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Football Coach Sean Lewis to Remain at Kent State Through 2025 Season

Sean Lewis has turned Kent State's football program around, leading the Flashes to two consecutive winning seasons and their first bowl win
Kent State Athletic Department
Sean Lewis has turned Kent State's football program around, leading the Flashes to two consecutive winning seasons and their first bowl win.

Kent State University has extended the contract of head football coach Sean Lewis through 2025. The salary details were not released.

Lewis is entering his fourth season leading the Golden Flashes.

He says the new, four-year contract takes care of student-athletes, his staff, and provides the team the resources it needs to compete at a championship level.

Lewis says current and former players are as excited as he is about the deal.

Lewis Extended Four Years
Overwhelming excitement from players

“Just to hear the pride that our alumni have, our football-specific alumni have, in just some of the messages that I received was again very humbling and really powerful.”

Lewis led the Flashes to back-to-back winning seasons for the first time since the mid 1970s. The team led Division One last season in total offense and scoring offense. At 35, he’s one of the youngest head coaches in college football.

Kent State’s new athletic director, Randale Richmond, has extended contracts for three coaches in the short time he's been on the job.

In June, Richmond extended basketball coach Rob Senderoff’s contract for five years, with a slightly lower base salary.

Richmond says Lewis has led the football program to success on the field and in the classroom with a team GPA over 3.0.

Richmond: Football Program's Growth
Kent State AD on Sean Lewis' Impact

“We know what we’re here to do: graduate student-athletes boldly prepared for life after sport and win championships. That’s awesome. We know what our guiding principle is. So we have these things all set up and we’re repeating them and we’re actually doing them, giving examples of them every day.”

Kent State opens the 2021 season at Texas A&M on Sept. 4.

A Northeast Ohio native, Sarah Taylor graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio where she worked at her first NPR station, WMUB. She began her professional career at WCKY-AM in Cincinnati and spent two decades in television news, the bulk of them at WKBN in Youngstown (as Sarah Eisler). For the past three years, Sarah has taught a variety of courses in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Kent State, where she is also pursuing a Master’s degree. Sarah and her husband Scott, have two children. They live in Tallmadge.
Mason Lawlor is a senior studying journalism at Kent State University, with a minor in entrepreneurship. He has been a reporter for The Kent Stater for three semesters covering sports and the city of Kent.