The unofficial online home for fans of the Kent State University Golden Flashes. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

In what century do we win a bowl game? It's sickening seeing these recent FBS teams win one before us.

When we get a competent AD who can hire the right coach?

Joel hired a pretty good coach in 2011.

I always heard that was a Kleinlein hire. He had the football background. Well, more than being a punter

Is Hazell a good coach?

I'm not so sure. Terry Bowden won a bowl game before he did.

Does Terry stay in Akron? Looks like the coaching carousel settled down for now.

Bowden is a big time coach and he has worked a miracle at acorn. Man I hate the zits. They were smart with this hire and they should do everything possible to keep him. I would love to have him at Kent. His team performed at a very high level. Did I say that I hate zits.

I don't see the appeal of Bowden. While we have been awful, Akron has been mediocre in their best year under Bowden. It looks like 7-5 is his high water mark. It's take the better part of a decade to get his record to .500 at Akron at that pace. Barely being bowl eligible in an era when there are 80/127 teams in bowls is hardly success. They can have him.

Bowden is nothing special. He has been there for a while now and while they won their bowl game, they still are very mediocre. Honestly, as bad as we are, they are just marginally ahead of us.

There are a lot of years Akron would not have made a bowl game with their record this year. With the amount of bowls and lack of qualifiers they were lucky just on that front. I don't see Bowden going anywhere he is getting a little old for most jobs.

I believe that he is 8-5 this year. With my eyes watching the game, they are not just marginally better than us. Bowden did not inherit a Toledo or BUGS. acorn had gone for 2. 1-11 seasons before he arrived. I would trade coaches in a heart beat and throw in a future draft choice.

(12-23-2015 03:22 PM)GFlash68 Wrote:  I believe that he is 8-5 this year. With my eyes watching the game, they are not just marginally better than us. Bowden did not inherit a Toledo or BUGS. acorn had gone for 2. 1-11 seasons before he arrived. I would trade coaches in a heart beat and throw in a future draft choice.

TB has built his team around transfers and cast offs from bigger schools, solid defense with Amato. I guess it only matters if you want four year players. Akron has the facilities to sustain success - so only time will tell if he can do it. Their schedule was certainly favorable and they got a weak bowl opponent.

My Christmas Lump of Coal Award goes to our offense this year - 6 shutouts. As I pointed our in an earlier post we gained less than 1 yard per attempt on BG. Their true defense was exposed last night by Ga S.

Kudos go out to that team they- as ESPN noted built a competitive FBS team on a shoestring budget in a short time.

BTW i've seen BGs new coach interviewed - comes across well and will be an effective recruiter for us to compete with in NE Ohio.

Good for Akron. Now, so what...I love watching KSU football (every 10 years when they are decent) but in the big picture MAC football is irrelevant. What did the MAC team that had the best season this year get? Something short of a lump of coal in their stocking. A no name nothing bowl game that no one cares about. Even their own fans don't care much about it.

IMO, it would be more exciting if the entire league dropped down to the FCS level and got a chance to play for a national title. I'd rather be a North Dakota State playing meaningful games in December & January than any MAC team playing what they play. If you haven't watched NDSU play the past few years take time to watch their Jan 9th FCS Nat'l Title game. It's exciting as these kids are playing for something and it shows! College Game Day went to Fargo a few years ago and for good reason.

With what the P5 conferences are doing these days (fewer games against the non-P5 schools, full cost of attendance stipends, etc., it's only a matter of time anyway.

FCS games are even less relevant than the admittedly meaningless bowl games that make up 90% of the bowl season. What's the appeal? It's just college football with lesser players. I watch MAC football because it's my school, but the level of play in MAC football is not at the level of the top FBS schools. If I didn't have a reason to watch MAC football, I wouldn't. It would be like watching AAC or Sun Belt football. It's just not very interesting without a personal connection to it.

The appeal is in the opportunity to build a program that the University can be proud of and fans can get behind.

