Catching up on the roster countdown

#90 Jonathan Keys - DT
6’0”, 285 | Sophomore | Miss. Gulf Coast (JUCO)

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2025 stats: 27 total tackles, 2.5 TFL, 0.5 sacks
Recruiting rank: #292 nationally in the 247 Composite JUCO rankings. #51 DL, #97 in Mississippi.

Unless I’m missing somebody, QB Jonathan Murphy was the last junior college signee to take a snap in Kennesaw. That wasn’t really a factor in Mack’s first recruiting class, as most JUCO talent had found a home by the time he took over in late 2024. The odds are much more likely this year after Mack signed 8 JUCO players to reload at positions of need coming off the CUSA championship.

The haul includes Keys and his MGC teammates - Landon Varnes and RB Boogie Woods - plus TE Reed Jesiolowski, edge Montra Sanford, OL Mike Wallace, and a couple others. Which one’s most likely to make an early contribution? Jesiolowski will play real snaps at TE, Woods sounds like RB3, and Varnes is still in the mix for the QB battle. DT, though, feels like one area where the Owls will need to get a contribution from one of the JUCO newcomers, whether that’s Keys or fellow DT signee Khary Beler, who joined the class late in April from Butte College - the house that Aaron Rodgers built.

KSU only returns Jaiden Grimes and Jackson Cooper from the top five of last year’s interior DL rotation. Those two, plus Buffalo transfer Devin Morgan, are locks for playing time, leaving Keys and Khary Beler vying for a rotation spot at a position that will heavily rotate. Here are the highlights of Keys’ time at MGCCC, where he was one of four (!) interior DL to go FBS this cycle.

Keys signed in December, choosing the Owls over an offer from Arkansas State. He was on campus for winter workouts and spring practice, giving him a likely edge over the late-arriving Beler at this point. If so, AJ Miller (114 snaps in ‘25) would be next up for Keys to challenge on the DT food chain. If any of the three are playable off the bench, that certainly helps improve a position that feels a little thin right now after the lead pack.

#89 Daniel Kinney - K
5’11”, 211 | Redshirt Freshman | Bearden HS (TN)

Last season, Kennesaw State’s most significant special teams moment came when the Owls elected not to use the kicker. Facing a potential 54-yard go-ahead FG in the CUSA title game, Mack felt more comfortable with the ball in Amari Odom’s hands. Both of the Owls’ kickers - Kinney and Britton Williams, who hit from 38 early in the night - stayed on the sidelines and watched Odom’s iconic 4th-and-14 conversion.

A weird season all around for kicking in Kennesaw - the Owls ranked 92nd nationally in field goal attempts per game and 122nd in accuracy last season, though Kinney only appeared in four games. He spelled Williams against Wake, played the entire time against Indiana…and then disappeared until the regular season game against Jacksonville State, when he hit two FGs off the bench.

Beyond individual accuracy, we can use Bill Radjewski’s FG Points Added Above Replacement model to compare Kennesaw’s platoon performed against the expected performance of an average FBS kicker at the attempted distances:

Williams: -5.4 points (7-13, long of 44)
Kinney: +1.57 points (6-7, long of 50)

If you extend Kinney’s limited sample size to the entire season’s workload, he’d be worth about 4.5 points compared to the average FBS kicker. That’s probably not fair to assume, but it’s the best comparison we’ve got that ties in distance. For context, Austin Welch finished the 2024 season +1.83 in PAAR before transferring to Oklahoma.

Do the Owls need much more than average? Not really. We spend way too much time thinking about the outlier cases at kicker - the monster legs or guys who catch the yips. Field goals are a little like xG in soccer, where 99.999% of the work happens by the time the team gets into position and the difference between scoring and not is much more marginal than most fans believe. Special teams coordinator Kyle Blocker uses a different cross-sport analogy for his kickers: “I’m the caddy, you’re the golfer.” Perfect comp for a position that none of us civilians really understand beyond whether or not the ball goes through the uprights.

It’s almost like putting, a mental game with repetitive stroke that amounts to a small portion of actual gameplay. KSU snapped the ball more than a thousand times last year and only had 43 fourth downs in plus territory during the regular season (19 FG attempts, 10 punts, and 14 attempts to go). Part of me still believes an offense is better off with an average kicker that forces a coach to play more aggressively on those borderline kick-or-go cases. To that point, KSU went for it on 14 of those fourth downs, converting at a 50% success rate and roughly matching the average EPA/play from the offense’s typical output.

