The Flashes showed they could have a pair of difference makers when the football season rolls around this fall, as demonstarted by the play of junior running back Dri Archer and junior quarterback David Fisher, who teamed to lead the Gold Team to a 21-0 victory Saturday at Dix Stadium.

Archer, who has been clocked at 4.21 and 4.34 in ther 40-yard dash, split a pair of defenders and burned the Blue Team defense for am effortless 66-yard touchdown in the third quarter.

With the loss of senior post players - forward Justin Greene and center Justin Manns -  Kent State men's basketball coach Rob Senderoff's main goal this off season has been to land a much-needed big.

Consider it mission accomplished.

As expected, Kent State made its hiring of Danielle O'Banion official Wednesday afternoon, announcing that the former Memphis assistant coach will begin her first head coaching position with the Golden Flashes' womens' basketball team following a 1 p.m. news conference Thursday at the M.A.C. Center.

Here's a portion of the release:

While waiting for an announcement regarding Kent State's new women's basketball coach, the KSU athletic department posted on Twitter that Don Gromala has become the Golden Flashes' eighth head volleyball coach.

Gromala is a nine-year coaching veteran who spent the past four seasons an assistant coach at perennial top-25 power Ohio State and four years at Ohio University.  

The Kent State atheltic department appears to be on the verge of naming its new women's basketball coach, with an announcement via press release expected to come sometime later today.

While KSU ogfficials remain tight-lipped about the candidates they've brought to campus to interview, I've begun  to hear enough whispers that leads me to believe the replacement for longtime coach Bob Lindsay (whose contract was not renewed in March after two-plus decades), will be Memphis associate head coach Danielle O'Banion.

Just one day after touring Kent State on an official visit last weekend, Pennsylvania nose guard Tyler Haddock verbally committed to play for the Golden Flashes Sunday - news that began to make the rounds by Monday afternoon.

The 6-foot, 300-pound junior is a two-year starter for the defending Class AAA champion Spartans at Montour High School.

Very traditional football score, isn't it? 

The defense, like the score indicates, is ahead of the offense, but that's more a factor of two things: a banged-up offensive line and two QBs who don't have a great deal of experience in this offense, one of whom (David Fisher) is still learning the plays.  

We're a couple possessions into Kent State's jersey scrimmage Saturday morning, and each of the No. 34s are putting together a great day.

Wearing the defensive white No. 34, junior Richard Gray has turned the early stages of this scrimmage into this own personal highlight reel.

 The Golden Flashes are gearing up for Saturday morning's jersey scrimmage, which may be an ever better evaluation tool than the spring game, although the latter garners more attention. 

This will be the first time the coaching staff can look at players in a connected series of plays at full speed. Coach Hazell has about 85 plays pre-scripted out of the 120 or 125 they'll run during the day. 

Defensive Coordinator Jon Heacock spoke about the challenges of mixing and matching lineman to create the best defensive line possible after Monday's spring practice.

"There are always moving parts in the spring, and how the kids handle it is what's important," Heacock said. "The key becomes that when you're moving those guys, all those moving parts, that you don't overload them and give them a chance to play football. If they don't understand it, you're wasting their time." 

The Flashes spent Tuesday’s two-hour morning session focused on installing a two-minute package and coming off goal line situations.

“I thought we were a little shaky (offensively) at times and the defense did a good job stopping them,” head coach Darrell Hazell said.

Kent State football coach Darrell Hazell called Monday’s two-hour morning session that was the Flashes’ first full-pad session of spring camp “the best practice yet.”

“This was a great practice for the first day of pads,” the second-year coach said. “The energy level was outstanding. Guys were running around with some enthusiasm, it was really good. Especially for a Monday practice after the weekend? They were sharp.”