Posted
January 14, 2026
MEN OF HOPE • ALUMNI INTERVIEW
When Mark Carney ’98 returned to the St. Edward High School campus recently, he was greeted by familiar faces and relationships that have endured well beyond his high school days. Now head football coach at Kent State University, the former Eagles quarterback and team captain traces his approach to leadership to lessons formed long before he ever carried a whistle.
“I love the community at St. Edward,” Carney says. “The time and attention people invested in me here mattered. Teachers and coaches pushed me, supported me, and helped shape how I think about leadership and responsibility. I’ll never forget that, and I’ll never be able to repay what this place gave me.” That foundation took shape both in the classroom and beyond the football field. Beyond athletics, Carney’s involvement in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Students Against Drunk Driving, Kairos retreats, and service as a Eucharistic minister helped shape a leadership style rooted in service and responsibility to others.
He still recalls his first class as a freshman—English with Brother Joseph Chvala, C.S.C., who was still teaching with a typewriter—a small but telling detail that left a lasting impression. Coaches like Greg Urbas served as mentors during his playing days, while others, including Coach Eric Flannery ’90, joined the staff while Carney was still a student. “It feels like I’ve known some of these people forever,” he says—a sentiment reflected in the lifelong friendships he still maintains. Carney remains close with many classmates, including Tim Smith ’98, Flannery’s nephew, who served as best man at Carney’s wedding and is godfather to his daughter, Devyn.
A standout athlete at St. Edward, Carney carried those connections and lessons to Fordham University, where he lettered all four years as a quarterback and earned Patriot League recognition. Coaching soon followed—a path that would ultimately introduce him to his wife, Sarah, while he was working at the University of Richmond in 2004. Over the next two decades, Carney built a respected coaching résumé with stops at Fordham, Virginia State, Baldwin Wallace, Bowling Green, and the Charlotte 49ers before joining the Kent State staff in 2023. After serving as tight ends coach and offensive coordinator, he stepped into the role of interim head coach at the start of the 2025 season and was formally named head coach later that year.
When he first joined Kent State, his daughter Devyn was completing her final year of high school in North Carolina, so his family stayed in Charlotte until last month. Over the holidays, the Carney family reunited and made Northeast Ohio home, where his son Marcus is now a member of the Class of 2029 at St. Edward and will play football as an Eagle in the fall. His younger brother Andrew hopes to follow in the years ahead.
Now leading the Golden Flashes, Carney values the strong connection between St. Edward and Kent State. He has known Eagles Head Football Coach Tom Lombardo for many years and looks forward to coaching Lombardo-led players who will suit up for Kent in the future, including standout running back Brandon White ’26, the Eagles’ all-time leading rusher, who will join the program this fall. “When you sign an Ed’s guy, you know what you’re getting,” Carney says. “I know how these young men are built and what they’re capable of. They’re talented athletes—and more importantly, good, well-rounded people.”
For Carney, the connection between past, present, and future feels seamlessly aligned. “Some of my closest friends are Eagles, and they always will be,” he says. “Now my son will know the Brotherhood. I get to coach Eagles who become Golden Flashes. St. Edward is part of who I am—and being back in this community feels exactly right.”
