Before and after his trademark bellowing laugh on Saturday, March 7, Bobby Kennan had a succinct response when asked if he was relieved to be named the full-time men’s basketball coach at North Florida after serving this season in an interim role.
“Yes,” he said. “Yes.”
A relief because UNF — the campus, the players and the program — means so much to Kennen, who was an Ospreys assistant from 2009 until Matthew Driscoll resigned to join the staff at Kansas State last May.
UNF went 7-25, but director of athletics Nick Morrow concluded Kennen had the program pointed in the right direction and offered him the job on Thursday, March 5.
In a statement, Morrow said:
“Coach Kennen has led our men’s basketball program the right way — with integrity, accountability and a deep commitment to the holistic development of our student-athletes.
“At UNF, we evaluate our programs through a comprehensive lens and we recognize the challenges mid-major programs face in his era. We believe in Coach Kennen’s ability to win at UNF and we are backing that belief with resources.
“If we want championship-level results, we must pair championship leadership with championship-level support. That is exactly what we’re doing moving forward.”
UNF is ready to enter the name, image & likeness (NIL) game and also participate in revenue sharing with its players.
Kennen said the resources will, “first and foremost (focus) on retaining players because if you look at the top teams in our league (Atlantic Sun Conference), they have retained their core group and we have a chance to do that. And then it’s to attract (players).”
The 15-day transfer portal opens on April 7.
“The biggest thing (about the resources) is that is shows the commitment to our program; that speaks louder than anything,” Kennen said. “The administration is committed to me as a person and more importantly, to our program.”
UNF didn’t win many games, but Kennen was retained likely because of the culture he established on the fly, starting when no player entered the portal upon his hire as interim coach. And the effort never dipped on the court.
“That’s what kept us together and that’s what kept us improving,” Kennen said. “We had a tremendous buy-in from all our guys all year long. Those things are what led to this opportunity for me.”
A Florida native, Kennen started his coaching career in 1993 at Santaluces High as an assistant. He moved onto Williston High School as a head coach before serving as a college assistant from 1998-2025 for Central Florida Community College, Wichita State, Jacksonville, Campbell and UNF.
This will be the first time Kennen, who had over 500 text messages in the four hours after UNF made its announcement, will enter a season on a multi-year contract.
Next up for Kennen is meeting with UNF’s returning players, attending the state tournaments at UNF Arena and scouting the state junior college tournament.
Contact O’Halloran at rohalloran@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: UNF names Bobby Kennen full-time men’s basketball coach
Reporting by Ryan O’Halloran, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
