SPORTS USA TODAY❚ FRIDAY, AUGUST 30, 2019❚ 3B
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
A million-and-a-half bucks isn’t a
bad haul for a day’s work.
That’s the amount Kent State will re-
ceive from Arizona State when the two
universities’ football programs open
their 2019 seasons in Tempe on Thurs-
day. The Golden Flashes won’t depart
with a physical check in hand and, in all
likelihood, they will walk away with a
loss.
But eventually, and more important,
they will get paid. Kent State is not a
popular pick to win the Mid-American
Conference after going 2-10 last season.
However, it will lead the league – and all
non-Power Five, non-independent pro-
grams – in revenue from guarantee
games this season at $4.5 million. And it
won’t be close.
Southern Mississippi and Middle
Tennessee State are set to make the sec-
ond most from road guarantee games
among non-Power Five, non-indepen-
dent teams at $3.15 million apiece.
The Golden Flashes will play at Au-
burn on Sept. 14 and at Wisconsin on
Oct 5, receiving $1.9 million and $1.1 mil-
lion, respectively, for those games. The
money comes with the possibility that
Kent State will have endured three
physically demanding, potentially lop-
sided losses by the time it has all but one
conference game awaiting. (Along the
way, though, Kent State also will have
played Kennesaw State, a Football
Championship Subdivision school it is
paying $300,000 for a game Sept. 7.)
But the net total $4.2 million is pro-
jected to account for “10 to 15%” of Kent
State’s athletics department revenue
for the 2020 fiscal year, athletics direc-
tor Joel Nielsen said.
“It’s not insignificant when you look
at roughly a $30 million budget,” Niel-
sen told USA TODAY Sports. “So (guar-
antee games were) part of our conversa-
tions with university administration
when we’re projecting a five-year bud-
get and what can be done to enhance
revenues and control expenses.”
The money from guarantee games
grows in importance with each season
for Kent State. Next season, games
against Alabama, Kentucky and a yet-
to-be-announced Power Five school,
Nielsen said, is expected to bring in
roughly $5 million. In fiscal year 2022,
the guarantees are projected to account
for 17.2% of the department’s budget,
according to Nielsen, whereas the guar-
antee games made up 13.5% of the bud-
get in fiscal year 2019.
In fiscal 2018, more than $20 million
of Kent State’s nearly $29 million in ath-
letics revenue came from student fees
and institutional funds, its annual fi-
nancial report to the NCAA showed.
That degree of subsidy is typical for
MAC schools. At Kent State, Nielsen
said, the money from football guarantee
games is imperative when discussing
future budgets with campus leaders.
“We want to do everything on our
end, from an external standpoint, to
raise revenues to either keep that sub-
sidy at the same level or either reduce
that,” Nielsen said. “Our fiscal model,
that we work with the university ad-
ministration on, doesn’t specifically
dictate that the monies from a specific
guarantee game go toward a specific
project. But those monies are directed
into our overall budget.”
For Nielsen, it’s a scheduling versionof a double-edged sword.
“The biggest challenge, I think, is
knowing that ... it’s going to be difficult
for us to be competitive each and every
game,” Nielsen said. “It’s a great oppor-
tunity for us to make some noise nation-
ally, but it’s a heck of a challenge to
come out of there with a win.”
No one is more aware of that test than
second-year head coach Sean Lewis.
“A lot of people look at it from a nega-
tive light, where they see, ‘Hey, there’s
three Power Five teams, why would you
wanna do that?’ ” Lewis said on a con-
ference call this week. “Our kids have a
great chip on their shoulder, in terms of
being great young men and great young
players, and a majority of them feel
overlooked that they weren’t Power Five
kids. We feel like we got some kids that
we were able to steal and we were able to
recruit that have some Power Five talent
and we’re going to go compete.”
Kent State declined USA TODAY
Sports’ request to interview a player for
this report.
With games against a slew of South-
eastern Conference schools on the
docket in the next few years, the GoldenFlashes can sell potential recruits on the
chance to face those powerhouses.
