Golden Flashes

Mark Carney takes over a program that spent 2021 as MAC East champion and finished the season with a loss to Wyoming in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.

The Golden Flashes have one outright conference title, won in 1972 under Don James, who left for Washington a few years later. That 1972 roster carried Jack Lambert, a linebacker; within a decade he was anchoring the Pittsburgh Steelers' defense. Nick Saban ran the Kent State defense from 1983 to 1987.

The first win came in 2019, in Frisco, Texas, 51–41 over Utah State, after four previous tries had all ended in defeat — including a loss to Tampa in the 1972 Tangerine Bowl, the same season as the MAC title.

Dix Stadium replaced the university's original Memorial Stadium in 1969 and once held over 30,000 for games against Bowling Green, the opponent Kent State has met for the Anniversary Award since 1985, a series Bowling Green has dominated for decades. Renovation work in 2008 pulled roughly 5,000 seats out of the south end zone, and the stadium has held 25,319 since.