Now, the fun begins for Kennesaw State’s football team.
The team will begin its first spring practice Monday, practices for 92 players that which will go much faster in pace and in which expectations will be much higher than what the 85 players who finished the fall practices experienced.
Dreaming of football now feels like a reality: The Owls will play their first game at East Tennessee State on Sept. 3.
The Owls have 15 practices this spring, culminating in the spring game March 28, plus those in August to prepare. Even having 100 practices may not feel like enough because coach Brian Bohannon said only three players on the roster have played in a Division I game. More experience is on the way when some of the transfers who signed enroll this summer.
“Big thing is we are going to work on depth, find out who and what we’ve got in March and then move forward from there,” Bohannon said.
Here are Kennesaw State’s five priorities this spring:
Establishing depth. Over the next few weeks Bohannon needs to know which players can do what he needs done, and do it well.
“That depth will tell us where we can go,” he said. The Owls have used 45 of the 52 scholarships they are allotted. Bohannon is holding out a few for transfers looking for new homes. Bohannon knows that depth is needed at running back and defensive end.
“We are young, we will have deficiencies in areas,” he said.
The team seems set at quarterback and wide receiver. None were signed in February because the coaching staff was satisfied with the players signed last year.
Bohannon said the first depth chart likely will come out after the first scrimmage, on March 14. But he warned that it won’t be worth much because there may some cross-training in an attempt to get the best 11 on the field.
“I’d love to have as many (positions) solidified as we could, but there will be so much competition between now and the first game I don’t know how that will happen,” he said.
Learning schemes. Bohannon estimates that 70 percent of the base offense, an option scheme with similarities to what he helped coach in his previous job as an assistant at Georgia Tech, was installed during the fall. Slightly less than that percentage was put in on defense, a scheme featuring four defensive lineman, two linebackers and five defensive backs.
“I think we made a lot of progress,” he said. “Hard to compare it to something because there’s nothing to compare it.”
Bohannon is curious to see how much was retained during the offseason. He said he will be able to tell within a week of practice how much each player remembers by how fast they are able to run drills during practice.
Continuing fundamentals. Within the offense and defense, each position group worked to master four different skills during the fall.
Bohannon said that will continue. The work won’t be finished this spring.
Bohannon said he was mostly pleased with the progress made. However, there are also intangibles within the skill sets that the players must continue learning as Bohannon and his staff continue to work on building a culture of accountability that they call, “Win the day.”
“We will continue to work on effort, attitude and toughness,” he said. “Started it in the fall and needs to continue.”
Preparing for a game. Because the school has never played in a football game, there is much to learn.
The school will treat the spring game as a dry run for hosting a home game. The team has started working on the logistics of its first road game, the opener at East Tennessee State.
And then there are the things that most people may not notice: How will the team run onto the field?
Bohannon said he and his staff are trying to come up with answers to as many variables as they can now so the stress will be reduced later. He said it’s all about preparing to be a part of Division I football.
“It’s not about the scheme or the opponent, so much as the how do you prepare yourself?” Bohannon said. “It’s commonplace everywhere else, but here it’s not.”
Special teams. Kennesaw State may have to kick off in its opener. Right now, Bohannon doesn't know who will handle that responsibility.
While much work was done putting in an offense and defense in the fall, hardly anything was done with special teams.
The team has a kicker, two long snappers and a punter, and more will be coming as preferred walk-ons during the preseason camp.
“The competition is really wide open,” Bohannon said.
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