At end of stunning season, Kennesaw State has a slim playoff opportunity
It would take something along the lines of a miracle for Kennesaw State to sneak into the College Football Playoff, but it’s not an impossibility, and that is a nearly incomprehensible reality to grasp.
The Owls team that finished last season 2-10 as its only coach in its brief history was fired, that is in its second year at the FBS level, is playing for a first-year coach, was picked to finish last in Conference USA, operates with a budget that’s on the shallow end even compared with its non-power-conference colleagues and toils in relative obscurity in Cobb County in the shadows of Georgia and Georgia Tech — that bunch has a sliver of an opening into one of the biggest spectacles in the American sports landscape.
“Crazy” was the word that Owls quarterback Amari Odom used at a news conference Tuesday to describe that possibility, and that about covers it.
It would require a string of outcomes on championship weekend, starting with KSU blowing out Jacksonville State on Friday and Duke defeating Virginia in the ACC title game, and almost surely won’t happen. ESPN’s College Football Power Index gives it a 0.2% probability, or 1 in 500.
Regardless, sitting at 10-2 and 60 minutes from a conference championship in its second season at the FBS level, this is a mammoth moment for KSU.
“We cannot let this golden opportunity pass us by,” Owls coach Jerry Mack said on a videoconference with media members advancing the game. “It’s only so many times in the history of your college career, even coaching career, that you get a chance to play for championships.”
What makes this week more poignant for Kennesaw State is how fleeting it might be. Bigger, more resourced programs are poised to scarf up the Owls’ best players, including Odom, who leads Conference USA in passer rating and is third in total offense.
Consider this: Of the 44 offensive and defensive starters in last year’s Conference USA title game, more left through the portal after last season (16) than stayed with their teams (eight) this season.
“The transfer portal, it’s crazy,” said defensive lineman Tylon Dunlap, who became an Owl in 2024 after three years (including a redshirt season) at Georgia State. “A lot of people try to go get better opportunities, put themselves in better situations, so you never know how the team will look next year.”
Mack himself may soon have an opportunity to jump levels. As the likes of Auburn and Florida have raided smaller-conference schools to fill their coaching vacancies, it’s begun a domino effect that could make Mack a candidate.
Asked about the speculation, Mack said that he doesn’t concern himself with the talk and that his total focus is on Friday’s game at Jacksonville State. At the same time, he called it “very flattering” and said that “we have representation to talk to people if need be,” which probably wasn’t the most reassuring comment for Owls fans hoping that he’ll stay.
But it makes Friday’s game — and, assuming the miracle CFP spot doesn’t happen, the bowl game — to be cherished. The Owls could have similar success next year, but the cast would surely look different. Odom said that the team is trying to stay in the moment and achieve a first for the program.
“So we’re focused on this week, and then after our bowl game, whatever the future holds for any of us on the team, we’ll figure that out later,” Odom continued. “But right now, we’re focused on getting a championship.”
It would be a night to remember for a long time, another triumph in an autumn that can’t be replicated. There was the season opener at Wake Forest. Under the direction of a new coach and on the road against a power-conference team with better athletes and more resources, the Owls lost 10-9 to a team that went on to finish 8-4.
“So that’s when I knew we probably had something special on our hands,” Mack said.
It followed a 2-10 season in 2024 in which coach Brian Bohannon, the Owls’ first and only coach, was fired in his 10th season.
“Just being in a close game against an opponent that nobody that you would be close with just felt good,” said Dunlap, the defensive lineman, “because you don’t even know what to expect, because you never saw this team against another opponent.”
After another loss to Indiana, now No. 2 in the country, the Owls won seven games in a row, relying on an explosive offense that is No. 1 in Conference USA in conference play in scoring offense and No. 2 in total offense. They clinched bowl eligibility — another school first — with a win over UTEP at Fifth Third Bank Stadium Oct. 28.
“That moment right there was just exciting because a lot of guys on the team haven’t been to a bowl game,” Dunlap said. “To give them that opportunity and to finally secure it was everything.”
Dunlap is in his final season at the college level, making Friday’s game a literal once-in-a-lifetime event. In a way, you could say it is for every single one of his teammates and coaches.
About the Author
Ken Sugiura is a sports columnist at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Formerly the Georgia Tech beat reporter, Sugiura started at the AJC in 1998 and has covered a variety of beats, mostly within sports.
