Spring ball check-in: 5 burning questions for the KSU offense

We won’t come close to an answer on Saturday morning, when Collins and the other QBs will maybe get a couple series of live reps in an extremely controlled environment. We’ll still see our first live, public look at the guys vying to replace first-team All CUSA selection Amari Odom and Dexter Williams.

The market for Elon’s Landen Clark said everything about the difficult of finding a transfer QB: Kennesaw jumped in with an early offer, one of his first FBS opportunities in the portal. Two short weeks later, he was committed to Lane Kiffin at LSU. That’s reality at our level, even if your evaluation process is spot-on: Proven experience comes with a price tag, so find a QB who’s a reclamation project or on the equivalent of a rookie contract. Those categories cover the entire QB room in Kennesaw: Redshirt freshman Skyler Williams, JUCO signee Landon Varnes, true freshman Jamarcus Harrison, and Collins — the one-time Elite 11 prospect who’s spent time at LSU and Syracuse so far in his career.

While out at the Bear Bryant Awards in Houston, Mack sat down for a quick hit with the ESPN radio affiliate in Baton Rouge. They jumped right in to discuss Collins, a BR native whom Mack spent time scouting while he was covering the area for Tennessee.

To be fair, what head coach would sign a P4 quarterback and relay anything other than optimism? I think the “he’s gonna be a superstar” sentiment does speak to the whole point of bringing in Collins, though. He’s a high ceiling guy, with massive variance between a first-team All CUSA peak or benched-in-September valley. Do Mack and Militello see an easy fix on the Collins film? That’s where I keep coming back on this pickup, especially when you dive into the numbers from his six games of action.

Out of 176 FBS quarterbacks with at least 100 dropbacks in 2025, Collins ranked 172 in PFF passing grade, 171 in drop-adjusted completion percentage, and 168 in turnover-worthy plays. CFB Numbers made his QB radar chart tool available online - here’s how Collins stacked up in terms of percentiles last season.

Drilling down on the passing numbers by depth, Collins was just 22/69 (31.9%) on passes further than 10 yards downfield. His drop-adjusted intermediate accuracy - from 10-20 yards - ranked 138th in the nation.

His rushing productivity - 6.0 YPC, 4.5 of which came after contact - does point to some level of mobility at the college level. Watching some of his Syracuse action, the first rusher rarely brings him down even though there’s not a ton of breakaway speed. Only 33 yards came on designed runs, though that probably speaks more to Cuse’s dire injury situation at QB. Can you really run the backup QB into the ground when the starter’s already out for the year?

If you take a look at the FBS defenses Collins faced during his time as starter, you’ll also see a much stronger competition level than he will come close to facing in Kennesaw. For context, the Owls only played against two top of SP+’s top 100 defenses the entire regular season.

Remember how hyped Owls fans were when Dexter Williams signed? He completed 34% of passes during a similarly bad era of Indiana football, then was a backup at Georgia Southern after multiple knee injuries. CUSA title game MVP Amari Odom was a 54.9% guy in FCS and only had a hundred yards rushing to his name. Maybe this works, maybe not - your guess is worth just as much as mine. There’s gotta be a reason Mack pulled the trigger, though.

One solution might be to lean into a perceived weakness from his time in Syrcause’s “pro-style” offense. “With Collins, he locks into the first receiver and the vision just isn’t quite there yet,” said PFF analyst Dalton Wasserman (via the Daily Orange). “It looks like Collins kind of predetermined throws before the snap.” That would explain a few of the head-scratching misses, which coincidentally looked like some of Odom and DWII’s lowlights from last year. Good news for Collins is that Kennesaw’s Veer and Hoot won’t ask for quite as many full-field progressions in the choice concepts that make up the foundation of the downfield passing game.

Syracuse also only used Collins in PA/RPOs situations on 13.3% of attempts, the fourth-lowest rate of any QB in the nation with 100+ dropbacks. How much was game state and how much was strategy? Amari Odom, on the other hand, ranked 9th in the nation at 48.3%. What happens when you split up regular ol’ dropbacks and PA/RPO usage? Those Collins numbers, in an admittedly tiny sample size, catch up to the pack while looking at the four qualifying QBs at Syracuse and Kennesaw.

