Getty Charleston Southern opens its season against Kennesaw State on Saturday.
Charleston Southern kicks its long-awaited football season into gear as the program hits the road to take on Kennesaw State on Saturday.
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The game (1 p.m. ET start time) won’t be on TV, but anyone in the US can watch Charleston Southern vs Kennesaw State football live on ESPN+ right here:
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Charleston Southern vs Kennesaw State Preview
Charleston Southern carries a four-game win-streak into its opener on Saturday against Kennesaw State, although you’ll have to dig back in time to find the results of those games. The Buccaneers will take the field this season after Nov. 23, 2019 — which was a 41-31 win against Campbell.
“You hope and you pray that we will pick up where we left off. At the end of 2019 we were playing some of the best football in the country,” Charleston Southern head coach Autry Denson said. “The guys were buying into the process and that’s really what that first year was about, establishing the championship habits and setting those standards. The expectation is that it will continue. We have had more time to reinforce those habits and those standards. We will see come kickoff.”
As most teams have said after the COVID-stricken season, the Buccaneers are just happy to be going up against someone wearing different colors.
“We are really looking forward to seeing our guys get a chance to go up against somebody else and I know our guys are itchy,” Denson said. “Just really trying to keep those guys focused in on our preparation. We have been at it for a while so what you don’t want to happen is they take things for granted just to skip forward to the game.”
While they’ll play on Saturday, changes have already been made to the Bucs schedule due to COVID-19. Charleston Southern won’t have its scheduled home opener against Robert Morris next week. Officials are trying to find a way to reschedule the game during an already condensed season.
“If I had my wish, I would literally lock them in a room, make them go to class virtually and I would hand-deliver their food myself,” Denson told the Post and Courier. “That’s the thing about COVID. I am a person who loves to plan and it has been hard to get anything to go to plan. We are trusting God but I really don’t know how anyone can keep this from affecting you. It seems to show up at the most inopportune time.”
Kennesaw State started its season on Feb. 27 with a convincing 35-3 win against D-II Shorter. The Owls did almost all of their damage on the ground, rushing for 311 yards on a whopping 60 carries. Head coach Brian Bohannon was not happy with his team’s effort.
“The urgency has to change,” Bohannon said Tuesday. “After 60-some-odd practices, sometimes the message goes in one ear and out the other. This football team needed (to play a game), and we’ve attacked (the issues).”
It’s the Big South Conference opener for both squads. When they last met up in 2019, Kennesaw State pulled out a 45-23 victory, blowing open the game in the second half.
“They moved the ball,” Bohannon recalled of that game. “They hit some big plays on us.”