Kennesaw State’s bodies may be starting to break down, but the spirit of players on the football team remains strong as they prepare to play at No. 4 Coastal Carolina on Saturday.
The Owls will play without starting quarterback Trey White, one of eight players who started the season-opening game who likely won’t start Saturday because of injuries or coaches’ decisions.
“You would hope you don’t lose eight starters in the course of the year,” coach Brian Bohannon said. “Most teams, you lose eight starters you are done.”
White sustained an injury in Saturday’s loss to Charleston Southern, a defeat that eliminated the Owls from possibly making the playoff in their first season.
The players said not making the playoffs is disappointing because it was one of their goals, but they are realistic in their expectations for a team that is very thin and plays in one of the tougher FCS conferences.
“Competitor in you is disappointed, but the realist in you says you have nothing to be disappointed in,” linebacker Dez Billingslea said. “You won six games and have two more to play.”
Bohannon said it will take the best game the team has played this season to upset the Chanticleers, and he will have to do it with a feather-thin roster. He said only 66 players will make the trip to Myrtle Beach and only 31 of those will be on some portion of a scholarship. The team can have a maximum of 63 scholarships spread among 85 players. The Owls have used 34 1/3 of their scholarship allotment, spread among 45 players.
That the Owls have won six games with a chance to win eight is a testament to the work the players put into the offseason strength-and-conditioning program, according to Bohannon.
He said the players probably thought he was crazy when he told them what they were going to do. Billingslea and C.J. Collins didn’t disagree.
The drills consisted of six stations with various exercises in which the players would go full speed for 3-3 1/2 minutes at each station. After a grace period, the players would go again. After two rounds there was a third round during which the position groups would compete against each other.
“Way worse than anything I’ve ever done in my life,” Billingslea said. “All of that is helping us now.”
The training program was put into place because Bohannon said the goal isn’t for the season to end at Thanksgiving, which will be the case this year. The plan is to be playing as many as five more games, which would mean competing for a national championship.
Though the Owls won’t get that chance this season, Bohannon and his players said they are learning what it takes to get there.
In addition to the physical toughness and endurance needed, Collins said they are learning that they can’t make even small mistakes during games. Collins said those tiny errors — for example, stepping the wrong way at the snap — contributed to the loss to Charleston Southern.
“Small things turn into bigger things,” Billingslea said. “They were able to take advantage of the mistakes we made.”
Coastal Carolina will be just as skilled at taking advantage of the Owls’ mistakes. The Chanticleers have been ranked in the top five in FCS for the 23rd time in 25 weeks. They are 34-3 in their past 37 regular-season games.
Coastal Carolina’s success is the type that Bohannon aspires to have at Kennesaw State. He recognizes and has said it will take more depth, continued improvement in strength and conditioning and improving the “championship effort” that he said he is seeing and wants to continue to see.
“What better way to go work on it than to go play them,” he said.
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