Memorial Stadium – Champaign, Ill
If you have to start your head coaching career against a Big Team, why not start in Champaign, Illinois?
The Kent State Golden Flashes are starting 2018 with a new head coach as Sean Lewis now leads a program that finished 2-10 lst season.
At age 31, he is the youngest head coach in the Football Bowl Subdivision, but they don’t check birth certificates in the win-loss column.
What they do check is talent and performance. His rebuild plan aims to address both. His squad will face an Illinois Fighting Illini team that trying to bounce back after went 2-10 (0-9 Big Ten) last year. It was UI’s first winless conference record since 1997. Head coach Lovie Smith will again have one of the nation’s youngest squads. There are just eight seniors and 16 juniors on the roster.
Here’s more on both teams . . .
➤➤ Smith is 5-19 overall and 2-16 in conference play while at Illinois. His UI teams are 1-1 in season openers, defeating Ball State last year.
➤➤ Smith officially announced on Monday that graduate transfer AJ Bush Jr. will be the Fighting Illini’s game one starter. Bush is a 6-4, 225-pound left-hander from Alpharetta, Georgia.. He began his college career in 2014 at Nebraska before transferring to Iowa Western in 2016 and Virginia Tech last season.
➤➤ The Illini offense will be led by a trio of receivers: sophomore Ricky Smalling (31 catches for 510 yards 2 TD), senior WR Mike Dudek (24-262 TD) and sophomore TE Louis Dorsey 22-395 3TD). Dudek was very impressive as a freshman, earning freshman All-American honors after producing the most prolific season for a freshman receiver in school history in 2014,
However, he has been dogged by injuries since, suffering season-ending knee injuries during spring ball in both 2015 and 2016. He also missed substantial time in 2017.
Another injury victim returning is running back Dre Brown. One of the top signees in the 2015 recruiting class, Brown was poised for playing turn as a true freshmen before going down with an ACL injury prior to the season. In all, he missed nearly two and-a-half seasons after enduring 2 torn ACLs, 2 sprained MCLs, a stress fracture and 4 knee surgeries before making his Illini debut Oct. 7, 2017, at Iowa as part of the kick return unit.
He got his first offensive snaps and carries Oct. 14 at Rutgers. Brown had a breakout game at Ohio State, rushing for a career-high 76 yards on 15 carries (5.1 ypc) and finished the season with 138 yards on 31 carries (4.5 ypc).
➤➤ Illinois averaged 105.5 ypg rushing the football in 2017.
➤➤ The offensive line will be led by senior LT Nick Allegretti, one of the top lineman in the B1G Ten. However, there is plenty of youth around him.
➤➤ Illinois’ defense brings back seven starters and will be led by senior LB Dei’Shawn Phillips. He paced the team with 85 total tackles (46 solo) with four tackles for losses and an interception
➤➤ The special teams will have PK Chase McLaughin returning for his senior campaign His 53 points (12-17 FG/17-16 PAT) led the team in scoring.
Meanwhile, sophomore punter Blake Hayes, a native of Melbourne, Australia, is back. He had never played in or attended a college football game until making his Illini debut against Ball State on Sept. 2 of last year. Hayes played Australian rules football before training at ProKick Australia for two years in hopes of getting a college scholarship in the United States. It paid off, as the Aussie earned honorable mention All-Big Ten honors as a true-freshman, averaging 42.0 yards per punt.
➤➤ The Illini have 20 consecutive home opening wins. It is the fourth longest current streak in FBS. All-time,, they are 82-42-5 in season openers (58-27-4 at home).
➤➤ Three assistant coaches have NFL playing experience including Hardy Nickerson, Gill Byrd, and Donte Abraham. In addition, Luke Butkus (nephew of Dick) is also on the staff
➤➤ KSU finished the 2017 with a 2-10 mark the first time they have lost 10 games in a season since 2005 (1-10) and lost their last five games.
➤➤ On December 21, 2007 Sean Lewis was named the 22nd head coach in program history coming from Syracuse where he was the co-offensive coordinator for Head Coach Dino Babers.
➤➤ Lewis was Babers’ right-hand mane through their time at Eastern Illinois and Bowling Green when they led the Falcons to the 2015 MAC Eastern Division Championship and then defeated Northern Illinois in the Championship Game
➤➤ In 2018 the Flashes are implementing a new offense as Lewis is going with the spread after the last two seasons on a multiple/run option attack under former head man Paul Haynes.
➤➤ The key personnel on offense will be junior RB Justin Rankin who led the team in rushing with 490 yards and three touchdowns. In addition, he caught 42 passes for an additional 311 yards and two scores.
➤➤ Running the spread offense calls for speed and the Flashes will have that in junior wideout Antwan Dixon back, after losing the better part of two seasons due to injury. Fellow junior Mike Carrigan who had 18 catches for 337 including an 84-yard touchdown catch-and-run to defeat Miami. In spring practice, Lewis moved Mandela Lawrence-Burke from defensive back to wide receiver
➤➤ As for the quarterback position, this week’s two-deep indicated it would be either junior college transfer Woody Barrett or sophomore Dustin Crum
➤➤ The offensive line will be led by three juniors: LG Bryce Gibbs, RT Adam Gregoire, and C Nate Warnock
➤➤ The defense, meanwhile will be led by senior LB Jim Jones. He paced the Blue and Gold in tackles with 98 (52 solo), with six sacks and eight tackles for losses. Along with Jones, senior CB Jamal Parker (57 total tackles, 40 solo, INT) and senior S Juantez McRae (50 tackles 19 solo, INT) are the defensive leaders
➤➤ Punter Derek Adams returns for his junior season. One of the top punters in the MAC, he averaged 43.6 yards per kick
➤➤ The Golden Flashes were picked to finish sixth in the Eastern Division in the pre-season MAC poll
➤➤ KSU is 32-37-3 in season openers and 15-30-2 on the road. The Flashes are 1-17 lifetime against the current schools of the Big Ten.
THE SERIES:
➤➤ Saturday’s game is the second lifetime meeting between the two-schools. The two teams opened the 2015 season with Illinois picking up a 52-3 victory in a game that was delayed one day after the scheduled night game was postponed one day due to Thunderstorms and lightning in central Illinois.