Running back Jaylen Thomas’ 23-yard touchdown run with 2:28 left in the third quarter put the finishing touches on Kent State’s 38-10 win last September against Central Connecticut, the program’s first victory under new coach Kenni Burns.
Kent State hasn’t won since, creating a 20-game losing streak that stands as the second-longest in program history behind 21 losses in a row from 1981-83.
But losing streaks come and go: There have been 19 losing streaks of 21 or more games in the Bowl Subdivision’s modern era, none longer than Northwestern’s 34-game slide from 1978-82.
What is currently happening at Kent State goes beyond merely a losing streak, however, placing the Golden Flashes in the mix for being counted among the worst teams in FBS history.
The Flashes have played 11 games this season while leading for roughly the equivalent of one quarter of game time, with a series of lopsided blowouts save for two single-possession defeats: 23-17 to Saint Francis (Pa.) of the Championship Subdivision and 37-35 to MAC opponent Ball State.
“We know the season hasn’t gone the way we wanted it to, obviously,” Burns said last week. “But all we can control is the next game, the next opportunity. We’ve got to get back to work and do what we have to do to do that.”
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Louisiana-Monroe went the entire 2020 season without ever leading, playing a 10-game schedule with stops and starts amid the COVID-19 pandemic. If we remove that abbreviated season from the equation, the Flashes’ résumé paints them as potentially the worst team of this century.
Overall, the Golden Flashes head into Tuesday’s season finale at Buffalo having played in 660 minutes of game time. They has been tied for just over 64 minutes of this stretch, with the longest non-losing period coming, surprisingly enough, in an eventual 56-0 loss to No. 4 Penn State. The Nittany Lions were held off the board until a 16-yard touchdown pass with 2:38 remaining in the first quarter.
Kent State been ahead at times in the past two games. It scored first against Miami (Ohio) on Nov. 13 and held a 7-0 lead for about five and a half minutes of game time, from the 13:40 mark until 8:09 remaining in the first quarter. The RedHawks would pull away for a 34-7 win. Last Wednesday against Akron, the Golden Flashes scored on an 80-yard touchdown with 13:31 to go in the opening frame and would hold that lead until the Zips scored to go ahead 10-7 with 4:15 remaining in the quarter. Akron would eventually win 38-17.
Combined, Kent State has been tied or ahead for just under 79 minutes of game time. That’s just one metric that explains why the Flashes could be headed for a place in college football ignominy:
Saint Francis has just three other wins. One came against Delaware State, which finished last in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. Another was to Stonehill, a former Division II program in its first year transitioning to the FBS. The Red Flash ended the season losing 21-20 to Mercyhurst, another program transitioning up from Division II.
The Flashes have been shut out three times — by Tennessee, Penn State and Ohio — and failed to score a touchdown in a 27-6 loss to Bowling Green.
Bowling Green is the only FBS opponent to score fewer than 34 points against Kent State. The Flashes have been defeated by an average final score of roughly 46-14 in 10 games against FBS competition.
KSU ranks last in the country in total offense, total defense, scoring defense, rushing defense, first downs gained, first downs allowed and third-down offense. The Flashes are second to last in rushing offense, ahead of Colorado, and in scoring offense, ahead of Houston.
KSU also ranks in the bottom 10 nationally in passing offense, passing efficiency offense, passing efficiency defense, turnover margin, third-down defense and red-zone defense.
The Flashes are gaining 235.5 yards per game. That’s almost 10% percent fewer than Kennesaw State, which comes in ahead of KSU at 260.5 yards per game. At 522.4 yards per game, the Flashes’ defense is giving up nearly 20 more yards than Oklahoma State, at 503.3 yards per game.
Injuries have played a role. The Flashes have lost players “more than normal, more than most schools,” Burns said, notably with injuries to two quarterbacks — starter Devin Kargman and primary backup JD Sherrod — during the loss to Penn State. Third-string quarterback Tommy Ulatowski has started six of the past seven games.
“I’d be lying to you if I didn’t think that played a factor into our success this year,” he said.
Kent State has plenty of competition for the title of worst team in the modern FBS era, including two from fairly recent program history: The 1989 team went 0-11 and completed just 44.3% of its pass attempts and the 1998 team also went 0-11 while being outscored by more than 300 points and giving up more than 310 rushing yards per game.
Other contenders include 1950 Virginia Tech, which was outscored 430-72 and lost every game by a double-digit margin, and 1981 Northwestern, which finished last nationally in points scored and allowed per game with two losses by 64 points and another by 52 points. One surprising entrant in this embarrassing debate is 1955 Alabama, the proud program’s only winless team since 1896.
A loss to Buffalo would make KSU the 23rd winless FBS team of the 21st century, not counting the shortened COVID-19 season, and the first since Akron in 2019. With another double-digit loss, the Flashes would join 2017 Texas-El Paso, 2015 Kansas and 2005 Temple as the only winless teams since 2000 to have only one game against FBS competition decided by single digits. And with the Bulls favored by 22½ points, another blowout loss could make Kent State and Temple the only two to have all but one game against the FBS decided by 21 or more points.
“We’ve got our hands full here but we’re playing for something,” said Burns. “We’re playing for our ability to finish the season off the right way, to take our seniors on to the offseason the right way and get this team rolling in the right direction.”