KSU'S RELOADED QB ROOM FOR YEAR 2 IN THE PISTOL
Breaking down the state of Kennesaw's quarterbacks as Davis Bryson prepares to lead the Owls into Conference USA.
During the final FCS season, no position highlighted Kennesaw State’s struggle between building for the future and loyalty to the past quite like the quarterback spot. Think of the 2023 Owls, without conference affiliation or postseason eligibility, like a young NBA team tanking for a lottery pick: They might not have been too concerned with results, but they still needed an experienced veteran as an elder statesman.
Graduate senior Jonathan Murphy took the keys to the new pistol offense last year after spending the previous four seasons in and out of the lineup in the flexbone system. In the end, he deserved a better curtain call than the uneven performances and 3-6 season that essentially served as a redshirt year for the entire program.
Murphy departs ahead of the CUSA transition, leaving the Owls with their first true clean slate at the position since 2019. Kennesaw’s entire QB room combines to bring back two career completions, both of which came from Davis Bryson during his time filling in for Murphy.
Bryson, now a redshirt sophomore, returns as the presumptive starter for the debut season in Conference USA, along with a restocked QB room that features four new faces, including former three-star recruits in Khalib Johnson and Earl Woods III. If you adjust expectations to account for what the Owls want to do on offense, a position group that many list as a weakness could actually be in the best shape it’s been for years.
Like many players on the roster, Bryson played in exactly four games during the shortened, nine-game FCS independent slate. The only difference? Bryson already used his redshirt, so limiting appearances was a way to protect him, rather than extend his time in the program. In a perfect world, you’d love if the Owls used the transition year to find out exactly where they stand at QB heading into FBS. Sending a first-time starter out to run a brand-new offense behind a patchwork OL might not have been the best environment to do so, though. Looking at when and how much Bryson played, it’s easy to see that there was an abundance of caution. We never saw him for extended FCS-on-FCS reps, only coming in for a couple series as a change of pace against Tennessee State.
Bryson’s one start came in a non-NCAA matchup against Lincoln, in which he went 0-6 passing in a game that amounted to a glorified interior drill. His only two completions came in garbage time against Tusculum (D2) and Virginia-Lynchburg, leaving Owls fans wondering about the state of the Owls QB room coming out of fall camp.
Curiously, Owls HC Brian Bohannon has not fielded a single question in his post-practice media sessions about the QB situation, nor has the team made Bryson available to speak publicly with the handful of outlets that have ventured out to the intramural fields for preseason coverage. Marietta Daily Journal sports editor John Bednarowski alluded to an exclusive interview during his appearance on the CUSA Insider podcast, but that has yet to run as part of the paper’s KSU season preview package.
Over the weekend, the Cherokee Tribune, which shares an ownership group with the MDJ, may have inadvertently leaked Bohannon’s intentions at QB1 with a random photo upload ahead of their full Owls breakdown:
2023 QB STATS
Jonathan Murphy
85-158, 1,190 yards, 8 TD and 3 INT, 87.3 QBR
Rushing: 116 carries, 401 yards, 7 TD
Davis Bryson
2-11, 53 yards, 47.2 QBR
Rushing: 24 carries, 206 yards, 2 TD
LEAVING: Murphy, Tyler Nelson, Cole McCarty
RETURNING: Bryson, Braden Bohannon
Heading into his redshirt sophomore season, Bryson did enough during spring ball to clear out every QB on the roster who’s not related to the head coach. Nelson entered the transfer portal two days before the spring game, eventually ending up at Garden City CC in Kansas. McCarty did the same about a week and a half later, finding a home at East Mississippi CC, aka Last Chance U.
Throw former OC Chris Klenakis in the departures category too, as he takes a major pay raise to coach Vandy’s OL. I’m not sure Klenakis was ever meant to be more than a short-term solution, but it’s hard to imagine Bohannon wanted his OC-in-residency stint to be that brief. Chandler Burks, an Owls legend at QB in his own right, and long-time offensive assistant Stewart Cook take over as co-coordinators.
2024 ADDITIONS
Khalib Johnson - JUCO transfer with 3 years of eligibility
Earl Woods III - Jacksonville State transfer with 4 years of eligibility
Lucas Scheerhorn - true freshman from Texas
Preston Clemmer - true freshman PWO and former teammate of TE Carson Kent
Bryson’s 2-11 passing line from his redshirt freshman season is an easy data point to latch onto, and it understandably gets a top-line mention in every story about the Owls’ CUSA outlook. Redshirts, 3-6 final FCS season, inexperienced 5’9” QB with 53 career yards, flexbone transition, etc. - they’re all quick ways to summarize a team that has a lot of unknowns without digging too deep.