Last season North Dakota State finished the season at 15-1, won a national championship and averaged 18,500 fans per game. That is in Fargo North Dakota!!

Northern Iowa, the only team to beat NDSU averaged just over 12,000 fans per game. This season they got back into the playoffs and finished 9-5.

So what percentage of FCS teams are at that level? Why would FCS KSU football be appealing if they were even a bit above average? Assuming KSU could be at the very top seems like crazy talk to me.

It would seem to be smarter to drop football altogether than to drop divisions, and I see more commitment to stay FBS than to do anything else.

(12-26-2015 04:26 PM)axeme Wrote:  So what percentage of FCS teams are at that level? Why would FCS KSU football be appealing if they were even a bit above average? Assuming KSU could be at the very top seems like crazy talk to me.

It would seem to be smarter to drop football altogether than to drop divisions, and I see more commitment to stay FBS than to do anything else.

The fact that this comes up almost every winter is quite ominous. I don't want to drop a division nor drop football, but it should be studied and considered if it hasn't been. I don't believe a university with as many students as ours should have to entertain the thought because it means we aren't operating as efficiently as we should (in many areas). Simply put, there is no reason why we shouldn't be able to field a competitive team year in and year out. Such surface level commentary by myself, but it isn't rocket science. The answers to our woes are probably very apparent to most.

Easy way to compare FCS to FBS is with YSU. They had 6 home games and averaged 14854 this year. They went 5-6 with new coach Bo Pelini. Kent as we know went 3-9 and averaged 12561. So with a worse record and not having the draw of Bo Pelini as our head coach YSU barely outdrew Kent.

YSU attendance
2015 14854
2014 12096
2013 13506
2012 14308
2011 13811

(12-26-2015 03:05 PM)axeme Wrote:  FCS games are even less relevant than the admittedly meaningless bowl games that make up 90% of the bowl season. What's the appeal? It's just college football with lesser players. I watch MAC football because it's my school, but the level of play in MAC football is not at the level of the top FBS schools. If I didn't have a reason to watch MAC football, I wouldn't. It would be like watching AAC or Sun Belt football. It's just not very interesting without a personal connection to it.

You said a lot right here...IMO FCS games aren't irrelevant because they are playing for a National Championship. I don't think Mount Union fans feel that their team is irrelevant just because it's not at the top level. MAC teams are playing for a MAC championship which doesn't have quite the same historical perspective. Why not play at level where you can be at the top?

(12-27-2015 11:06 AM)Old School Flash Wrote:  

(12-26-2015 03:05 PM)axeme Wrote:  FCS games are even less relevant than the admittedly meaningless bowl games that make up 90% of the bowl season. What's the appeal? It's just college football with lesser players. I watch MAC football because it's my school, but the level of play in MAC football is not at the level of the top FBS schools. If I didn't have a reason to watch MAC football, I wouldn't. It would be like watching AAC or Sun Belt football. It's just not very interesting without a personal connection to it.

You said a lot right here...IMO FCS games aren't irrelevant because they are playing for a National Championship. I don't think Mount Union fans feel that their team is irrelevant just because it's not at the top level. MAC teams are playing for a MAC championship which doesn't have quite the same historical perspective. Why not play at level where you can be at the top?

Well, I agree that it's relevant to the team and fans--students, staff, alums, town folk in Mt. Union's case, etc. But it's a small circle.

In the big picture, if it's not FBS, it's almost invisible. KSU's one-play-away-from-the-Orange Bowl was much bigger.

I guess I just don't buy the assumption that KSU would be competing for championships by dropping levels. How many schools aren't North Dakota St? Most. We sure aren't going to drop to the next level and start playing little schools like Mt. Union and Wisconsin Whitewater.

Like everyone else in the MAC, we need to figure out to win where we are. It's frustrating, but I don't see any other reasonable option. We aren't giving up football altogether.