Kennesaw State’s football team has defeated its first two opponents by the combined score of 114-23.
Not bad for an FCS level team playing its first two games.
Did the Owls get that much out of the past year of practice?
Were the opponents, one like the Owls also a start-up and the other an NAIA school, simply outclassed?
Or were the ease of the wins a combination of those and other factors?
Kennesaw State coach Brian Bohannon doesn’t care. A win, any win, should be celebrated. The Owls will go for another when they host Shorter, a Division II program, on Saturday at Fifth Third Bank Stadium.
“I don’t get caught up in whether we are good, great and all that stuff,” he said. “Can we be better than what we were the day before?”
The answer to that question is yes, the Owls played better in their second game against Edward Waters than they did in their first at East Tennessee State.
The defense played just 42 snaps in last week’s 58-7 win and had 28 missed assignments and 11 “efforts,” a demerit when a player doesn’t give maximum effort on a play. Bohannon said that was better than the week before. But considering there were so many TV timeouts last week, which gave each player a chance to regroup and focus, Bohannon said it was still too many.
But it wasn’t all bad.
The play that impressed Bohannon – and perhaps gives a glimpse of the effort the Owls will play with once the schedule gets tougher – came when defensive back Derrick Farrow chased down an Edward Waters ballcarrier after 73 yards and forced a fumble that the Owls recovered. The stop prevented what would have been an 80-yard touchdown run.
Bohannon liked the effort because the Owls were ahead 58-0. A touchdown wouldn’t have mattered.
“It wasn’t just Derrick, it was five guys around the ball,” Bohannon said. “That’s all the stuff we are trying to build on.”
Farrow said he chased down the ballcarrier because “it’s a pride thing. Your home field, you don’t want somebody to break a long run.”
Though the offense scored six touchdowns, there were still too many missed assignments (48) and efforts (45) for Bohannon’s liking, especially considering there were just 52 plays.
“Still nowhere near where we need to be,” he said. “As things get a little tougher those things will get you beat.”
Bohannon hasn’t changed the practice format to try to introduce any adversity into the routine to better prepare the Owls for what may come when the Big South Conference schedule begins. He said the goal is to make the practices tougher than anything the players may face in a game.
This week’s game should prove tougher then the first two.
Shorter returns 11 starters on defense, including three all-Gulf South Conference players, and is familiar with the option offense that Kennesaw State uses because the Hawks run something similar.
But if things go well for the Owls, there should be a lot of good plays to choose from when Bohannon shows the team clips next week of what the players did well and what they need to improve.
Farrow’s sprint was one of the good plays he showed the team earlier this week. It’s an example of what he wants to continue to see.
“If we can do that snap in and snap out, we have a chance to be fine,” Bohannon said.
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