The Kennesaw State Owls will play their first bowl game on Friday when they take on the Western Michigan Broncos in the Myrtle Beach Bowl.
This is an incredible achievement considering where the program was a year ago. In head coach Jerry Mack’s first season, the Owls went from a team that won just two games last year to this year’s American League champions.
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Channel 2’s Alison Mastrangelo sat down with Mike for a one-on-one interview. The two discussed the team’s transformation, his future contract and the playmaker that got them to where they are now.
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Mastrangelo: I know this has been a hectic whirlwind for you, but can you describe to me the past few days since you won the division title?
mark: They are already great. You know, it’s great to see the excitement on the kids’ faces. It’s great to see the excitement and energy in the building more than anything else. You know, but we still have a game to do.
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Mastrangelo: At what point during the season did you realize you had something special going on?
mark: The first game we played against Wake Forest by one point, I knew we had a really good team. You know, we start playing in a few weeks. We did not perform to the standard against other opponents. So we understand every day how important this process is…every week we try to get better and better. That’s what you see consistently from this team.
Mastrangelo: There will be other teams and schools and things like that watching, like, how did you do that? How do you go from a program that only had two wins last year to ten wins and a bowl game now? What do you think is the secret or recipe for doing this?
mark: Obviously, we put in a lot of effort and got a lot of great reviews. There’s also some luck involved. But I do think we have a blueprint. We went through a process. We went through the transfer portal to find out exactly what we were looking for. We played against three or four high school students and they all had a lot of success. And then continue to build those relationships within the building. Get connected with this team. But this doesn’t always happen.
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Mastrangelo: Talk to me about some of the special players that you have that allow you to make this happen, especially quarterback Amari.
mark: Clearly, Amari is doing a great job. He had some ups and downs throughout the season and had some health issues throughout the season, but he was able to overcome those adversities. You know, there are a lot of players.
Our running back, Coleman Bennett, has been working hard. He had over 1,000 all-purpose yards last year. You see Gabe Benyard, who was basically an unknown the year before, and then he comes in and leads the entire league in receptions. Baron Hopson, the league’s Defensive Player of the Year… Elijah Hill, our confirmed true freshman. He leads the league in sacks. So the story keeps happening like this.
Mastrangelo: How important is this bowl game for your football program to be on the national stage??
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mark: This is a great exposure opportunity. Kennesaw State is a brand new Division I program and a lot of people in the country don’t know exactly where it is. This is an opportunity to get our name out there. I think we have an opportunity over the next few years to continue to get our name out there. We have great products to sell.
Mastrangelo: Do you guys look like what Tulane does? Like, hey, if they keep expanding, maybe we can finally make the playoffs?
mark: There is no doubt about it. The sky is the limit. You know, because the government is aligned with us, there’s a certain consistency and stability to any plan, you never know how big something might be. We are in a great area and in a great location.
Mastrangelo: What was the key to your victory over Western Michigan and your eleventh win?
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mark: It’s going to be a physical game. This is a physical opponent. They do a great job of controlling the line of scrimmage. They don’t like to make a lot of mistakes… They do a good job of running the ball. So we have to do a good job on the fundamentals, especially at this time of year and especially against an opponent like this, you can’t make a lot of mistakes because they’re going to hold you accountable for the mistakes you make..
Mastrangelo: I understand it was reported that you signed a new contract, a long-term agreement. Can you talk generally about the importance of knowing you’re going to be here for a while??
mark: I want to make sure that people understand, not only recruiting it, but people in government, in the community, understand that if we work together and make sure we’re all on the same page, this program can be as good as we want it to be, as fast as we want it to beelectronic…
I got into it to try and build something special.
This interview hEdited for length and clarity.
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