It’s great to have a team full of seniors while you have them.
Then the next spring practice rolls around, and while those seniors prepare to walk the stage, the hole they’re leaving on the roster becomes apparent.
That is where Kennesaw State’s offense stands in March. After going 11-2 and bowing out in the FCS quarterfinals in 2018, coach Brian Bohannon has the task of replacing nine offensive starters from the Owls team that averaged 454 yards per game last season, including 352.9 per game on the ground.
KSU runs a triple-option offense that Bohannon brought with him from Georgia Tech, and most of the seniors who left were contributors on every play. Four of the five offensive linemen and three of the Owls’ top four rushers, including quarterback Chandler Burks, are gone heading into the 2019 season.
During spring football, the competition for their vacant positions is open and constantly being evaluated.
“We had a staff meeting this morning based on the scrimmage on Friday, and we’re moving names,” Bohannon said Monday. “We’ll moves names tomorrow based on practice today. So it really is open.”
The one name that Bohannon does not expect to move is starting quarterback Daniel David. He said that from the end of last season to the beginning of spring practice, David had “separated himself” from the other signal-callers. David played in 11 games last season, so he has the experience that many of the players on offense lack.
“Experience is something you can’t manufacture,” Bohannon said. “Any time you go into a season with some open spots, it can take a little time for everybody to jell and get going.”
He said the transition for new players would be even slower given the amount of moving parts in offensive coordinator Grant Chestnut’s offense, which immerses the triple-option in the modern era by adding elements of spread systems such as jet sweeps and bubble screens.
Despite the roster turnover, Bohannon mentioned that some young offensive players have been bright spots early in the offseason, highlighted by sophomore slotback Adeolu Adeleke, who could be in line for some of the carries left by Darnell Holland.
Outside of David under center, the look of Bohannon’s bunch on offense is about as clear as mud at the moment. But Bohannon is confident that as the offseason progresses, things will fall into place. Right now, his goal is to make players better, which helps the team no matter how things shake out later.
“The picture never looks good right now,” Bohannon said. “What we have to do is take each part of the picture and make each part better. Then hopefully in the fall, when we put the whole picture together, we can get a little bit better.”
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