Week 1 presents an interesting challenge for both Wake Forest and Kennesaw state, as both teams have completely new rosters, new coaching staffs, and no games on tape for the other to study. I am also flying blind, but I’ll try my best to dig up some information on the Owls.
The Basics
Team: Kennesaw State Owls
Location: Kennesaw, Georgia
Enrollment: 47,845
Head Coach: Jerry Mack (0-0)
Record: 0-0
Wins: N/A
Losses: N/A
Transfer portal rank: 121 (28 3-stars)
Kennesaw State was bad last season–like very, very bad. The
Owls finished the season 2-10 with wins over Liberty (8-4) and FIU (4-8) by a combined 4 points. Of their 10 losses, 7 came by double digits–including an 11-point loss to FCS Tennessee-Martin. They finished the season ranked 129th in scoring offense with 16.5 ppg and 106th in scoring defense allowing 31.5 points per game. Despite it being their first season at the FBS level, Kennesaw State fired head coach Brian Bohannon and the hired Jacksonville Jaguars’ running back coach Jerry Mack.
Mack was the head coach at NC Central from 2014-2017, the Rice OC from 2017-2020, and the Tennessee RB coach until taking the same job with the Jaguars in 2024. He won the MEAC 3 times while at NC Central and took the Eagles to the Celebration Bowl in 2016. Mack hired Mitch Militello as his offensive coordinator–Militello has worked with QBs like Drew Lock, McKenzie Milton, Dillion Gabriel, Hendon Hooker, and Joe Milton in his time as an assistant under Josh Heupel at Missouri, UCF, and Tennessee. On defense, Mack brought on Marc Mattioli to serve as defensive coordinator. Mattioli spent time on the staffs at Vanderbilt and Stanford from 2012-2021 but was most recently the head coach for the Paris Musketeers in Europe.
On the offensive side, this is a complete rebuild for the Owls. Kennesaw State lost most of their O-Line, receivers, running backs and quarterbacks from last year’s team. They grabbed Indiana and Georgia Southern transfer QB Dexter Williams in the portal—Williams has completed just 32 of his 68 career pass attempts in 9 career games played. The Owls also got some decent replacements on the O-Line with Florida transfer Chase Stevens, FAU transfer Chrisdasson Saint-Jean, and GT transfer Brandon Best. We don’t have any tape to check out for Militello’s offense, but as a Heupel disciple, I think it’s safe to assume the Owls are going to spread the field out and play with tempo. I would also guess the Deacs will face a fair number of QB runs, as Williams has nearly as many career rushing yards (210) as he does passing yards (248).
The defense has a little more stability, as Kennesaw State returns much more of their roster from last season. Again, there really isn’t a whole lot of tape to watch on Mattioli’s defenses. He coached with Derek Mason’s 3-4 defense at both Stanford and Vanderbilt, but it seems almost every team has gone to the 4-2-5 as a response to the popularity of the spread offense, so I would expect to see 5 DB’s on the field for most of the night. Linebackers Donelius Johnson, who led the team with 88 tackles, 3.5 sacks, and 9 tackles for loss last season, and Garland Benyard, who accounted for 48 tackles, 3.5 sacks, and 9 tackles for loss, are both back. In the secondary, the Owls bring back their 2 best defensive backs from a season ago in redshirt sophomore JeRico Washington Jr (2 int, 8 passes defended) and redshirt senior Tyler Hallum (1 int, 10 passes defended) to go along with Miami transfer Isaiah Thomas at safety. This is an experienced group and should serve as a good test for the new Wake Forest offense in their first game of the season.
Much like Wake Forest, I really don’t know what to expect from Kennesaw State on Friday. I don’t think they are going to be as bad as they were last season, but they have a slew of new players trying to figure out a new system with a quarterback who has barely played over the past few years (sound familiar?). If the Wake Forest defense struggles against an offense like that, I think it will be a pretty bad sign of what the future holds on that side of the ball. As far as the offense, this will be one of the few games where the Deacs have significantly more talent than their opponent, so they really should be able to impose their will on the Owls. I am pretty confident that the ground game will be able to do whatever they want, so I’m more focused on the passing game in this one. This will likely be one of the weaker defenses Wake plays against all year, so if the Deacs have trouble getting open or completing passes against the Owls, we will probably have to lower our expectations for this season.
Game day is almost here!
Go Deacs!
