CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Since Kent State's Nov. 22 decision not to renew Paul Haynes as football coach, the search for the next coach has gone from the obvious to the absurd, with a little bit of credible in between. And now back to the obvious.
Mount Union head coach Vince Keres has been viewed as a favorite for the job from the beginning ... if he wants it. Now that Mount has won yet another Division III national title, 12-0 over Mary Hardin-Baylor on Friday night in the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl, perhaps KSU athletic director Joel Nielsen, looking for his third football coach since 2010, will take the short drive to Alliance to close the deal.
If hired, Kehres would join current Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell and Toledo head coach Jason Candle to go from the Mount Union coaching tree into the Mid-American Conference.
Vince Kehres is 70-4 since taking over as head coach at Mount Union in 2013 and has led the Raiders to the national title game four times in five seasons, winning twice. No college football coach has won more games since 2013 than the 70 by Kehres. He has also been part of 12 of Mount Union's 13 national titles as either a player, assistant coach or head coach.
Kehres is the son of legendary Mount Union coach Larry Kehres, who was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame last week. Larry Kehres was once offered a chance to coach at Kent State, but chose to remain at Mount Union.
Nielsen, "wins the press conference" by hiring Kehres. However, the major difference between Kehres, Candle and Campbell is the latter two were offensive coaches. Kehres' career focus has always been on defense. Kent State's football issues have not been on defense, but a glaring lack of offensive production.
Other candidates mentioned have been all over the map, ranging from high school coaches on up. This has been fed by Nielsen's reluctance to speak with the media about his search, and the numerous football coaching rumor sites on the internet yearning to be first and fast, over being accurate.
If you want to believe those sites, more than 15 coaches have already been offered the KSU job and turned it down. Confirmed, Bob Nielson from South Dakota and Minnesota assistant Ed Warinner have publicly said no to Kent State.
Another candidate might be Garrett Riley at Kansas.
Along with Kent State, arguably no other Division I football program has a worst reputation for ineptness, futility and administrative indifference to football than Kansas. While Kent State finished 2-11 this season, Kansas was 1-12.
Kansas lost 12 straight games including 45-27 to Central Michigan and 42-30 to Ohio University, two MAC teams that Kent also lost to. The Jayhawks were shut out twice and held to less than 10 points four times and less than two touchdowns in a game seven times, almost identical to Kent.
Riley was an assistant for two years at East Carolina with his brother, current Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley, before going to Kansas in 2016, where he was an offensive analyst, before becoming quarterback coach this past season.
A credible and privately confirmed candidate is Sean Lewis, co-offensive coordinator/quarterback coach at Syracuse. He has been an assistant with Syracuse head coach Dino Babers at Eastern Illinois, Bowling Green and Syracuse.
Lewis was the QB coach for Bowling Green's Matt Johnson in 2015, when he led the nation, passing for 4,700 yards and 43 touchdowns, breaking former Miami QB Ben Roethlisberger's MAC records in the process.
With the early signing period for players set to begin Wednesday, most expect Nielsen to make his final choice early this week.