Kennesaw State football coach Brian Bohannon couldn’t stop grinning.
Two of his players had just been asked, near the end of a weekly press conference sprinkled with answers about Bohannon’s Owls not receiving much respect, if they had heard that Liberty’s quarterback said his team was going to defeat each of its remaining opponents.
That first opponent is Kennesaw State (5-1, 1-0 Big South) on Saturday.
“My roommate told me,” quarterback/B-back Jake McKenzie said. “They don’t respect us and I don’t like it very much.”
Linebacker Johnny Yoder felt the same.
“I’m not too fond of that statement,” he said. “Going to try to prove them wrong.”
Flames (3-4, 0-2) quarterback Josh Woodrum didn’t mention Kennesaw State by name. He didn’t mention any of the opponents.
Going 7-4 would require Liberty to win its remaining four games. After defeating Georgia State in the Georgia Dome, the Flames have lost their last two games and may be feeling some heat from a very vocal fan base.
Bohannon wouldn’t say much about Woodrum’s statement, but based upon his grin it seems he already knew.
It may be repeatedly implied that his team was being overlooked. Earlier in the press conference he mentioned that the game is homecoming — without saying that it is a date typically reserved for easier games — and later the coach of the first-year program said this:
“Our football team believes it can win any game. There’s a little chip on our shoulder right now, proving that we belong and maybe we deserve a little more respect than probably we are getting.”
To have any chance of upsetting the Flames, last year’s Big South champ for the seventh time in eight years, the Owls must finish better than they did in last week’s 12-7 win over Gardner-Webb.
The problem was Kennesaw State couldn’t finish drives because of self-inflicted mistakes. Touchdowns were replaced by field goals.
A defense that held Gardner-Webb to two first downs in the first half relaxed a bit too much late in the fourth quarter.
“We can’t go to Lynchburg, Virginia and do these things,” Bohannon said.
Because Liberty is one of the dominant teams in the Big South, Bohannon said Saturday’s game will provide a measuring stick to judge his team’s progress. He knows that they have gotten better each week. He doesn’t know how that improvement can be measured.
A win over the Flames on Saturday would probably give him a better idea.
“What a great challenge and great opportunity,” Bohannon said with a smile.
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