Kenni Burns and the Kent State football team continued to add pieces to its 2024 roster Thursday when Canaan Williams, a 6-2, 205-pound Nickel/Linebacker from Bowling Green and Lavell Gibson, a defensive lineman from Notre Dame College committed to the KentGRIT family.
Williams is from Waldorf, Maryland and prepped at Rock Creek Christian Academy before heading to BGSU. He did not see action in two years with the Falcons. He’s hoping to make an impact with the Flashes and add depth.
“I chose Kent because the coaching staff felt like family. I could see they were building something special, and I wanted to be a part of that,” Williams said.
“I bring versatility to the defense being able to play the run, cover and get after the quarterback with speed.”
Gibson comes over from Notre Dame College after the school and football program were shut down earlier this year. A 6-3, 250-pound defensive end from Lorain, who attended Amherst High School in Lorain County, Gibson was 1st Team All-Mountain East as a Junior with the Falcons.
FLASHES FALL IN GAME ONE: The Kent State baseball team fell to Ball State in game one of their three game series this weekend on Thursday night. Down 11-1, the Flashes battled back before falling 11-9. An offense that’s never out of a game and can come back at any time, the Flashes will still have to play clean baseball in Avon next week at the MAC Tournament to give themselves a chance against the league’s best teams.
E-HAUT ON THE MOVE: Kent State alum, former player and coach Eric Haut was named the Associate Head Coach at Utah State earlier this week. Haut had spent the previous five seasons on the staff at Northern Kentucky. Haut, a legendary player at Kent, spent several seasons on the KSU bench next to Jim Christian, Geno Ford and Rob Senderoff. Haut joins new Head Coach Jerrod Calhoun (Youngstown State) at Utah State.
I watched Eric’s KSU career play out as a high school student and then later got to know him in Kent when he was my professor in basketball class! I also got to know him in my days as a Student Manager and I’ve followed his career closely ever since. Simply put, there aren’t many better guys in the KSU hoops tradition of the last 27 years better than E-Haut.
The Flashes have posted for their own open assistant coaching position and expect to have someone in place by June. They will be looking for someone with the ability to work with the Kent State bigs.
BASS TO LINDENWOOD: Former Kent State guard Reggie Bass committed to Lindenwood University this week. Bass will be on his third team in three years after starting his career as the MAC Freshman of the Year at Central Michigan in 2022-2023. An electric scorer, Bass will no doubt be seeking the offensive freedom he had at Central. In this day and age of college recruiting and transfer portalling, there are hits and misses. It’s safe to say Bass was not a fit for the Flashes and same for him.