Kennesaw State brings fast-pace attack into CUSA title game, but Jax State has handled it before

JACKSONVILLE — When Jacksonville State hosts Kennesaw State in the Conference USA Championship Game on Friday night, the Gamecocks know exactly what to expect.

After all, they played each other three weeks earlier, also in Jacksonville. Jax State won 35-26, and it was a bit of a learning experience for the Gamecocks’ defense.

"We learned that Kennesaw is a very fast-paced team," said redshirt junior Darrell Prater, a regular in the defensive line rotation the past three years.

Kennesaw State ran 90 plays in the earlier game. Even when Rich Rodriguez — the father of hammer-down, fast-paced offense — ran that many plays only twice in his 37 games as Jax State's head coach in 2022-24.

"They're as fast as any team in the country," current Jax State coach Charles Kelly said during a CUSA zoom call Tuesday afternoon. "So, it makes you have to adjust. It makes you have to play fast."

The last time these two teams met, the fast offense worked for Kennesaw State … but not always. The Owls had the ball for 11 possessions and never punted, but they threw four interceptions and lost the ball on downs once.

Jax State handled the pace most of the time, and Prater said the Gamecocks will be ready again Friday.

"We practice in a way that allows us to be ready in those moments — so we can get back to the ball faster than they do, in order for us to be successful."

Kelly said Kennesaw State is especially good at figuring out what can hurt the opposing defense and pounding away at it.

"They do a good job of finding what you're in and trying to exploit that," Kelly said. "So, you have to be able to counter. Any team that puts stress on you every down, that's hard to defend.

"I've coached on both sides of the ball and been a special teams coordinator, but being on the defensive side of the ball, playing offenses like that keep you under stress, because one mistake, it can turn into a huge play."

Kennesaw State quarterback Amari Odom, a redshirt sophomore, transferred from Wofford during the off-season, and he's thrived with the Owls. He has 17 touchdown passes and only six interceptions, although only two came against a team other than Jax State.

Kennesaw State coach Jerry Mack called that night "that debacle at Jacksonville State."

But Odom has rebounded. In Kennesaw State's two games since then, wins over Missouri State and Liberty, he had a combined nine touchdown passes and two scoring runs.

"I'm so proud of the way he has really attacked everything that happened to him in that game," Mack said. "That is what growing up is. That is becoming a young man. That's what it's all about, learning from your mistakes. And he is."

Prater promised that the Jax State defense will be ready. He added that the team already practices each week as if a championship was on the line.

"We treat every week like a championship week," he said. "This week is for an actual championship. Of course, we stepped up just a tad bit, but it's nothing too much different from what we already been doing."