Dean Pees

Head coach, Kent State, 1998 to 2003

College career17-51

Program liftNo. 779tied · of 1,290 tenures since 1937

Now

Career arc

Stats

Big games

The big-game ledger

How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.

1-5 against his rivals. Just 1-5 against Lee Owens.

Rivalry record

1-5

16.7% · 1 rival

One-score games

7-11

38.9% · margin ≤8

Against Blue Bloods or better

0-1

0.0%

Rivalry ledger

Akron1-517%

The toughest matchupNemesis

vs. Lee Owens1-5

6 meetings, 1998–2003

’98 L’99 L’00 L’01 L’02 L’03 W

Performance by opponent class

Blue Blood

0-1 0.0%

Power Program

0-5 0.0%

National Program

2-12 14.3%

Regional Program

11-31 26.2%

Building the roster

Three numbers on how he actually stocks a roster, from signing day to draft day.

1Roster ownership
2Where he recruits
3The NFL pipeline

Roster ownership

This coach's entire tenure (1998-2003) predates 2021, when transfer-portal tracking begins in this database. Portal usage cannot be measured for this tenure at all -- this is not the same as '0% portal'.

“His own” means the player arrived while he was head coach; “inherited” means a predecessor brought him in.

Where he recruits

OHTop state

is his biggest recruiting state: 9 of 29 signees (31%) across his 2002–2003 classes on record (his tenure ran 1998–2003), drawn from 8 states in all. Next: PA (5).

Where his signees came from, 2002–2003 (29 high-school, JUCO and prep signees)

48% of his signees come from OH and its 5 border states (PA 5).

Off this map: 1 signee to the west (CA).

By region

South

Midwest

Northeast

West

The map counts signed recruits across his tenure; the distance figures cover his current roster, transfers and walk-ons included. Two different groups, kept separate on purpose.

The NFL pipeline

2Drafted

players drafted into the NFL off his teams here. None can be traced to who brought them in — there’s no roster record for these players here.

0 roster-verified · 2 estimated

Most recent picks first

Year	Pick	Player	Pos	NFL team	Note
2000	R6.38	Jason Gavadza	Tight End	Pittsburgh Steelers	Estimated
1999	R5.31	Eugene Baker	Wide Receiver	Atlanta Falcons	Estimated

A pick counts toward his tenure when the player’s final college season was one he coached, a checkable rule rather than a claim about who developed the player. A blank note means the player is on a verified roster and arrived on his watch. “Estimated” means no roster record, so the final season is assumed to be the year before the draft.