The Maxwell Award is presented annually to the nation’s outstanding collegiate football player. Last year Florida quarterback Tim Tebow won the award while former Notre Dame and current Cleveland brown quarterback Brady Quinn won the award the year before.

Jarvis beat Kent State’s single-season rushing record by more than 300 yards last year while rushing for 139.1 yards a contest. Good enough to be ranked fifth in the nation. He also compiled 1,975 all-purpose yards, which is second in school history, and scored 13 touchdowns.

Although Jarvis is considered a long shot to win the award, he still deserves to be considered as one of the best backs in college football. After all it was Jarvis who provided the spark in the Iowa State game last year allowing Kent State to earn its first win against a BCS conference team since 1987.

If one remembers correctly Jarvis was going to sit out the game hampered by a leg injury until starting running back Darren Rogers left with a shoulder injury late in the first quarter. In just over three quarters Jarvis scampered for 113 yards and one touchdown.

The Ohio State game also gave a glimpse of what Jarvis could do against higher competition. Although the Flashes lost 48-3, Jarvis was able to shine in his very limited duty. He recorded 84 yards in limited first half action against the top-ranked, at the time, Ohio State defense. At the time that was the second most anyone had recorded against the Buckeye’s defense last season.

"Obviously he's the nation's (second) leading rusher for a reason," Ohio State linebacker James Laurinaitis told me after the game. "When you take him out of the game, it's going to make a big impact."

"He's a good player. He's obviously small and shifty and hard to get a wrap on," he said.

Candidates for the Maxwell Award are selected by the Maxwell Selection Committee and will be announced as part of the ESPN Home Depot College Football Awards Show in December.

If you’re interested in reading the story about my story about the Kent State running game against Ohio State you can check that out here. Just ignore the headline blunder it still annoys me to this day.

http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=425522

Although O'Shea did win 20 games last year (20-13), he has a home in Rhode Island and strong ties to the New England area. It sounds like this decision had to be driven by personal reasons. Why else would anyone leave Ohio for Bryant, who is not tournament eligible for a few years?

I am anxious to see how this plays out because I think it could be a winning situation for the Mid-American Conference. Although O'Shea recruited some of the top talent in the MAC (Leon Williams, Jerome Tillman), his teams always seemed to underachieve.

If Ohio can replace O'Shea with a coach who can maximize Ohio's talent it would improve the competitiveness of the Mid-American Conference as a whole. That could mean more revenue, more notoriety and eventually more bids to the NCAA tournament.

It will be an interesting year in the Mid-American Confererence due to so many question marks. Conference stables Ohio, Kent State and Toledo all have new coaches while Charlie Cole's health is always a question mark at Miami. Bowling Green's Louis Orr and Northern Illinois' Ricardo Patton both enter their second seasons with a certain optimism.

Ford has had to completely rebuild his frontcourt after the departures of MAC Defensive Player of the Year Haminn Quaintance and All league forward Mike Scott. The impact of losing those two individuals will hurt a lot more than people realize. Scott was a coach on the court and was highly motivated off of it. Both players did a lot of intangibles that could not be taught.

There were a few instances early last season where Christian said that Scott's defensive adjustments and rotations prevented easy baskets on blown defensive coverages.

Offseason questions about Rodriquez Sherman's knee doesn't bode well for the Flashes either. If he can't go this season then Ford truly has his work cut out for him.

Akron coach Keith Dambrot must prove that he can continue the success he has had the last few years now that The LeBron James Akron contingent has moved on (Dru Joyce, Romeo Travis and Jeremiah Wood). The Zips were a different team last year when Wood went down with an injury lacking any type of strength and presence on the inside. They must also find someone who can run the point, incoming freshman Humpty Hitchens perhaps?

Unfortunately I have to fill in and do some high school track and field coverage Friday in Columbus instead. So, no Grimsley for me and no blog post about it for you.

I do get to watch Walsh Jesuit play baseball again. I've covered the last three Walsh games. they are impressive to watch, as they appear nearly machine-like as they dismantled both teams in regionals and beat Tallmadge in the district final. What does that have to do with Kent State?

It turns out that Walsh’s best player, shortstop Ross Brunello, is a Kent State commit.

“Ross Brunello is probably one of the best shortstops I have ever seen at the high school level… he just makes plays all over the field all the time,” Tallmadge coach Kenny Linn said after Brunello made countless defensive plays to beat his Blue Devils in the District Final a few weeks back.

