VIDEO: Mike Clowney Interview
ROCK HILL, S.C. – Carson-Newman football has been picked ninth in the South Atlantic Conference's annual preseason poll, the league office announced Monday morning.
This marks Carson-Newman's lowest preseason ranking since 1978. The Eagles had been preseason favorites to win the league in all but eight of the last 33 such rankings.
The ranking comes for a Carson-Newman team that doesn't have a player that completed a pass from last year on the roster. A team that returns less than 10 percent of its rushing output from a year ago. And, a team that does not return a starter on the offensive line penciled into the position that they played a year ago.
"We talked to our team at breakfast this morning about not letting our past dictate our future," Carson-Newman head football coach Mike Clowney said. "The good thing God does is that He gives us the opportunity to move forward and do things better than last year. It's a new year with new attitude and a new focus to figure out how good we can get."
However, Carson-Newman does return NFL prospect Braxton Westfield (Simpsonville, S.C.) at receiver as well as Korey Waters (Bradenton, Fla.) and Luke Simpson (Knoxville, Tenn.) who combined for 12 catches and 136 yards in their first seasons of significant action last year.
Furthermore, the defense returns seven regular starters. The entire defensive front four has starting experience, as do three linebackers in Alonzo Houston, Caleb Goins and Daniel Dixon-Brooks (who was hampered by injury last year).
A secondary that took its lumps last year is fully healthy with Jackson Ward, Jalen Anderson, Kendall Williams and Callum Clements returning. In fact, if one goes back to 2019, Carson-Newman could stock every position on defense with a player who has started.
"Guys are buying in," Clowney said. "The biggest thing that has helped us is to have a traditional spring practice and regular schedule. That's enabled us to teach kids about what Carson-Newman is about and why it is the way it is. We've brought in a lot of new guys who signed up who want to make sure that a one-win season doesn't happen again."
While the South Atlantic Conference is moving to divisions this season (Carson-Newman will play in the Mountain Division with Mars Hill, Tusculum, UVA Wise, Limestone, Emory & Henry and Erskine), the preseason poll features all 12 teams in the league flung together.
The Piedmont's Newberry topped the preseason poll with eight first-place votes and 118 points. Lenoir-Rhyne and Wingate also followed suit out of the Piedmont. The Bears have the four remaining first-place votes and 112 points. Wingate sits in third with 99 points before one gets to a Mountain Division team – that's Mars Hill with 94 votes.
Then, a cliff in terms of votes. Tusculum was ranked fifth with 76 votes, 12 points clear of sixth—ranked Barton.
Four of the bottom six hail from the Mountain Division. UVA Wise and Carson-Newman sandwich Catawba, who was ranked eighth. Limestone is the final Piedmont team – placed 10th, before Emory & Henry and Erskine – two first-year members – round out the poll.
Carson-Newman opens the season Sept. 1 at 7 p.m. in Carrollton, Ga. against West Georgia. The contest will be broadcast on the Eagle Sports Network starting one-hour prior to kickoff with the AEC Tailgate Show on Joy 620 (WRJZ-AM, Knoxville), Mountain Sports 106.3 (WPFT-FM, Sevierville) and online at cneagles.com/live.
Rank School (First Place Votes) Score
1. Newberry (8) 118
2. Lenoir-Rhyne (4) 112
3. Wingate 99
4. Mars Hill 94
5. Tusculum 76
6. Barton 68
7. UVA Wise 60
8. Catawba 53
9. Carson-Newman 42
10. Limestone 32
11. Emory & Henry 20
12. Erskine 18
