The Kent State football team wrapped up spring semester practices with a spring game today, marking the final time the team will suit up until the summer.

The team was unable to have spring practice as normal last year due to the COVID-19 protocols of the university, and both coach Sean Lewis and senior quarterback Dustin Crum expressed their thankfulness for being able to hold a full camp.

“It was just kind of nice to actually get a full spring in this year,” Crum said. “[It’s] obviously a blessing with everything that has been going on. Good to compete and see some different guys in and just kind of getting the pads popping a bit.”

Another small return to normalcy for the team was the attendance of fans. New Kent State sports spectator rules allowed friends and family to attend the game, which had a crowd of nearly a hundred.

The Flashes are looking to replace several important pieces, but also returns a plethora of talent on both sides of the ball.

Lewis said he was pleased with the progress of his squad throughout spring practices, but that the spring game exposed some areas of concern to focus on before the season began.

“Obviously we’re not game ready right now, we saw that from today’s performance,” Lewis said. “What we displayed out there was kind of feast-or-famine in a lot of areas. [We had] some great plays, but we need more consistency.”

That inconsistency was reflected on the stat sheet, as the Kent State offense gave up sacks and struggled to consistently move the ball, but found success on big plays.

Crum finally connected deep on a 40-yard touchdown to Nykeim Johnson, a graduate transfer who arrives at Kent from Syracuse University.

The Flashes are looking to replace the loss of deep threat Isaiah McKoy who declared for the draft this year, and several receivers stepped up alongside Johnson to try and fill that role.

Redshirt sophomore Dante Cephas and fifth-year senior Keshunn Abram both caught deep balls from redshirt sophomore quarterback Collin Schlee. Abram scored a 45-yard touchdown to end the spring game with a win for the offense.

The Kent State defense did not make those big plays easy, as the yellow team pressured the offense all morning.

“What really grabbed my attention most was the overall defensive effort,” Lewis said. “I thought they came out and their energy and enthusiasm were greater than the offense early on. They generated some turnovers and they got off the field.”

Pressure came from defensive lineman Jabarr Price, a graduate student, who recovered a fumble for the only turnover of the game and redshirt senior defensive end Zayin West who recorded a sack.

“The defensive line as a whole under the leadership of coach [] Feral has taken tremendous strides,” Lewis said. “As a group those guys have been doing a great job of growing together.”

Also recording a sack was redshirt junior linebacker Matt Harmon.

Whether caused by the defense or just a byproduct of the young season, the offense experienced several miscues and penalties that brought back some big plays.

“Obviously a lot of things to clean up like you would expect from spring ball. So a long, long way to go,” Crum said. “One of the biggest things is going to be cleaning up penalties and some of the details and execution.”

One area in which Kent State will look similar to last year is the backfield alongside Crum, which saw familiar faces and the same running back-by-committee system the Flashes utilized last season.

The biggest play of the morning came from graduate back Xavier Williams when he broke a 69-yard touchdown run in the first half. 

Also scoring touchdowns on the ground were sophomore Marquez Cooper and junior Joachim Bangda who each ran in from the one yard line to end long Flashes’ drives.

Continuing his development from last year was sophomore Bryan Bradford, who saw increasing carries as the short fall season went on. He did not score, but Bradford saw the most carries with the first-team offense and had multiple 10+ yard runs.

“The running back play has been really consistent,” Lewis said.

The Flashes will not be back together until summer camp starts on June 1, as the team breaks for finals.

Kent State will open the season with its first non-conference opponent in over a year as the Flashes will travel to College Station, Texas to face Texas A&M on September 4.

Lewis said he looks forward to getting the team back together this summer and continue preparations for the season.

“You get through these 15 practices, the base knowledge, the basic installation of what we are going to run offensively, defensively, special teams has been installed, and now we need to do the work,” Lewis said. “We need to invest the time so that we can think fast, know fast, do fast.”

Owen is sports editor. Contact him at [email protected].