No upset in KSU kick scrimmage

Kent State football coach Darrell Hazell didn’t consider Saturday afternoon’s 24-21 Gold Team win in the team’s kick scrimmage an upset, despite freshman kicker Anthony Melchiori topping senior Freddy Cortez in the end.

“No, there’s no upset because there’s so many moving parts – long snappers and those kind of guys – who play a huge factor into each kick,” Hazell said.

However, Hazell conceded that the performances by all the kickers will be reviewed by video so that he and special teams coordinator Dave McMichael can move toward making a decision as to who will be the team’s primary kicker and punter heading into the season opener Aug. 30 against visiting Towson.

Freshman running back Julian Durden, whose battling to earn a spot on special teams, had a brain freeze on one return in which he literally stopped before breaking out of the endzone after a deep punt, wasting valuable time and yards.

Senior receiver Eric Adeyemi, who is also looking to log time as the Flashes return man, fumbled the ball on one possession, but made a handful of solid returns.

“Obviously the young guy made a mistake back there on the goal line, so we’ll have to talk and coach him through that,” Hazell said of Durden. “I thought Eric handled the ball pretty well. He put one on the ground, but I think the other ones he did a good job catching them.”