The occasional upset is always pos-
sible. Twice last year, at Mississippi and
at Illinois, Kent State played close
games into the fourth quarter.
“It’s an opportunity for not only (the
players) as individuals but also our pro-
gram and our university,” Nielsen said.
“It’s a university strategy also to brand
ourselves and get our brand out there.”
The reality is that the triumphs are
far and few between. Much more com-
mon are games like the 63-10 drubbing
Penn State handed the Golden Flashes
last season.
Still, the guarantee games beckon.
“The guaranteed money is a lot of
money, obviously, for one game,” Niel-
sen said. “I would hope we could find
other opportunities to make that money
up, whether it’s ticket sales or donations
or external support. I think long term
you’d hope that’d be the case, but it’s
something right now that we’re just tak-
ing day-by-day and see how it plays
out.”
Contributing: Andy Kostka, Lila
BrombergKent State will earn $4M, likely lose
Games’ guarantee money
key to school’s revenue
Chris Bumbaca
USA TODAY
Kicker Matthew Trickett attempts to tackle Penn State’s KJ Hamler in a Kent State guarantee game. USA TODAY SPORTSuled interview window – waxing on as
he would in the green room at ESPN –
and suddenly popped up to hustle to a
meeting. As Lewis was heard approach-
ing in the lobby, Edwards greeted him at
the door and reeled him into the office.
“Your turn,” he instructed.
Then poof, Edwards was gone, his
seat occupied by the other former NFL
head coach in the midst.
“When you come into this building,
you can feel his energy,” Lewis said of
Edwards. “And the players walk that
same walk with him.”
Now Lewis, with the title of special
adviser, has fallen in line, too.
No, it wasn’t enough for the Sun Dev-
ils to have just one ex-NFL general
around. Edwards, beginning his second
season at ASU with an opener against
Kent State on Thursday, created the ide-
al landing spot after his longtime pal
was dumped by the Bengals after 16
years.
It’s perfect, too, for the “pro model”
essential to Edwards’ vision of building
a powerhouse.
Lewis, 60, adds another layer for a
staff that was already heavy on NFL ex-
perience – joining the likes of Antonio
Pierce, Shawn Slocum, Kevin Mawae
and Derek Hagan – as a joined-at-the-
hip sounding board for Edwards.
Although Lewis discussed working
for the NFL, either on television for the
NFL Network or in some capacity at
league headquarters, this Arizona State
gig didn’t take much arm-twisting to
come about.
Lewis has had a home in Greater
Phoenix for years. His daughter, Whit-
ney, is an ASU grad. Before Ray Ander-
son became a power broker as Roger
Goodell’s chief football operations exec-
utive, before he was Falcons’ president,
he was the agent for both Edwards and
Lewis. Now Anderson is both of their
bosses as athletic director.
And shoot, Edwards and Lewis –
both former interns in the NFL’s minor-
ity coaching fellowship program – have
so much in common they both have
sons named Marcus.
Edwards, 65, said his big selling point
to Lewis was, “Help me coach the
coaches.”
Lewis’ role also includes assessing
injury management with the training
staff and advance work on upcoming
opponents. And Edwards constantly
seeks his input on scheduling and prac-
tice plans.
“We have had a blast,” Edwards said.
This bond goes back to 1990 when
they met on the Pittsburgh campus,
where Lewis was linebackers coach for
the Panthers and Edwards trekked
through as a Chiefs scout.
Now, they laugh about being back in
the college environment, only with 57
years of NFL coaching dues between
them.
It’s striking, how some things have
changed. It used to be taboo to openly
discuss a football program at an institu-
tion of higher learning as though it were
a feeder system for the almighty NFL.
Now, Edwards and Company make
no bones about using NFL aspirations
as a hook, as I’d suspect they do at
places like Alabama and Ohio State – al-
though Edwards is still passionate in
hammering home themes about devel-
oping character and academics.
“When I coached at Pitt, we had a lot
of guys go to the NFL,” Lewis said. “But it
wasn’t talked about. Now it’s talked
about. Most of these kids think this is a
three-year pass-through to the NFL.
