VIDEO: Ken Sparks press conference
The Bears have won three straight SAC title games and 18 straight games in the regular season against SAC opposition.
"They'll be the most physical challenge we've had all year," Carson-Newman head coach Ken Sparks said. "They are a well-coached, talented football team. Anytime you're fourth in the country and you've started a season 8-0, you must be doing a few things right and they're doing a lot of things right."
The Bears boast of one of the top defenses in the country. L-R allows 13.0 points per game – good for fourth in the nation – and 277 yards per game – sixth in the nation.
On top of that, Lenoir-Rhyne has held Carson-Newman under 300 yards rushing in back-to-back games, both losses for Carson-Newman in 2013. This will be the teams' fifth meeting in the last three years. Carson-Newman leads the all-time series 43-13 going into game 57 in the series' 51-year history. However, the Eagles are 2-4 against the Bears since 2010, when L-R snapped a 31-game losing streak to the Eagles.
"We know we're playing against a very talented football team," Sparks said. "But we won't talk about them, they're not the issue. We don't need to convince ourselves of how we need to play against Lenoir-Rhyne. We're playing against us as far as we're concerned."
That means improving on consistency. The Eagles found themselves down by 21 points on homecoming, only to rally to defeat North Greenville 35-34. C-N also had to produce a fourth quarter comeback to defeat Tusculum on Oct. 18. The pair of fourth quarter comebacks are the most for the Eagles in a season since C-N rallied in the fourth quarter three times in 2009.
"One of these days, especially for an old coach's heart, if we could get out in front in a hurry instead of having to come back, it'd be nice." Sparks said. "But that's what life is. Our kids have embraced that adversity when it's come and responded to it in a very strong way."
The Eagles are led offensively by Andy Hibbett (Corryton, Tenn.). The senior is fifth in the nation in rushing yards per game and has gained 1,093 for the year. That tally is the 19th most for a single season all-time. Hibbett is riding a string of six consecutive games with 100 yards rushing – a new school record. He has also rushed for at least 175 yards in three straight contests.
The rushing yardage output for Hibbett has catapulted him into rarefied air. He needs 47 more yards to pass former teammate Tyron Douglas for 10th on the all-time rushing list. Another 40 on top of that moves Hibbett past 3,000 yards for his career.
However, Lenoir-Rhyne's defense has been particularly adept at slowing down rushers all season. The Bears give up 90 yards on the ground a game and only Brevard's Jordan Ollis has surpassed the 100-yard threshold on their defense this season.
Preseason All-American Blake Baker leads the Bears defense to the tune of 12.5 tackles for loss and 8.5 sacks.
The Bears have maintained the level of success attained by coach Mike Houston, now the head coach of The Citadel with first-year coach Ian Shields.
"It's pretty amazing to come in with a, for all intents and purposes, come in with a completely new staff and not miss a beat," Sparks said. "He's doing basically the same things offensively. Defensively, they're using the same people in the same places that they did last year. He's a very smart coach. I think he was smart enough to keep much of it the same. He's always been an option guy, so their offense is nothing new. Defensively, he hasn't changed much either."
The option offense retains much of the characteristics of the Bear Bone utilized by Houston. Miles Freeman is still the starting quarterback and Jarrod Spears is still a threat to go the distance at one wing back (he has averaged a whopping 12 yards a carry in his career against C-N). However, after All-American fullback Isaiah Whitaker went down with an injury, the Bears turned to Chris Robinson. He is 87 yards away from becoming the first 1,000-yard rusher for L-R since 2004.
"Whoever has who better have who or you're going to give up a touchdown," Sparks said. "We've done that (give up a touchdown) a couple times this year. That's something this ballgame we can't do, and that's give up long, explosive plays."
The winner of the game puts themselves in the driver's seat to lay claim to a South Atlantic Conference championship. The Eagles have 21 of those under Sparks, but haven't won one since 2009 – the longest such drought under C-N's 35-year mentor.
The Eagles have won five straight games and started 4-0 in SAC play for the fifth time since 1999. Each year the Eagles started 4-0 in the SAC, they went on to win a conference title. Only on one of those occasions (2003), did the Eagles lose a conference game that season.
Kickoff between the Bears and Eagles is slated for 1 p.m. Pregame coverage on the Eagle Sports Network begins at noon with the Appalachian Electric Cooperative Tailgate Show on Joy 620 (WRJZ-AM, Knoxville), Mountain Country 106.3 (WPFT-FM, Sevierville) and online at cneagles.com/live.
-CN-
