Haynes breaks a little news at Chamber's Kick-Off Lunch

Head football coach Paul Haynes broke a little news today when he spoke during the Kent Area Chamber of Commerce's annual Kick-off Luncheon at Dix Stadium today just after noon.

The news may not be earth shattering to the masses, but it had to mean a lot to several of the Golden Flashes' football players.

First, Haynes announced that senior tight end Mike Levandowski should no longer be considered a walk-on. The Stow native has been granted a full scholarship for his final season.

Add defensive lineman Andrew Christopher, who moved from walk-on to scholarship during the spring, and Kent State now has 16 seniors and all of them are on scholarship. Haynes said it is important to him to reward the players who been in the program and worked hard by trying to get them on scholarship by their senior years.

The next bit of news was the announcement of team captains for 2013: defensive tackle Roosevelt Nix, safety Luke Wollet, running back-wide receiver Dri Archer and center Phil Huff.

The coaches told their players to vote for four names. They didn't necessarily have to be two offensive players and two defensive players. It just worked out that way. Hayes admitted there are times when coaches "fudge" with the voting of captains or try to influence the vote to make it turn out the way that they think it should. That didn't happen in this case, and Hayes couldn't have been more pleased with the selections.

Camp is technically over. Starting on Saturday, which just happens to be "Fan Appreciation Day" at Dix Stadium, the team is full on in preparation for Liberty. With the game on Thursday, Aug. 29, this Saturday will serve as a typical Monday practice. Sunday will be a typical Tuesday and so on.

Haynes also addressed the depth chart that was released on Monday, reiterating that there is nothing set in stone. While talking about Colin Reardon winning the quarterback job, he said, "that means Colin is our quarterback Today. It may change. It may change before the opener ... We told Colin and David (Fisher) that it is day-to-day, week-to-week. We have confidence in both David and Colin's ability to lead this football team."

Haynes also talked about some of the other positions of interest in the last month. After having just one scholarship player and four players overall at linebacker last spring, he feels much more confident in that unit now with the return of players like DeVante' Strickland, Matt Dellinger and Danny Gress. Several freshman may also be in the mix to play, along with juniro college transfer Jake Houts.

Offensive line is still a work in progress, he admitted. But he likes the depth provided by some of the young linemen. "You have to be patient," Haynes said. "We'll get them ready. They have got to get good and get good real fast."

Here's today's Newsstand:

• Stephanie Storm had a story on Colin Reardon taking over the top spot on the depth chart at quarterback in the Akron Beacon Journal. 
• The Record-Courier has this story on opening-day fireworks presented by AMETEK when Kent State hosts Liberty on Aug. 29 at Dix Stadium. 
• ... and in case you missed it, "The Archer" comic strip No. 2 came out on Twitter at midnight @Dri4Heisman. It is now also available on www.kentstatesports.com. Here is the link.