Kent State fired Kenni Burns after probe into 6-figure loan from booster, per investigation report

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Kent State fired head coach Kenni Burns for cause following an audit and investigation into a six-figure loan he received from and repaid to a university booster and vendor, as well as personal, improper or unsubstantiated purchases on his school purchasing card, according to a copy of its investigation report obtained by The Athletic.

The school placed Burns on leave on March 27 and fired him Friday without a specific stated public reason. The Athletic obtained Burns’ termination letter and the school’s investigation in a public records request, shedding light on what went into the decision.

At the request of Kent State in February, the state attorney general’s office enlisted the Vorys law firm to investigate a “growing list of concerns” regarding Burns, according to an April 10 memo from the firm to the school’s interim general counsel. The investigation narrowed its focus on ethics concerns and Ohio law.

According to the report, Burns received a loan of as much as $100,000 in 2023 from Michael Awad, a local restaurant owner who caters school events and was honored by the school last year with the Varsity K Person of the Year award. The loan was purported to go toward flood damage of Burns’ home in July 2023. Burns paid $109,000 to Awad in a series of checks from October 2023 to December 2024.

The investigation found no direct evidence of a quid pro quo arrangement between Burns and Awad, but determined the “highly questionable” transactions with a university vendor loan violated ethics rules as interpreted by the Ohio Ethics Commission.

“It is highly likely that Coach Burns’ receipt of large loans from a University vendor — someone Coach Burns came to know specifically because of his coaching role at KSU — would be deemed by the Ethics Commission to violate Ohio’s ethics rules,” the report reads. “Applying the Ethics Commission’s rationale, Coach Burns’ conduct violated (1) rules barring public employees from receiving ‘compensation’ from anyone other than their employer; and (2) rules prohibiting conflicts of interest.”

The investigation said Burns took recruits and their families to meals at Awad’s restaurant, and six-figure loans are “inherently suspect in such circumstances, creating an appearance of impropriety.” The memo also noted that the repayments came as Burns was being sued by a local bank over almost $24,000 in credit card debt. The local court issued a default judgment in favor of the bank in December but vacated the case a month later at the request of the bank. The report said Burns cited the flood damage as a reason he opened the bank account.

Burns’ attorney, Lee Hutton III, said the coach previously cleared his relationship with Awad through athletic director Randale Richmond. Hutton also said Burns repaid the loan with interest and that he was “very disappointed” that neither he nor his client had been given the investigative report obtained by The Athletic.

“There has been no due process,” Hutton said.

The documents also listed $16,000 in questionable expenses made or authorized by Burns on his university purchasing card, as identified in a January audit. The expenses vary in nature and include undocumented baggage fees, personal travel expenses, an unsubstantiated $48.60 bill at Urban Meyer’s Pint House and $2,240 for custom game-day shoes. His purchasing card was suspended around Oct. 1 because “the number of unsubstantiated charges grew so large,” the investigation said.

Of the $16,000, Burns reimbursed the school for more than $7,000 and provided documentation for the rest after school officials met with Burns in late January about the audit’s findings.

University finance employees, the investigation said, deemed Burns’ misuse of the card “beyond anything they had ever seen with any other KSU employee” but was “more akin to gross negligence than any sort of intentional theft,” as he ignored warnings and requests to substantiate purchases in 2023 and 2024.

Hutton said Burns did not receive proper training on the purchasing card before the audit. The report said Burns did not read the card manual or attend training.

A footnote of the 13-page memo also noted the school was aware of allegations of “on-the-job drinking, abusive treatment of staff, gambling and the like,” but those concerns were not part of the scope of the investigation. However, a later footnote also stated, “the investigation did not uncover any substantiated evidence of any such (gambling-related) arrangement between (Burns and Awad) or any improper or excessive gambling by Coach Burns.”

“If that’s in the report, that is a very glaring and important contradiction, which goes to the credibility of the findings,” said Hutton, who has denied all gambling rumors about Burns.

The memo also said Kent State did not pay Burns properly from January 2023 until November 2023. It said the school did not pay Burns the $50,000 in annual media fees because of “what appears to have been an inadvertent error.” Kent State then gave Burns a lump-sum payment.

Hutton said that was “still deficient” and that the issues expanded beyond media fees.

“This was a recurring situation,” Hutton said.

Burns, who had four seasons left on his deal when he was fired, was due to make $495,000 in base pay — plus the $50,000 in media fees — this calendar year.

He came to Kent State from an assistant job at Minnesota and went 1-23 over two seasons, including 0-12 this last season. The Golden Flashes went winless against Football Bowl Subdivision teams during his tenure.

Hutton said Kent State offered Burns a settlement, but he rejected it.

(Photo: Matthew O’Haren / Imagn Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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