A college team that hadn’t won a game all season going against an undefeated program that was receiving votes for the national rankings.
Guess which team won.
The Owls pulled off the miraculous feet last week against Liberty University, defeating the Flames at home, 27-24, on Wednesday for Kennesaw State’s first-ever FBS win and first win of the 2024 season.
Kennesaw State trailed early in the first quarter after Liberty posted a touchdown. The Owls matched that a few minutes later, and never trailed again.
While Liberty scored with 1:49 left in the game to trail by just three points, the Owls, with 1:47 left, drained nearly the rest of the clock. On a fourth-and-1 with 10 seconds left, the Owls opted to go for it to try to close out the game, but came up short.
Liberty, with six seconds left, had time for two plays. The first was an incomplete pass. The second, a short throw for 3 yards that was eventually fumbled and recovered at the Flames’ own 38-yard line.
The Flames ran out of time. And Kennesaw State made history.
“The immediate celebration, we had fans rush the field. My parents were on the field. That was the first time it ever happened in my life. That was a legendary moment right there,” said Pooda Walker, a Pine Forest alum who is now a defensive lineman for the Owls in his redshirt-junior season. “That was a very good team. We saw them come back and find ways to beat teams in the fourth quarter. We never got complacent.”
“It felt like a chip off our shoulders,” said Ethan Newman, a Navarre alum who is now a redshirt-freshman on the offensive line at Kennesaw State. “It’s a special feeling. Something I’ll treasure for the rest of my life and tell my kids someday for sure.”
Both Walker and Newman had been part of their fair share of big-moment games, especially in high school. Walker remembered the Escambia-Pine Forest game his senior season in 2020, where it was a sell-out crowd with a lot of emotion on the field. “That’s how it felt this past weekend,” he added
Newman noted the obvious Gulf Breeze-Navarre rivalry games every year with the Beach Bowl, but also mentioned the Raiders’ game in 2022 when they drove down the field with limited time remaining and had a game-winning 32-yard field goal.
“That was a game I always looked forward to with the cross-town rivalry. … Everyone was engaged and having a good time,” Newman said in comparison of the games. “This might’ve been cooler. We were on TV, and we were 0-6 going against an undefeated team. That was insane.”
The week leading up to the game was maybe a little more intense, Walker said. All of the players were “dialed in.” Starting the season with six consecutive losses isn’t ideal, so each week the goal was just to try and go 1-0.
There had been “flashes” of what Kennesaw State could do on the field, Newman added, but the team never seemed to be able to put it together in one game.
But Wednesday was different.
“They used an analogy of guys who slam hammers in rocks. You keep hitting it, and you never know when you’re going to break through. I think we broke through in the Liberty game,” Newman said. “We showed what we can do against Liberty. Once we get four quarters of Kennesaw State football, we can show the conference – and the world – what we can do.”
Did the Owls feel like underdogs?
“Speaking from the offensive line room, we had stuff to prove because people call us the smaller guys,” said Newman, who stands at 6-foot-3 and 300 pounds. “We played with a chip on our shoulders.”
“We’ve been underdogs all season. It was a mutual feeling,” Walker said. “We knew we were the underdogs. We don’t take that lightly.”
Kennesaw State (1-6, 1-3 Conference USA) has another tough task this coming Wednesday at Western Kentucky in Bowling Green. From here on out, the Owls play just conference games. The next two, between Western Kentucky and UTEP, are on the road.
Now’s not a time to get complacent, both players said.
“We don’t want to win just one game. We want to try to flip this thing around,” Newman said. “Getting that first one was really, really special. We just can’t get satisfied. We have to show people we belong in FBS.”
Walker couldn’t help but remember Ladarius Clardy after the game, as well. Clardy, also a Pine Forest alum, was killed in July 2021 in a drive-by shooting where he was mistaken for someone else after leaving a dice game. “LD,” just 18 years old, had just finished his freshman year at quarterback at Kennesaw State.
Kennesaw State has since instituted the “Ladarius ‘LD’ Clardy Memorial Impact Award,” which goes to a player on the Owls that “embodies (Clardy’s) love for the game,” and “the level of excellence (Kennesaw knows Clardy) would want his teammates to live up to.”
After the 2023 season, Walker – LD’s best friend – earned the award.
That made Wednesday’s win just a touch more special, remembering LD.
“LD was my best friend. He was that guy. He lived the right way. … Anything you asked him to do, he was going to do it 100%. I’m keeping that going, letting him know while he ain’t here, I’m holding it down for him,” Walker said. “He’s have been real happy after that win.”
