Eight Kent State Golden Flashes Earn Preseason All-MAC Honors — What It Means for Northeast Ohio's College Football Outlook

Eight Kent State Golden Flashes were selected to Athlon Sports' 2026 Preseason All-MAC Teams—the most extensive preseason recognition this program has received in years. That would mean something if the previous two seasons hadn't produced records of 0-12 in 2024 and 1-11 in 2023. For a fan base that's watched this program collapse from bowl contender to conference doormat, eight preseason honors pose a simple question: Is this actual structural improvement, or just another August mirage before the familiar November disappointment?

Here's what's different this time: The eight honorees span offense, defense, and special teams. That suggests roster-wide depth—the kind that might actually translate into fourth-quarter competitiveness rather than the usual illusion of talent concentrated in one or two positions while the rest of the roster gets pushed around.

Da'Realyst Clark became the first Kent State player ever to earn Athlon Sports Preseason All-America First Team honors. He's the only MAC player on the 2026 All-America list. That's the kind of national attention that either signals a genuine program turnaround or sets up an even more painful fall.

What Mark Carney Inherited—and What He Has to Prove

Last season's 5-7 record and 4-4 MAC mark represented the program's first winning conference record since 2018 and first non-losing MAC season since 2019—the second-largest single-season improvement in program history. Either that was the beginning of a sustainable rebuild, or the goodwill evaporates into another round of regional embarrassment.

Carney was named the program's 24th head coach in October 2025 after serving as interim since April, having previously been offensive coordinator during the winless 2024 season. A northeast Ohio native from St. Edward High School with coaching stops at Bowling Green and Baldwin Wallace, he understands what football failure means in this region.

"We've built a winning culture and togetherness," Carney said. "We can have honest conversations in our team room now that we couldn't have a year ago".

Translation: The locker room was so dysfunctional during the winless season that basic accountability wasn't even possible. Carney's entire tenure depends on whether honest conversations translate into November wins.

The Players Who Have to Deliver

Clark earned first-team All-MAC honors as kick returner. He led the nation in 2025 with two kick return touchdowns and averaged 28.3 yards per return (4th nationally), recording 16 kick returns for 452 yards including a 100-yard touchdown. He was named MAC Special Teams Player of the Year and HERO Sports G5 All-American Third Team.

"I'm just trying to get my name out there and let the NFL scouts know," Clark said.

That's a player with individual ambitions that align with team success only if Kent State stays competitive enough to give him opportunities.

Quarterback Dru DeShields earned second-team All-MAC honors after completing 136 of 240 passes for 2,030 yards with 18 touchdowns and only 3 interceptions in 2025. An 18:3 touchdown-to-interception ratio represents either genuine decision-making maturity or unsustainable luck that will regress when MAC defenses force him into difficult throws. The redshirt sophomore from Beloit, Ohio, threw a touchdown pass in every game he played and had five games with 200-plus passing yards.

Wayne Harris earned second-team All-MAC honors at two positions—wide receiver and punt returner. He finished 2025 ranked 6th nationally in punt return touchdowns and 8th in punt return average at 13.2 yards, totaling 16 punt returns for 211 yards including a 59-yard touchdown return against Central Michigan, plus 35 receptions for 383 yards and 1 touchdown as a receiver. That dual-threat value forces opponents into impossible coverage decisions if he stays healthy.

Second-team honoree Dustyn Morell on the offensive line and tight end Terik Mulder represent the kind of protection and blocking depth that determines whether DeShields has time to find Harris or spends the season scrambling away from pressure.

The defensive side features linebacker Rocco Nicholl (second team), defensive lineman Thomas Aden (third team), and safety Derrick Jackson III (third team). They must prove they can create turnovers and force fourth downs rather than bend-then-break coverage that allows soul-crushing late drives.

Kent State also placed 10 players on Phil Steele's 2026 preseason All-MAC selections—validation across multiple major prognosticators that the talent is genuinely there, or confirmation that preseason magazines are willing to sell hope to desperate fan bases.

The Brutal Context

Kent State's eight selections place them in the middle tier of MAC preseason recognition, well behind Miami (Ohio) with 19 players, Western Michigan with 17, and Toledo with 15. Those are programs that expect to compete for MAC championships while Kent State is still fighting to prove it belongs in the conversation.

ESPN's SP+ projections rank Kent State around 128th nationally with roughly 3.9 average wins projected—3.1 in MAC play. Those algorithms don't care about preseason honors.

The 2026 schedule features challenging road games against Ohio State and South Carolina, with a critical stretch of five road games in the final seven dates after October 3rd. That's a gauntlet that will either prove Kent State can compete with physical programs or expose whether the roster improvement is real.

"Talent is about the same as last season and we must be close to perfect to achieve more than five wins, as we still struggle to perform at a high level consistently," Carney said.

That's a head coach acknowledging that margin for error remains razor-thin.

"The goal is getting better and improvement," he added. "While we're results-oriented, we focus on building the culture and rebuilding the brand".

That's either realistic patience with a genuine process or preemptive cover for another losing season. Carney acknowledges the program is still in the culture-building phase after years of dysfunction. High-level consistency remains elusive—a timeline that asks fans to trust incremental progress while enduring the possibility of more painful Saturdays.

What to Watch

Clark's special teams explosiveness will be tested immediately against opponents who will scheme specifically to prevent game-changing returns. Can he replicate his production while drawing NFL scout attention?

DeShields' 18:3 touchdown-to-interception ratio must hold if Kent State hopes to stay competitive in close games. Regression dooms the season to the familiar pattern of early leads followed by second-half collapses.

Watch whether defenses scheme to limit Harris's punt return threat or his downfield receiving. If they do, Kent State will need to win through conventional offensive execution rather than special teams explosiveness.

The offensive line featuring Morell and tight end Mulder will determine whether Kent State can protect DeShields and establish a running game against stronger MAC opponents. Linebacker Nicholl and the defensive corps must force turnovers and create stops in November when MAC divisional races tighten.

The Bottom Line

"We're earning conversations about winning the Mid-American Conference by taking steps in the right direction," Carney said. "The realistic best-case scenario is reaching a bowl game for the first time since 2021".

That's a coach defining success as bowl eligibility rather than championship contention—betting that regional fans will accept incremental progress after years of humiliation.

Kent State has a 1-4 all-time bowl record with its only victory coming in the 2019 Frisco Bowl, plus just one MAC championship (1972) and two MAC East Division titles (2012, 2021) in program history. That's a legacy of mediocrity that either motivates this roster to break through or haunts them as evidence that Kent State simply doesn't have the institutional will to sustain success.

"Kent State football mattering in late November is possible," Carney said.

For a college town that has endured years of empty Saturdays, eight preseason honors aren't a guarantee—they're an invitation to believe that this time the September optimism might survive contact with October reality. That the talent depth is real enough to withstand injuries and bad breaks. That a program which went winless two years ago has genuinely turned a corner rather than just stumbled into one good year before sliding back. For northeast Ohio fans who've learned to protect themselves from hope, that's the hardest invitation to accept. But it's also the only one that matters.