When it comes to recruiting players, first-year Kennesaw State coach Jerry Mack made it clear Tuesday that he plans to first shake the prospect trees that are closest to home.
Mack, speaking at the Conference USA Football Kickoff media event at PGA of America headquarters in Frisco, Texas, said the priority will be to find and sign the best players in Cobb County, metro Atlanta and the rest of Georgia.
“What we decided to do here at Kennesaw is basically draw about a four-hour radius and try to stay more regional than anything else from the standpoint of recruiting,” Mack said. “But with the transfer portal, we’re always going to venture out and try to take the best student-athletes to fit our style of play.”
The current roster features nine players from Cobb County or Cherokee County, 25 others from metro Atlanta and 21 more from the rest of Georgia.
“This is football heaven,” Mack said. “This is a great opportunity.”
The most accomplished Cobb County product returning is North Cobb High School’s Christian Moss, a senior who transferred in last year from Virginia Tech. Moss caught 14 passes last season and is expected to be a main cog in the offense this year as the Owls make the transition from a ground-and-pound team to one that operates from the spread and throws it all around.
“It’s no secret that my background has always been more of a spread, no-huddle style of tempo,” said Mack, most recently the running backs coach at Tennessee and with the NFL Jacksonville Jaguars. “I want to continue to try to incorporate those things and try to do those things here at Kennesaw. The plays are the plays, but the plays aren’t as good as the players, and as we continue to get better players, they’ll get a chance to grow and develop their craft.”
Mack brought in 60 new players, a few high school players and a lot of transfers through the portal. But there’s little question that the current two-deep roster won’t resemble the one that takes the field in the season opener Aug. 29 at Wake Forest.
“It’s been fun trying to put the schemes and packages together as we go about and trying to figure out what fits best for us,” Mack said. “Everything we did at some of my previous spots won’t be able to fit us, but we’re going to be able to do some things that we weren’t able to do with some previous spots because of the conference and the talent that we’ve been able to acquire over the last six or seven months.”
The Owls certainly are playing with house money, as expectations outside the locker room are low. Kennesaw State went 2-10 last season, its first season at the FBS level, and in-season fired Brian Bohannon, who started the program and led it to national prominence in FCS.
The CUSA did not produce a preseason poll this year and replaced it with a “bowl confidence index,” which queried one sports information director and one beat writer per school to select the teams they thought would reach the postseason. Liberty and Western Kentucky both polled at 100%, with Jacksonville State at 91.67%. Kennesaw State was 11th at 16.67%.
A group of beat reporters who cover the 12 teams in the league took an informal vote. Liberty was picked to finish first on 11 ballots. Kennesaw State was picked to finish last.
“Every day is a new learning experience,” Mack said. “Developing the culture, developing our schemes, offense, defense, special teams, and just really excited for the future of our program to engage with our community and our students on campus.”
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