The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Patience key for young defense
Owls optimistic they will overcome errors due to inexperience.
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 twodeep — 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 this 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.
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.
Owls linebacker Bryson Arm-
strong, 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 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 acknowledged they still will make mistakes, Bohannon, in his fourth season at Kennesaw State, is optimistic about the young group because he sees the talent.
“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.”