What most of those previews leave out: The Owls don’t need an Air Raid gunslinger out there to be successful. You’re better off treating Kennesaw’s QB situation like a service academy, no matter how much the formations and blocking schemes have evolved since abandoning the flexbone. More or less, their pistol option offense still strives to get players into the same places, just packaged differently.
Kennesaw would’ve ranked second with 67 of these sub-15 attempt games in the first 9 years, despite playing one fewer season than everyone else on the list. Do we think they’re going to pass *more* after handing over play-calling duties to an option lifer in Burks? In terms of what the Owls value at QB, Bryson’s running ability (8.58 ypc last year) means far more than if he was throwing for a similar success rate. The flashes we did see from him last season, like this scramble against Tennessee State, usually left Owls fans asking for more playing time to see what we had for the future.
Do the Owls need an improvement in the passing game? Clearly. Last year’s completion percentage, QB rating and lack of third down success (32% conversion rate, good for 102nd…in FCS) do enough to highlight that. At times last year, punting on third and long would’ve been a more productive option than trying to throw in terms of Expected Points Added.
But Bryson’s job won’t be to sit back in the pocket and try to pick apart defenses that drop everyone into coverage. No matter who plays QB, the Owls will be extremely comfortable if they’re able to run about 65% of the time, with RPOs and play action making up around half of the passing snaps. Even if the Owls find themselves in a deep hole in some of the bigger point spread games, the complete lack of expectations this season make it far less likely that they’ll abandon their identity to start chasing games.
Here’s how Murphy’s passing zones looked last year as the starter:
The reality is that the Owls just aren’t going to ask a lot from their QBs in the passing game. Going back to rewatch a few of last season’s FCS matchups, Furman stands out as the most cohesive offensive vision of the season, even if the results weren’t stellar on every drive. Murphy became the first Owls QB to ever throw for 300+ yards in a 31-28 loss against an eventual FCS quarterfinalist.
A lot of slants, spacing routes, glance RPOs, and bubbles - all concepts where you’d feel comfortable with Bryson behind center. When the Owls did put some air under the ball, it was typically a quick shot or a play-action concept like the deep crosser to Benyard for the opening touchdown.
Here’s a few clips of what the Owls tried with Murphy at the helm:
Plus, one extra clip that went incomplete but was a perfect example of how the Owls were so close at so many points last year. Bryson and Gabriel Benyard will 1,000% score on this exact look at some point during the season.
If Bohannon and his staff could rank positions where they need the biggest leap to turn the offense around in 2024, though, they’d pick at least 4 of 5 OL spots and X receiver before even thinking about QB.
OL never found any consistency in ‘23 due to injuries and a short-handed roster caught in the middle of a massive overhaul. Center was the only position manned by the same player for more than half of the snaps. Every other spot hovered around the 40% mark, at best, in terms of play-to-play continuity. Tackle, in particular, required an immediate upgrade to help the passing game, with each one grading below 50/100 in pass blocking via PFF. That’s a tall task for a program like Kennesaw in the portal, but newcomers like Mason Bowers, Jacob Kettels, Dodge Sauser, and a few others could have a chance to start right away.
A full year of Benyard at receiver (4.56 yards/route run in ‘23), along with upgrading the X position will also go a long way in turning around the passing numbers. They’ll need more production than 11 total catches and sub-0.9 yards/route run from their most frequently used wideouts - Blake Bohannon and Conner Finer last year - to keep progressing in the new offense. Whether it’s a newcomer like VT transfer Christian Moss or improvement from an incumbent, another weapon outside will make Bryson’s life a lot easier and allow Burks/Cook move Benyard around as a hybrid playmaker.
If they find that answer out wide to pair with Benyard, and can hit (relatively speaking) on a couple of the incoming tackle transfers, the Owls won’t even really need a major step up from Bryson. That’s why a lot of the “HUGE QUESTION MARK AT QB” stuff in the season previews falls short. Yes, we don’t exactly know what’s going to happen behind center. What we do know: 1) We’re mainly here to Run the Damn Ball, and 2) There are enough question marks elsewhere that it’s difficult to really get worked up about the QB room’s inexperience.
