VIDEO: Ashley Ingram presser
VIDEO: C-N v. Tusculum Cinematic Recap
VIDEO: September C-N v. Wingate Highlights
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – No. 19/20 Carson-Newman (9-1, 7-1 South Atlantic Conference) takes aim at the top prize in the SAC when it travels to Irwin Belk Stadium for a 3 p.m. kick with No. 23/18 Wingate (9-1, 7-1 SAC) Saturday afternoon.
Carson-Newman is vying for its 22nd South Atlantic Conference championship. Since the formation of the South Atlantic Conference in 1975, no school has racked up more trophies in a more impressive fashion than Carson-Newman. Of the Eagles 21 SAC championships, 15 have come in outright, unshared fashion, while eight have been clinched with an un-blemished league record.
"Well, it's obviously exciting times here at Carson-Newman and I just couldn't be more pleased with the effort our players have put in this season dating back to last winter," Carson-Newman head football coach Ashley Ingram said. "Couldn't be happier with our coaching staff and all that we've accomplished up to this point. But obviously we want to finish it off the right way and we want to finish with a SAC championship; we have a great challenge in front of us.
"Obviously, Wingate is a very good football team. You know, they are older, they're mature, they're big, they're fast, they're strong. They've got a coaching staff that's essentially been there forever. I know Coach (Rashaan) Jordan just took over as the head coach, but just a great program. And I told him after the game the way they do things - they're a program we'd like to emulate. So we have a great challenge but a great opportunity as well."
This year's title game is a matchup of bridesmaids. Since Wingate's 2010 crown, C-N and/or WU have finished second in the league/division in all but one year.
As the league shrinks back to 11 members next year with Barton's departure for Conference Carolinas, this will be the last SAC title game for the foreseeable future as the league reverts to the round-robin format that defined its existence for its first 47 years. This is both Carson-Newman and Wingate's first appearances in the SAC title game, which is in its fourth season (three normal fall campaigns, plus the CoVID-shortened spring season).
While C-N has the most SAC titles in the league by a near 2:1 margin (Lenoir-Rhyne is next with 11), the Eagles are also the owners of the longest active title drought in the league. C-N hasn't lifted the trophy since 2009 - a gap of 15 years.
Wingate is looking for its third SAC title. The Bulldogs won the title outright in both 2010 and 2017. Carson-Newman was the second-place team in the standings both those seasons.
Wingate has been on a tear, especially defensively, since C-N's 31-28 overtime win on Sept. 21. Since then, the Bulldogs, who are fifth nationally in scoring defense, have only allowed 37 points. Included in that are three shutouts.
The Bulldogs held C-N to 47 yards rushing in the first meeting. It's the lowest rushing total by a triple-option Carson-Newman offense since the year 2000.
Reigning SAC Defensive Player of the Year Marquise Fleming is sixth nationally this season with 0.89 sacks per game and third nationally with 1.9 tackles for loss per game (he had 4.5 in the first meeting). With 38.0 career sacks, Fleming is the SAC's record holder tops among all active players in all divisions for career sacks.
"I think we're a better football team than we were when we played them earlier in the season," Ingram said. "And obviously during the game, you know, we lost two quarterbacks and had lost Teddy (Gleaton) the week before. You add two to three months of playing, getting better. I think we'll play better and I'm sure they'll play better as well. We're going to obviously attack them and we're going to take what they give us. So we're not going to go into the game worried about rushing yards. We're going to go into the game, trying to win the game, and if they're overly aggressive in the secondary, we're going to try to throw the ball. And if they're not, we're going to try to run the football and we're just going to try to play a clean game. We'll have to do that to have a chance against a team of their caliber."
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). Newberry is the only team in the last five years to go for more than 300, going for 410 in the spring CoVID 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 21 straight weeks and 29 of the last 30. The Eagles' seven sacks against Wingate in week three are tied for the second most in a NCAA Division II game this season and are the sixth-most in school history. C-N is second in the conference in sacks behind Wingate.
This is Carson-Newman's first showdown with another ranked foe since 2019. The Eagles had two such games that year, both in the playoffs. The Eagles were No. 25 and beat No. 11 Bowie State 17-9 before falling to No. 6 Lenoir-Rhyne 49-21 in the second round of the playoffs. This is C-N's first regular season meeting between two ranked teams since 2018, a 19-9 loss to No. 2 West Florida in the opening game of the year.
C-N is 12-20 in games featuring two ranked teams since the year 2000. That includes a 5-17 record in road games. C-N's last regular season win as a ranked team at a ranked team came in 2004 one day before Halloween when 18th-ranked C-N beat 22nd-ranked Catawba 49-30.
Kickoff between the Eagles and Bulldogs is set for 3 p.m. Coverage on the Eagle Sports Network begins at 2 p.m. with the AEC Tailgate Show on Joy 620 (WRJZ-AM, Knoxville) and online at cneagles.com/live.
