Kent State football will stay on the road for a matchup against Eastern Michigan and look to change its luck after falling into a three-game losing streak.

The team’s most recent loss came against Ohio University last weekend by a 42-17 score.

The Kent State offense has scored 20 or more points once this season and has given up 20 points or less once – both came in the 38-10 win against Central Connecticut State.

“It was another good learning opportunity for us with Ohio,” coach Kenni Burns said. “They’re a really good football team, a team that will compete for the MAC East championship. You can see why they’ve had the success they’ve had. They play good complementary football for each other, and that’s something we’re attempting to do ourselves.”

KSU is tied for last place in the Mid-American Conference East with Akron. Both teams hold 1-5 overall and 0-2 conference records.

EMU will look to win back-to-back games for the first time this season, coming into the contest off a 24-10 victory against Ball State.

The Eagles have a 3-3 overall record and a 1-1 record against conference opponents and are tied for second place in the MAC West with Central Michigan.

“When you look at the game, it really came down to a couple of possessions,” Burns said. “We’ve got to figure out exactly what happened. There’s a lot of stuff to grow and learn from, and we’re looking to move on and put a great game plan together to beat EMU.”

Player matchups

Quarterback

Austin Smith will be commanding the Eagles offense. The junior has made at least one appearance in all three of his seasons with EMU and will make his seventh start this week.

• Last week vs. Ball St.: 18-28, 192 passing yards, two touchdowns
• Season Stats: 85-139, 834 passing yards, five touchdowns, three interceptions, 60 rushing attempts, 100 rushing yards, one rushing touchdown
• Burns: “This man brings a different kind of problem. He’s more of a dual-threat quarterback – he can beat you with his feet, he’s got an arm; he can throw it, he’s got weapons around him, an established run game, but he just brings different kinds of issues that we have to find a way to handle. They do a good job of putting him in advantageous situations.” 

Redshirt junior Mike Alaimo will get the start after getting benched for Tommy Ulatowski in the fourth quarter of the game against OU.

• Last week at OU: 9-13, 107 passing yards, one touchdown, one interception
• Season Stats: 70-122, 870 passing yards, two touchdowns, four interceptions

Running back

Senior Jaylon Jackson will be the primary runner for EMU.

• Transferred to EMU in 2022 from Lamar University
• 2022 First Team All-MAC
• Last week vs. Ball St.: eight rushing attempts, 39 rushing yards, three receptions, 21 receiving yards
• Season Stats: 57 rushing attempts, 297 rushing yards, one touchdown, seven receptions, 72 receiving yards

Redshirt senior Jaylen Thomas will make his first start at running back as sophomore Gavin Garcia deals with minor injuries.

• Last week vs. OU: 24 rushing attempts, 67 rushing yards, 
• Season Stats: 40 rushing attempts, 146 rushing yards, one touchdown
• Burns: “I thought he took advantage of his opportunity – he ran behind his pads and ran downhill, his yards after contact was really solid, and he was always falling forward. He warranted the opportunity to come into the next game and start, but Gavin Garcia is getting healthy, and he’ll be back.”

Receivers

Graduate student Tanner Knue has been the most explosive receiver for Smith’s offense.

• 2022 Academic All-MAC and Third Team All-MAC
• Leads team in receptions, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns
• Last week vs. Ball St.: three receptions, 23 receiving yards

Redshirt freshman Chrishon McCray has become the receiver the Flashes’ lean on most in games.

• Leads team in receptions, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns
• Last week at OU: six receptions, 93 receiving yards, two touchdowns
• Season Stats: 25 receptions, 327 receiving yards, two touchdowns, four rushing attempts, 22 rushing yards

Defense

Graduate Student linebacker Joe Sparacio will lead the Eagles’ defense, which allows the most rushing yards/game in MAC.

• Transferred to Eastern Michigan from Boston College for the 2022 season
• Leads team in tackles, fifth in the nation in total tackles
• Last week vs. Ball St.: nine total tackles, one tackle for loss, one sack, one quarterback hit
• Season Stats: 69 total tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, one sack, three quarterback hits, two pass breakups

Redshirt senior linebacker Devin Nicholson will be the defensive anchor for the Flashes. The Mizzou transfer will be playing in his 39th career game.

• Leads team in total tackles
• Last week at OU: seven total tackles, 0.5 tackles for loss
• Season Stats: 42 total tackles, three tackles for loss, one pass breakup

How do they stack up?

Burns praised EMU, saying the team is “the definition of consistency.”

“They’re always playing sound and consistent football – competitive football, and are a team that is really moving on the upswing,” he said. “They don’t beat themselves, and we’re going to have to play a great game in order to beat them.”

Kickoff will be at noon in Rynearson Stadium in Ypsilanti, Michigan, on Saturday.

Burns expressed the importance of responding well to adversity in order to turn the team’s fortunes around.

“We have to find a way to accelerate in the middle,” he said. “There’s a lot to build off of; we start fast, and we’re keeping ourselves in the game, especially defensively, but when adversity hits, that’s when we get in trouble. Adversity is going to hit, so how do you handle adversity?”

John Hilber is a reporter. Contact him at [email protected].