What will happen if/when Collins triples his RPO dropbacks in Kennesaw?

I also think the signing could signal some confidence in what the Owls already had in-house for 2026. If Mack, Militello, and the rest of KSU’s offensive braintrust were that concerned at the possibility of relying on Skyler Williams or Landon Varnes, we would’ve seen Ulatowski stick around or they would’ve brought in a low-ceiling type guy with a slightly higher floor.

By the time Week 1 gets here, Williams will have been on campus for 20 months since rolling early as one of Mack’s first recruits. That gives him a leg up on the install, plus he’s added 10 pounds onto an already-sturdy dual-threat frame. In the buildup to last season, Militello actually said Williams could be the “most talented” guy in the QB room. That’s unfortunately the last time we’ve really heard the staff talking on the record about the redshirt freshman. You have to wonder what ‘25 looked like for him if Odom didn’t make that summertime leap. Would Williams have gotten an opportunity at some point? Either way, he’s in the mix to some degree this year - if Williams didn't have any shot he would’ve ended up in the portal in January.

Varnes comes up to FBS with three years of eligibility after posting video game numbers at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, including 31 TDs and nearly 299 yards per game last season prior to signing with the Owls. Something to consider: He only stayed INT-free in two of the 11 games in the fall and threw 24 picks in JUCO, according to the MGCCC website. That’s worth mentioning when Mack weighs arm talent vs. decision-making and control of the offense.

This is what Mack had to say about Varnes after the QB chose the Owls over offers from Southern Miss and Arkansas State.

Does anyone remember if there’s a track record of small JUCO quarterbacks succeeding in CUSA? Oh yeah, that one guy.

Congratulations. You bring back more rushing production than the Kennesaw State Owls this season. Jonathan Mathis and Davis Bryson are the only returners who logged any carries for the Owls in 2025, with a combined total of negative 5 yards.

That leaves plenty of opportunity for KSU’s running backs in an uptempo offense that necessitates finding at least two capable every-down backs. Last season, Militello’s offense produced three 500+ yard rushers (sack-adjusted in Odom’s case) and gained more than 2,000 yards on the ground for the first time since the triple option days. Who’s up next to take over from Coleman Bennett and Chase Belcher?

West Georgia transfer Latrelle Murrell, as the only guy in the room with extensive D1 experience, looks like a lock to be one of the Owls featured backs this year. He’s getting scrimmage reps next to Collins in the backfield and projects as RB1 to start the season, unless we see a surprise, Odom-like leap from one of the other backs. His 2025 season in Carrollton gives us a baseline comparison with Belcher and Bennett, as both players’ last full season on the field prior to Kennesaw came at the FCS level.

In addition to these rushing totals, Murrell hauled in 22 passes for 241 yards, while also grading out 90+ in pass blocking at PFF. All in, there’s a somewhat clean, though imperfect, comparison with each player’s last season at the FCS level - 2023 at Bucknell for Bennett (before transferring to Rice and barely getting on the field) and 2024 for Belcher, also at West Georgia.

Murrell served as much more of a featured back than the other two. If you’d prefer a direct UWG comp, Belcher and Murrell split time behind Rajaez Mosley during the 2024 season - the Wolves’ first at the D1 level. Belcher took on more of a workload, but Murrell made a bit more of his chances. Tiny sample size, to be fair.

Belcher: 52 carries, 240 yards on 4.6 3 TD, 3.17 after contact
Murrell: 33 carries, 224 yards, 6.8 YPC, 3 TD, 5.18 after contact

If you’re worried about the exchange rate on stats moving up, Bennett and Belcher both beat their FCS averages during their brief stay in Kennesaw. None of that is to call my shot and say Murrell will definitely outperform what Belcher and Bennett. The Owls just have much more of a known commodity at the top of the RB depth chart this time around. This time around, attention turns to which one of the other six guys in the room will join him in the rotation.

Earlier this week, Mack appeared on the Solid Verbal podcast as part of his global media tour. While breaking down his philosophy on offensive recruiting, he said he wanted running back to be a “low maintenance” position where he can plug and play. Murrell would qualify, and that could elevate senior Triston Morgan - the only other Owls RB with a full season of four-year college experience. After limited action at Fort Valley State, Morgan transferred to Benedict College , where his 809 yards rushing ranked fourth in the SIAC (D2). UTEP and Southern Miss were also in the mix this offseason, but the Atlanta native committed to the Owls a day after his visit to Hattiesburg. The upright Ashton Jeanty stance he used at Benedict fired me up, I gotta say.

