Shepherd ready to put ASUN on notice
By John Bednarowski
sportseditor@mdjonline.com
For a couple of games during the
2021 schedule, K ennesaw State quarterback
after a 56 -yard touchdown run
against Wofford where he began
to truly settle in as the leader of
the offense.
“We are coached to always be
prepared for moments like that to
shine,” Shepherd said. “We’re always
prepared for the next situation.”
Now entrenched as the starter,
the 6 -foot, 210-pounder is trying
to make sure he stays that way.
During the offseason, Shepherd
said he was trying to get bigger
and stronger to better absorb the
hits he will take as a triple-option
quarterback.
“My goal is to get to 215 pounds
for the season,” he said.
If he is able to put on the extra
weight, and maintain his current
level of quickness, the FCS single
season record of 29 rushing
touchdowns by a quarterback may
be in play. The current record
holder is Shepherd’s quarterback
coach Chandler Burks, who made
a career of the 1, 2 and 3-yard
touchdown runs.
Shepherd is finding success in
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X avier Shepherd turned the
O wls vaunted triple-option offense
into “Air Bohannon.”
In back-to-back games, the sophomore
from Nashville’s Pearl-
Cohn High School first set the
K ennesaw State single-game record
with four touchdown passes
against G ardner-Webb, a game in
which Shepherd led a three-play,
6 0-yard game-winning drive in the
final 43 seconds. He then matched
the record performance against
Robert Morris.
His play-making skills showed all
of FCS that K ennesaw State could win
through the air when necessary. He
finished the season with a team record
15 touchdown passes.
However, he more than proved
himself on the ground, too. Shepherd
had 23 rushing touchdowns
in 2021 after taking over the starting
j ob in Week 2, however it was
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the shadow of the end zone, he
is more explosive and more elusive
once he finds a crease and
gets into the open field.
“He’s made some impressive
throws in practice that gets everybody
going,” K SU defensive
lineman Travis Bell said. “But we
love to watch him put on a show
when another team is trying to
tackle him.”
O ne of those plays even impressed
Shepherd himself.
“It was against Jacksonville State,”
he said. “I was running left and
made a wrong read. I still outran
the defender and scored.”
It’s likely those kind of plays
that is going to allow Shepherd to
etch his name in the new ASU N
Conference record book for years
to come.
Assuming he has the kind of
year everyone is expecting in the
ASU N’s inaugural year, he will
put his name atop many of the
offensive statistics and then have
two more years to completely
set the bar.
Records may be nice to have,
but it is not something that drives
Shepherd. He’s all about winning.
Last year he helped lead the
O wls to the Big South title, and
won 11 of his first 12 starts in doing
it. This year, Shepherd wants
to lead the team to the ASU N title,
but more importantly take
the team to Frisco, Texas for a
shot at a national championship.
That would be just fine for
coach Brian Bohannon.
“When he’s on his game, it’s
consistent,” Bohannon said. “For
us at quarterback, you don’t have
to do anything spectacular. You’ve
j ust got to run the offense and
take care of the football. Don’t
turn it over, go in the right direction
and just go execute what
we have. He did a really, really
good job with that last year,
and, hopefully, he’ll continue to
build on that.”
Marietta Daily Journal sports writer
Thomas Ashworth contributed to
this report.
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