One of the worst football seasons in recent history mercifully ended Tuesday, as Kent State lost its final game to Buffalo to finish 0-12, the first winless team in a full college football season since 2019.
The 2020 season featured a slew of winless teams in the COVID-shortened season, including Louisiana–Monroe going 0-10, but Kent State is the first team since Akron in 2019 to play at least 12 games and fail to win any.
The Golden Flashes’ 43-7 loss to Buffalo on Tuesday was similarly lopsided as many of Kent State’s previous losses. It marked the ninth time this season the Golden Flashes lost by at least three touchdowns.
Tuesday also marked the 21st straight loss for Kenni Burns’ squad, as Kent State went 1-11 last season. The 2024 winless season is the first in program history since 1998, when the Golden Flashes went 0-11. Kent State also recorded 0-11 campaigns in 1982, 1989 and 1993.
Among the Golden Flashes’ losses this season was a 71-0 shellacking from Tennessee, a 56-0 beatdown from Penn State the week after, and later a 41-0 loss to MAC-leading Ohio.
Kent State nearly snapped its winless season in early October with a 37-35 loss to Ball State, a game in which the Golden Flashes scored 21 fourth-quarter points but ran out of time to complete the comeback after a late recovered onside kick was negated.
Including Tuesday’s loss, Kent State was outscored 167-529, a -362 differential, this season.
Entering Week 12, Kent State ranked last among all NCAA teams in offensive yards per game, averaging 235.5. Defensively, the Golden Flashes allowed the most yards of any team, averaging 522.1 per game, and their 44.2 points allowed per game was the most since Kansas allowed 45.0 per game in the COVID-shortened 2020 season.
(Photo: Scott Taetsch / Getty Images)
