Paul Haynes
Followed Darrell Hazell. Paul Haynes held Kent State at Regional Program IV for 5 seasons.
Career arc
His real stature score, season by season, across every program he’s coached — so a stretch that stays in one tier the whole way can still climb or sink on the line, not just flatten out. Node color marks the tier reached. Which program a stretch belongs to is carried by the shaded lane behind it.
Reached Regional Program in his 1st career season — faster than 20% of the 925 FBS coaches who have ever reached Regional Program (rank #1 of 925 by seasons-to-arrival).
Style position and drift
Where each stint’s offense sat between run-first and pass-first, and how far it moved from one season to the next. The band is that stint’s real season-to-season range, not a fixed-width box.
Season-to-season pass-rate range for all 258 FBS coaching stints with at least three covered seasons, 2014–2025.
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.
1–4 against his rivals. Just 1–4 against Frank Solich.
His own effect, isolated
A statistical estimate of this coach’s contribution to team performance, separated from that season’s roster talent, returning production, and his coordinators — pooled across his whole head-coaching career.
Model fit as of 2026-09-04.
Coaching career
8th-best Kent State tenure of 19 by the numbers.
Performs about as expected for his recruiting talent on offense and outperforms his recruiting talent on defense.
Followed Darrell Hazell (2011–2012) · succeeded by Sean Lewis (2018–2022).
| Season | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | ||||||
| Record | 4–8 | 2–9 | 3–9 | 3–9 | 2–10 | |
| Postseason | — | — | — | — | — | |
| Recruiting rank | — | #122 | #102 | #128 | #126 | |
| Style — pass rate | ||||||
| Pass rate | — | 61.5 | 43.4 | 38.2 | 31.0 | |
| Coordinators | ||||||
| OC | — | Brian Rock | Don Treadwell | Don Treadwell | Don Treadwell | |
| DC | — | Brian George | Brian George | Ben Needham | Ben Needham / Jeff Burrow | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | ||||||
| Offense | — | 11 | 0 | 65 | 3 | |
| Defense | — | 48 | 75 | 36 | 45 | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script (2021+ only) | ||||||
| 1st-down pass% | — | 57.3 | 36.3 | 31.6 | 29.3 | |
| Red-zone pass% | — | 70.0 | 28.6 | 26.0 | 24.6 | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | — | 29.7 | 27.3 | 31.2 | 27.3 | |
2 NFL Draft picks: Brian Winters (2013), Dri Archer (2014)