Usually, college football coaches get no more than three or four years to get a program turned around to the point where boosters and administrators are happy. Kent State is now in the process of giving Doug Martin his sixth. Judging by a crowd of 2,267 in late November at Dix Stadium for a four-touchdown loss to Northern Illinois, there's a good bet that he won't get a seventh. The Golden Flashes are, with Buffalo's recent surge, unquestionably the dregs of the MAC. There has not been a winning record at Kent since 2001, and no bowl game since 1972. Unfortunately, things don't figure to change too much this fall. QB Julian Edelman is gone to graduation, though Martin insists he's not worried, as the two returnees will make KSU 'better in the passing game'.

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Eugene Jarvis returns and hopes to get back to his 2007 form, where he ran for 1,669 yards and 13 touchdowns before injuries derailed him last year. Four linemen return to aid him. Nine receivers return who caught at least seven passes last fall, but a gamebreaker needs to emerge to take heat off the running game and to make whoever wins the QB job easier. It doesn't look like there is anything much above mediocrity at wideout, unfortunately. On defense, the Flashes have given up 30 ppg or more in four of Martin's five seasons. They were 12th in the MAC in red zone defense in 2008.

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