Pads Come On, Physicality Rises as Kent State Has First Full Pad Practice of Fall Camp
8/11/2026 7:22:00 PM | Football
KENT, Ohio — Kent State football turned the corner into live football Wednesday, strapping on full pads for the first time in fall camp and giving coaches their first real look at how the roster holds up.
Head coach Mark Carney said the shift into full pads is one of the most anticipated days on the calendar every year.
First day in full pads is like Christmas, I love football, Carney said. Everybody looks forward to this day during the year. You're ramping up the physicality, the competition. We're iron sharpening iron right now, and it's happening at a lot of different positions. That's incredibly encouraging.
Carney said the energy matched his expectations across every phase of the team, including a kicking game that delivered under pressure.
I thought energy on all phases, offense, defense, and the kicking game, was outstanding, Carney said. Big kicks in some pressure situations from our field goal units, and we really needed to see that. That's going to be great for the future.
Once the pads came on, Carney pointed to the interior of the defense as the group that stood out most.
The guys inside, Rocco Nicholl, Sayed Abuhamdeh, Hayden Dawahare at the second level, and the people in front of him, Thomas Aden, Antonio Bottiggi, Aiden Burgess, Josue Cordoba, Camdon Wilborn, Carney said. The middle of our defense is playing extremely well right now.
With the season opener on September 5 approaching, Carney said the program is learning to live up to raised expectations after a step forward a year ago.
We're dealing with expectations right now, we're learning how to do that as a football program and as individuals, Carney said. We earned some respect, we're not picked at the bottom of our conference, we've got some players that have earned some preseason individual accolades. How we deal with the pressure of those expectations is a lot of our learning process right now.
Defensive coordinator Cherokee Valeria said the effort was there on the first day in pads, but the finishing edge still needs sharpening.
The violence has got to get better, the violence has got to rise to another level, Valeria said. We came out with some intention, but the violence was not felt all the way through from start to finish.
Valeria singled out the defensive line as a group setting the tone for the rest of the unit.
That front group, the defensive tackles, the defensive ends are doing a great job altogether of inspiring the whole rest of the defense, Valeria said. They play fast and physical together, they're all on the same page, and they all work with each other and hype each other up throughout every situation.
Valeria also noted a wave of younger players beginning to push for bigger roles, even as some veterans have room to sharpen their edge.
Some of the younger guys are coming along; they're starting to arrive, Valeria said. Some of the older guys are sitting right there, they're getting complacent a little bit, understanding where they're at. I'm seeing some sparks from the younger guys, some younger safeties, some younger corners, some younger backers that are starting to show up.
Looking ahead, Valeria said building togetherness across the defense is the top priority for the coming week.
We definitely have to be cohesive, Valeria said. We put everything in, we got everything established right now. Now we just got to work together and have that team aspect on the defense, that big one unit.
On offense, offensive coordinator Clay Patterson said full pads revealed traits that can't be evaluated in shorts and helmets alone.
There's a lot of pajama football, right, and guys are working on details and execution, but what you can't see is kind of what makes a man or what makes a team, Patterson said. Football is a violent sport played by violent men, and you get to see who's going to be physical, who's not. Going live today was awesome because you could see guys run around a little bit and break tackles as well.
Patterson said he was encouraged by the offensive line's response to a demanding first week, aided by a healthier depth chart than the program has had in recent years.
Depth issues have been an issue here for a while, for a couple of years, and we've got more healthy bodies than we've ever had, and those guys really responded, Patterson said. They had a tough couple of days. We put a lot on them from our run game, what we're attempting to do to put them in a good place, and they responded. We talk about not surviving, but striving in what we do, and they finally got to that point on day six, where it's like, all right, we're going to get better today.
The running back room also made a strong first impression once contact was live, according to Patterson.
It's fun to see the running backs, Jakorion Caffey, Mason King, Brandon White, in spring we weren't really live, so I didn't really know, Patterson said. I know they look pretty, they do a good job, they see cuts, but man, to see them run, to see them get after it, it was fun. You do stuff, and it's tag off, and you're getting four yards, can we turn four into six or seven with broken tackles? I was impressed with them.
Patterson said the offense's focus for the coming week centers on cutting down mistakes as the group moves from installation to refinement.
Part of our goals and our plan going into this thing has been to take care of the football, being a more efficient offense, and being violent, Patterson said. The efficiency part is where we've got to improve. We believe at Kent State that we've got to develop our depth from the bottom up. If you want to play, you come to Kent State because we're going to get you on the field. The consistency, pre-snap penalties, the details, we're done with installs now, so we can move on and really fine-tune this thing and polish it. And then the quarterbacks have always got to keep growing. We put a lot on our quarterbacks in our system, so continuing to get them to grow in what we're doing and take the next step forward.
Special teams analyst Josh Cribbs said his unit is still working through installation, but took a step forward with the added physicality of full pads.
The special teams unit got better. If we can ask for anything, we want these guys to get better, Cribbs said. They're still digesting and comprehending everything. We're just about done putting everything in. I'm looking forward to these guys taking a huge step in the next few days.
Cribbs said the day's intensity was obvious once the pads came on.
Anytime it's full pads, and coach says, hey, it's with full gear, live football intensity changes, Cribbs said. Those guys were locked in, they were dialed in, they were ready.
He also pointed to a group of lesser-known players pushing to earn roles on special teams.
It's a lot of guys still trying to find themselves, a lot of guys hungry to get on special teams, Cribbs said. Guys are coming up to me all the time like, 'Coach, don't be afraid to put me on teams.' I love how hungry the guys are. We're just going to make sure that transfers from practice to the games.
Cribbs said consistency over four quarters is the unit's biggest emphasis heading into next week.
The biggest area of improvement is just being consistent from the start all the way to the finish, Cribbs said. One thing we want to keep harping on these guys is, hey, it's four quarters of football. We want to play all four strong, all the way to the end.
The Golden Flashes open the 2026 season on the road at South Carolina, on September 5, at 12:45 p.m. Eastern. Season tickets for the 2026 season are available now at KSUtix.com.
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