Golden Flashes lose two quarterbacks to season-ending injuries in Week 4 loss to Penn State.
Kent State’s quarterback room suffered severe depletion in one afternoon. The Golden Flashes lost two quarterbacks to season-ending injuries in a 56-0 defeat at Penn State.
Starting quarterback Devin Kargman suffered a hip injury on the second snap of the game. After laying on the ground for a significant amount of time, he was carted off the field and transported to Mt. Nittany Medical Center. Kargman has since undergone hip surgery and remains out for the remainder of 2024.
“Dev will be out for the season. He had a hip injury and he got it fixed and is ready to start the rehabilitation process,” Kent State head coach Kenni Burns said Tuesday. “He had surgery yesterday at Hershey (Medical Center). I was there with him and his family, doing well in great spirits. We’re hopeful to get him back in Kent shortly.”
Redshirt freshman backup JD Sherrod checked in following Kargman’s injury, but Sherrod suffered a similar fate in the late second quarter. After getting tackled in the backfield, he immediately grabbed his leg. Sherrod was then assisted off the field as Kent State’s second quarterback to suffer a major injury in the contest. He tore his achilles and will miss the rest of the season.
“JD Sherrod will be out for the season as well with an achilles injury,” Burns said. “He’ll be a guy rehabbing as well. We’re excited to get him healthy and back around the team.”
That leaves junior Tommy Ulatowski as Kent State’s starting quarterback going forward. Ulatowski started three games last November and produced the Golden Flashes’ single-season high in passing yards (284 vs. Bowling Green) and passing touchdowns (3 vs. Akron) in 2023. Ulatowski competed in a fall camp quarterback battle with Kargman although Kargman was named the starter and held the role throughout all four games of non-conference play.
Ulatowski appeared sparingly in Kent State’s first two contests, completing one 9-yard pass against St. Francis (PA) and logging three collective rushing attempts against Pitt and St. Francis (PA). Due to a finger injury, Ulatowski remained sidelined throughout Kent State’s 71-0 Week 3 shutout at Tennessee. He played the entire second half of the Penn State game, although Burns didn’t utilize him much in the passing game or at all in the run game in order to preserve a quarterback.
“Tommy’s the starter. Tommy’s healthy,” Burns said. “We kept Tommy out a couple weeks to make sure he was healthy by the time we got to conference play. He looked good today. We’ve just got to keep him upright and make sure he can have the time and ability to do what he does.”
Ulatowski is slated to make his first start in 2024 in the MAC opener vs. Eastern Michigan, hoping to resurrect a passing offense which ranks 130th nationally with 115 yards per game on a 50 percent completion rate. He is equipped with a pair of All-MAC receivers in Chrishon McCray and Luke Floriea, and the Ulatowski-to-McCray connection produced 161 yards and two touchdowns in last November’s Wagon Wheel rivalry at Akron.
True sophomore quarterback Dru DeShields was ruled out for the season on Sept. 7 according to the MAC football availability report, leaving Kent State with two healthy options at quarterback, although neither have seen collegiate playing time. Thus, true freshmen Ruel Tomlinson and Jett Hilding are the second and third-string quarterbacks behind Ulatowski for the remainder of 2024.
“Ruel Tomlinson will be the backup,” Burns said. “He’s very, very talented. He’s young, but he got a lot of reps today. I’m impressed with what he did in practice today. He’ll go into the game as the backup. It was kind of a crash course educationally on what we have to do. A couple of our coaches have been in this situation before — losing two quarterbacks — so we’re gonna weigh on their experience to help us navigate this. He’s very, very athletic and a guy that can sling the ball around. It’s more getting the terminology and understanding the little things that come with being quarterback at this level that he’s gotta clean up.”