Kennesaw State began the game sickly and unconventionally, but snapped back into form and ran over North Alabama with a whopping 490 rushing yards Saturday afternoon on the way to a 41-17 win that surely buttressed the Owls’ high FCS ranking.
KSU rolled despite not completing a pass in a game for the first time in the five-year history of the program as senior quarterback Daniel David rumbled for 111 yards and three touchdowns on the ground, on 19 carries, at Fifth Third Bank Stadium.
KSU coach Brian Bohannon said that more than a dozen of his players were unavailable because of illness and injury, yet the Owls had five players finish with 59 or more rushing yards.
That group included third/fourth-string quarterback Jonathan Murphy -- whom the Owls seek to redshirt. He rushed 14 times for 98 yards and a score in his first action of the season after he entered the game late in the third quarter when David’s head/neck were wrenched.
The last time a Division I program did not complete a pass in a game occurred Nov. 3, 2018, when The Citadel beat Western Carolina.
“I’ll be honest with you; this has been a tough week. It might’ve been the toughest week of navigating a lot of stuff in my coaching career. We had 13 guys that did not play today,” Bohannon said. “We had all kinds of illnesses going through our football team. ... We found a way to do it.
“The flu bug got us. I’m going to tell you. I’ve never been part of one like this in my 20-plus years of coaching. Every time you turned around, I’m getting a call from a trainer.”
North Alabama (2-6, 1-3 Big South) scored on the game’s opening drive, and the Lions even led 14-13 on a 28-yard touchdown pass from Blake Dever to Terence Humphrey with 9:03 left in the second quarter.
The Lions deployed several new offensive and defensive looks early that they had not before. “They threw everything at us,” Bohannon said.
But after attempting three passes on the first possession, KSU (7-1, 3-0) cranked up its running game, ran the ball on its next 43 offensive plays, and blew out the Lions, who are playing their second season of Division I football.
“After that (first possession), we just kept doing our job ... practicing what we were doing all week,” David said.
The Owls’ triple-option offense put together two 75-yard touchdown drives before halftime for a 27-17 lead, and opened the second half with a 2-yard scoring run by David. That capped a 15-play, 63-yard drive during which every play was a run.
That might not be considered a surprise as KSU – which is ranked No. 4 in the FCS coaches poll and No. 6 in the Stats poll – entered the game ranked No. 2 in all of Division I football averaging 352.3 rushing yards per game.
Rain began to fall as the third quarter drew to a close, but that did not slow Kennesaw State.
The Owls kept pounding, or pecking, or whatever it is that Owls do.
Murphy, a sophomore from Los Angeles, took over late in the third quarter, and scored on a 1-yard run behind left guard with 8:57 left in the game. He played because backup Tommy Bryant is among the sick Owls.
“It is what it is,” David said of his injury. “It’s triple-option football.”
In a somber moment, Bohannon began his postgame news conference before talking about the contest by acknowledging the absence of North Alabama wide receiver Cortez Hall, who missed the game one day after his girlfriend, University of Alabama student Claire Largin, died.
“First thing I’d like to say is their receiver, No. 8, is one of their better receivers ... his girlfriend was killed in a car accident yesterday, and that’s a pretty traumatic deal,” Bohannon said. “Obviously, he was not here, her birthday was today, they were to be married.
“If anything else comes out of this press conference, we want to pray for him and her and everybody involved, the UNA family. I don’t care who you play for, life is precious and it’s tough when someone goes before their time.”
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