With all spring football activities concluded, the Kennesaw State football team learned a lot about itself.
Coach Brian Bohannon thinks experience is the biggest positive with preseason camp on the horizon.
“For the first time, we do have a lot of guys that have played college football,” Bohannon said. “We have more depth than we’ve ever had here. I hope another positive thing we have, is that we are hungry to go finish something we didn’t finish last year. We finished on a sour note.”
Although the Owls gained more experience, they still need to make improvements.
Here are five things Bohannon said his team needs to improve on before next season begins:
1. Leadership
The Owls will enter their third season of college football. With only two seasons under their belt, they need to get leaders to help develop this team.
“No. 1 is for our football team to continue to grow in the leadership roles,” Bohannon said about things to improve on. “I think that’s big for us right now. We need more leadership on our football team.”
“We’ve got some guys doing it. Chandler Burks (quarterback) is an awfully good leader. We got some guys trying to step up. They are just going to have to learn to be more vocal and more assertive in what they are trying to do.”
2. Find a starting safety
After watching the spring game tape, the Owls’ coaching staff realized the team needs help at safety.
“We need another safety on the back end to replace Derrick Farrow,” Bohannon said. “We got some guys that we are trying to groom and get ready to go. Dustin Clabough is there. We’ve talked about Keon Roman, who is playing corner. Moving him to safety just to get the best 11 on the field.”
Farrow was named to the second-team Big South All-Conference last season. The next man up will have big shoes to fill.
3. Find a starting center
In the spring game, the Owls’ offensive line was a mess, allowing six sacks and mishandling three snaps. Losing Big South All-Conference first-team center Malik Letatau appears to be a bigger problem than the Owls anticipated.
“We got to solidify our center position,” Bohannon said.
4. Find a kicker
There are two place kickers, one punter and one kicker on the Owls’ roster. All five will be competing for their jobs.
“We have to find out who are extra point, field goal and punter are,” Bohannon said. “We have to solidify our special teams.”
In the spring game, the Owls made one of three field-goal attempts. They missed a 46-yard field-goal attempt, and a 42-yard field-goal attempt was blocked. They were successful on the 28-yard field-goal attempt.
5. Become more consistent
The Owls were a consistent team last season. They went on two four-game winning streaks and finished 8-3. However, in the spring game they were inconsistent at moving the ball on offense.
“We have to become a more consistent football team day-in and day-out, week-in and week-out in what we do,” Bohannon said.
If they want to repeat last season’s success, they need to make strides in becoming more consistent.
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