By: TJ Hartnett

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

After years of rumors and false starts (pun intended), Kennesaw State University finally began its long-awaited football program last year.

First year football programs tend to be a struggle, but the 2015 Owls proved to be anything but, raging forward with a ferocious offense that scored more than 50 points several times and leading the team to a record of 6-5 on the year.

They lacked that kind of success within the Big South conference to be sure, managing only two wins in six games, but while they lost the games that they were destined to lose, they won essentially every game that was borderline and went undefeated against clearly lesser teams. Success is really the only word that can be used to describe Kennesaw State’s inaugural season

Time to turn the page. The Owls will return to the gridiron for their second-ever season of football in 2016, with Brian Bohannon looking to build on the school’s respectable start.

KSU won their first three games, and their first six-of-eight last season, giving fans a lot to be proud of for a first-year program.

I think the team will continue to prove that they are far from being just any upstart football squad.

Familiar faces will help. One positive to starting a football team from scratch is that you get most of your players back for the second season, due to the lack of upperclassmen.

On that note, perhaps the biggest key to the offense this season will be redshirt senior Trey White at quarterback, who was just 36 rushing yards shy of reaching the coveted 1,000 rushing/1,000 passing yards for an option field general.

He was a breakout star in 2015, and Bohannon will capitalize on that talent and experience (one year, sure) to gather a few more blowout wins.

The Owls also get back senior running back Chaston Bennett, who started all 11 games, and averaged 9.3 yards-per-carry. Look for Trey Chivers and Micah Reed to make a name for themselves this season as well as Jake McKenzie.

On the less celebrated but still solid defense, the Owls will see the return of defensive back Chance McNulty who had 43 tackles and returned a 42-yard fumble for a touchdown last season. Fans should also be excited about getting back second-team All-Big South Derrick Farrow, who had 63 tackles in 2015. Don’t sleep on Izzy Sam for the upcoming season either.

The schedule in 2015 was admittedly back-loaded, lending to that aforementioned excellent start.

2016 Schedule:

9/03 – East Tennessee State

9/10 – Point

9/24 – at Duquesne

10/1 – at Furman

10/8 – Missouri S&T

10/15 – Liberty

10/22 – at Gardner-Webb

10/29 – at Monmouth

11/5 – Clark Atlanta

11/12 – Presbyterian

11/19 – at Charleston Southern

Here we see a mix of good and bad, same at last season. The Owls start the season off against Tennessee State again, which ought to give Kennesaw fans butterflies in their stomachs after the 56-16 thrashing the Owls put on in the first game of 2015.

They also put up 50 plus points against Point, who they play second in 2016. All signs point to a good start yet again.

However, Liberty, Charleston Southern and Presbyterian all wait for them later in the season. Gardner-Webb and Monmouth dropped games to the Owls last year as well, so there are winnable games throughout the schedule.

All in all, if the Owls can stay the course and continue to play as they had, with one year’s experience under their belt, there’s no reason year number two won’t be just as good if not better for Kennesaw State’s sophomoric program.