Know Your Foe: Kent State
Not much is known about ASU’s season-opening opponent, Kent State. Thursday night in Tempe will mark the first meeting between both programs, and the Sun Devils last played a Mid-American Conference team back in 1979. We invited Kent State athletics insider and the team’s beat writer for the Kent Record-Courier newspaper, Allen Moff, to gain insight on what we can expect from the visitors in this contest.
DevilsDigest: How different is this team from the 2018 squad that finished 2-10?
Allen Moff: "That was the first year with the new coach (Sean Lewis) last year. He dramatically changed everything on both sides of the ball. They run an up-tempo offense. They were a really slow-paced offense that tried to grind things out previously and win with defense and he just completely flipped flopped that.
“He likes to run as many plays as he possibly can offensively, and he’s pretty attacking defensively as well. They went from a 4-3 to a 3-4. With a lot of change last year, obviously there’s a lot of transition and trying to figure everything out. You’d assume this year, they have a lot of guys back and its year two in the system, that would make a huge difference as much as anything, just being more comfortable. They’ve got 15 lettermen coming back on offense, 18 on defense. Starter wise it looks like nine on offense and six on defense. Having some players established at very key positions where they weren’t in that situation early last year. Looking at just those couple things there, the hopes are pretty high. They definitely think they’re going to be a lot better this year.”
DevilsDigest: You talk about the hurry-up offense that Lewis is trying to implement, and over here in the West Coast, it’s all the rage, but in the MAC and Midwest is it more of an outlier, or do you see more and more teams in that region adapting to that style?
Allen Moff: “He’s a little bit different. He tries to run a large number of plays. A lot of them will get to the line quickly in our region and maybe, maybe not snap the ball. They just want to get you back on your heels type thing. Lewis likes to run plays. When they’re going well and they’re clicking, they’re getting right up to the line and they’re going. That’s the difference. He puts a lot of emphasis on the number of plays where I think most teams around this region at least are more along the lines of trying to speed the defense up.”
DevilsDigest: When Arizona State’s defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales talked about that high tempo offense, he gave the reasoning that a team like Kent State would try to equalize matters with this approach especially when playing Power 5 teams and catch very talented defenses off balance. Is that how you view this style of play?
Allen Moff: “It’s not really a gimmick to him. I can see why he (Gonzales) would think that, but this is what they do. They’ll do this against anybody. Obviously, they would hope they would catch a team like Arizona State who obviously has more talent than them, off guard. It’s probably a little harder once you get into league play because teams are more familiar with you but that’s definitely what they try to do. When he (Lewis) was at Syracuse and he was the offensive coordinator, they led the nation the last two years in plays. He’s trying to do the same thing at Kent State. It’s a little more challenging because of the talent difference but that’s just what he does, that’s what they try to do, and the way they want to be a little bit different. It helps them recruit to a fun style of offense to play in.”
DevilsDigest: What can you tell us about quarterback Woody Barrett who transferred from Auburn?
Allen Moff: “He started every game. He’s a big guy, he’s a dual-threat. He’s about [six-feet-two inches] 240 [lbs.] and he can run you over and he’s pretty elusive. He’s got a really good arm, but accuracy is his issue. He’s got all the tools. For a Kent State to land a guy with that size with the ability was a pretty huge find. It’s a nice commodity to build everything around for sure.
“They’re really excited about what he can do this year. He was in the system for the first time last year, it’s dramatically different and he was very up and down just like you would expect. He had his moments where you got a guy that can keep you in a game against basically anybody when they get moving and he’s doing his thing. They’re very excited about building around him, no question.”
DevilsDigest: What are some other players on that side of the ball that we should be aware of for Thursday’s matchup?
Allen Moff: “They’ve got a big running back named Jo-el Shaw, he’s about a 230 lbs. player who was kind of playing sparingly early in the season. He’s a guy that Lewis brought in that by the end of the year, I think three of the last four games he rushed for 100 yards each game so he has established himself. He comes into the year without a question their number one back. He's a big guy who does not have breakaway speed, but he can run hard and run you over. They have another guy that they like a lot, Xavier Williams, he’s a sophomore, and he’s the speed guy.
