Talent runs deep with this group of Flashes

As the Kent State football team winds down the 2007 season, I don’t intend on doing a lot of scoreboard watching. The nine-point loss to Central Michigan really isn’t important. What is important is the attitude these Flashes take into the last three games as they continue to show growth in the program.

The bottom line on Kent State football is: They are still one of the deepest, most-talented teams in the Mid-American Conference, regardless of the record, and it showed up Saturday.

“We got 19 starters coming back and obviously some really good young talent,” Kent State coach Doug Martin said.

That young talent was on display this weekend.

The “Thunder and Lightning” running game that true freshman Andre Flowers and sophomore Eugene Jarvis will carry into 2008 has the look of something special. Flowers, who looked tentative before the Ohio State game, has been hitting the holes fast and hard.

What else can really be said about Jarvis? If he were two inches taller he would be in the national media spotlight.

The quarterback position had a youth movement Saturday when true freshman Giorgio Morgan stepped onto the Dix Stadium turf and burned his redshirt.

Or should I say he set it on fire? Morgan played with poise and calmness. Of course he made mistakes, but he didn’t play like a freshman in his college debut.

Most of the game Morgan sat back in the pocket and looked for his receivers downfield. With just an effortless flick of the wrist he found Flowers for a 22-yard touchdown pass. Then it was Phil Garner for a 23-yard touchdown. Finally, junior Shawn Bayes laid out in the end zone, hauling in a 33-yard bomb.

Morgan found eight different receivers as the day progressed. He finished 18-28 for 247 yards and three touchdowns. In his debut the Flashes had over 200 yards passing for just the third time in the season.

After seeing the 19-year-old from Georgia play, it is easy to see why Martin was trying to place a redshirt on him. But, as Martin said after the game, it is just one game — let’s not call Canton yet.

After all, Julian Edelman is still the leader and quarterback of this team. It is unfair to place judgment on Edelman when he played last season with a torn labrum. This season it was a torn PCL.

However, the one judgment I can make is Edelman is one tough football player. He is heady, he is gritty and he still leads as much as he can, arm in a sling or not. Don’t write him off. I have a feeling he’ll return next season with a fire underneath him and a chip on his shoulder.

Morgan’s talent actually creates a pretty good compliment to Edelman’s style of play. Where Edelman is a scrambling quarterback who can pass, Morgan is a pocket passer who can scramble. It is too early to tell whether a two-quarterback system will be used next season, but regardless, next season looks to be an exciting one.

Contact sports editor Jonas Fortune at [email protected].