VIDEO: Ashley Ingram pre-Wingate Press Conference
VIDEO: West Virginia State Cinematic Highlights
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman (2-0) opens up SAC play with a tall challenge, welcoming No. 24/23 Wingate (2-0) to the banks of Mossy Creek for a 1 p.m. kickoff Saturday inside of Burke-Tarr Stadium.
The contest marks Family Weekend for the C-N campus. Carson-Newman also welcomes back the reunion of 1980s team champions and the 40th anniversary of the 1984 national championship-winning team. First Bank is the gameday sponsor for the contest.
"When you talk about Carson-Newman football, certainly five national championships is what you think about and you think of Coach (Ken) Spark's legacy," C-N head football coach Ashley Ingram said. "But really that's probably the reason I came to Carson Newman is there's a tradition of excellence here, there's a history here, and we're not going to run from it. We're kind of running to it. So ultimately we want to put a program on the field that can play at that level and compete at that level. So it'll be great to see a lot of those guys. I've met quite a few of them. I'm sure there'll be some guys in town that I have not had the opportunity to meet. I'm thrilled they come back."
After playing Wingate every year from 1988-2019, the Eagles and Bulldogs have met just once in the last half a decade (a 25-3 win for the Bulldogs in 2021). Carson-Newman won 21 of the first 22 meetings between the two programs, but Wingate has a 7-4 edge in the series over the last decade and a half.
"Wingate is a very talented team," Ingram said. "They're very experienced. I think five of their seven guys up front are graduate students or seniors. Coach (Rashaan) Jordan's done a great job. They've had a lot of continuity and their staff over the last decade or so. Just an impressive team, a team that's not going to beat themselves, honestly, a team that in a lot of ways we'd like to emulate kind of their maturity and their discipline and their toughness. We will certainly have a big challenge in front of us."
Carson-Newman and Wingate are both sporting first-year head coaches for this matchup, a rarity in the series thanks to Ken Sparks roaming C-N's sidelines for 36 years before his retirement in 2016 and Joe Reich's retirement last offseason from a 23-year career. All told, the 34th meeting between the teams will be the first where both C-N and Wingate have a first-year mentor on the sidelines.
Wingate enters the contest ranked 24th in the AFCA Coaches Poll and 23rd in the D2Football.com Media poll. Carson-Newman is 37-37 all-time against ranked Division II opposition with a 3-2 record against ranked Wingate teams. Carson-Newman fell 24-7 to the lone DIvision II team it faced last season - No. 17/15 Lenoir-Rhyne. C-N's last contest with a team ranked 24th in the coaches poll was a 52-14 win over No. 24 Wingate in 2006.
Wingate is known for its defense. The Bulldogs are the league leaders and 13th nationally and 12th nationally in sacks per game and tackles for loss per game, respectively. Wingate averages three sacks a game and nine tackles for loss a game.
Reigning SAC Defensive Player of the Year Marquise Fleming is 10th nationally this season with 1.25 sacks per game. With 32.5 career sacks, Fleming is third among player sin all NCAA Divisions and tops among Division II for the most sacks among active players. He is second all-time in league history for career sacks, needing 5.5 to catch Catawba's Kyle Kitchens.
"He's talented, he's an older guy, he's got experience," Ingram said starting to chuckle. "He's tough. He's one of those guys, when you turn the film on, you notice him right away. So, yeah, I wish he would have transferred, went somewhere else, but I guess he chose to stay. No, but he's impressive. He's just a very, very good football player."
A stout rush defense, Wingate hasn't allowed a team to rush for more than 200 yards but once in the last two years (Lenoir-Rhyne last season). Newberry is the only team in the last five years to go for more than 300, going for 410 in the spring CoVID season.
Mark Burks has had a knack of causing chaos on special teams. He is one of five players nationally to block two kicks this season.
Carson-Newman has kept the defensive pressure dialed up. 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 13 straight weeks and 22 of the last 23.
While the sample size is small, Carson-Newman's 388 yards rushing on opening night against Reinhardt was a potential welcome return to the Eagles' historic dominance on the ground. C-N had produced just one 350+-yard rushing performance since moving away from the split-back veer in 2020. From 2009-19, Carson-Newman's offense tapped 350 yards rushing on 56 occasions, or 5.09 times per season. The Eagles are fourth nationally in rushing yardage. Carson-Newman has rushed for 300 yards in back-to-back games, something it hasn't done since 2019 when it was running the split-back veer.
Carson-Newman has the country's most efficient passing attack. The Eagles lead the nation with a 253.57 passing efficiency. C-N ranks third in pass yards per completion with 22.5 and eighth in completion percentage at 71.4 percent.
Kickoff between the Eagles and Bulldogs is set for 1 p.m. Coverage on the Eagle Sports Network begins at noon with the AEC Tailgate Show 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.
