#84 Kent State
- Mike W
- Oct 12
- 4 min read
Kent, OH
Dix Stadium
October 11, 2025
Kent State 42 - UMass 6 (ESPN Recap)
Waited years to be able to swing this same-day double header between Akron and Kent St. The game starting times weren’t perfect that I could see 100% of both games, but I arrived right near the end of Q1 when Kent St was already out to a 14-0 lead (housed the opening KO for a TD).
The drive from Akron to Kent St is 14 miles and 19 mins. Considering how much travel I am doing to pursue this mission, it felt amazing to get a 2 for 1 day on a 19-minute drive.
Both teams entered this game at 1-9 records for their L10, with UMass no wins and a FCS loss to Bryant and Kent St no wins other than a FCS win over Merrimack. Kent state hasn’t won a FBS game in 2.5 years, spanning 26 consecutive games. UMass hasn't won a FBS game in 2 years, spanning 16 consecutive games.
The Flashes were -2.5/-3.0 the entire week and I felt great about locking in -2.5 -110. On the drive over, I saw that the game closed UMass -1.5. I can count on one hand the number of times a game moved 4.0+ points against me in the last decade, so I was a little spooked that someone knew something about this game or that someone bought a KSU player to fumble twice or something…but I ended up having
nothing to worry about.
For Q2, I sat two rows in front of the Kent St RB1’s girlfriend and her friends with my $14 General Admission ticket. They were cheering hard for Gavin, but also hilariously mixing in lines like this when he would get a carry “No! No no don’t give him the ball! Don’t hurt him!”. Must be tough being a CFB player’s GF. The group of girls, which seemed to only be paying 15% attention to the game, were able to pick up on enough of the UMass shitshow to comment in late Q2: “Wow! This quarterback is suckinggg!” about the UMass offense. This commentary coming from the Kent St football program’s fans just had me all smiles all day. My other favorite comment from the ladies was on a KSU 4th and 7 from +40 where it looked like KSU was going for it, but the QB1 pooch punted it down to the 1-yard line... “Good kick Dru!” Something so wholesome about that comment that again made me smile.
I continued theme of no tailgating this weekend with 0-3 on that due to logistics.
Not sure what’s more surprising:
1) That I followed a motorcycle bunny to the stadium;
2) That I could park like this for free 20 mins after kickoff;
3) That the Kent St stadium was slammed full of fans for the UMass game
It took all of 2-minutes to realize that Kent St is a better college environment than Akron, and it’s not close. I found out through conversations later that it is also the superior academic institution. If you are reading this blog and on the fence between which school you should attend, which MAC school you want to visit for a game, or which school you want to have your loved ones attend, choose Kent St over Akron.
I happened to be recording footage during this amazing TD grab for KSU’s 3rd TD which got national attention because it really was an amazing catch.
I also was recording this 4th down attempt by UMass, who was down 18 and within FG range and could have cut it to a 2-possesion game, but instead lost ~25-30 yards and turned the ball over on downs with this sack-fumble.
Kent was up 21-3 at half with -2.5 looking safe, and then a syndicate 2H play came in on Kent St +4.5 (effective -13.5 for the game). It was 42-6 start Q4 and that ended up being the final score as Kent St took their foot off the gas. Yes, you read that correctly. Kent St had to call off the dogs against a MAC opponent…that’s how bad UMass is. Couldn’t have picked a better Kent St football game to attend.
The second half I sat behind one of the goalposts in the endzone to stay in the sun. During halftime warmups, a FG kicker almost drilled a little girl.
I was near Jake and a couple of his buddies. Jake is faculty at Kent St and his son is a student who is a non-player sideline guy with the team. Cool to talk to him and his buddies about Kent life. He had a good joke about HC of Kent St, Mark Carney, being a busy guy since he is also the Prime Minister of Canada. One of his friends told me 7+ times in 10 minutes that he was a Clemson fan.
I don’t think the International Office Guests made it despite a few hundred seats being reserved for them.
Some crazy good genes on the bench of Kent with Roger Federer's nephew and and LaDainian Tomlinson's son rostered.
I love the “try and catch three punts shot to you from a jugs machine” timeout game. People make absolute asses of themselves.
UMass rightfully took a lot of heat after losing this game.
If you really want to go down a rabbit hole on the state of UMass Football and their athletic program, I recommend giving a 3-hour listen to this podcast by Curry Hicks Sage titled “The Despondent Future of UMass and College Football”. Throw him a subscription if you like CBB and CFB deep cuts. My favorite line from the pod was: “Why am I even fucking doing this (podcast)?! But it’s so bad that the world has to know. The world has to understand that relative to your industry and your peers, you are a literal joke…a literal joke!”
Other media outlets covered the game with this type of content:
