VIDEO: Mike Clowney Press Conference
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – The journey for Carson-Newman's 2022 season begins with a tall task.
After battling injuries and inexperience in a one-win campaign in 2021, C-N's metal will immediately be tested against No. 12/10 West Georgia at 7 p.m. Thursday evening at University Stadium in Carrollton, Ga.
"When you put a schedule together, one of the biggest things I've always been taught as a player growing up, as a coach coming through, you want to put yourself in situations where you challenge yourself out the gate to kind of figure out exactly where you are," Carson-Newman head football coach Mike Clowney said. "We're still talking about what does that picture look like to get us back to the point where we can get ourselves in national contention. I think it's a good test for us out of the gate to figure out where we are and what we need to do going into the rest of the season."
The Wolves enter the season fresh off a 9-3 record and a second-round appearance in the NCAA playoffs. UWG ousted Albany State 23-7 in the first round before falling to eventual national runner-up Valdosta State 66-35.
Offensively, UWG returns quarterback Harrison Frost who threw for a single-season school record 3,618 yards and 25 touchdowns last season. He also gets back 40 percent of his receiving corps from last year with Terrill Cole and Ronnie Blackmon, who returned a punt 85 yards for a score last season against C-N.
Frost completed 12 of his first 14 passes last season against C-N. He had more than 150 yards through the air by the end of the first quarter.
"We were giving them some things, and he did a great job of taking advantage of it," Clowney said. "Getting the ball in other guy's hands to give them an opportunity to make plays. That's kind of what their offense is designed around."
Carson-Newman is looking for its first road win since the Eagles' played a CoVID-abbreviated season in the spring of 2021. Carson-Newman took a 40-37, four-overtime win at UVA Wise on March 13, 2021, but have dropped five straight road affairs since then.
C-N will get a crack at its first top-10 opponent since playing No. 6 Lenoir-Rhyne in the second round of the 2019 NCAA Playoffs. The Bears prevailed that day 49-21. Carson-Newman hasn't beaten a top-10 team in six tries. The Eagles handed No. 5 North Alabama a 24-21 loss in the NCAA Quarterfinals on Nov. 28, 2009.
This marks the third time in six fall openers that Carson-Newman has started the year with a top-10 team. The Eagles dropped a 52-45 track meet to No. 7 Humboldt State to start 2016 before falling at No. 2 West Florida to kick off 2018, 19-7.
Carson-Newman is playing in its first game in the state of Georgia since 2015 when the Eagles dropped a wild 61-59 game to Valdosta State in the opening round of the playoffs. This is C-N's first regular season game in the state since beating Shorter in Rome on Oct. 12, 2013, 45-27.
C-N is 32-9-1 in season-opening games since 1980. Carson-Newman's 45-7 season-opening loss to West Georgia last season was the Eagles' largest season-opening defeat since losing to Furman 52-7 to start the 1983 season. That Carson-Newman team would go on to win a national championship.
Carson-Newman is opening the season on a Thursday for a 11th consecutive fall. However, this marks just Carson-Newman's third road Thursday opener in that span. When at home on Thursday openers, the Eagles are 6-2 and averaging 46.2 points and 569 yards of total offense. On the road, Carson-Newman owns a 45-20 win at Glenville State (Sept. 1, 2011) and a 19-9 loss at West Florida (Aug. 30, 2018).
"I don't care if it's at Burke-Tarr or across the Atlantic," Clowney said. "Let's go play football. I haven't thought about it one bit. We've got a big game in front of us, and we're going to go compete."
The Eagles own a 5-1 record all-time against West Gerogia, but have never beaten UWG head coach David Dean. C-N downed the Wolves three times in Jefferson City in the NCAA Playoffs in the 1990s before taking two Nick Hyder Classics from the Wolves at Baron Stadium in Rome, Ga. in the early 2000s.
Dean, formerly the head coach at Valdosta State, knocked Carson-Newman out the playoffs on three occasions.
Carson-Newman head football coach Mike Clowney was a member of Carson-Newman's 1995 and 1996 teams that thwarted the Wolves in the playoffs 37-26 and 41-7. The 37-26 win in 1995 represents Carson-Newman's first ever Division II playoff victory.
West Georgia checks in in 12th in the AFCA poll and 10th in the d2football.com poll. It's the first time since 2019 the Wolves have been ranked in the AFCA Preseason Coaches Poll. In that season, the Wolves entered the season as the nation's number 15 team. UWG was also ranked in the Preseason Polls in 2015, 2016, and 2018.
Carson-Newman and West Georgia have split their two season-opening matchups. UWG won at Burke-Tarr Stadium 45-7 last season. In 2004 in Rome, Ga., Carson-Newman prevailed 38-24. • The Wolves have won nine consecutive season openers, with the last loss in a season opener coming against Tusculum on the road in 2011.
Kickoff Thursday evening is set for 7 p.m. Coverage on the Eagle Sports Network starts at 6 p.m. on the Eagle Sports Network with the AEC Tailgate Show on Joy 620 (WRJZ-AM, Knoxville), Mountain Sports 106.3 (WPFT-FM, Sevierville) and online at cneagles.com/live.
