“The University of Akron football team will travel to Dix Stadium to battle Kent State Saturday in the 38th Battle for the Wagon Wheel. UA currently holds the coveted trophy after scoring 17-unanswered points in last year’s rivalry game to defeat KSU, 27-20.”
“
The University of Akron football team will travel to Dix Stadium to battle Kent State Saturday in the 38th Battle for the Wagon Wheel.
UA currently holds the coveted trophy after scoring 17-unanswered points in last year’s rivalry game to defeat KSU, 27-20.
Senior linebacker Kevin Grant vividly recalled the Zips’ loss to Kent State in 2006 during the team’s weekly news conference.
It wasn’t a good feeling a few years ago when they came over to our sideline and took the Wagon Wheel back, Grant said. I would definitely like to go out on top.
The 51st meeting between the two neighborhood schools will be the second Mid-American Conference game for both teams. KSU (1-4, 0-1 MAC) lost its conference-opener at Ball State, 41-20, Saturday while UA (2-3, 0-1 MAC) fell to the Cardinals, 41-24, on Sept. 13.
Both MAC East teams considered their running attacks to be one of their strongest attributes going into the season, but have seen the position be weakened by injuries in the past few weeks.
The Zips will be without two of their starting running backs this week. Redshirt sophomore Alex Allen is out for the season after fracturing his hip on Sept. 17, and senior Andrew Johnson will miss at least this week’s game after suffering stingers to both of his shoulders in the team’s loss to Cincinnati.
The Golden Flashes have played without their starting tailback in junior Eugene Jarvis since the 2007 honorable-mention All-American suffered a high-ankle sprain on Sept. 13. Jarvis is not expected to return this week.
KSU is led by its dual-threat quarterback Julian Edelman. The senior leads the Golden Flashes in rushing with 374 yards and five touchdowns on the ground. Edelman has also thrown for 665 yards, five touchdowns and six interceptions.
Fifth-year UA head coach J.D. Brookhart said during the news conference that he planned to simulate Edelman’s elusiveness during the team’s practices this week.
The kid is Houdini, Brookhart said. He takes so many hits and has defenders running into each other. One thing we talked about was putting four flags on our scout-team quarterback and not blowing the play dead until all the flags are off of him.
Fifth-year KSU head coach Doug Martin stressed the importance of the game for both teams in reaching their goals.
It’s like I told our guys, ‘we’re 0-1 in the conference, but so is everybody else on the East side (of the MAC),’ Martin said during his weekly news conference Monday. We both lost to the same team by about the same score. If our guys want to make it to the MAC Championship Game, they’ve got every right to do that.
Martin added that every time UA and KSU meet on the gridiron it is exciting.
This is what college football’s all about, he said. You get to play your cross-town rival. It should be a great atmosphere.
Kick off is set for noon. The game will be televised locally by WEWS, Cleveland’s ABC affiliate.
“