Kent State Items

Here's Army's game notes for the trip to Kent State.

Kent State game notes are here. Two good punters will play today: The Golden Flashes have a fine punter Anthony Melchiori averaging 44 yards per punt. I've seen this team and they are Flashes in name only - this might be the week Josh Jenkins takes one back all the way. If we know one thing, Army is due to break one.


Kent State is a Bottom 10 team - a designation Army has flirted with all year, and I have no doubt that if the Black knights lose this one - they will make the Bottom 10 list next week.


Kent State's coach Paul Haynes put up an Army week Coaches' blog post. A couple of points on that:

First: Kent State's head coach has more blogs up this week than I do. That probably says more about me as a blogger than it says about him as a coach, but I realize I haven't given a lot of attention to the website. 

Kent hasn't been very good this year, and while saying things like:

"It is tough to stop the option. When playing Army, you almost need them to make a mistake every once in a while. You need them to drop a ball, or have two guys go in motion at the same time, or get called for a cut block, just to get their offense off schedule. "

.... seems like a lot of coachspeak. If you look at the records, if you look at some of the performances that Kent has put up - you have got to wonder whether that kind of wishful thinking is a major part of their game plan. I don't know, but I have seen tape of Kent, and I think it would take those things and a whole lot more for Army to lose this one.

Here's a video of Kent State Coach Haynes' presser regarding adjusting for Army's top 3 rushing attack.

At about 6:49 of the video Coach Haynes talks about the challenge of facing Army mid-season. He mentions that it is is hard to prepare for Army's offense in just one week and how it's important to maintain their schemes and terminology for this week. He says they don't want to over-think the triple option, which, if they have been over-thinking their opponents to this point of the season, may spell trouble for Army's top 3 rushing offense. One thing about Kent's defensive front - they have gassed in just about every game they've played this year. I care less about what Kent St. can or can't do than I do what Army can do to control the game - and in my opinion, that is just it...I'd like to see some ball control this week. I want to see 2 to 1 time of possession in favor of the Cadets. It kind of bothered me in last week's post game presser that Angel Santiago said the offense doesn't have an overarching clock management paradigm (at about 2:42 of the video). We'll see if they need one today, but I think that is a phase of the game that Army can certainly control, and I would like to see some thought in regard.

The Black Knights should be 3-3 coming into this one - instead they are 2-4 with a must-win game on the road. The win gives you 3-4 and puts you back on schedule to finish the season the way we would like.

Kent State does have internet radio, and that can be found in the Radio tab above.

3:30 kickoff... LETS GO



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Army 2-4

Can you to take away some positives from the game?
-Certainly. The offense had some great moments, which is nice considering some of the attrition across the line this year.
-In general, the situational misdirection that's coming off of Brent Davis' playbook is pretty impressive. I can see that the players have put a lot into learning and implementing the coaches ideas. I think Army will be fine in the coming years based a lot on how the coaches are motivating the athletes.
Some of the clock management ideas could be adjusted - and I think need to be adjusted. Despite the unimpressive results in some games this season, I think the offense is in a positive place and capable to put together winning games. The Army offense has pretty good mechanics and with Santiago under center - I'm telling you defenses have to remain disciplined every single play or this offense can make you pay in a hurry.


There was a stretch after the half where Rice dominated in all phases of the game - taking a 17 point lead and stretching it to  24. That's what winning teams can do. Rice is a strong team to come up to Michie Stadium and win the way they did.


The longer inside runs: Larry Dixon's 43-yarder and Angel Santiago's touchdown were both results of Rice not having the center covered. If you're going to let Matt Hugenberg, or any Army center, out into the linebacker level you can expect to get gashed inside by Dixon and Santiago. The offensive line did yeoman's work Saturday, but there were too many negative plays strung together to beat a team like Rice.


The tackling issues continue to haunt Army's defense, and it's the opponent's defense that turned the game.
Rice's defense completely won in some big situations and the Owls looked completely dominant in all phases of the game. I mean the Rice defense goes out and strings together huge stops - and they come off and Rice has this guy under center.


Driphus Jackson had a huge game. He completed 15 of 21 passes for 209 yards with 3TDs and zero INT. That's the kind of play that settles the game by the half. In fact 14 of Jackson's first 15 passes were complete and by the time he missed for the second time the game was headed to the 4th quarter and pretty much decided already. Jackson was afforded much praise.

Jackson took his coach’s compliment in stride. “I carry myself as such,” he said when asked if he views himself as the finest passer in the conference. “It’s important for me to have that kind of swagger on the field. I feel I have that confidence from him and the team, so it makes it easier to go out there.”

14 of 15 to start the game will go a long way for swagger.


That's the story. Rice/Army stats and highlights here







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