They come here with that perception.
“But with the model that Ray and
Herm have, it’s, ‘You’re still going to get
an education.’ They basically go to
school year-round. There are six or eight
kids on this team that have already
graduated. They’re in grad school. You
can graduate in 3^1 ⁄ 2 -4 years, then go on to
the league if you’re good enough. We’re
going to get you your education and
train you to be better players.”
That’s the plan, anyway, and Lewisrepresents a valuable resource with
straight-talk perspective. Several Arizo-
na State players have begun to pick his
brains about traits of the best players
he’s coached and for input regarding
their NFL chances. He can readily pro-
vide comparisons to recent draft
prospects.
Perhaps the ultimate effectiveness of
Edwards’ approach will be measured
with graduation rates on top of the NFL
opportunities.
Another measure, of course, comes
with victories that they hope will lead to
Pac-12 titles and major bowl games ...
and in turn, talented recruiting classes.
Edwards has certainly started with
momentum. Last season’s 7-6 finish,
which included two victories against
teams ranked in the Top 20 and claimed
second place in the Pac-12 South, was
quite the statement against all of those
projections of a last-place finish.
As an encore, Edwards, who returns
with reigning Pac-12 rushing champ Eno
Benjamin, starts the first true freshman
at quarterback in school history in Jay-
den Daniels. Yes, they are young. There
are 39 freshmen, redshirt freshmen or
transfers.
“What’s different from last year,” Ed-
wards said, “is that we have developed
our DNA.”
That DNA, with not-so-subtle hints
that play into NFL aspirations.
You could feel it, too, when Pierce
popped into Edwards’ office for a quick
exchange. The previous night Pierce
went to the very stadium where he was
captain of the defense for a Giants
squad that upset the previously unbeat-
en Patriots in Super Bowl XLII, and saw
the Raiders hammer Cardinals rookie
quarterback Kyler Murray with an array
of blitzes.
Pierce lamented Cardinals rookie
coach Kliff Kingsbury’s college offense
and how it left the edges open for the
Raiders to exploit Murray.
“This guy is exceptional,” Pierce said
of Murray. “I hope it works for him.”
Either way, potential teaching mo-
ments loom.“Antonio might be in the classroom
showing a coverage, maybe a ‘Cat cov-
erage,’ and all of a sudden it goes from us
putting it in to, ‘Hey, let’s watch the Gi-
ants,’ ” Edwards said. “Pro players.
Same coverage. It resonates with the
kids.”
It also helps to have a Hall of Famer
on the premises.
Mawae’s induction at Canton, Ohio,
as one of his era’s greatest offensive
linemen touched every Arizona State
player to some degree. To attend the cer-
emony in early August, Edwards – who
also coached two other enshrines, Ty
Law and Tony Gonzalez – changed the
practice schedule. No doubt, Mawae’s
new status could do wonders for
recruiting.
“That’s going to be my coach?” Ed-
wards sells.
Time, he contends, marks the big dif-
ference in coaching the kids, restricted
by NCAA rules to 20 hours a week in
practice and meetings.
“The mind-set is the same: How can
the coach make me a better player? In
pro football: How can this coaching staff
keep me in the league?”
Edwards is as much of a card-carry-
ing “old-school” coach as anyone. Still.
Just don’t confuse that with being stuck
in a time warp. He’s adapted his style to
message to millennials.
“Look, they live on this,” he said,
waving his cellphone. “Their life is a
screen. All day. How do you connect to
them? They process information very
quickly. They multi-task.
“How do you keep them engaged in
how you are trying to coach?”
One thing: cellphone breaks.
“You’re still coaching football, but
there’s always a sense that you can’t
keep them in one place for too long,” Ed-
wards said. “Pro football, same thing. I
talk to pro coaches and they say, ‘We’re
giving these dudes a phone break be-
cause they can’t function for a whole
hour.’ ”
Of course, Lewis can relate. And with
a new cellphone and NFL background,
he’s well-equipped.Bell
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