Big Sky Conference

Kennesaw State’s acceleration as a program no surprise

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BOZEMAN — Montana State started playing football in 1897. Kennesaw State is in its third season competing on the gridiron.

Yet the Owls come to Bozeman on a seven-game winning streak sporting a Top 25 ranking in the most recent FCS poll. KSU plays a Bobcat team striving to return to the elite form they experienced recently. MSU has won 20 conference championships and three national championships in its history. The ‘Cats spent four straight seasons between 2010 and 2013 in the Top 10 of the FCS polls.

Yet it’s Montana State entering the game fighting for their playoff lives. MSU is 4-4 overall, a mark that includes a 4-2 record in Big Sky play. Kennesaw State is 7-1 and in the hunt for the Big South title.

“Anytime you are playing a team like this that is so unique and their style is so different, you better have tunnel vision on them,” MSU second-year head coach Jeff Choate said. “We know this is a team that is capable of coming in here and getting after it if we are not 100 percent focused on them.

Kennesaw State football stadium Fifth Third Bank Stadium/by KSU Athletics

“Regardless of what happens down the roads, we have to be able to win this game to talk about some other things. We have to have 100 percent focus on this opponent because it’s a very good opponent.”

If you ask Choate, he is in no way surprised Kennesaw State has been able to rise to the brink of the national stage so quickly. The metro school from 20 minutes outside Atlanta sports 36,000 students and a strong academic reputation. The recruiting base is populated and the quality of football is top-notch.

“If you see the investment they’ve made in this, it’s no mystery why,” Choate said. “They have an 8,500-seat stadium that looks like it’s a pro soccer stadium. I don’t know if they’ve worn the same uniform combination in the same game yet. They pay their coaches very well. Somebody wanted to be good in football at Kennesaw State. When you put the type of investment they have put in that program, you are going to be good.”

Brian Bohannon has been the architect of Kennesaw’s rise. He became the school’s first football coach in 2013, recruiting a class of kids that redshirted leading up to KSU’s debut season in 2015. The Owls posted a 6-5 mark in their first year of competition. Kennesaw went 8-3 last season, pushing to the bubble of the FCS playoffs.

Montana State defenders celebrate a tackle-for-loss vs. Portland State in 2017/by Brooks Nuanez

This season, Kennesaw is tied for the lead in the Big South with Monmouth, KSU’s opponent on November 18 to finish the season. But first, the Owls feel they have a chance to make a splash on the national stage against a Big Sky team steeped in tradition.

“It’s a great opportunity for our football program to go to a place that has won three national championships, a great environment,” Bohannon said. “We are awfully excited about it. It’s a unique opportunity to go to a different part of the country for a young football program trying to brand themselves.”

“This gives us a chance to be on a national level being that we are going across the country to play a very high-caliber program that has won three national championships,” added Kennesaw junior quarterback Chandler Burks. “To be able to play in a very electric atmosphere, 20,000 people at every game, it’s going to be something we are looking forward to.”

Bohannon is a disciple of triple option guru Paul Johnson. At Georgia Southern’s offensive coordinator, Johnson’s famed flex bone spread option offense helped the Eagles to back-to-back Division I-AA national championships in 1985 and 1986. Johnson returned to Georgia Southern after a sint as the OC at Hawaii as the head coach in 1997.

In five seasons, Johnson led the Eagles to a 62-10 mark that included national titles in 1999 and 2000. Bohanon served on Johnson’s staff for that whole time, then followed the triple option master to Navy from 2002 to 2007 then to Georgia Tech in 2008 until starting the KSU program in 2013.

Montana State running back Troy Andersen (15)/by Brooks Nuanez

“I spent five years at Georgia Southern. We were 62-10, played for three national championships, won two,” Bohannon said. “A lot of what I’ve brought, with several different twists, is what we did there, how we did it, how we built it and what we were doing. A South Georgia school, we are bringing that to a metro school. We have a great recruiting base. Football is really good in the state of Georgia, Alabama, surrounding areas.

“It’s a great school with a great reputation academically. You can major in anything you want. Our facilities on campus are first-class.”

Georgia is a football-rich state — the Georgia Bulldogs are No. 1 in the country in the FBS this week — and the state of 10.31 million people hosts seven Division I football programs. UGA plays in the SEC, Georgia Tech plays in the ACC, Georgia Southern and Georgia State play in the Sun Belt, Mercer plays in the Southern and Savannah State plays in the MEAC. To take a piece of that pie, Bohannon has sold the chance to “make history” on the recruiting trail.

“Everybody wants to find their niche, find their spot in history and that’s a great selling point for our program and the type of caliber players we are able to get,” Burks said. “You are able to see that consistent success with those players being able to make history.

Weber State senior quarterback Stefan Cantwell throws against Montana State’s defensive front/ by Brooks Nuanez

“The campus sells itself. We are ranked with our commons and our food. We are ranked with our housing and dorms around here. It’s something you see growing very fast that everyone wants to be a part of.”

The farthest West Kennesaw has played in the last three seasons is Dayton, Ohio. Bohannon reckons that a trip to Pittsburgh to play Duquesne is the farthest his team has made. The team has certainly never played in the snow it’s likely to encounter in Bozeman on Saturday but Burks said he remembers playing in the snow…when he was six years old.

“This is Montana football,” MSU senior linebacker Mac Bignell said. “This brings the feeling back, going back to high school, playing that playoff football, which you know you have to elevate your game. This will bring us back to that. This is Montana football, out in the snow, two teams going head to head with each other.”

The snow will add yet another first for Kennesaw as the program continues to build its foundation.

“When you start a program, that’s who we are. Everything we’ve done when we started this thing is about making history and making something special,” Bohannon said. “Every step of the way, unique things come up that are part of that. This is just another one of those times for us.”

Choate has held no punches in terms of his dissatisfaction with having to play a Top 25 non-conference team right in the heart of the Big Sky slate, particularly when taking into account KSU’s triple option attack. Yet the challenge at hand will help strengthen a Bobcat playoff resume that remains alive.

Montana State head coach Jeff Choate/ by Brooks Nuanez

“I’m glad we are playing a team as good as Kennesaw State because I think it helps our players to focus,” Choate said. “They have a huge challenge in front of them. It peaks the curiosity of the fan base. They know they have another Top 25 non-conference in here and we play a competitive schedule. If you want to make some noise in November, you have to play good teams and you have to have the ability to win some of those games.”

Photos by Brooks Nuanez or noted. All Rights Reserved. 

About Colter Nuanez

Colter Nuanez is the co-founder and senior writer for Skyline Sports. After spending six years in the newspaper industry with stops at the Missoulian, the Ellensburg Daily Record and the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, the former Washington Newspaper Association Sportswriter of the Year and University of Montana Journalism School graduate ('09) has cultivated a deep passion for sports journalism during his 13-year career covering the Big Sky Conference. In August of 2014, Colter and brother Brooks merged their passions of writing and art to found Skyline Sports.

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