VIDEO: Mike Clowney Presser
VIDEO: 2018 VUL Highlights
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman will peel back the curtains on the 2023 season with a Thursday night soiree against Virginia Lynchburg under the lights of Burke-Tarr Stadium at 7 p.m.
The game has been tabbed a blackout. A total of 250 black t-shirts have been reserved for students and the first fans through the gate. The football team will also be wearing its darkmode all black jerseys.
"These kids have prepared for this for months now," Carson-Newman head football coach Mike Clowney said. "To have a blackout theme, I think it's something that's fun, not just for a team, but for the entire campus. The guys get a second opportunity to put on the black uniforms (the Eagles blanked Erskine 37-0 last year in the dark mode jerseys). We've kind of been chasing each other around the field for several weeks now, and I think every football team in the country right now that hasn't played already is just looking forward to playing somebody in an opposite-color jersey. We're no different, and our kids are looking forward to playing a football game on Thursday night."
The matchup is the second all-time between the programs. The Eagles came away with a 63-10 shellacking back on Oct. 20, 2018. However, little is known about this year's rendition of the Dragons. VUL does not have a roster online and last year's season statistics are incomplete.
One known commodity is CJ Brooks. Brooks is listed as a quarterback on a PDF roster for VUL that has been circulated. Brooks was the starter at QB for the Dragons the first half of 2022. He had a 342-yard performance against Delaware State – a 35-19 loss for the Dragons – in which he completed 19-of-33 passes with a pair of touchdowns, including a 90 yarder.
"When you watch them on film - they play hard, they're organized, and they've got some really good players," Clowney said. "So, that's where you kind of start seeing those games close on a couple FCS schools last year. I mean they'll bring a good talented football team in here. The big thing we've got to do is make sure that we're prepared to do what we do as good as we can do it."
Virginia-Lynchburg competes as an independent in the National Christian College Athletic Association. The HBCU was orginally a member of the CIAA from 1921-54. The school dropped football in 1954 before reviving the program in 2011.
The Dragons have lost 32 consecutive games dating back to a 31-14 win on Sept. 29, 2018 over Fort Valley State. That was the second in a streak of back-to-back victories for the Dragons. VUL also downed Brevard 16-14 that season.
VUL has been outscored 1,612-315, or an average of 50.375-9.84 on the streak. Carson-Newman's 63-10 win over VUL on Oct. 20, 2018 represents the third game in the losing streak. The Dragons have scored 20 points or more four times in those 32 games, and haven't topped 20 points since 2019.
However, VUL was much improved in 2022. The Dragons were a touchdown away from beating Presbyterian and dropped a 14-point game to Savannah State.
Virginia-Lynchburg has dropped nine games to Division II competition over the last three seasons its played football (the Dragons opted out of the 2020 season due to CoVID). Included in that are three losses to South Atlantic Conference competition. The Dragons lost to UVA Wise (54-0), Mars Hill (50-14) and Erskine (59-13) all during the 2021 season.
A win for Carson-Newman would give the Eagles a four-game winning streak dating back to last season. The Eagles haven't won four straight games since rolling off five straight to close the 2019 regular season before picking up that fifth straight win in the first round of the playoffs at Bowie State.
Carson-Newman is opening the season on a Thursday for a 12th consecutive fall. When at home on Thursday openers, the Eagles are 6-2 and averaging 46.2 points and 569 yards of total offense. The lone losses at home in that stretch have come at the hands of Humboldt State, 52-45 in 2016, and West Georgia, 45-7 in 2021.
Carson-Newman is 32-10-1 in season-opening games since 1980. The Eagles have dropped their season opener in back-to-back seasons with ttwo straight losses to West Georiga.
The Eagles will suit up in all black for the second time in school history. C-N blanked Erskine 37-0 when it rolled out in surprise all black jerseys against the Fleet on Oct. 15, 2022.
This marks the first time C-N has opened the season against a school from the Commonwealth of Virginia since 2007. The Eagles opened that year with a 52-23 decision over Virginia State. Prior to that game, one must go alllllll the way back to 1935 and a 6-0 loss to Emory & Henry to find a season opener against a team from Virginia.
Carson-Newman won the coin toss in all 11 of the games it played in 2022. The odds of that happening is 0.04882 percent.
Carson-Newman opens the season Aug. 31 under the lights of Burke-Tarr Stadium at 7 p.m. against Virginia-Lynchburg. Coverage on the Eagle Sports Network begins one hour before kick with the AEC Tailgate Show on Joy 620 (WRJZ-AM, Knoxville), Mountain Talk 106.3 (WPFT-FM, Sevierville) and online at cneagles.com/live. A video stream is available with a subscription to FloSports.
