Owls learned lessons from first visit to Samford
Aug. 29—KENNESAW — Kennesaw State is ready to kickoff the eighth season in its program's history, and it will do it in a familiar location.
The Owls will head to Birmingham, Alabama on Thursday to face off with Samford. Five years ago, almost to the day, they did the same thing and it turned out to be a valuable learning experience.
Kennesaw State led 10-7 at the half, but as the teams were leaving the field and heading to their respective locker rooms, the stadium was cleared because of bad weather in the area. Torrential rains and tornado sightings in and around Birmingham from the remnants of Hurricane Harvey, forced a three-hour delay.
Samford was able to relax in their home locker room, change into dry uniforms, have something to eat, and even watch film of the first half to aid in making second half adjustments. Kennesaw State was not as lucky, and it showed in the second half as Samford, led by quarterback Devlin Hodges' four touchdown passes, came back to win 28-23.
With the temperature near 90 with near 100% humidity, the Owls were forced into an old cramped gymnasium that was lacking air conditioning. There was no way to watch first-half film, the team had to sit around in wet uniforms, and more than anything, there was nothing for the team to snack on.
"We learned we needed to be self sufficient," Kennesaw State coach Brian Bohannon said. "Traditionally, you have your pregame meal four hours before the game. Well, when you have a three-hour delay, add up the numbers and see where you are. So we've learned to be prepared to help our guys from a nutrition standpoint, and making sure we have everything we need and not depend on where we're going at all.
"I think we did learn a lot in that game. We went back and revisited a lot of stuff we have to be prepared for. The biggest thing was making sure we had stuff there that our kids could eat. It was not the best situation to be in at all."
Following that game, Bohannon said they formulated a plan to deal with weather delays, because it came in handy over the next season-plus. Two weeks later the team had an nearly an hour lightning delay at Alabama State, KSU won 20-14. Early in the 2018 season there was an hour-long rain delay at Tennessee Tech before KSU won 49-10, and there have been others.
"The tough part is getting yourself ready to go after that," Bohannon said. Mixed signals, were going to go, we're not going to go. You sit down for a little while and its tough to get back going. I think ways to get back going is a challenge from an energy standpoint."
For Kennesaw State and Samford, that season opener in 2017 have been a turning point for both programs. Following the loss, the Owls went on a 12-game winning streak, won the Big South title and hosted a first-round FCS playoff game. Their opponent? Samford.
KSU defeated the Bulldogs 28-17. Since then, the Owls have won two more Big South titles and have been to the playoffs four times. That playoff appearance was the last time Samford qualified for postseason play.
At this point, Thursday's game is expected to be hot and humid with highs in the low 90s, but no severe weather is expected.
