The 2017 Kennesaw State Owls football team represented

Kennesaw State University Kennesaw State University (KSU) is a public research university located in the state of Georgia with two different campuses in the Atlanta metropolitan area, one in Kennesaw and the other in Marietta on a combined of land. The school was fou ...

in the 2017 NCAA Division I FCS football season. They were led by third-year head coach Brian Bohannon and played their home games at

Fifth Third Bank Stadium Fifth Third Bank Stadium, known as Kennesaw State University Stadium until 2013, is a stadium near Kennesaw, Georgia, that is primarily used as the home for the Kennesaw State Owls football team as well as the KSU women's soccer and women's lac ...

Kennesaw, Georgia Kennesaw is a suburban city northwest of Atlanta in Cobb County, Georgia, United States, located within the greater Atlanta metropolitan area. Known from its original settlement in the 1830s until 1887 as Big Shanty, it became Kennesaw under its ...

as third-year members of the Big South Conference. They finished the season 12–2, 5–0 in Big South play to win the Big South conference championship. The Owls received the Big South's automatic bid to the

FCS Playoffs The NCAA Division I Football Championship is an annual post-season college football game, played since 2006, used to determine a national champion of the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). From 1978 to 2005, the game was k ...

, their first trip to the playoffs in school history. In the first round of the playoffs, the Owls defeated Samford in a rematch of their only regular season loss and marked the school's first ever playoff win. In the second round, the Owls upset No. 3 seed Jacksonville State to advance to the quarterfinals. In the quarterfinals, despite a furious second half comeback, they lost to

Sam Houston State Sam Houston State University (SHSU or Sam) is a public university in Huntsville, Texas. It was founded in 1879 and is the third-oldest public college or university in Texas. It is one of the first normal schools west of the Mississippi River and ...

. On January 9, 2018, head coach Brian Bohannon was named the

American Football Coaches Association The American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) is an association of over 11,000 American football coaches and staff on all levels. According to its constitution, some of the main goals of the American Football Coaches Association are to "mainta ...

's Coach of the Year.

Previous season

The

Owls Owls are birds from the Order (biology), order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly Solitary animal, solitary and Nocturnal animal, nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vi ...

finished the 2016 season 8–3, 3–2 in Big South play to finish in a tie for third place.

Schedule

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Schedule
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Game summaries

@ Samford

Tennessee Tech

@ Alabama State

North Greenville

Texas Southern

@ Liberty

Gardner–Webb

@ Presbyterian

@ Montana State

Charleston Southern

Monmouth

This victory clinched the Owls' first ever postseason bid.

FCS Playoffs

Samford–First Round

@ Jacksonville State–Second Round

@ Sam Houston State–Quarterfinals

Ranking movements

References

{{2017 Division I FCS playoff navbox Kennesaw State Kennesaw State Owls football seasons Big South Conference football champion seasons Kennesaw State

Kennesaw State Owls football The Kennesaw State Owls football represents Kennesaw State University in college football. The team began play in 2015 as a member of the Big South Conference at the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision level. In 2022, KSU's full-time ...