VIDEO: Ashley Ingram Presser
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman will mark the debut of its 20th head coach Ashley Ingram when it opens up under the lights of Burke-Tarr Stadium at 6 p.m. Thursday against fellow Eagles and NAIA nationally-ranked Reinhardt.
The contest has been dubbed "A New Era." The first 500 students and fans through the gates will receive a free blue t-shirt to commemorate Ingram's first game.
"It's finally here after I guess almost nine long months since taking over," Ingram said. "We finally got a game. I think the guys will be happy to see someone other than each other as we've gone through spring ball and fall camp. But now we're excited to play. We have a quality opponent coming in. I've just tried to reiterate to our guys that the battle is with ourselves. We have got a great opponent to play in Reinhardt. We have to be ready to play. I think the guys will be excited. I'm excited. So we're ready to roll."
Carson-Newman head coaches are 7-9-1 all-time in their coaching debuts. Mike Clowney (2020), Mike Turner (2017), Ken Sparks (1980), Johnny Wike (1974) and Bob Davis (1964) are the last Carson-Newman head coaches to start off their Eagle head coaching careers with a win. C-N's last three head coaches all started off their careers victoriously.
Only two Carson-Newman football coaches have won their coaching debut by more than 10 points. The first was Tom Moran in 1922, whose Eagles throttled Mars Hill 45-0. The second was Mike Turner, who's 2017 team blasted Pikeville 48-7.
This marks the third time in the last four seasons C-N has started the season against a school from the state of Georgia. C-N's last two forays against Peach State teams ended in victories for the West Georgia Wolves, now members of the FCS.
This is Carson-Newman's first-ever meeting with Reinhardt, Carson-Newman does have a degree of familiarity with Appalachian Athletic Conference programs. C-N is 5-1 all-time against the league. C-N is 4-1 against Union Commonwealth (Ky.) and 1-0 against Pikeville. The lone loss came to Union in 1950, 13-9.
Reinhardt is the pick to win the 2024 Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) Football championship according to the league's coaches. The Eagles received four of the seven first-place votes to earn the top spot with 46 voting points. Meanwhile, Pikeville is hot on their heels in second with three first-place votes and 45 voting points. Reinhardt is seeking its ninth conference title in a row, having won six Mid-South Conference Appalachian Division championships prior to the AAC sponsoring football in 2022.
"They're well coached, they are a very good program, they have very talented players," Ingram said. "I think they are the real deal. We've got to be ready to play and obviously when you do something for the first time, you know they're going to be growing pains. We've got to minimize those. We've got to allow our athletes to win. We cannot beat ourselves. The penalties, the false starts, the turnovers, you know those things will be kind of paramount in this game."
The Eagles have made eight consecutive trips to the NAIA playoffs. Head coach Jamie Miller has taken Reinhardt to a 65-16 record to begin his seven-year tenure with the program. His teams have never lost more than three games in a single season.
Carson-Newman is opening the season on a Thursday for a 13th consecutive fall. When at home on Thursday openers, the Eagles are 7-2 and averaging 45.2 points and 557 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 33-10-1 in season-opening games since 1980. The Eagles were victorious on Thursday night last season, 35-3 over Virginia-Lynchburg.
C-N is opening the year with a non-Division II foe for a second consecutive year after starting 2023 with the VUL Dragons. This marks the first time C-N has started the year with an NAIA foe since Mike Turner's debut game as head coach in 2017. The Eagles beat the Pikeville Bears to kick off Turner's tenure as head coach, 48-7.
Carson-Newman dialed up the defensive pressure at the end of 2023. The Eagles tallied four sacks in four consecutive weeks for the first time this century. The Eagles ranked sixth in the nation in sacks. Carson-Newman's 36 sacks last season are tied for the 10th most in a season in school history. With a sack in every week of the 2023 season, last year's team became the fourth this century to tally a sack in every week of the season. C-N has registered a sack in 11 straight weeks and 20 of the last 21.
"I think the most important thing is it is that you'll see a football team just playing together that's playing really hard," Ingram said. "I've told our guys, if you really care about each other where those aren't just words, that we're going to be the closest team in the country. If that's the case, we'll play really, really hard for each other. We'll lay it on the line for each other. So I hope that you'll see a team that plays hard, that plays fast, that is physical, that it will hit you, that is willing to compete every snap until the final whistle of the game. If we do those things, we'll win a lot of football games."
Carson-Newman opens the season under the lights of Burke-Tarr Stadium on Thursday August 29 at 6 p.m. against Reinhardt. Pregame coverage on the Eagle Sports Network begins at 5 p.m. with the AEC Countdown to Kickoff on Joy 620 (WRJZ-AM, Knoxville), MIX 105.5 (WSEV-FM, Sevierville) and online at cneagles.com/live. A video stream is available with a subscription to FloSports at cneagles.com/FloFB.