Everyone else remains somewhat of a mystery to this point. KSU does have three returners (Mathis, Devin Ingram, and redshirt freshman Joshua Troupe) who have practiced in the offense for a full season. Ingram got a handful of garbage time carries at ETSU as a true freshman and scored a long TD in Saturday’s scrimmage. Lining up HS track results (like a normal person), Ingram posted 100M times in the 10.9 range, a couple tenths faster than Coleman Bennett. He stands just 5’8”, but also put on 8 pounds since last season.

Despite not seeing the field in ‘25, Troupe still being on the roster says something in an environment where it makes zero sense to retain a player without a chance to contribute in some fashion. Mack’s given a pretty quick hook on deciding when guys aren’t a fit, yet Troupe’s still here. I’m curious to see where he falls in whatever rotation the Owls roll with on Saturday.

JUCO signee Boogie Woods and Celley Davis - a three-star HS prospect out of Memphis - are two other two newcomers who joined running back room ahead of the spring semester. Dating back to his first year in Knoxville, Mack hasn’t been afraid to play true freshmen or JUCO newcomers. Woods signed with Georgia Southern out of high school, then took a detour to the JUCO ranks next to Varnes in the backfield at Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Mack’s been involved with Davis, the 107th ranked RB in the 247 Composite, since his time coaching RBs at Tennessee. KSU hasn’t gotten 250 yards rushing out of a freshman since 2017, and only 3 rookie RBs in CUSA got 10 or more carries in CUSA last year. Could Davis change that? He committed last summer, buying in on the new regime’s vision before the Owls even played a game.

Woods, Davis, and the rest of the room all have entertaining highlight videos. That’s the barrier to entry in FBS. The separator, as always with Mack, will be which ones play most efficiently “without the ball.” To that point, tip of the cap to Woods for including a few pass pro clips in his highlight reel.

Will we see some semblance of a settled rotation take shape on Saturday? Obviously not, but we could get a glimpse at the current food chain and see a decent amount of carries from the unknowns in a practice script that will mostly consist of hammering a couple run concepts.

Key losses: Gabriel Benyard (eligibility), Clayton Coppock (Coastal Carolina), Christian Moss (Washington)
Returners with experience: Navelle Dean, Davis Bryson, Javon Rogers
Incoming: Zion Booker (Tulsa), Dylan Gary (Georgia Southern), Brayden Munroe (Northern Colorado), DeVaughn Slaughter (Tennessee State), Keon Davis (Virginia Union), Jeremiah Tabb (Hoover High School)

WR might be the deepest position group on the team, despite lacking the familiar names from previous seasons. Mack brought in a half dozen newcomers, including a couple FBS transfers, lower-level transfers, and Tabb as a high school prospect out of Alabama.

So much of Kennesaw’s passing attack relied on the gravity of Benyard, especially early in games when his already high 24.3% target share jumped to 40+% in the first quarter. Matching Benyard on safeties and running slot choice gave the Owls an effective early innings heater, but eventually the defenses will catch up on the third time through the order if there’s only one deep threat, zero danger from the tight end, and a broken WR screen game ranked last in the nation at times based on EPA.

To credit the staff, KSU pivoted midseason by sliding Benyard out wide and inserting Coppock into the regular lineup. We also saw a wider variety of formation experiments as the year progressed, including some of those quad bunch sets and more frequent backfield usage from the slot receivers. An infusion of experience, production, and different frames in the room should equate to a further upgrade of the room, at least on paper, heading into spring ball, even with all the catches and yardage going out the door.

Replacing Coppock was somewhat of a surprise after the CUSA All-Freshman team selection posted something along the lines of “F that transfer portal” a week or so before entering the transfer portal. He’s at Coastal, and the staff moved on quickly by grabbing Zion Booker from Tulsa just a few days later. Booker mostly played in the slot last season (91.8% of passing snaps), though he did take the majority of his reps at Western Carolina out wide. He seems like the safest bet to jump into a slot position in Kennesaw, but profiles more as an underneath option that could replace a lot of the curl spamming the Owls lose with Moss in the Big Ten. The downfield threat hasn’t been present at the FBS level yet.

