VIDEO: Mike Clowney Presser
VIDEO: 2019 Highlights
VIDEO: 2018 Highlights
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman's (0-1, 0-0 South Atlantic Conference) cranks up South Atlantic Conference play with a member of the D2Football.com Top 15.
The Eagles welcome Wingate (2-0, 0-0 SAC) to Mossy Creek for a 1 p.m. kickoff Saturday. The Bulldogs are ranked 15th in the D2Football.com poll and 16th in the AFCA Coaches Poll. The contest is Carson-Newman's Health Care Appreciation Day. All health care workers get into the game for free with their staff id.
Carson-Newman enters the contest off a 16-day layoff after losing on opening night 45-7 to now No. 20 West Georgia. The Bulldogs have handled two CIAA teams in their first two weeks in Shaw and Fayetteville State 30-7 and 40-21, respectively.
"They're just a really big football team, both size wise and experience," Carson-Newman head coach Mike Clowney said. "One thing that pops out when you see their roster is the amount of graduates, senior, red-shirt seniors and juniors. Just the experience they bring and the size they bring along with their consistency. Joe (Reich) and his staff have really done a great job with those guys."
Carson-Newman won the last meeting at Burke-Tarr Stadium 31-14 on Sept. 15, 2018. While Wingate won in 2019 at Irwin Belk Stadium 30-28.
In last year's 30-28 loss at Wingate, the Bulldogs rallied from a 28-20 hallftime deficit. The Eagles only had 45 yards after halftime and had negative two yards of offense in the fourth quarter. Carson-Newman was held under 100 yards rushing as a team for the first time since a 37-3 loss at Lenoir-Rhyne in 2013.
However, the Eagles counterbalanced it with 265 yards passing, it's most since 2017. Braxton Westfield (Simpsonville, S.C.) had three catches for 169 yards and three touchdowns the last time the team's played. His 169 yards are the 10th highest single-game total in school history and the third most of the option era.
Wingate quarterback Shaw Crocker is second in the country in completion percentage, firing away at 73.2 percent of his passes. He is 13th in passing efficiency at 166.8 and 19th in pass TDs with five. He has 52 career touchdown passes.
"That is one of the first things that popped out when I looked last week and he was maybe 22-for-30," Clowney said. "Just the efficiency is there, as he has done a great job of fitting balls into the windows. A lot of their passes have been in play action so that you're running down before guys lose guys on the back end. We have to do a good job of knowing where we are and what is going on. If we have a guy who looks like he's blocking, we have to stay locked onto that guy. The big thing is going to be competing for us out there on the perimeter, something we worked on a ton these last two weeks."
Wingate tailback Nijere Peoples is the South Atlantic Conference Offensive Player of the Week. Peoples piled up 131 rushing yards on 21 carries. He scored two TDs, while averaging over six yards per carry. Peoples went over 100 yards in the opening half, helping Wingate race out to a 30-7 halftime lead. He went over 2,000 yards rushing for his career in the game. He has 26 career TDs.
"We're going to have to get more than one guy to the ball this week for sure. He does a great job of keeping his feet moving, so we'll have to get the initial guy get there and hold on as other guys get off their assignments and help make plays."
Meanwhile, Kyron Thomas was the SAC Special Teams Player of the Week. He is second in the country in yards per kick return with 33.0 per return.
For Carson-Newman's it's been a dichotomy of moving the ball against the Bulldogs.
Carson-Newman has moved the ball successfully in years past against the Bulldogs. C-N has six, 400-yard rushing performances in the last 16 years. The Eagles have also dropped at least 40 points in 10 of the last 19 meetings. The Bulldogs have also allowed four of Carson-Newman's 35, 200-yard individual rushing performances. Only Tusculum has allowed more (five).
However, Wingate has limited Carson-Newman to 150, 221, 289 and 87 yards rushing the last four seasons.
The Eagles enter the contest without a score over the last three quarters of action. The last time Carson-Newman went four consecutive quarters without a score was between Sept. 16, 2010 and Sept. 25, 2010. Carson-Newman didn't score in the final quarter of a 37-7 win over Concordia (Ala.) before failing to score in the first three quarters of a 30-7 loss to UNC Pembroke.
"I've been really pleased with our guys," Clowney said. "You know, you come off the field last time and the one thing that sticks out to me is the mindset of 'this is not who we are.' A lot of the times, it is easy to just talk but these guys have come out to practice and have tried to figure out what we need to do to get better. We know the points where we need to continue to grow and develop. Also watching their attitude in attack practice last week during an open week, we kind of treated it like a camp week. There were just some things we thought we need to get fixed. We had a lot of energy and a lot of enthusiasm."
This is the first time Carson-Newman will play host to a ranked opponent in Burke-Tarr Stadium since then No. 21 Lenoir-Rhyne handed Carson-Newman a 40-21 defeat on Nov. 3, 2018.
The previous meeting against a ranked foe at Burke-Tarr Stadium, Sept. 30, 2017 against No. 23 Catawba came up aces in C-N's favor 31-18.
One doesn't need to look far for Carson-Newman's last triumph over a top 15 team. The Eagles downed previously unbeaten and 11th-ranked Bowie State 17-9 in the NCAA playoffs on Nov. 23, 2019.
Carson-Newman is 4-1 all-time against ranked Wingate teams. Three of those victories came inside Burke-Tarr Stadium. The last, a 35-33 overtime barn burner in 2010.
Carson-Newman head coach Mike Clowney racked up a school-record 23 tackles against Wingate on Oct. 12, 1996.
The Eagles first played on Sept. 18 in 1937, an 18-12 loss to Hiwassee that was the Eagles' lone defeat en route to the Smoky Mountain Athletic Conference Championship. C-N wouldn't compete on that date again until 1954 and a 7-6 win over Western Carolina that sparked another SMAC title run. The Eagles are 3-5 all-time on the date, but haven't played on the date since 2004 when it lost 49-19 in a trip to Fargo, N.D. and North Dakota State.
Kickoff between the Eagles and Bulldogs is set for 1 p.m. Saturday. Coverage on the Eagle Sports Network begins at noon with the AEC Tailgate Show on Joy 620 (WRJZ-AM, Knoxville), Mountain Sports 106.3 (WPFT-FM, Sevierville) and online at cneagles.com/live.