“Receiver wise they have a number of guys, some seniors who were here when Lewis took over. The seniors are smaller type guys, Antwan Dixon, Kavious Rice, Mike Carrigan, they’re all well under six-foot speed type guys. One of the things Lewis added since he’s got here is a lot of size at the wide receiver which this program really hasn’t had in a long time. I believe they’ve got six guys now six-feet-two-inches and over but a lot of those guys are unproven. They’re very intriguing as far as the things they can do just letting those guys get on the field and jumping up and making plays just like a lot of the other big-time programs can do these days.”
DevilsDigest: Let's talk about the defense, as you mentioned earlier, really aggressive running a 3-4. What are some of the other strengths and weaknesses of this group and who are some of the players to look out for?
Allen Moff: “They’re pretty strong in the backend. They got a lot of veterans at linebacker, safety, and defensive back. The two cornerbacks are Jamal Parker and Elvis Hines. Parker is an All-Mac kid, a senior, a very solid established player. Hines has been playing ever since he got here, this will be his third year playing a lot of football. They’re pretty confident with their ability to cover guys. Those guys are kind of smaller, and I know Arizona State has a lot of veterans and size at the receiver which is always a scary thing when you’re a MAC defense and you’re stepping out to play those types of athletes.
“At safety they have a transfer, Qwuantrezz Knight, he’s a transfer from Maryland. When you get a Maryland transfer and you’re Kent State you’re excited. He’s a heck of an athlete to have running around in the MAC. They think he’s going to make a huge impact this year so he’s a guy that maybe people on your end have never heard of as far as knowing about him at Kent State. He’s definitely a guy to watch back there.
“At linebacker, they’ve got a younger guy, a junior actually, Cepeda Phillips. He’s going to be the quarterback of the defense this year along with a sixth-year graduate student Matt Bahr, who has been with the program forever it seems like and just a really smart, heady kid who everybody clings to. He’s a leader without a question of the team. Another guy to watch out for is Nick Faulkner. He’s one of those guys that comes off the edge, he’s a redshirt senior that played hurt last year that they were really excited about what he was going to be able to do last year. But he didn’t live up to expectations mostly because he had some injury issues all year, a knee that never really went right.
“They think he’s going to make a huge impact as a guy that can do a number of things, as an outside rusher, even a guy that can drop back into coverage, hide him and do some things like that. Their weaknesses definitely on paper is upfront, they lost a lot of guys, and they’re pretty inexperienced there which is a scary thing coming into this matchup taking on Arizona State’s offensive line and running back. That’s definitely one to watch if they’re not able to hold their own up there and Arizona State can establish that running game it can definitely be a long day.”
DevilsDigest: When we look at the schedule of Kent State, they’re playing at Arizona State, at Wisconsin, and at Auburn. How does the team approach games like this? I know the obvious answer is it’s a contest designed for much-needed funds for a program like Kent State. But are these games that the coaches and maybe the fans even think they can truly learn more about the team? Or if it ends up being a lopsided contest you take comfort in a nice paycheck and take the whole experience for what it’s worth?
Allen Moff: “They do this every year, play three big time Power 5 schools just like you said to make money every year. Before last year, I can’t really say. They went to play some teams where Ken State just flat out didn’t try to do anything. They played Clemson a couple years ago, where I think they threw the ball like five times.
“Last year, Lewis brought a different mentality into it. They went after these games as much as Kent State can go after these games. They were actually up 14 points at Illinois at the half and ended up losing by a touchdown. They were down seven at Ole Miss going into the fourth quarter. But Penn State got them pretty good.
“They will go into this game attempting to do what they do. Obviously, they want to get better at what they’re doing because they’re very young in the process. They’re not just going to cash a check and leave. I think from Arizona State’s angle, you respect that a little bit because one of the things you fear is when you got teams like this coming in thinking that they’re just going to come in and rollover. You got to take them seriously and make sure you beat them but at the same, you’re looking to get something out of it.
“I think Kent State will come at them as much as they can and try to make it interesting and see what happens.”
Cody Whitehouse contributed to this article
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