Similar to Murrell’s UWG stats, we can use some FCS numbers to give us a decent snapshot of how the D1 newcomers stacked up at a similar level. Booker (before going to Tulsa), Gary (before Georgia Southern), Munroe, and Slaughter all produced in the FCS at various times.

Gary, Munroe, and Tabb seem like clear-cut options outside, especially at their size. Slaughter’s probably the fastest guy in the room and mostly lined up inside at Tennessee State. He was productive enough as a true freshman - 55 catches and 500+ yards on a 26% target share - that I wonder if there’s some upside in moving him around more often depending on who hits and misses from the incoming transfers.

What about the returners? Bryson will play a role again as the best fit for some of the more creative slot responsibilities that blur the lines between positions. We’ve also heard about Javon Rogers as a breakout candidate for two straight years, only for preseason injuries to derail his season. Does Navelle Dean have another step? He’s been in and out of the lineup since the FBS jump. I’m cautiously optimistic about the position change for Kayden Miller over to wideout from free safety. That feels like a cosign from the staff on his potential to move him into a deep position room instead of suggesting he jump in the portal.

Even if the “spring game” format skews more toward open practice, I think we’ll still be able to learn a decent amount about the wide receivers will be somewhat instructive. I’d like to see some of the one-on-one reps matched up with a pretty long group of DBs. Let’s see how this group matches up after a couple years of some serious physical limitations.

KSU brought in Tennessee State transfer Gerard Bullock last season to replace Carson Kent after the first real tight end in school history transferred to Oklahoma. To look at the production, I’m running back a chart from the preseason that compared Militello’s time with Josh Heupel at Tennessee with Kennesaw’s tight end usage in 2024, one of the first seasons in school history to feature the position.

Bullock was essentially a non-factor in the passing game and spent more time in pass protection than any of Tennessee’s TE1s in the Heupel era. To his credit, he caught most everything that came his way from a middle of the pack CUSA target share. Those opportunities were almost entirely low stakes, though, with his only catch further than 10 yards downfield coming from a Christian Moss double pass. That 0.67 yards per route run ranked 127 out of the 131 FBS tight ends with at least 25 targets last season. That number dips to 0.24 when you only factor the snaps when Bullock was aligned in the slot.

This CUSA TE leaderboard from CFB Graphs speaks to the gap between consistency and production: Bullock was middle of the pack in share, catches, and only 3 tenths off the lead in completion percentage, but dead last in EPA/reception and air yards per completion. You could count on Bullock to catch the ball within four yards of the line of scrimmage, run three more yards, then go down. Like clockwork.

Who’s up next? Well, KSU only has three options at the moment.

Rising sophomore Jamari Harrold was the number two last season, filling in for Bullock against New Mexico State after the senior went down with an injury. RJ Taylor also switched positions and played in a game on offense before leaving the program. Mississippi State transfer Semaj Parker is no longer on the roster after spending most of last season on the injury report.

Based on my limited understanding Harrold was not fully ready last season, despite the cameo appearances. That’s understandable as a true freshman who converted from receiver and didn’t get to campus until the summer. What will his development look like heading into year two at the position?

Reed Jesiolowski and Cass High School’s Chase Tatum are the two newcomers who join Harrold. Jesiolowski is actually the most experienced guy in the room, thanks to his time at Southern Miss. He caught 8 passes for 98 yards as a freshman before getting caught up in the Charles Huff transition. Jesiolowski ended up at Northwest Mississippi CC last season, then KSU beat out ODU and a few FCS teams for his services bouncing back to the FBS level.

Really intriguing transfer here as a former HS running back who got on the field right away at the FBS level in 2024. That sets up a Harrold/Jesiolowski competition that will get settled based on which one of the recent TE converts better handles the blocking part of the position.

For whatever it’s worth, Mack and the staff are still out there offering class of 2026 JUCO tight ends.

