Kennesaw State's Brian Bohannon Optimistic Ahead of First FBS Season

The first team to take the stage on Tuesday at CUSA Media Day were the Kennesaw State Owls

Sep 10, 2022; Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; Kennesaw State Owls head coach Brian Bohannon during the first half against the Cincinnati Bearcats at Nippert Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Katie Stratman-USA TODAY Sports / Katie Stratman-USA TODAY Sports

FRISCO, TX - To kick-off Conference USA Media Day, the first team to take the stage were the Kennesaw State Owls- the newest official members of Conference USA.

"There's a lot of excitement, a lot of buzz around our campus and community about this opportunity," said head coach Brian Bohannon in his opening statement. "We're excited about it as well."

"There's a lot of unique things going on at this time. We're a young program. We're going into our tenth season of football and are already making this jump to Conference USA which is a huge and heavy lift, but exciting lift. I got a little insight on some of the opportunities in the midweek games last year. I got to watch what an unbelievably competitive league we're going into. We got our work cut out for us. We're excited about the opportunity to put our brand on national TV not only for our football program, but for our community and for our university."

Dressed for success 🎙️👔#GoldStandard | #SeeUs pic.twitter.com/wK0SgBVtat

— Kennesaw State Football (@kennesawstfb) July 23, 2024

In the league's preseason media poll, the Owls are expected to finish last in the conference, something Bohannon knew was a possibility. Still, he expects his team to go out there and perform like they have since the program's first season in 2015.

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"We have a lot to prove," said Bohannon. "When we're probably going to be picked last in about everything you could imagine. It's probably been since 2015 that we've been in that situation. I think we want to prove and show to people how we play our brand of football and go out and be competitive."

In their final season at the FCS level, the Owls went 3-6, but since their start in 2015, the Owls have been one of the best FCS teams out there posting a 71-30 record, 30-12 conference record and a 44-9 all-time home record. The Owls are off to the best start in college football history winning 48 games in their first five seasons.

Throughout this transition, someone who Bohannon went to was Sam Houston State head coach K.C. Keeler who went through the FCS-to-FBS transition.

"A lot of the information was about red shirting and how to navigate that and we did it," said Bohannon. "I don't think there's any good way to go through all that and to be honest with you just do what you feel best about. It was more of the uniqueness of that first transition season. This year, it's different. In Conference USA, we're playing even though we're not necessarily eligible for all the postseason stuff, but we're in. That's very different than it was a year ago, but the big thing was a lot of that and how to navigate your personnel going through a season that really didn't count towards anything. So I think those are conversations."

The Owls have yet to win a game against an FBS opponent, but they will have the chance to do it on Saturday, August 31st against the UTSA Roadrunners. The game will take place In the Alamo Dome at 3:30 pm on ESPN+.