Kent St / Iowa St

[BUNK MORELAND]

Any thoughts ..

Just looked over the cyclones a little and they have experience returning. 8 starters on defense and QB and WR returns ( Blythe and Meyer) i do believe. New coach also ...

Low number (3.5) IMO ..

Though this would open in the 5-7 range actually myself ..

[BoilerBacker]

I disagree and am leaning strongly to playing Kent.

Kent is a favorite in the MAC East. They have 15 returning starters including the QB and both kickers are back. I saw Iowa State only has 9 returning starters total. Maybe I am wrong but I would check your stat.

[FlyersFan]

I too like the Flashes in this one.....though i am not sure if i will play it. ISU has 11 returning starters this year, and 7 on defense. But they have had to learn new schemes on both sides of the ball and this will be the first time they go live with them. They lost in 3OT's to Toledo last year at home as an 8 1/2 point favorite. The next week they beat a crummy UNLV team by 3 points as a 14 point favorite. Linesmaker knows that, IMO and isn't going to give you many points. Flashes return 16 starters including 4 of their top 5 tacklers, their QB and top 2 RB's AND they return 9 of their top 10 O-lineman off of what was a very good O-line last year. This is a very good football team, and personally, i think that Iowa State sucks and a change in systems isn't going to help them in game 1 of the season. MAC teams aren't scared to play people anymore at home or on the road. I mean lets be honest here.....ISU is a glorified MAC program playing in the Big12. They are no better than a Toledo, Kent etc........

Flashes were 4-1 ATS last year as a Road dog and they return pretty much the same group. ISU was 0-2 ATS as a home favorite (1-5 ATS overall at home) and lost one of those 2 games SU and didn't come within a mile of covering either one (decent TOL team and an AWFUL 2-10 UNLV team). You can see they aren't favored over many people and with good reason. In fact they haven't covered a non conference game besides the Iowa game in the last 2 years. They are 0-4ATS plus 1 game over NoIowa that they won by 1 point (game had no line). Another reason, IMO, the line is so low.....and as to the coaching change overall...it may be great for them down the road, but i don't think you will see the effects of it until the latter part of the season...and the fact still remains, you can only coach below average talent so far and i really don't think there is a talent gap between ISU and a good program from the WAC, MAC etc...and you've seen it the last few years in matchups vs. Army, Toledo, UNI, SIU (both 1-AA schools that hung with them), UNLV etc....

The more i look at this the more i like Kent. Haven't really looked at anything yet for week1, but this may be a play for me. I think anything over a FG is tremendous value with KSU

[homedawg]

[Underdog88]

Originally Posted by FlyersFan

I too like the Flashes in this one.....

Got the Flashes +165 circled myself, hoping to get +180 for it though.... ISU as chalk is a fade or no play for me...

[joepa66]

Touchy game here....don't look at Kent having both kickers back being a blessing, their kicking game is horrible....their PAT kicker sucks so bad that they were forced to go for 2 lots of times last year, and their punter is so damned good that he punted for -2 and +7 while pinned deep in their own territory vs. OU last year....even though the weather was really bad he was very unpredictable at best....and I believe that Kent did rank near the bottom in PATs and kickoffs.....Will have my MAC Preview up this week sometime.

[Woody12]

I am leaning towards Kent myself. I am an ISU alum and fan and don;t see them being 4 points better than Kent at this point. I think it is a solid value play on Kent. ISU's new coach Chizek can only shine a terd so much, but it is still a terd. I think ISU is heading in the right direction but this year will be one of those 3-4 win seasons like last year. Their D is brutal and returns only one decent LB. ISU is a team with a lot of JUCO transfers this year while they wait for Chizek's recruiting power to kick in. he is doing what McDermott did in hoops and playing the cards he has been dealt by the former coaching staff who really had no clue.

My play will be on Kent State +4 or more by kickoff. Well said that ISU is a MAC team in the Big 12. It will be crazy in Ames that night for the opener but that won't help as much as you think. I see ISu possibly squeaking it out, but not covering the spread.

i will stop back as I continue to look at the game.

[Q-Unit]

Originally Posted by joepa66

Will have my MAC Preview up this week sometime.

copy and paste of phil steele 2007?

LMAO

[lendres]

one of the guys at my fantasy draft was using a Phil Steele magazine (the only mag they had at the store he stopped at) he was planning to use it to start a bonfire after the draft...no information that was of any use...lol

[Hackman]

Originally Posted by joepa66

Touchy game here....don't look at Kent having both kickers back being a blessing, their kicking game is horrible....their PAT kicker sucks so bad that they were forced to go for 2 lots of times last year, and their punter is so damned good that he punted for -2 and +7 while pinned deep in their own territory vs. OU last year....even though the weather was really bad he was very unpredictable at best....and I believe that Kent did rank near the bottom in PATs and kickoffs.....Will have my MAC Preview up this week sometime.

KICKERS?>>>>ARE WE TALKING KICKERS.....LOL........

GL FELLAS........