Kent State announces firing of football coach Kenni Burns after administrative leave

Kent State’s Kenni Burns had been on administrative leave for the past two weeks. Now, that leave will have begun the end of his tenure with the Golden Flashes.

Kent State announced their firing of Burns in a release on Friday. With that, OC Mark Carney will take over as interim head coach for this upcoming season with a search for their next coach coming after this fall.

Vice President and Director of Athletics Randale L. Richmond statement on head football coach position. pic.twitter.com/lErnP28y92

— Kent State Athletics (@KentStAthletics) April 11, 2025

“Kent State University has terminated the employment of head football coach Kenni Burns,” wrote AD Randale Richmond in the department’s statement. “Offensive coordinator Mark Carney will serve as interim head football coach with a national search taking place at the conclusion of the 2025 season. At this time, our focus will be to support our student-athletes and provide them with the best opportunity to have a positive and competitive experience.”

On3’s Pete Nakos confirmed the reporting at ESPN that the Golden Flashes had placed Burns on administrative leave towards the end of last month on March 27th. Nothing has been confirmed as to the off-field reasoning for the leave, with pay still, but it has now since led to his firing from the school.

Burns was 1-23 (.042) through two seasons at Kent State. The one win came in his third game against Central Connecticut State, meaning the Golden Flashes are currently on a 21-game losing streak on the field. That includes a winless record of 0-12 in 2024 where they managed to post the worst scoring offense and scoring defense in the nation with 13.9 points per game for their offense and 44.1 points per game allowed by their defense in losing by an average margin of 30.2 points per defeat.

This was Burns’ first job as a college head coach. He had previously been an assistant at Minnesota, Western Michigan, North Dakota State, and Southern Illinois as well as Millersville in DII.

Now, Carney will take over in the interim during his own third season with the program. He arrived as tight ends coach before Burns promoted him to offensive coordinator this past year. Now, while previously unplanned for and just in the short-term at least for now, he’ll have another promotion for this upcoming fall as head coach at Kent State in 2025 until they find new leadership for 2026.