Look who’s hit the college football big time!
For the first time in almost 40 years, the Kent State Golden Flashes have cracked the Associated Press ranking, coming in at No. 25 in the latest rankings.
We can honestly say we never thought we would see this day.
Kent State kept the dream alive for another week, using the ground-and-pound offense to beat Akron, 35-24, and retain the Wagon Wheel for the third consecutive year.
The Golden Flashes were led by Traylon Durham, who finished with 107 yards rushing and three touchdowns, including the clincher on fourth-and-1 with 15 seconds left in the game; and Dri Archer, who ran for 126 yards and scored a touchdown. On the day, Kent State rushed for 261 yards, five touchdowns and an average of 6.5 yards per rush.
The Kent State Golden Flashes posted the biggest win in the 90-year history of the football program on Saturday, beating No. 15-ranked Rutgers on its home field.
The win is Kent’s sixth in a row – the program’s longest in-season win streak in 72 years. It is also the Golden Flashes first ever win over a ranked opponent, breaking an 0-22 streak against Top 25 teams.
We finally had a chance to work our way through Sports Illustrated‘s college football preview issue and the article on teams working to imitate Nick Saban’s success at Alabama caught our eye.
Saban has developed what is known as the Process. According to SI:
In its most basic form, the Process is Saban’s term for concentrating on the steps to success rather than worrying about the end result. Instead of thinking about the scoreboard, think about dominating the man on the opposite side of the line of scrimmage. Instead of thinking about a conference title, think about finishing a ninth rep in the weight room. Instead of thinking about graduating, think about writing a great paper for Intro to Psych.
And it all started at Kent State, where Saban played and coached under Don James, the last coach to lead the Golden Flashes to a bowl game.
The Golden Flashes were eliminated from the College World Series on Thursday, losing to two-time defending champion South Carolina, 4-1. Gamecocks pitcher Michael Roth allowed only two hits and didn’t allow a base runner after the second inning.
Kent State pitchers Tyler Skulina, Casey Wilson and Brian Clark were almost as good, shutting down South Carolina’s offense after the third inning but it wasn’t enough.
“We have a lot of guys returning next year, and with all of this experience under their belts, it will help them out a lot,” Skulina told The Associated Press. “We have a really good class coming in next year for our freshmen. So that’s going to motivate them to want to beat us out for spots and be able to play, so that’s just going to make our team better.”
The Golden Flashes finish the year at 47-20. Along the way they won the Mid-American Conference championship for the fourth consecutive year, swept through their regional and beat Oregon in the Super Regional to become the first MAC team to reach the College World Series since Eastern Michigan in 1976.
Once in Omaha, Kent state lost the opening game against Arkansas, but rallied to eliminate the top-seeded Florida Gators before falling to South Carolina.
We come here today seeking answers to a seemingly simple question:
Why?
As in, why are some Browns fans so dysfunctional?
As in, why does it matter what Jim Brown thinks about the team?
As the Browns were wrapping up the last Organized Team Activity before training camp, team president Mike Holmgren gave a relatively benign press conference last week. Overall, Holmgren didn’t say much, but he did leave fans with two takeaways: one, he would try to be more accessible with the media as long they as didn’t cause shenanigans and, two, the Browns will actually wear their Brown jerseys next season.
Easy enough, thanks, and we’ll see everyone at the end of July. And then someone had to bring up the franchise’s strained relationship with Jim Brown.
“How the Browns view Jim Brown hasn’t changed and will never change,” Holmgren said. “I would love to see Jim Brown walk in right now or come to the Legends thing, be a part of this. … Because Jim’s role changed here, I could see where he got a little upset with me, perhaps. I would like Jim Brown to come and be a part of this and feel comfortable doing that and I would welcome him with open arms.”
What a weekend for the Cleveland Indians starting rotation.
In helping the Indians take two-out-of-three against the Cardinals, the Tribe moved to a half-game behind the White Sox and, more importantly, may have rediscovered how to pitch.
Josh Tomlin, Justin Masterson and Ubaldo Jimenez all went seven innings in their starts, with Tomlin having the “worst” performance of the trio as he gave up two runs; Masterson and Jimenez each limited St. Louis to one run in their starts. The trio also only walked one batter during the series.
When you consider that the Cardinals are the highest-scoring team in the National League, and the second highest in all of baseball, that’s a solid weekend of work.
Sunday’s game was the first time Jimenez did not walk a batter all season and, in his last two starts, he has walked just one batter. That’s pretty impressive for a pitcher that has walked 43 on the season (third highest in the American League) and hit this road trip with an ERA of 9.00 in road starts.
“Jimenez was terrific,’’ manager Manny Acta told The Beacon Journal. “He was dominating. He threw 16-of-25 first-pitch strikes, and having no walks made a huge difference. He had a good split and slider. I’m happy to see him go back to back.’’
We’ve known Chicago Sun-Times columnist Joe Cowley for almost 25 years, going back to our days together at Kent State working in the sports department of the school newspaper, The Daily Kent Stater.
Those were fun times as we busted our asses for three-plus years, working to figure out where our careers were going to take us and how we could break into the sports writing business. Along the way we also worked hard to change the way The Stater handled its sports coverage.
We shared the football and mens’ basketball team beats and, not content to settle for adding a basic quote from the Sports Information Director to wire copy, we traveled to every away game, something that previous staff members rarely, if ever, had done. We toured all the exotic locations the Mid-American Conference had to offer, from Muncie, Ind., to Mount Pleasant, Mich., and all points in between. There were also trips to Morgantown, W.Va., Raleigh and St. Louis.
Some of the best times were covering the MAC mens’ basketball tournament, which was held at that time in Cobo Arena in Detroit.
Woke up this morning from a three-day NFL Draft stupor and realized there are other things going on in Cleveland sports.
Like the first place Cleveland Indians, who took two-out-three from the Angels this weekend.
Sunday it was Derek Lowe, who threw 7.2 shutout innings to run his record to 4-1 on the season. His sinker was sharp – he retired 12 Angles on ground balls – and Lowe has pitched at least six innings in all four of his wins.
“Lowe was outstanding,” manager Manny Acta said after the game. “He had command of that sinker and also a good slider. Any time you can take two of three from that pitching staff is great. Our pitchers matched up great against them.”
The starting pitching was dynamite all weekend, as Justin Masterson went 8.1 innings on Friday night, giving up four hits and two runs, while Jeanmar Gomez scattered five hits and just two runs over six innings of work Saturday night.
Liverpool ended its six-year run without a trophy by winning the Carling Cup on Sunday, beating Cardiff on penalty kicks.
It was the record-setting eighth time the Reds have lifted the trophy, and the franchise’s 15th domestic cup win, putting them in a tie with Manchester United for the most.
The match had the feeling of a March Madness No. 3 vs. No. 14 game, with the Bluebirds, currently in sixth place in the Championship League and looking to bring a trophy to Wales for the first time since 1927, going up 1-0 just 19 minutes into the game on a Joe Mason goal.
The game finished 1-1 in regulation time, and Liverpool’s Dirk Kuyt, the hardest-working man in soccer, looked like he had sealed the win with a goal at the 108-minute mark.
But Cardiff fought back and Ben Turner put in a goal just two minutes before then end of extra time to force the cup final to penalty kicks.
Red Right 88 