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FOOTBALL IS BACK! FOOTBALL IS BACK! TELL YOUR BOSS YOU'RE TOO SICK TO WORK, BECAUSE FOOTBALL IS BACK!
We can finally stop with all of these season previews and thumb-twiddling blog posts filled with video games and top player countdowns. Now we get to the juicy stuff: the real football season itself.
Kent State will be the first Mid-American Conference school to kickoff the 2013 season with a matchup against the Liberty University Flames this Thursday at 6:00 pm. So what can we expect to see tomorrow out of the Golden Flashes in their season opener? Well, here are a few things to note:
-Kent State will have a new QB under center. No more Spencer Keith, which means first year head coach Paul Haynes had a big decision to make, choosing redshirt freshman Colin Reardon as the week 1 starter. Reardon's starting role is not safe. Haynes said himself that, at any given moment, if senior David Fischer has more of the "it" factor in the coach's eyes than Reardon, you could see a new guy under center. So Reardon may be the starter, but that doesn't necessarily mean he'll be the one finishing the game. Expect to see an in-game change if Reardon doesn't make an impressive debut.
-Did anybody forget about their running back? He may not be the Ricky Williams, Jerome Bettis, or Walter Payton that he wants to be, but Trayion Durham is a huge part of the Golden Flash offense. A running back that hits has hard as a linebacker and averaged a hair under 107 total yards per game last season, will wear down a lot of defenses to help bring the superhero out of his other teammates.
-Dri4Heisman. Do I really need to elaborate on this? Archer can run, he can catch, he can return, he can fly, he can fight crime, he can do just about anything you want. Dri Archer, will be the best player on the field. I will probably be saying this next week, too.
-"Defense wins championships". With one of the best defensive linemen with Roosevelt Nix and two of the better defensive backs in the conference with Darius Polk and Luke Wollet, just about any Liberty offensive play call can be risky business, especially against a team playing with a chip on their shoulders.
Reppin' my #TheArcher shirt around the crib today. What do you think about that @Dri4Heisman? cc: @KSUAthletics pic.twitter.com/NrZ1wt841d
— Jeremy Guy (@JGuyMAC) August 25, 2013
-New swag. Don't ever let me say that word again. But seriously, they deserved a new wardrobe. Apparently Jeremy Guy needed an upgrade, too;
I expect to see a victory from Kent State, 37-10 final score, to be exact. We'll see some struggles from Reardon early on, but that's sort of a given. Nobody's asking him to be the best player in the MAC, or even on the team, but I think we're all just looking for him to do just enough. I see Archer doing his thing, but Liberty will know now to kick to the return man very often, giving the Golden Flashes good field position for their offense to do some work.
Well why are you still sitting here reading my blog post? Don't you have a tailgate to get ready for?