 for 72, and 12 for 73 led to the Buckeyes’ demise.
On offense, Ohio State will work on finding options outside of star receiver Jeremiah Smith. After he made six catches for 110 yards and a TD in the first half, the Longhorns limited him to two catches for 54 yards in the second half, and none in the fourth quarter.
Smith was targeted 15 times in the game while the other Ohio State wide receivers combined for five targets, and none had more than one catch.
Finally, Day would like to get a field-goal try by Connor Hawkins to re-establish the kicker’s confidence. The Baylor transfer made field goals from 26, 30 and 48 yards before missing a 45-yard attempt with 4:16 left that would have given the Buckeyes a 26-17 lead.
“The question is, ‘Are we going to learn from it and grow from it?’ ” Day said of the loss to Texas. “Some things got exposed, just in all areas, and so we’re going to do a great job identifying those and get it fixed.”
