Burns Announces Several Staff Promotions
2/28/2024 3:32:00 PM | Football
KENT- Head football coach Kenni Burns has announced several staff promotions in advance of the 2024 spring football season.
Mark Carney has been named offensive coordinator for the Golden Flashes. Carney worked last season with the tight ends and inside wide receivers but has extensive experience as an offensive coordinator. Prior to Kent State, he served as the OC for the Charlotte 49ers for three seasons. In that span, Charlotte averaged nearly 400 yards of offense per game. He also served as the OC at Virginia State as well as Baldwin-Wallace.
Mark Watson Jr. will serve as the running backs coach and recruiting coordinator for the Golden Flashes. Working with the backs last season, he helped the duo of Gavin Garcia and Jaylen Thomas be a formidable rushing tandem for the Flashes. On the recruiting side, Watson was the Director of Player Development at South Dakota for three seasons. The Coyotes reached the FCS playoffs for the first time in program history and made the round of 16 during his four-year tenure.
Defensively, CJ Robbins has been named linebackers coach and will serve as special teams coordinator. Robbins makes the transition to linebackers from coaching rush ends last year. He has extensive experience coaching linebackers, serving as the outside linebackers coach at South Dakota in 2022. He also worked with rush linebackers with Minnesota for two seasons and with the Miami RedHawks as a graduate assistant.
Kody Morgan will serve as the co-defensive coordinator and coach safeties for the Flashes in 2024. Morgan worked with defensive backs and safeties at North Dakota State during his five-year coaching tenure in Fargo. He was part of a staff that had tremendous success, helping the Bison capture four FCS National Championships. Morgan also worked at Wisconsin-Stout with defensive backs in his first full-time coaching role.
The 2024 spring season gets underway in March and will end with Flash Bowl II, the annual spring game on Saturday, April 27th
