Football Set to Open Practice
8/4/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
After finishing the 2004 season with four straight victories, Kent State entered the 2005 campaign with high hopes. However, a rash of injuries, inexperience and narrow defeats doomed the Golden Flashes and resulted in a disappointing 1-10 overall record.
Heading into the 2006 season, however, third-year head coach Doug Martin believes his squad has turned the corner, learning from the 2005 season, but also putting the year in the past.
The teams attitude has been remarkable, Martin said. We had a great winter conditioning session and spring practice. We have so many young kids that are hungry to play and hungry to do well. They are not wrapped up in the past of Kent State, they are looking at the future.
Because of a variety of ailments and injuries, the Flashes were forced to play 14 true freshman and 26 Division I rookies last season. However, the experience gained by that group should make a profound difference for this years team.
For a lot of our young players last year, understanding the speed of the game was a big challenge, Martin explained. But, as the season went along and the more they played, the better they understood it and the better they became as football players.
With so many players returning to the fold 43 letterwinners in all, including 18 starters the spring practice period was spent on improving in the two areas that Martin saw as the most critical.
We had two main goals entering the spring: to become both mentally and physically tougher and to become a more confident football team. I think we made a lot of improvement in those two areas. We achieved a better understanding of what needs to be done and how it needs to be done, and that is by outworking people.
As the start of the 2006 season approaches, Martin acknowledges the mental makeup of his program is the key hurdle the Golden Flashes must get over in order to experience some early season success.
We have to overcome the lack of confidence that weve had in the past, Martin said. We need to take stock in the confidence of how hard we worked off the field particularly in winter conditioning and spring practice and let that be the foundation of what we do during the season. Weve got to put the 1-10 year behind us.
Next up: a look at the offensive line.
