Flyer football to face Kennesaw State under the lights

By: Dan Durkin – Staff Writer

The Flyers football team will look to improve its record to 3-0 tomorrow night as they take on the Kennesaw State Owls at 6 at Welcome Stadium. This is the Flyers’ first-ever meeting with Kennesaw State. And this is Kennesaw State’s first year of having a football program. The Owls are one of four programs across the country beginning or restarting football this season.

Even though the Owls, located in Kennesaw, Georgia, are starting their first football season this year, they have won all three of their games thus far. They are not short for talent either, as they’ve brought in players from some Division I FBS, the highest division in college football, schools including Appalachian State and South Carolina.

Tomorrow’s game will be the first of two night home games for the Flyers this year. Dayton football has not played a home game under the lights since Oct. 19, 2013, and the players are looking forward to the somewhat new experience.

“It’ll be a lot of fun under the lights,” senior tight end Ian Palin said. “It’ll be good to sleep in Saturday, rest up, think about the game. And it’ll give us a little more time to prepare, and it’s always a good atmosphere under the lights.”

Head coach Rick Chamberlin likes the idea of the night game, as well.

“Always enjoy playing under the lights. There’s an energy there. There’s an environment that the players really get up for” Chamberlin said. “And it really takes them back to their high school days when they were playing under the lights and being the football stars that they were back then.”

Chamberlin didn’t seem concerned about the extra time until the start of the game.

“We’ll go through our routine just before the game as we always do, then we’ll have our pregame meal and all the other little meetings we have too,” he said. “Hopefully, they’ll be relaxed, watch some college football and maybe those football games will get them fired up too.”

With the relative unknowns that are presented with playing a team that is in their first year of being a program, Chamberlin and his staff do not have as much to go on as they usually do to scout the Owls and create a game plan.

“All you can do is look at the film and develop a game plan and go from there,” Chamberlin said.

One of the main reasons for the Flyers’ early-season success has been their defense. One of those key defenders is senior cornerback Cameron Stubbs, who has had a very good season so far.

“Everything has just been clicking so far,” Stubbs said. “We have great leaders, we are trying to play relentless this year and I think we are playing that way so far. We are a different squad this year.”