VIDEO: Ken Sparks Press Conference
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman (6-2) head football coach Ken Sparks will look to tie former Mount Union coach Larry Kehres for fifth on the all-time wins list when Sparks' Eagles hit the field for a Halloween showdown with Limestone Saturday at 2 p.m. at The Reservation in Gaffney, S.C.
Sparks has 331 career victories (and earned his 200th career SAC win last week against Wingate), while Kehres has 332.
Kehres was the head football coach at Mount Union for 27 seasons, from 1986 through the 2012 season. In May 2013, Kehres retired with a record of 332–24–3 as head coach of the Mount Union Purple Raiders football team, and a winning percentage of .929, the highest in college football history.
Standing in the way of Sparks' 332nd career win is second-year program Limestone.
The Saints are in the first year of a scheduling alliance with the South Atlantic Conference and are two weeks removed from their first ever road win against SAC competition (a 28-25 2OT win at Brevard).
"Limestone has some good athletes," Sparks said. "They are somewhat unpredictable as far as game-to-game about the things they have done this year, and they have been very successful doing some of them. They have played a bunch of people close and all they are looking for is a good resume maker, and all that would be is to beat Carson-Newman.
"We will get a great effort from them so the key for us, as always, is a good effort for us and to play the way we are capable of playing. We need to continue to grow and develop and do the things that only we can do and that is to challenge ourselves to improve. It's one of those scary games from a psychological point of view. It's one of those entitlement games, if you're not careful. We are entitled to win because we won last week and etc., etc. If we are not careful, those entitlement things can always get you in trouble."
While the Saints have neither played, nor defeated Carson-Newman, their head coach has experience in doing just that.
Bobby James left Wingate to found the Saints' program, but before doing so, he proved to be a thorn in the Eagles' side.
In fact, James was the architect of a Wingate defense that helped the Bulldogs win three-in-a-row against the Eagles from 2010-12. The Eagles never scored more than 24 against Wingate in regulation during that span and 35 in overtime.
"They are a gambling type defense that makes a lot of adjustments from week to week," Sparks said. "Against his defenses, there are a lot of different type of adjustments, and that's what we expect this time, so we have to go into the game expecting to read ourselves into a good play. We don't have to necessary doing a whole lot of correct preparation and we have to read ourselves into making a good play. That's what an option does for you if you'll read it, which we haven't been doing a very good job of. It will be a good challenge for us."
James was also an assistant to two late 90s Lenoir-Rhyne teams that Carson-Newman defeated.
The Saints are exceptional at two facets of the game - ball security and kick return defense. The Saints have only lost one fumble (first in the nation) and allow 10 yards per kick return (also first in the country).
Saturday will mark the sixth time the Eagles have played on Halloween under head football coach Ken Sparks. Carson-Newman has won the previous five Halloween contests and scored at least 35 points each time it's taken the field.
The last time Carson-Newman played a Halloween game it was 2009. C-N legend Buck Wakefield reintroduced himself to Wingate.
The Drummonds, Tenn.-native then a school-record 303 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Eagles to a 45-7 beatdown of Wingate.
And speaking of history, Carson-Newman senior quarterback De'Andre Thomas (Milledgeville, Ga.) moved into a tie for fifth on the all-time rushing touchhdowns list with quarterback Alex Good last Saturday. He can become the first quarterback and fifth Eagle overall to score 40 rushing touchdowns this Saturday. Doing so would move Thomas into a tie for fourth on the all-time list with forrmer teammate Tyron Douglas.
Carson-Newman return man TraShaun Ward (Miami, Fla.) is the active leader in all Division II for both kickoff returns and kickoff return yardage with 108 returns and 2,405 return yarrds.
However, prior to Saturday's game at Wingate, he had never taken one back for a touchdown, in spite of six career returns of 50 yards or longer. That changed when Ward returned a kick 85 yards for a score.
The Eagles were ranked sixth in the first region rankings when they arrived Monday. However, Sparks said that those rankings don't amount to much at this stage in the game.
"It's kind of like preseason rankings and the fact is, with three games left, that kind of ranking may be a little bit more dangerous than the preseason rankings to the psych of the young people and the old coaches. You earn what you get and we have a lot of season left against three teams that's capable of beating us, but at least we know now that it is in our hands. It's up to us. If we win out, we are in the playoffs and then the second 2015 season starts if you make it to the playoffs. Then you start it all over to see what you do with that."
Kickoff between the Eagles and Saints is set for 2 p.m. Coverage on the Eagle Sports Network begins at 1 p.m. 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.
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