Defense forced to start fresh

After exodus, Owls had four posts to fill on defensive staff.

Kennesaw State’s defense has a stingy reputation to uphold, and it will have to do so while breaking in several fresh faces in 2019.

Last season, the Owls were 11-2, reaching the FCS quarterfinals and posting the second-best total defense in the FCS (263.7 yards allowed per game). They also posted the seventh-best scoring defense, at 15.4 points allowed per game, despite participating in a five-overtime contest with Jacksonville State that saw the Gamecocks put up an outlier of 52 points.

The downside of building such a powerhouse is that the architects of that success become attractive to other universities. Such was the case for Kennesaw State, when defensive coordinator Brian Newberry was hired by Navy and took defensive assistants P.J. Volker and Kevin Downing with him to Annapolis in the offseason.

Also, cornerbacks coach Chris Bland was lured away by Elon, leaving the Owls with four positions to fill on the defensive staff.

“Defensively, you’ve got four new coaches, a new defensive coordinator,” Owls coach Brian Bohannon said. “We do have some starters back, but we’re really young in a lot of areas.”

The new defensive coordinator is Blake Harrell, who arrived from The Citadel. Bohannon said he will implement a slightly different scheme from last year’s, which the players are trying to learn during spring practices, which conclude Friday with Kennesaw State’s spring game.

Bohannon said the key to weathering the transition is maintaining the ethos of the defense that put up great numbers in the past few seasons. Regardless of scheme, Bohannon wants his defensive players to play with speed and dominate with athletic ability.

“For us as a team, whether it’s offense or defense, we want a bunch of fast, athletic guys that play extremely hard, extremely tough,” Bohannon said.

Beyond the coaches, the Owls have some key holes to fill left by players as well. They return eight of 11 starters, but the three they lost were notable. Jace White and McKenzie Billingslea left sizable holes at safety and defensive end, respectively. The biggest loss, though, was linebacker Anthony Gore, who led the team in tackles (80), tackles for loss (17) and sacks (six).

Bohannon expressed “concern” about the entire defense but said safety and defensive line were the two position groups that “stood out most,” given the departures of White and Billingslea. He was more hopeful about replacing Gore, noting that linebackers Chance Bates and Kareem Taylor were having impressive springs.

“We’re going to find a group of guys or one guy that can go in and be the next linebacker. He’s not going to be Anthony Gore, but we hope he can be equally productive, maybe in different ways,” Bohannon said.

Though things don’t look perfect in March, Bohannon’s focus simply was on getting better and taking one thing at a time with the inexperienced group.

“We are a long way away from being ready to play a Division I college football game, but we have lots of guys making incremental improvements, and that’s what we’re striving for right now,” he said.