Kent State Football Top Position Battles Heading into the Spring
- SSN - Kent State
- 12 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Spring football has officially started in Kent, Ohio as Kent State had their first official spring practice on Monday, March 23rd. After a successful 2025 campaign, Head Coach Mark Carney hit the offseason rolling by bringing in some great talent via the transfer portal and via National Signing Day. Everyone is ready to get the pads on and start practicing again after 4 month layoff
Heading into the spring practices there’s going to be a lot of things that are being evaluated. How well players react to competition is at the top of the board. These are my top position battles as we head into Spring practice 2026.
Running Back
Flashes head into the 2026 spring practice without 2 of the top running backs that they had during the 2025 season. Jordan Nubin has graduated and veteran Gavin Garcia has elected to enter the transfer portal. The staff wasted no time by bringing in 2 transfer Running backs to fill those gaps. Mason King, a transfer from Illinois State, is one of those backs. King has missed some games the past 2 seasons, however, he is back healthy and looking to return to his 2023 season form, where he had nearly 1,000 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns. Flashes also brought in Jakorian Caffey from University of Cincinnati where he played sparingly. He’s an avon high school product where he is Avon high school all time leading rusher. Donovan Delaney is a veteran that’s returning and he’s looking to compete but there’s some young talent that are pushing for that number 1 spot on the depth chart.
Linebacker
Similar to the running back room, Flashes LB room is without its top 2 performers. Mason Woods has graduated and CJ Young has transferred and will be playing his 2026 season with the Miami RedHawks. Rocco Nicholl has returned to Kent state for his final season after a season with USF. Rocco is going to be a contributor and the voice for the LB room. Another key contributor for LB room will be Hayden Dawahare. Dawahare comes from the University of Kentucky, where he saw action in 10 games last year. The last spot will be between a couple of transfers or a group of younger guys, who are fighting for playing time. Semaj Bridgeman, Trey Rubenstein, Rafael Terrero, Tanner Mintz, and Nate Gregory are a few that I’m expecting
OLine/Dline
This one was hard to decide, so I’m giving you guys a 2-for-1. The offensive tackles and the edge rushers are penciled in for now. In my opinion, the biggest position battles for each side of the ball are going to be the interior positions. While there’s a nice mix of transfers and home grown talent, guys will be battling out for these spots. Dustyn Morell’s name is written in marker for a starting spot. The center position and the other guard spot will be a question mark. Those spots will be between guys like Ben Midea, Jaxson Dunn, Boston Crowell or Rico steele. On the defensive side, Thomas Aden returns after briefly entering his name in the portal. He’s going to be starting at one of the defensive tackle positions. At the other spot, Darian Blachewicz and Josue Cordoba will be fighting for that starting spot. They both were rotated in heavy this past season, I expect the same this season
There will be lots of competition between now and fall practice. There will be changes to the depth chart and battles won over the next couple of weeks. I’m excited to see who comes out on top!
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