The Kent Golden Flashes are sitting at 1-3 as they head into conference play. However, this team looks much improved over some of the squads we have seen in recent years. Their latest loss was a tough road loss to an SEC team. What did we learn from the loss to Ole Miss?

Kent is not a one trick pony

A big reason for Kent’s struggles last season was a complete lack of offense. In the Ole Miss game, even though Kent didn’t put up a bunch of points, they did have a bunch of big plays. 7 different Golden flashes had a reception or run over 12 yards. That many weapons shows that the improvement on the Kent State offense isn’t just because of the addition of Woody Barrett.

Defensively, they are still pretty good

While the Golden Flashes gave up a lot of yards and 38 points to the Rebels, a lot of teams will. Most of the damage came on big plays, some of them that will be on season end highlight reels. The Golden Flashes wont be facing another offense this dynamic all season, save for maybe Toledo and Buffalo.

Kent State is resilient

This was a tough road game, both because of opponent and circumstance. There was a 7 hour delay on the flight down. The team had to do their walk-throughs in an airport hangar, and there was a weather delay. The Cardinals still managed to stay within the spread, and looked good for 3.5 quarters.

Trey Harrell might be ready to break out

The junior has shown some flashes of brilliance in his career, and now that the Cardinals have a quarterback that can get him the football, he might be ready to make a few highlight reels himself.

The next few games are crucial for Sean Lewis, at least in his rookie campaign

The young coach certainly has the team looking a lot better than it did at the end of last season. However, last season started with promise, especially on defense. Loss after loss wore on the team, and they looked like they phoned it in the last half. The last half of this season has a brutal stretch for Kent, so if they are going to start winning and gaining momentum, they better start soon.