His fielding is definitely enough to get him into any lineup. In that game against Tallmadge he got to many balls that are typically singles through the hole in high school games.

The kid can hit too. The Warriors were limited to four hits against Tallmadge, Brunello had two of them. He also reached on an error and had a deep SAC fly to left. In two games of regional play last week he tripled to deep centerfield and had two singles.

Kent State also inked Walsh left-hander Brannon Belair for next season. Walsh is absolutely loaded. One would think that a left-handed pitcher going to a Division I program would be the ace of the staff. Not at Walsh Jesuit. Their ace, sophomore Tyler Skulina, a 6-foot-5, 235 pound right-hander, could jump to pro ball after high school. He hits 92 on the gun already.

Senior David Starn, a left-hander, is next in the pecking order, although I am not as high on Starn as others are. He seems to throw with all arm across his body, using little leg drive, which cost him velocity (he was low to mid 80’s on the radar gun in the regional final) and makes me wonder if an injury is down the line. Cleveland State and Tiffin have shown interest. Kent State would like for him to walk on.

As for the Kent State recruit, Belair, I don’t know much. I finally saw him pitch in the fifth inning of the regional final. Walsh already had a 17-run cushion. Imagine that, a Division I caliber pitcher in mop-up duty, only at Walsh Jesuit. He did have a curve with some nice break, that’s about all I can tell you.

Markle birdied the sixth, seventh, 13th and 17th hole to shoot a 2 under par 70 on the day. He is currently one shot behind the individual lead. Still three rounds to go, but wow what a good start for the Flashes and especially Markle. See for yourself.

Former Kent State recruit Ronnie Moss is also officially a Horned Frog as well. Yet again, not exactly a shocker. Moss became a matter of paper work the moment Christian bolted as well.

ESPNU listed Moss as the top recruit in the Mid-American Conference on signing day a few weeks back. It shows how much attention is paid to the MAC by the so-called world leader in sports.

I can't help to be bothered a little bit by losing Moss. This was supposed to be a Kent State coup. A point guard that was highly touted and highly recruited. Now he is gone. Although I like the work that new coach Geno Ford has put in with the recruit signings this year, letting a point guard of that caliber walk hurts.

Al Fisher and Jordan Mincy are both seniors. Who will play point when those two depart a year from now? With Moss it would of allowed Fisher to play more off guard where he could not turn the ball over as much. It would also have pushed Mincy to a diminished role. His defense is great, but other teams didn't have to bother guarding him.

Questions on the availability of Rodriquez Sherman because of his creaky knee also make me wonder how much losing Moss could haunt the Flashes. I guess we will wait and see.

The Flashes are set for an 8:07 a.m. tee time tomorrow on the 10th hole of Purdue University’s Kampen Course. Kent State is one of just 30 teams vying for the Division I title. It is the first time they have been to the championships since 2004 and 13th trip overall.

Rohan led the conference in home runs (19), RBI (58) and slugging percentage (.772). He also tied former Flash Eric O’Brien (2001) for second most home runs in a single season at KSU.

Carpenter, who has been selected in the MLB amateur draft in two different seasons, held opponents to a .206 batting average and struck out 10 plus batters for every nine innings he pitched. His 6-2 record and 3.82 ERA anchored the KSU staff.

The MAC also announced this year’s All-MAC First and second teams. Joining Carpenter and Rohan on the first team is sophomore teammate Kyle Smith and Akron senior Kurt Davidson.

Smith compiled a league best 8-1 record and struck out 61 batters in 69 plus innings. Davidson earned his second-straight selection by hitting .322 and clubbing 12 home runs. Davidson holds Akron career records in at bats (807), home runs (41), RBI (180), and total bases (430).

Kent State senior Doug Sanders, junior shortstop Chris Tremblay and sophomore outfielder Anthony Gallas were All-MAC Second team selections.

Tom Gaffney had a good preview story on today's first round play off game against Central Michigan and how the Flashes turned their season around. Check it out here. The scouting report for the game is here.

Kudos to Ford for having a desparate need for big men and only having two scholarships at the end of the season. He now has four new bigs, two JUCO and two high school, to join Julian Sullinger and Brandon Parks.

I am anxious to see what this equates to on the floor next season. Haminn Quaintance and Mike Scott were too special athletes that had the size, strength and athleticism to dominate in the Mid-American Conference. I don't believe one can expect the new guys to even come close to filling those shoes.