When Kenni Burns was hired to be the next Head Football Coach at Kent State in December of 2022, he had a massive overhaul and rebuild on his hands. Former Head Coach Sean Lewis was gone to Colorado. Burns was losing over 40 players from the 2022 team to graduation or transfer, including the entire starting FlashFast offense.
Burns and his staff needed to fill out a roster in a short period of time. That led to a lot of new faces from different places coming to Kent. It also lead to some pieces that didn’t always fit.
The most telling and high profile example was Mike Alaimo, who came to Kent from Purdue where he was the backup quarterback. Strong armed and big, Alaimo was the starting QB for the Flashes in the beginning of the 2023 season tasked with operating the Flashes offense, which didn’t look anything like previous seasons. With an inexperienced offensive line, an inconsistent running game and unproven wide receivers, Alaimo didn’t produce. It wasn’t any one person’s fault really. Kent State needed a quarterback, Alaimo wanted a new home and he won the job out of camp, or maybe better put, no one else was any better. Alaimo has since moved on and so have the Flashes.
Part of the reason Burns was hired by Randale Richmond is that he had a lot of experience at programs that did “more with less.” In year two Burns is much more comfortable navigating the portal and finding players who embody the KentGrit mantra he preaches.
“I think last year, in the portal, we were attempting to fill a roster and I think that’s always hard when you’re taking guys just to fill a roster and fill spots,” Burns said. “You’re not really getting to know them. You don’t know what you really need in a program.”
Burns talks about getting guys with a “crack” on their shoulder. Him and his staff went down a level to get LB Mason Woods from Towson, Streetsboro native Hunter Hopperton from Rhode Island and TE Connor Muldowney from Tiffin.
“After going through it a year I think I’ve got a good understanding of where my depth issues are and I went and got guys that not just fit what I want to do, but fit Kent State. Guys who value Kent State and what we did was we kind of went down this year actually and we got guys who might have been at FCS level or D2 but they were all conference players, All Americans at that level and they come in here with a crack on their shoulder. I think when you’re at Kent State you’ve got to have a crack on your shoulder. You’ve got to come in here and be workman mentality and get your nails dirty and not expect to have every resource possible but know how to use your resource and be resourceful with the stuff you do have. And I think that’s where we did a better job of targeting guys that fit our program this year and I think you saw that in winter conditioning.”