Rest in peace to the sideline rotary phone
Good news for the Owls: If you’re forced to break in unseasoned QBs and new co-coordinators simultaneously, 2024 may be the perfect season to do it. Back in April, the NCAA’s rules committee approved the use of in-game helmet communication and video footage on sideline tablets. Kennesaw’s QB will have one of the OCs in his ear until the 15-second mark on the play clock to get the call in, make initial adjustments, etc. When he gets back to the sideline, the offense can review actual game film, too, rather than passing around static printouts.
Every FBS team will have access to the tech so there’s no advantage game-to-game, but keeping the lines of communication open longer will give the Owls a much better chance to be in a good spot when the ball is snapped. Does that ensure a smooth transition to the new era at QB? Obviously not, but I do wonder if we will look back at the end of the year and see a much higher median performance, FBS-wide, for offenses with first-year signal-callers and coordinators as compared to previous seasons.
Even if Bryson is entrenched as QB1 from the jump, some level of load management will be crucial for the Owls to succeed in the run-heavy attack behind a still-uncertain offensive line. That’s always been the case for the young Kennesaw program, which has relied on QBs to carry the load throughout the program’s first nine seasons:
You can look at the QB battle as less of a sprint and more of a Le Mans-style endurance race with a few people behind the wheel. No matter how well Bryson performs as the starter, Khalib Johnson and/or Earl Woods III will see some action throughout the year.
Burks remains the only Owls QB to start for an entire season uninterrupted. His 37-game streak of consecutive starts from 2016-2018 set unrealistic expectations, and we’ve spent the next five seasons searching for a long-term answer that can stay healthy. Multiple QBs have started games for the Owls in every season since Burks finished his career, including three each in 2019 and the Spring 2021 COVID season.
QB usage “dipped” to 37% in the first year of the pistol, which still would have been the highest rate in CUSA had the Owls been playing in the league already. Only Jacksonville State’s 35% came close for QB workloads in the run game. Rich Rod’s multi-QB strategy with Zion Webb and Logan Smothers last season could be a template for how to attack the CUSA debut in a run-heavy spread offense.
If we’re uncertain about Bryson, we know even less about the status of Kennesaw’s transfer additions and how they’re pushing the presumed starter. Bohannon’s only been asked about his QB situation in public one time throughout preseason, and it was when he answered a specific question about the two incoming QBs at CUSA Kickoff.
“Both of those guys are going to have to be ready to play,” Bohannon told the MDJ. “I think Khalilb is a little ahead of Earl right now, but they’ve all got to be ready.”
A former three-star Louisville recruit, Johnson comes in from Blinn College, the house that Cam Newton built, with three years left to play. If we pencil in Bryson as the number-one option, Johnson could make a lot of sense as the #2 with his bigger 6’2”, 215-pound frame. There are some Blinn games available on YouTube to get the full picture of what he brings to the table, rather than a quick 2/3 minute highlight reel.
Less college film exists of Woods, since he only played a handful of times at JSU last year. Even so, there’s a lot to like from Woods’ electric highlight tape at Hueytown High School in Alabama, where he won the state’s Gatorade Player of the Year honor as a junior. You can watch some RPO work, a little bit of option, and the dude slings it on deep balls when he has time. I don’t know that Woods has the same top-end speed as Bryson, but you can definitely see the running ability that encouraged Rich Rod to give him some snaps at RB last season.
As for the rest of the roster, let’s state the obvious: If any of the other Owls QBs play meaningful minutes this fall, the season took a disastrous turn on injuries.
HOWEVER
While everyone else focuses on Bryson and the three-star transfers, you might want to buy a few shares of stock in under-the-radar freshman Lucas Scheerhorn to hold for the future. Scheerhorn was the first QB to sign after Kennesaw’s offensive overhaul got underway, committing just before National Signing Day.
My first thought watching Scheerhorn’s HS tape: It’s surreal to see the Owls bring in a recruit who seems so clearly influenced by Johnny Manziel - Texas kid, wearing #2, scrambling around like that and chucking it deep. Then I remembered he would’ve been like 6 years old during Manziel’s Heisman season. Yikes. We are all ancient.
Once you get past the existential crisis of seeing a player your own age as a childhood hero, you can get excited about Scheerhorn’s potential as a long-term project to round out the Owls QB room.