Lest we forget, Kent State football has been terrible for years and years. Then Kent State has one good season with Darrell Hazell. Now I credit Hazell and his staff for doing an awesome job in 2012 for sure, but to be honest many things were in Hazell's favor. He arrived with above average talent. For example, Hazell had Dri Archer as a running back and return specialist and had an experienced quarterback in Spencer Keith, along with experienced offensive linemen Brian Winters, Josh Kline, and Kent Cleveland. On defense, Hazell had Roosevelt Nix, Luke Batton, and Luke Wollet.
In 2012, Akron was a 1-11 team, with its lone win against Morgan State, and Ohio lost four of its last five regular season games. By the time the Bobcats played Kent State, Ohio had three more players go down with serious injuries, and had lost 10 players who were projected as starters when the season began to injuries. Certainly this year, both Akron and Ohio were much better than they were in 2012 when Kent State played them and with the exception of Northern Illinois, a team the Flashes played in the 2012 MAC championship game, no one on the schedule was nearly as good as Toledo or Bowling Green this season.
I'm just as disappointed as anyone about the team's non-existent offense but I can't say Coach Haynes is a bad head coach because the fact is we just don't know yet. With a zero offense he won three games and had two conference wins. And if it were not for two controversial personal foul penalties, the Flashes would more than likely not have lost in double overtime to Marshall.
Considering the strength of the team's defense, it's only fair to give him a chance to improve the offense. Let's see what happens next year. I fear the offense will not get a lot better unless a junior college quarterback is recruited. If the offense doesn't show considerable improvement it may be hard to justify hanging onto Haynes. But I can't see after three years how he can or should be let go. This is Kent State football folks and it will always be hard to win here. As Haynes states in the Akron post-game press conference, we thought that we fixed it in 2012 but we didn't. We just had a good year like we have every 25 years. Haynes is trying to build a program but it will take time to build one. I just hope he is given enough time to complete the mission.
In 2012, Akron was a 1-11 team, with its lone win against Morgan State, and Ohio lost four of its last five regular season games. By the time the Bobcats played Kent State, Ohio had three more players go down with serious injuries, and had lost 10 players who were projected as starters when the season began to injuries. Certainly this year, both Akron and Ohio were much better than they were in 2012 when Kent State played them and with the exception of Northern Illinois, a team the Flashes played in the 2012 MAC championship game, no one on the schedule was nearly as good as Toledo or Bowling Green this season.
I'm just as disappointed as anyone about the team's non-existent offense but I can't say Coach Haynes is a bad head coach because the fact is we just don't know yet. With a zero offense he won three games and had two conference wins. And if it were not for two controversial personal foul penalties, the Flashes would more than likely not have lost in double overtime to Marshall.
Considering the strength of the team's defense, it's only fair to give him a chance to improve the offense. Let's see what happens next year. I fear the offense will not get a lot better unless a junior college quarterback is recruited. If the offense doesn't show considerable improvement it may be hard to justify hanging onto Haynes. But I can't see after three years how he can or should be let go. This is Kent State football folks and it will always be hard to win here. As Haynes states in the Akron post-game press conference, we thought that we fixed it in 2012 but we didn't. We just had a good year like we have every 25 years. Haynes is trying to build a program but it will take time to build one. I just hope he is given enough time to complete the mission.
Last edited:
