Despite the youth and inexperience of many Kennesaw State defenders, coach Brian Bohannon is optimistic.
He doesn’t refute there are challenges in coaching the young defense — which consists of five underclassmen listed as starters and 11 freshmen on the two-deep — but nonetheless, he sees potential in the group.
“I think every snap and every rep, they’re learning something,” Bohannon said Tuesday. “I think that’s really critical to their growth process. I think not since our first year when we were all freshmen with a lot of young guys playing have we been thing young on the field at one time.
“I think it’s a positive.”
The Owls play host to Alabama State at 5 p.m. Saturday at Fifth Third Bank Stadium in their home opener.
In their 49-10 win over Tennessee Tech on Sept. 6, the Owls showed improvement from their loss at Georgia State, but Bohannon expects his young players to make more mistakes.
Bohannon’s mantra of “championship effort, attitude and toughness” is accompanied by the reality that failure precedes success: a philosophy not discussed as openly by many other Division I football coaches.
One of the reason Bohannon is comfortable addressing the reality that young players will make mistakes is because he knows it’s impossible to replicate game experience. Acclimating to the crowd, lights and pace will take time, but it won’t happen without practice.
“You can take things that happen in a game and you can take reps and you can almost put them back-to-back and see this is why this happened. ... I think we made some improvement (since the season opener), but we’re not there yet when it comes to the attention to detail and where are your eyes, is your footwork correct, all the little stuff,” Bohannon said.
Having coaches that understand inexperienced players must fail in order to grow has changed the way Cincere Mason has played as a redshirt freshman.
Mason, who suffered an ACL tear in his senior season at Grady High School in Atlanta, started at strong safety for the Owls over the past two games.
“I feel like I probably would’ve made more mistakes last year just being new, and new to the program and fast-paced college football,” Mason said. “But that year off gave me time to heal learn more and experience more and you know when you make a mistake, just play the next play. Forget the last one.”
Mason recorded an interception and 22-yard return in the Owls win over Tennessee Tech.
Owls linebacker Bryson Armstrong, the Jerry Rice National Freshman of the Year last season, acknowledged he made plenty of mistakes as a freshman, but the patience and culture of encouragement at Kennesaw State kept him from beating himself up after he made those mistakes, allowing him to move on and attack the next opportunity.
“(Bohannon) doesn’t want us out there thinking too much especially when you’re a young guy, you should be thinking you should just be playing and reacting,” Armstrong said. “Just playing fast. We have that one play mentality, so (if) you make a mistake on one play, you forget about it and you get at the next play.”
While many young defenders admitted they still will make mistakes, Bohannon, in his fourth year at Kennesaw State, is characteristically optimistic about the young group because he sees the talent that lies underneath.
“We’re probably more athletic than we’ve (ever) been on defense,” Bohannon said. “We just lack some experience. You hope as we move further along into this season we can catch up on the experience end and hope that athleticism will be even better as we go.”
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