The final Kent State football game of the 2016 season didn’t go the way coach Paul Haynes had hoped. There were the 473 yards of total offense his team surrendered, and there were the 12 third downs that they couldn’t convert.
And then there were the six times the Flashes were penalized, including a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct issued to redshirt freshman defensive end Nick Faulkner at the beginning of the fourth that shifted momentum in favor of Northern Illinois.
But even though Haynes was unable to send his seniors off with a win in their final collegiate game — falling to NIU, 31-21 — he has a lot to be proud of despite a 3-9 record.