Sounds like Kent has hands full

The Golden Flashes face third ranked Ohio State.

COLUMBUS (AP) — Kent State’s coach says he wants to rotate players to reduce the chances of injuries. The quarterback says the offense has been sloppy.

Those statements don’t exactly lead one to believe there’s a mammoth upset in the making as the Golden Flashes meet No. 3 Ohio State today. The Buckeyes are on a roll and their defense ranks among the elite in the country.

“If I had my druthers I would definitely rather play this game early in the season,” Kent State coach Doug Martin said. “Especially from an injury standpoint. Us getting out of there healthy and being able to finish our conference is a major concern.”

The Buckeyes, 6-0 and winners of their last 24 regular season games, would also prefer to be continuing play in the Big Ten, where they share the lead heading into their five biggest games of their season.

Ohio State is a lopsided favorite but the Buckeyes swear that doesn’t mean a thing.

While Michigan, USC, Louisville, Oklahoma and Wisconsin have been floored by upsets, the Buckeyes have been oblivious to the wackiness all around them.

“We really haven’t talked about the ranking. We really haven’t talked about the upsets and all that stuff that seem to be on the tip of everyone’s tongue,” coach Jim Tressel said. “We’ve talked a lot about getting better. That’s really been the focus of what we’ve talked about.”

Plopped right in the middle of both teams’ conference schedules, they find themselves playing a relatively meaningless game. The Buckeyes are hoping to stay in tune after rolling over Purdue last week. Kent State (3-3) finds itself playing for pride and hoping a couple of hard hits don’t ruin the rest of its season.

Quarterback Julian Edelman directs a Golden Flashes offense that is averaging 25 points and 421 yards a game. Yet he concedes that they could be doing a lot more if they hadn’t coughed up the ball 17 times.

“Offensively, we’re sloppy,” he said. “We’re driving up and down the field on teams, but we’re turning the ball over at crucial times and not making plays when we need to make plays. We’re playing sloppy, we need to eliminate turnovers and make plays when we need to.”

Turnovers and sloppiness is no way to upend the Buckeyes, who have a defense that is giving up just 210 yards and 47 rushing yards per game (both second best in the nation).