Everything Kent State head coach Mark Carney said after shutout loss to South Carolina

Kent State head coach Mark Carney spoke with the media following the Golden Flashes’ loss to South Carolina, 57-0. Here is everything he had to say. Have a question for the GamecockCentral staff? Ask it now on The Insiders Forum. Opening Statement “Appreciate everyone being here. Obviously, a disappointing loss. South Carolina is a really good football team. Whether they’re 57 points better than us is my question. I thought, offensively, second down was our bugaboo. I thought we were efficient on first down. We did some good things on third down, but second down wasn’t our best down. Obviously, the heat played a factor. It was a factor for both teams, but uh we got a lot of we got a lot of work to do to get to where we want to be.” You mentioned the heat – hottest game in history – just kind of talk about it “Yeah, we felt it. We felt it. You know, the heat, the weather at at any game is a great equalizer. Hard to simulate this kind of environment in practice. I thought our guys did well coming into the week with hydrating. We lost a couple of guys there in the second half to some cramps, but I thought we were ready for it.” The offense was able to get a first down in every drive in the first half, just wasn’t able to finish. Just kind of talk about the offensive production? “Yeah, I thought Dru [DeShields] played well. Accuracy in the throw game, we still need to work on. Probably should have been a little bit more aggressive. We had, I think, three fourth-and-ones near midfield in the first half. If I didn’t feel like the mismatch in the trenches was such a big part, I probably would have been a little bit more aggressive in those situations.” “But not good enough as far as staying on the field and executing long drives. I thought South Carolina did a great job of that. Our punter Jake was outstanding. Eight punts, 46-yard average, five inside the 20. Like, five of eight punts inside the 20. We forced them to drive long fields, and they did.” “I thought defensively, giving up too many access, quick, easy catch and throws, and then, you know, that turned into YAC yards with their explosive playmakers.” Outside of the first half, the defense seemed to do pretty well in the first half. How could you limit some of those big plays? “Yeah, we got to tackle better. We got to tackle better. They caught us in a couple of one-on-one situations and double-moved us, and, you know, that receiver, eight, [Nyck Harbor] is a really, really good player. All of those guys are, [Mazeo Bennett], [Nitro Tuggle], they’re all good players. I think our corners are good. We just got caught in the moment a time or two and played a little over-aggressive. A little controversy in the first half with the fumble. What were the explanations from the officials? “Said they blew it dead.” How did you handle South Carolina’s tempo? “Yeah, I thought our defense handled it well. I thought there were one or two times, maybe in the first half, where they caught us not lined up or misaligned, and [we] rectified that on defense in the second half and played really well.” What are the main things you’re looking to improve on heading into the home opener? “Tackling on defense and execution in the throw game on offense.” What do you think? Join the discussion on The Insiders Forum.