First Scrimmage Recap: Golden Flashes Stay Healthy in Opening Live Action
8/10/2025 5:31:00 PM | Football
KENT, Ohio – The Kent State football team completed its first scrimmage of fall camp with head coach Mark Carney emphasizing the most important outcome - keeping players healthy in their first full live-contact session.
"We stayed healthy. That's always a concern when you get to go live out here," Carney said following the scrimmage. "This was the first real live go and to come out of it healthy was big."
Defensive Line Leading the Way
The most encouraging development from camp has been the play of the defensive front, with Carney highlighting significant improvement from his interior defensive linemen and edge rushers.
"The production we're getting from our interior defensive linemen and edges, those guys are constantly in the backfield right now," Carney noted. "The way we're moving, the way we're stunting, the way we can rush the passer at all defensive line spots - we're going to be hell on wheels."
Multiple defensive position groups stood out positively, including safeties, corners, and linebackers, with Carney specifically praising the linebacker corps for their impact on defense and special teams.
Offensive Consistency Needed
While the defense impressed, Carney identified areas where the offense needs improvement before the next scrimmage, particularly in quarterback and receiver play.
"Communication and consistency offensively, we got to have better quarterback play, receiver play as well," Carney explained. "Those are two areas right now that are a little behind. I think a little bit of that's natural with a new coordinator, Coach Patterson, and his spin on things."
The first-team offense faced a challenging test against a flying defensive unit, though Carney was encouraged by some early success running the ball and a couple of scoring drives in gold zone situations.
Gold Zone Focus
Goal line execution remains a priority, with Carney expressing satisfaction with the overall gold zone performance while wanting more efficiency in finishing drives.
"Gold zone has been good," he said. "For my liking, too many field goal attempts - we got to score more touchdowns down there. That's going to make the difference for us this fall."
Looking Ahead
Carney emphasized that depth chart decisions will be made after reviewing practice film. The head coach's confidence heading into the next phase of camp stems from the team's overall attitude and trajectory.
"The attitude of this football team - we are heading in a really, really positive direction right now," Carney concluded.
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