SPORTS
Last season’s 4-1 record saw the Owls
football team ranked 17th in the STATS
FCS Top 25, the fourth consecutive
season it made that list.
The 2020-21 season was unusual
due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The
fall season was pushed back to spring
2021, so KSU’s first game wasn’t played
until February. KSU missed out on the
FCS playoffs last season after making
them the three seasons prior. However,
only 16 teams were admitted to the
2020-21 FCS playoffs, down from the
usual 24. The Owls lost the Big South
Championship 17-42 to Monmouth in
88 FACTBOOK | 2022
its final game of last season.
Away from the gridiron, KSU fields
men’s teams in baseball, basketball, cross
country, golf, tennis and track and field,
and women’s teams in basketball, cross
country, golf, lacrosse, soccer, softball,
tennis, track and field and volleyball.
KSU’s men’s basketball team has
struggled since moving from NCAA
Division II to Division I. After the
triumph of winning the Division II
National Championship, the Owls
have yet to have a winning season as a
Division I team.
The men’s basketball team is led by
head coach Amir Abdur-Rahim, a
former Wheeler High School guard.
Last year, the team’s record was 5-19,
though this was an improvement on the
previous year’s record of 1-28.
KSU’s baseball owls finished the 2021
baseball season 29-22. In the ASUN
Conference tournament, they scored
two home wins over Lipscomb before
losing to North Florida and Liberty
in Jacksonville, Florida, bringing their
season to a close.
The KSU baseball team welcomed a
new head coach in July 2021: Ryan Coe,
a KSU Hall of Famer who previously
spent 12 years as a scout for the Texas
Rangers. Previously a KSU assistant
coach from 1997-2004, Coe takes over
from longtime coach Mike Sansing, who
helmed the Owls’ baseball program for
30 years of its 38-year existence. Under
Sansing’s tenure, the Owls appeared in
seven national tournaments and won
two national championships — the 1995
NAIA title and the 1996 Division II title.
In 2014, KSU baseball posted a 40-
24 record and won its first and only
Atlantic Sun Conference Championship.
KSU’s softball program finished the
2021 season with an even record of
27-27 under third-year coach Tripp
MacKay. The team scored its first ever
NCAA Regional win over Auburn
FACTBOX
College sports in Cobb
Number of KSU teams: 16
Number of Life teams: 21
Number of KSU Big South football
championships: 2
Number of Life USA Rugby D1A
men’s championships: 4
/tuttoncdjr.com