Gophers running backs coach Kenni Burns reportedly being named Kent State's head coach

Kenni Burns, running backs coach and assistant head coach for the Gophers football team, is expected to be named head coach at Kent State, according to multiple media reports.

Burns, in his sixth season at Minnesota, has overseen a running back group that has helped the Gophers rank in the top four in rushing in the Big Ten in four of the past six years. This year, the Gophers are averaging 218.42 rushing yards per game, which ranks second in the conference and 11th nationally.

Under Burns, sixth-year senior running back Mohamed Ibrahim has rushed for 1,594 yards and 19 touchdowns this season. His 144.91 yards per game rank second nationally, and his TD total is tied for second.

A second-team All-America honoree by the Associated Press, the Football Writers Association of America and the Walter Camp Foundation, Ibrahim is closing in on two prominent Gophers rushing records. He needs 33 yards in the Dec. 29 Pinstripe Bowl against Syracuse to break David Cobb's single-season record of 1,626 set in 2014. Ibrahim, the 2020 Big Ten Running Back of the Year, has 4,597 career yards and needs 58 to break Darrell Thompson's program record of 4,654 set from 1986-89.

Burns, who came to Minnesota after being coach P.J. Fleck's running backs coach at Western Michigan in 2016, has helped other Gophers backs thrive, too.

Rodney Smith (2015-19) is the school's career all-purpose yards leader. Last year, since-transferred freshmen Ky Thomas and Mar'Keise Irving, stepped up when Minnesota's top three running backs were lost to injuries and rushed for 824 and 699 yards, respectively.