September 5, 2024

In This Issue 

Kennesaw State Owls Campus Sports

Along with News from the

Conference USA (C-USA)

Football Opens Home FBS Slate vs. Louisiana

 Kennesaw State Owls (0-1) 

vs Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns (1-0)

Date: Saturday, September 7

Site: Fifth Third Stadium, Kennesaw

Kickoff: 7:00 p.m.

TV: Click Here;

Play-by-Play: Nolan Alexander

Analyst: Barclay Miller

Sideline Reporter: Maria Martin

Mobile App: ESPN

Online: WatchESPN.com

Radio: Tune In: KSU Owls App

KSU Owls Radio Network

Play-By-Play: Jordan Griffitt

Analyst: Caleb O’Neal

Sideline Reporter: Brandon Sutton

KSU Game Notes: Click Here

C-USA Weekly Release: Click Here

Kennesaw State Sports: Click Here

Kennesaw State readies to host its highly anticipated opener on Saturday, Sept. 7 against Louisiana in its first home FBS game in program history.

After a hard-fought loss last Saturday on the road at UTSA, Kennesaw State will once against have to fight above its weight-class, taking on another veteran, sizable FBS opponent in Louisiana. The Ragin’ Cajuns have made bowl games the last five-straight years.

Kennesaw State and Louisiana are facing off for the first time in program history on Saturday. The meeting marks only the second time the Owls have faced a member of the Sun Belt Conference, last playing at Georgia State in 2018 where they fell 24-20.

The Ragin' Cajuns are coming off an easy 40-10 season opening win at home vs Grambling.

Click Here For The Full Story

Watch Head Coach Brian Bohannon's Weekly Press Conference Previewing Louisiana

Coming back home, our first FBS home game in the history of this program.

I hope Fifth Third Stadium is as loud as it was for us in the Alamo Dome.

We are playing another veteran football team. (Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns). They've got a majority of their guys back. The offensive line's back. Mostly seniors on offense. Another bowl team that's been to five in a row...won a lot of conference titles.

They had their way last Saturday (40-10 over Grambling). They got on them early and it was really over pretty quick.

We're going to have to clean up the things that we didn't do well and play hard.

Click Here To Watch

The Full Press Conference

Watch Louisiana HC Michael Desormeaux's Weekly Press Conference Previewing KSU

I tell you right now, if anyone in our building is overlooking this football team, then we’ve got some real issues.

We’ve played UTSA, Desormeaux said. “We’ve seen what it looks like. We know the type of football they play, and it was a one-possession game with eight minutes left in the fourth quarter and they had a turnover.

This is a good football team. They’ve got a lot of guys back. They look like a really good Group of Five football team. They’ve got guys who run around and strike and play physical. Overlooking anyone is not going to happen.

They’re in a lot of heavy sets. Now they do have a lot of option elements to it, but it’s a lot of zone-read option and things like that. They’ll do some power read and stuff like that.

Click Here To Watch

The Full Press Conference

KSU Women's Soccer Hosts Georgia State Thursday

To say the Owls and the Panthers contests have been tightly contested would be an understatement. Of the 13 match ups, four have been draws with the last two square downs resulting in a tie.

The road to Atlanta has treated the Owls well as they are 4-2 at the GSU Soccer Complex compared to the 2-1-4 home record facing the Panthers.

Under a new scheme with coach Chris Cahill, Kennesaw State has been productive early in matches.

In the Mercer and Eastern Washington games, The Owls scored their first goal within the first eight minutes. It took the Black and Gold eight minutes to nab their first goal of the season whereas it took 135.5 minutes during the '23 campaign.

Click Here For The Full Story

CONFERENCE USA FOOTBALL This Week's Games SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 7

(All times Eastern)

Jax State at No. 22 Louisville

(ESPN+) 3:30 p.m.

MTSU at No. 6 Ole Miss

(SEC Network) 4:15 p.m.

Central Michigan at FIU (ESPN+) 6 p.m.

Sam Houston at UCF

(ESPN+) 6:30 p.m.

Louisiana at Kennesaw State

(ESPN+) 7 p.m.

Eastern Kentucky at WKU

(ESPN+) 7 p.m.

Southern Utah at UTEP (ESPN+) 9 p.m.

[RV] Liberty at NM State

(ESPN2) 10:30 p.m.

C-USA PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

Offensive Player of the Week –

Hunter Watson, SHSU

Defensive Player of the Week –

Tayden Barnes, NMSU

Special Teams Player of the Week – Christian Pavon, SHSU

Why UL defensive line coach could be the secret to being prepared for Kennesaw State

Learning from history isn’t typically a strong suit of most young adults.

Consequently, after generations of football teams overlooking opponents to their own peril, it still happens every week at every level across the country.

That’s where UL defensive line coach Dennis Thomas comes in.

The last thing head coach Michael Desormeaux and his fan base can afford this weekend is the Ragin’ Cajuns getting beat by a program most of them have never heard of in its first season of FCS football.

Desormeaux’s already publicly issued his warning about not being properly focused for Saturday’s 6 p.m. trip to meet the Kennesaw State Owls a stone’s throw away from where the Atlanta Braves play.

Thomas, though, has lived it.

Growing up just across the border in South Carolina, Thomas remembers many wondering why it was taking so long for Kennesaw State to play football.

Then years later as an assistant coach at Gardner-Webb from 2017-19, Thomas experienced that popular foresight the hard way.

In those seasons, the Owls ruled the Big South Conference, winning 12 games once and 11 games three times from 2017-21.

Click Here For The Full Story

Owls Volleyball Travels to North Carolina For Mountaineer Classic

The Kennesaw State volleyball team will be back in action for a two-day road swing at the Mountaineer Classic in Boone, N.C. starting Friday Sept. 6.

The Owls are coming off a disappointing five-set battle 3-2 (25-20, 26-24, 17-25, 17-25, 12-15) loss to Wichita State on Saturday afternoon at the Convocation Center. 

"I'm disappointed in our lack of killer instinct tonight," said head coach Keith Schunzel. "We had a tired team down 2-0 and we couldn't close the door. We needed leaders to step up and finish that game and we didn't get it. Good lesson for us early in the season."

Manu Johnsen led the Owls with 19 kills while adding eight digs and three blocks.

KSU will play on the road for the first time this season as they will play in the Mountaineer Classic in Boone, N.C., on Sept. 6-7. On the first day of the tournament, KSU will face Gardner-Webb at 1 p.m., who is 1-3 on the season coming off a 3-0 loss at Norfolk State. The Owls then take on host Appalachian State. The Mountaineers got their first win of the season in three matches at Xavier last Friday. That match is at 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 7. KSU will then close out against the 2-1 East Tennessee State Buccaneers in a 12 p.m. game on Saturday, Sept. 8. All three contests can be seen on ESPN+.

Owls Women's Golf Begins 2024 Slate Sept. 9, 10

Kennesaw State Women's Golf is set to get under way beginning September 9 and 19 at the Dickie McGuire Invitational. The fall's first tournament will take place in Albuquerque, N.M. Hosted by the University of New Mexico.

There will be a mix of experience for the Owls having competed in six of the 10 events in previous years. The split happens at the halfway mark with KSU making their first ever appearances in the first three invitationals.

The Black and Gold return to the South as they play in the Hoover Invitational in Hoover, Ala. Sept. 16-17. The state of Alabama digs into the memory bank for the Owls as they ended the '24 season with an ASUN title birth in Huntsville and the NCAA regional in Auburn.