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| Akron kicks to Kent State Wednesday night in their battle for the Wagon Wheel |
One of the beautiful things about college football is the fact that a seemingly meaningless midweek game between a pair of 1-7 teams could bring such drama and joy.
Akron and Kent State are considered among the weakest programs in college football this year, at least by team strength metrics, and to the average fan there didn't appear to be much appeal to the contest.
Losing can be a huge motivator, however, and Akron had not beaten its rival since 2018, a year after the Zips last home win in the series.
So it was understandable when the home sideline erupted and sprinted to the South end zone to grab the Wagon Wheel as time expired, a 31-27 victory secured. It had been so long since Akron had much to be happy about, and all of the frustration of recent history was deposited on the Infocision Stadium turf as unbridled joy took over.
“The first thing I did was walk over to our president and shake his hand because I know how much it meant to him,” Zips coach Joe Moorhead said following the win. “To look down there and see our guys snatching up that Wheel and taking it over to the band, it felt like watching 110 of my own kids running down and celebrating one of life’s great successes, winning a rivalry game.”
Akron trailed 27-10 into the fourth quarter, largely because of self-inflicted wounds. The offensive line missed blocks, the quarterback overthrew some shots, the defense allowed a few deep balls to fly over its head. But even in all of that, the belief never wavered. Despite dropping nine one-score games over the last two seasons and winning just three times in Moorhead’s first 20 games at Akron, the players felt that they had enough to get the job done.
“That’s the culture we’re trying to build here, 60 minutes or as long as it takes,” Moorhead said. “Our coaches are going to coach up to and through the game, and the keys to us winning are how well we prepare and how hard we play. I think the kids definitely played hard tonight.”
Running back Lorenzo Lingard – a former prep All-American who had stops at Florida and Miami before landing in Ohio – was a catalyst for the comeback, with his bruising 37-yard scoring run with 3:32 to play paring the Zips deficit to 27-24.
There was still work to do for a defense that had been victimized much of the night by big plays. But Kent State played right into Akron’s hands by playing conservative (read that as “playing not to lose”) with a pair of feeble rushes up the middle, and an incomplete pass to the sideline on third-and-8. Akron got the ball back at its own 43-yard line with 3:09 to play and one timeout left, and never thought about simply getting into field goal range.
The Zips wanted to win.
“There was probably a little bit of belief when it got to 27-17, then when it got to 27-24 after Lorenzo scored you felt the tide and the momentum was turning a bit,” Moorhead said.
First-year Kent State coach Kenni Burns felt going in that this was a game the Golden Flashes could win, so to fall short was a punch to the gut.
"Obviously disappointing," Burns said. "It's not what we expected at
all, but we didn't play four quarters. We talked about starting fast and
finishing strong. We didn't finish strong. It was as clear as day."
Lingard did much of the heavy lifting on the Zips game-winning drive, rushing four times for 15 yards and making a nifty catch of a Jeff Undercuffler throw near the sideline. Jasaiah Gathings pitched in with a pair of catches for 17 yards, as well as drawing a defensive holding penalty on a deep route.
With the ball at the Kent five-yard line and 31 ticks left on the clock, Undercuffler – pressed into the role because starter DJ Irons was lost for the year to injury – read coverage on a pass off of a triple option call and motored into the end zone to put the Zips ahead to stay. It felt like forever to cover that short distance, but took no time at all for euphoria to break out along the home sideline.
“The last thing in the world you would expect is – he runs like me, and that ain’t a compliment – for him to run the ball in. It was a triple option, so it’s (either) a give to Lorenzo, pull and throw to TJ (Banks) in the flat -- they double-teamed TJ -- no one covered Jeff, so he ran the damn thing in.”
Lingard finished with 106 yards on 22 totes and added 49 yards on a pair of receptions. It has seemingly been an eternity since Lingard was thriving as a player, and Moorhead could not contain his feelings for the performance.
“It was great for him because he had been bottled up most of the year as we struggled trying to get our O-line situated,” Moorhead said. “I told him just before we left the locker room, ‘I need you to run angry tonight.,’ and it did look like he ran angry. That last run he probably got contacted about the eight- or nine-yard line and did a nice job covering the ball and carried two guys into the end zone.”
Receivers Daniel George (9 catches, 104 yards, TD) and Gathings (9-103-TD) also were heavy contributors to the victory over the nearby rivals, who were led by All-MAC receiver candidate Chrishon McCray and his six grabs for 106 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
Rivalry games have a way of bringing out the best in teams – and sometimes fans.
“I was in the conference room at the hotel watching tape and some random comes in and asks, ‘Are you one of the coaches?’” Moorhead explained. “I say “Yes, sir.” He says, “This is our Super Bowl tonight.’ And I tell him ‘Yes, sir, I’m well aware.’ Components of a great rivalry are proximity, parallels in recruiting and passion. This is a game that means a lot to a lot of people. Hopefully our fanbase will continue to build here. It was really important to our players.”
It’s a testament to the teams that they traded blows for 60 minutes when on the surface they had little to play for. There will be no Mid-American Conference title opportunity, no chance at a winning record or bowl appearance for either squad, yet there they were, putting out maximum effort, on a Wednesday night in front of an announced crowd of 8,113.
Knowing that a coveted item was in the hands of the enemy was enough to spur the Zips spirits.
“I talked to (Miami Hurricanes) coach (Mario) Cristobal, and he said, ‘The best thing to bring to a fight is a reason,’” Moorhead said. “I remember my dad telling me as I was growing up, you want to win any fight you have to swing first, swing hard and at the end of the day you’ve gotta keep swinging. I think that’s what our kids did. They had a reason.”
Moorhead appears to be in it for the long haul, and mentioned that he had been approached by bigger schools, with bigger checkbooks, but feels there is something special brewing at Akron. And he’s been here before, serving as an assistant for the Zips from 2004-2008, a period in which they won 27 games.
He’s trying to return Akron to that level, and knows that improvement is incremental. First it’s a culture change, then getting better players, then turning blowout losses into competitive losses and, finally, competitive losses into victories.
Akron had not scored an offensive touchdown against Kent State at home in the last 10 quarters heading into this contest, so the offense humming and the outcome being a positive truly hit home for the second-year Zips boss.
“It’s very validating to a lot of the things we’re building here,” he said. We needed a moment like this, to finally finish it.”
