Alabama vs Kent State: Five Things Learned

These games by design aren’t made to teach fans much about their team. It is an economic reality that Kent State and many other smaller programs must schedule impossible to win road games to balance the budget. With that said, there are some tidbits that could be gleaned from this weekend for Golden Flashes fans.

1.) Nick Saban does have a heart

As any good MAC trivia fan knows, coach Saban played and began his coaching career with Kent State. He first played defensive back and then started as a graduate assistant before being upgraded to linebacker coach.

All of this is to say, Alabama was up 41-0 at half and finished the game winning 48-0. If Saban really wanted to, he could have pulled an Ohio State and continued to score until the game was over. Thanks to his former affiliation to the Golden Flashes, the normally crusty coach showed a bit of compassion.

2.) Nate Holley has a future in the pros

In what should be an obvious statement, Holley is one of the few Kent State players who I could see succeeding in the NFL. Despite the fact the Kent State defensive is the strength of the team, they were steamrolled from the opening kick.

The one exception was Nate Holley as he did his best to keep the game respectable. On the day Holley totaled 14 tackles and a sack. Against arguably the best team in college football, he didn’t look out of place and put some good film together against top competition for pro scouts.

3.) The quarterback position is a mess

First, it was Justin Agner who was injured against Penn State. Now Mylik Mitchell is banged up. The only healthy quarterback as it stands is George Bollas a part-time starter from a season ago.

Given that he came out of camp as the third option, this doesn’t bode well heading into the big rivalry game against Akron. Bollas has proven to be adequate in his starts, but doesn’t add anything dynamic and needs help. At this point, the offense isn’t exactly in a position to provide much assistance and this could just prove to be more frustration going forward.

The fun news is, Colin Reardon made a brief appearance. So for anyone who likes to see former quarterbacks who have been converted to wide receiver, only to be converted back to quarterback, Kent State might have just what you are looking for.

4.) Derek Adams is well conditioned

If nothing else we learned yesterday that punter Derek Adams can kick for as long as he is needed. For the day, he punted a total of nine times for a total of 414 yards. I’m no punting aficionado, but a 46-yard average is not too bad to me.

5.) Only seven more weeks until basketball season

Given the nature of this game and the season as a whole, Kent State fans were afforded the opportunity to look ahead to what might promise to be a much more rewarding basketball season that is looming on the horizon.

Sure the football team isn’t having much success on the gridiron, but the basketball team has a potential conference player of the year in Jimmy Hall and a number of intriguing transfer options to get excited about.

I know that Maction football doesn’t officially begin until conference play and the MAC east is pretty winnable, but fans already beaten down can take heart, hoops is coming.