Heading into 2026, Kinney’s even further removed from his high school ACL injury that sidetracked his recruitment (Tennessee was involved prior) and he’s hopefully recovered from whatever ailment limited him to exactly four games last season. With Williams out of the picture, Kinney’s the only kicker currently listed on the roster until true freshman Leo Attard, out of Cambridge HS, arrives on campus this summer. Minnesota reserve David Kemp, formerly at Memphis, also made a public pledge to the Owls during the offseason, though it looks like all traces are gone from social media.

If Kinney’s healthy, it’s his job to lose as a redshirt freshman.

Plot twist for Kennesaw State’s tight end room: Gerard Bullock, the 2025 starter, reappeared on the roster last week. The program hasn’t announced anything yet, but that’s a sizable shakeup at a position where Harrold, Tatum, and JUCO transfer Reed Jesiolowski were the only scholarship players.

Earlier in the spring, we went long on an offensive vibe check, including a recap on Bullock’s numbers during what we thought was a one-year Kennesaw career. As much as I hate to do reruns:

We also compared Bullock’s results with Carson Kent in 2024, along with the Josh Heupel-era tight ends running the same offense at Tennessee.

Lukewarm take: I don’t think Bullock’s the clear-cut starter. There’s strength in numbers if he’s really coming back, though. Like at both offensive tackle spots, if the floor outcome is Guy Who Already Started for a CUSA Champion, how much can we really complain? For Kennesaw to hit its ceiling on offense, Mack and Militello will likely want one of the other tight ends to share time - at the very least - and provide more of a threat in the passing game. KSU used 0.88 tight ends per play last season, less than everyone else in CUSA except for UTEP and Sam Houston. I’ve been beating this drum for a little while but finding a capable second TE feels like a necessity.

Former Southern Miss TE Reed Jesiolowski (8 catches as a true freshman before going to JUCO) started the spring game and got the Phil Steele nod of approval as projected TE1. I’m still loaded up on Harrold stock, though. He was a legit HS wideout with an impressive G5 offer list, then added 25+ pounds to make the transition to tight end. His development is one of the most intriguing subplots to me, because a year-two leap from the best receiver in the group completely changes what’s possible with this offense.

Look no further than Harrold’s called-back diving catch against New Mexico State as a reference point to what he’s capable of downfield. Or just revisit this clip from his time at Norcross.

Tatum’s outlook probably takes the most obvious hit with the Bullock news. The Cass product was the program’s first ‘26 commitment a year ago, and the short-handed tight end room meant he was already in contention for snaps. I still wouldn’t count him out, since he’s got such a different body type than Harrold and Bullock - two converted receivers - and Jesiolowski, a bigger HS running back who’s now the lightest guy in the TE room. We just saw Bullock used as a glorified fullback in a championship offense. Nothing wrong with that - it’s just what KSU values more from the TE position. That should tell us the 260-pounder doesn’t need to be a finished product in the passing game. If the freshman has any clue what he’s doing while run blocking, his size is such a changeup from the rest of the group.

Wide receiver recruiting picked up in a major way for KSU lately, with three ‘27 commitments jumping on board once official visits kicked off. So far, the wideout haul for new position coach Dan Ellington includes:

KSU’s 2027 team will have at least three newcomers in the room already, before factoring in any portal adds the Owls make in January. A lack of in-house experience forced the Owls to go heavy on transfer WRs this cycle, bringing in five players with college experience at the position. Exactly how much the Owls need to dip back into the portal next winter will depend on the development of second-year guys like Miller and Ronning, who aren’t slated to start but will want to show some element of progression. Can they show enough in practice or game reps to factor in to the future plans at the position? A few of those newcomers, like Dylan Gary and Devaughn Slaughter, have multiple years of eligibility left to complicate the situation.

Miller’s essentially a new signing this year, too, making the move from safety for spring ball - and changing numbers a couple times. Miller’s high school highlight reel definitely shows some tools. I think the move to receiver will suit him. If it makes you feel any more confident about the move, none of KSU’s top wide receiver trio last season - Gabe Benyard, Christian Moss, and Clayton Coppock - had ever started for a full college season at the position prior to last year.

#79 Marlo East Jr. - DL
6’2”, 274 | Junior | Tennile, GA

Looking back at the 2024 newcomers when East joined the program, nearly every other lineman has since washed out at one point of the Bohannon-to-Mack transition. It’s really just East and Grimes as the last men standing from that class in the trenches. Roster survival is an accomplishment in itself and speaks to the locker room benefit from a guy like East. He’s still in the building for a reason. He’s also undergone a physical transformation from 245 pounds as a freshman to 274 entering his third season in Kennesaw. In that sense, East is a bit of a success story for the Mack regime, particularly some of the training/nutrition improvements. Not sure that same change happens under Bohannon’s watch.

East hasn’t appeared in a game yet but earned praise from the staff last summer in the Coach’s Conversation podcast series.