March 12, 2021

After 430 day wait, Clowney era kicks off in Wise, Va.

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – The start of the Mike Clowney era – on hold for more than a year due to the global pandemic – begins in earnest when Carson-Newman (0-0) starts its modified spring season Saturday at noon against UVA Wise (0-0) from Smith Stadium.

Carson-Newman

1-0

Virginia-Wise

0-1

Final	1	2	3	4	OT	T
Carson-Newman (1-0)	7	7	0	17	9	40
Virginia-Wise (0-1)	0	7	10	14	6	37

C-N Game Notes

VIDEO: Mike Clowney Interview

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – The start of the Mike Clowney era – on hold for more than a year due to the global pandemic – begins in earnest when Carson-Newman (0-0) starts its modified spring season Saturday at noon against UVA Wise (0-0) from Smith Stadium.

It will have been 500 days since Carson-Newman last saw the field in a football game (a second round NCAA playoff loss to Lenoir-Rhyne on Nov. 30, 2019) and 430 days since Clowney was announced as Carson-Newman's 19^th head football coach on Jan. 8, 2020.

"This is unique and different for sure," Clowney said. "When we got hired, we were thinking West Georgia and prepping for that game. But, life, much like it has for all of us, has thrown us a curve ball and we're trying to step into it and hit it the best we can."

Carson-Newman head coaches are 6-9-1 all-time in their coaching debuts. Mike Turner (2017), Ken Sparks (1980), Johnny Wike (1974) and Bob Davis (1964) are the last Carson-Newman head coaches to start off their Eagle head coaching careers with a win.

Carson-Newman is 31-8-1 in season-opening games since 1980. Aside from 2018's defeat to West Florida, the only losses on opening day in the last decade came in back-to-back years in 2009 and 2010 to Winona State. Carson-Newman has scored more than 70 once, more than 50 four other times. The Eagles have only failed to score less than 40 four times since 1999 in wins.

However, the offensive fireworks from years past could be on hold this year. Carson-Newman must replace four offensive lineman and three other starters from the 2019 playoff team. That combined with players going in and coming out of CoVID protocols has made for an interesting past six months since the Eagles returned to campus.

"There's been positives," Clowney said. "We've been able to get a lot of young guys on the field and do a lot of coaching with them. We'll see how good of coaches we are going from scratch."

Carson-Newman is 1-0 all-time against the Highland Cavaliers. The Eagles triumphed in Burke-Tarr Stadium last year 42-7. Carson-Newman rolled up 464 yards rushing and 557 yards of total offense. Of Carson-Newman's 464 yards, 313 of them came on first down. The Eagles averaged 9.8 yards a carry on first-down rushing attempts and had a 6.9 yard per carry average for the game across 12 different ball carriers. Eight different players had at least one 10-yard rush.

UVa Wise is the seventh school from the Commonwealth that Carson-Newman has played alltime. The Highland Cavaliers join Virginia Union, Virginia-Lynchburg, Virginia State, Liberty, Washington & Lee and Emory & Henry as schools from the state that C-N has played. Carson-Newman is 25-21-2 all-time against schools from the state. Emory & Henry accounts for the bulk of that. The Eagles are 17-19-2 all-time against the Wasps in a series that stopped in 1975.

The Eagles are 8-1 against schools from the state since 1980. The lone loss came in a 1984 trip to Lynchburg to take on Liberty.

Carson-Newman will turn offensively to reigning SAC offensive freshman of the year Troy Dendy.

Dendy exploded onto the scene in his first season as an Eagle. The Laurens, S.C., native has rushed for 700 yards on 85 carries, accounting for six touchdowns. He has powered his way to a trio of 100-yard performances, including a 23-carry, 200-yard performance en route to South Atlantic Conference Player of the Week honors at Limestone.

The 200-yard day against Limestone registered as the 37^th all-time 200-yard rushing performance in Carson-Newman football history, and the first by a freshman. He also had a seven-carry, 149-yard, two-touchdown day against UNC Pembroke that earned him player of the week honors from the league.

Dendy will have a transfer running mate in the backfield in New Haven transfer Ryan McCarthy.

McCarthy finished the season on a player team with 781 yards on 153 attempts while adding five touchdowns. His 877 total yards was also second on the team in all-purpose yards.

Carson-Newman will begin the transition from a split-back veer option offensive attack to a multiple veer option offense. As the Eagles begin to implement the changes, it'll come with an eye on processes instead of results, according to Clowney. A statement that is made truer by playing a pandemic-abbreviated schedule.

"That sums up what we're doing, it's about the process," Clowney said. "That's one thing we talk about daily is that we want to get better every day. We have to ask ourselves the question, 'are we better than we were yesterday.' We just need that improvement every day."

Defensively, the Eagles must also contend with a slew of losses. The Eagles graduate the entirety of a secondary that picked off 22 passes a year ago and featured a pair of All-Americans Desmond Fairell and Darius Williams.

C-N also loses All-SAC interior linemen Brian Bembry and Montel Presley who helped anchor a pass rush that accounted for 32 sacks last year.

However, C-N did infuse some transfer talent up front in Michigan State transfer Justice Alexander and Notre Dame transfer Brandon Tiassum.

Of course, Carson-Newman's defense is still anchored by All-American linebacker Rondrow Peebles.

He was Carson-Newman's leading tackler with 93 stops. Peebles also had 18.0 tackles for loss and 9.0 sacks. Peebles was named national player of the week following his 12-tackle, 3.5-tackle for loss, 1.5-sack performance on opening night against West Florida.

The 12 tackles are one of four double-digit tackle efforts on the year. He had 11 stops against Catawba, Newberry and Limestone. Peebles tied Temoris Coats for the third most TFL in a single season in program history with 18. His nine sacks are the most by a Carson-Newman linebacker in a single season.

"Our expectation is for our kids to go out and give their very best, to max themselves out," Clowney said. "More than the scoreboard at the end of the field, the measuring stick will be did you do the best we can as we go through these four, hopefully five games, and that sets us up for success in the fall. The fall is our big objective. Everything we've done, the fall is our target. We need to propel our guys from this spring season into the fall of 2021."

Kickoff from Wise, Va. is set for noon Saturday. Coverage on the Eagle Sports Network begins one hour prior to game time with the AEC Tailgate Show. The full pregame show will be available at cneagles.com/live while The Mountain 106.3 (WPFT-FM, Sevierville) will pick up the broadcast at kickoff at noon.