Kennesaw State, welcome to the Big South Conference.
The Owls will host Gardner-Webb, fresh off an upset of Liberty, in their first conference game on Saturday at Fifth Third Bank Stadium.
Kennesaw State went 4-1 in its non-conference schedule and, by most measures, was successful. However, the quality of competition wasn’t as good as what they are going to face starting Saturday and continuing through five more games against Big South opponents. The Owls notched wins against another start-up, two NAIA schools and a Division II opponent. Its loss came against the only established FCS opponent it played in its first five games.
“Everyone in the Big South is looking around, ‘Well, have they played anybody, are they really any good?’ “ Kennesaw State coach Brian Bohannon said. “We have a chance to go make an impression. That’s what we’ve talked to our team about.”
The Owls will try to make that impression with a few key pieces missing and one notable player changing positions.
Starting B-back Micah Reed is out for the season after suffering a fractured right fibula in last week’s win over Point. He was the fourth most-productive rusher on the team with 309 yards in five games. Trey Chivers, who has rushed for 111 yards this season, will move into the starting role and back-up quarterback Jake McKenzie will spell him. McKenzie’s toughness as a running back shouldn’t be questioned, according to Bohannon, who pointed out that he played more than 70 snaps during one of the scrimmages. It’s a move that Bohannon said he and the coaching staff had been considering. Trey White has secured the starting spot at quarterback and McKenzie hasn’t gotten to play. They tried him out at the new position during the open week.
“He’s a really good player standing on the sideline,” Bohannon said. “When we started this, I told our staff, that we will do each week — not for the season, each week — what we can to give our kids a chance to be successful. We will go down that road and see where that takes us.”
They will run behind an offensive line that will be without starting guard John Pearson, who sustained a foot injury against Point that will cause him to miss several weeks.
They will be trying to go through, or possibly around, a very tough front seven for Gardner-Webb led by 300-plus pound nose tackle OJ Mau. He earned numerous preseason honors after posting 60 tackles, including three sacks, last season.
But taking on challenges is one of things that Bohannon has stressed to his players and they seem to be embracing, especially since they are the unknown in the conference.
“As a coach I like it,” he said. “We are the little start-up in Kennesaw with something to prove every time we go on the field. Before the season, I’m sure there were a lot of W’s circled when they saw they were playing us.
“I talked to our football team a long time ago, about (turning that into) ‘Oh no, we have to play them at their place.’ But we have to go out and earn that respect.”
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