Finding TE1 is the main question, but figuring out if you have a second playable option could that unlock the offense. 12 personnel (one RB, two TE) was a package the Owls just didn’t have in their tool bag last year. Militello experimented with a couple different ways to mimic it, like condensed splits, giving Jordan Jackson some H-back-ish snaps, using 6 OL at times.

They just never really found a true two tight end solution to stress opposing defenses. KSU was one of just two CUSA teams to hit the 1,000-play mark on offense, but used tight ends less often than everyone except UTEP and Sam Houston. TE Per Play is not a real stat as far as I can tell, but I used it to show how teams utilized the position in terms of snap count volume.

To make a two-tight end set more threatening, that second tight end needs to bring something different to the table. To that point, I feel obligated to buy some Tatum stock if he really did show up on campus weighing 260+. That size is such a change of pace from the other two if he’s able to pick up the offense during spring install.

Retaining both starting tackles feels like an underrated element to Kennesaw’s roster rebuild. What would the WR or DB haul look like if GM Mike Kershaw had to devote more money to finding two brand-new OTs on the open market? Milovac (#1 with 1,000 snaps) and Lee (#3 with 979) are the only two offensive returners that played consistent minutes on the CUSA championship team. Next up in that snap count leaderboard is Davis Bryson at 17.

During the winter, Lee held his ground and never entered the portal, while Milovac tested the market and quickly re-committed to the Owls for 2026. Who could blame him for thinking the grass might be greener? At the upper end of the sport, tackles can cost upwards of about a half million dollars more than Kennesaw State’s entire 2025 roster.

There’s plenty of room for improvement at the position, though.

How much stock do you put in PFF grades? Out of the 55 different CUSA offensive linemen to play 500+ snaps last season, Milovac and Lee both ranked in the bottom five.

Looking at raw pressures allowed, Milovac (34) and Lee (48) both ranked in the bottom 5 too. None of that is tempo- or style-adjusted, though. What about when PFF divides blame for who’s truly “responsible” for pressures, include the QB as a potential culprit, and shift to a percentage-based stat? You’ll see that the Owls aren’t alone in worrying about the tackle position.

Whatever the subjective numbers say, KSU has proof of concept that you can win a title in this system with Milovac and Lee at tackle. That sets the table for the rest of the OL competition goes. Guevara feels like a lock to start at center, coming over from MTSU. Why else would he make the move within CUSA if he wasn’t expecting to win the job?

If the tackles keep those starting roles, that allows Luke Duska to play guard and creates a three or four way competition for the two open interior job openings. Duska provided enough versatility to play across the entire front 5 at points during his time at Elon. Mack’s talked in the past about the need to find his top 7 or 8 linemen, regardless of position, given the tempo of the offense and demands of the OL positions. That plug and play capability will put him in the mix at multiple spots.

Past Duska, there aren’t any tackle options with extensive college experience. If an in-house prospect emerges, that would reverse a trend of transfer reliance at the position for the Owls. Thanks to some combo of market conditions, the flexbone transition, and multiple roster flips, only 1.9% of Kennesaw State’s OT snaps at the FBS level have come from players who started their college career with the Owls.

15 of those homegrown snaps came from Jamiel Williams last season, who kept his redshirt and still has four years of eligibility remaining. He’s added 16 pounds onto his frame over the course of his freshman season.

Looking further into the tackle depth, redshirt freshman Haston Crawford - a three-star OT in the 2025 class - is still on campus, along with Eseosa Aigbokhae, a fascinating project that focused on soccer and basketball before picking up football late in high school and offensive line even later. True freshmen Daniel Cepicky and Enrico Maghelli also project as tackles and enrolled early for spring practice. Keep an eye on Maghelli, in a similar theory to Jackson Cooper last season: Playing at IMG might get him geared up for college ball a little quicker than most true freshman OL.

Offensive line is one position where you won’t mind a light workload for the ones during the spring game, anyway. Since 10 guys in the room haven’t played a single D1 snap, there’s a lot of room to experiment with rotations, personnel, and even contributors in different roles. To that point, KSU posted some rare first 11-on-11 clips to social media last weekend, giving us a couple brief glimpses at scrimmage action. There wasn’t much revealed, obviously, but still enough to Monitor the Situation.

Do I spy Milovac cross-training on the left side? Those are the kinds of things worth watching up front on Saturday morning.