Kent State opens the 2024 season on Saturday at Pittsburgh with kickoff set for 12:00pm in a game that will be televised nationally on ESPNU. They’ll be facing a Pittsburgh offense led by a new offensive coordinator and a new scheme completely. Kade Bell, at just 34 years old is the new Panthers OC after a stellar run at Western Carolina, Valdosta State and Tusculum University. It will be Head Coach Pat Narduzzi’s fifth different coordinator in nine seasons, and it will be a big change from what the program is used to from a scheme and tempo standpoint.
“When you look at Kade, he’s done a phenomenal job at Western Carolina where he was at,” Kent State Head Coach Kenni Burns said Monday. “The things I saw in their offense, they play with obviously, tempo. They got a ton of explosive plays, high scoring, I think they averaged 37.5 points last year at the FCS level. They led the FCS in total offense in 2023. The one thing that I love about the offense that they brought in is it creates an opportunity to get guys in space and let them run around and do what they do which obviously creates a big problem for us. But we know what they’re going to do on offense, a little bit different than what they’ve been in the past. They’ve been more time of possession, control the clock type of offense. This is kind of opening it up and really putting a lot more points on the board so we got to be prepared for that.”
It was announced this week that Alabama transfer Eli Holstein will start at quarterback for the Panthers after a competition with Nate Yarnell, although both will play Saturday. It will be Holstein’s first ever action in a college football game.
KSU watched a lot of previous tape from Bell’s time at Western Carolina to get a feel for the offense.
“We had to watch a lot of the previous stops, where the coordinator was to get a pulse of it and talk to people that have played against him to see how do you stop it,” Burns said. “They’re going to go fast, we’ve seen that before. UCF last year was a very uptempo team that kind of caught us off guard with how fast they were going. We couldn’t prepare actually for it so we did some different things in fall camp and even in our practice preparations to make sure we are ready for the tempo that they’re going to play with. I think just knowing how fast they’re going, I think it will take a series or two but I think our guys are more adaptable than they were last year. I don’t think it’s something that’s going to linger the whole game.”
Kent State will also feature new coordinators in 2024 as Mark Carney has taken over the offense and Kody Morgan the defense.
Narduzzi met the Pittsburgh contingent of media on Monday and spoke briefly on the Flashes.
“They’ve got a new defensive coordinator. I think they got a new defensive coordinator halfway through the spring. Kody Morgan is their new defensive coordinator. He’s a guy that was a safeties coach and a special teams coordinator a year ago, so really when you think about guys calling the offense, Carney and Morgan both will be calling their first game as coordinators, so it’ll be a little bit hard to know kind of what you’re going to get either way. That’s why it’s even more important that the focus comes on us. It doesn’t matter what they give us, we have to just go out and execute. If it’s a run, execute the run. If we’re going to blitz them, then let’s be really good at the blitz and keep things as simple as possible, let our guys play hard, play fast.”
Offensively, the Flashes will play both Devin Kargman and Tommy Ulatowski. Kent State’s wide receiving group led by Chrishon McCray, figure to get some opportunities with Pittsburgh breaking in new starting cornerbacks.