Eagles unveil 2013 football schedule

Carson-Newman will play its first three games of its 2013 campaign inside the friendly confines of Burke-Tarr Stadium.

Shorter, 2011 national runner up Wayne State and North Greenville highlight the Eagles’ nonconference schedule.

Carson-Newman opens the year on a Thursday night, Sept. 5 when the GLIAC’s Wayne State Warriors roll into town.

“It’s the scariest thing about the whole deal and the greatest opportunity about the whole deal to play a team that played for the national championship two years ago,” Carson-Newman head coach Ken Sparks said. “We’ve got our hands full and have got to go play the thing right off the bat.”

The Warriors finished 5-5 last season – one of six teams on the Eagles’ schedule that was .500 or better against Division II competition last year.

Much like the 2012 schedule, the Eagles have a potential open date in week two before jumping into conference play with Brevard and Catawba.

“We’re glad to be home (for September) because we’ll be young in some places,” Sparks said. “But it leaves little margin for error because conference play starts right off the bat. Last year, that worked out well for us to go from a game to an open date to conference play.”

The Eagles beat Lenoir-Rhyne following their open date last year in week three 47-23.

Homecoming is set for Oct. 19 against archrival Tusculum. Senior day will be versus Newberry on Nov. 9.

“The conference is loaded this year,” Sparks said. “There are teams that have 18-19 starters back. It’s going to be a tough league this year that’s a tossup.”

C-N steps out of conference play for much of October. The Eagles roll to Shorter in the second week of October and play North Greenville on the road to close the month.

That sets up a stretch run against teams that finished in the top half of the league last year to close the regular season. Carson-Newman starts November at Lenoir-Rhyne – the defending SAC champs, whom the Eagles beat twice last year – before closing on the road at Wingate Nov. 16.

“The key is for that stretch run at the end to mean something,” Sparks said. “And that means that everything counts. I hope that we’ll have the maturity and I’ll be a good enough coach that we play to our fullest capabilities every game and every play.”

Sparks enters his 34^th season at the helm of the C-N football program. The Eagles are 208-63-3 all-time against its opposition for 2013. Shorter is the only team on the schedule Carson-Newman has never faced.

Homes games in bold

*= conference game