CHARLESTON, W.Va. - After back-to-back losses to open the season, Pat Kirkland's tenure at the University of Charleston hasn't exactly started with a bang.
The Golden Eagles fell 31-17 at home last week to Urbana after dropping the season opener 27-7 at Mars Hill.
In last week's game, the Golden Eagles committed a myriad of mistakes, which directly contributed to the loss. But Kirkland saw some good things from his team despite 15 penalties for 140 yards, two lost fumbles and squandering a pair of red-zone chances. The Golden Eagles weren't out of it until late in the game against Urbana.
"That's the thing,'' he said. "We came right back and had opportunities to put points on the board. Penalties and turnovers, those are things we've got to take care of. Coming into the week, we were ready. The players were ready to go. The effort was good. We just made mistakes and didn't take care of the football when we needed to.''
Charleston's Jordan Roberts was a bright spot for UC, rolling up 127 yards on 19 carries and a pair of scores. But the Eagles' mistakes weren't the only thing that undermined them as Urbana churned out 21 first downs and 440 total yards.
Kirkland said his team must improve in several facets.
"I don't think we can pinpoint any one thing, we just didn't get the job done," Kirkland said. "We had turnovers, but that wasn't the only thing. We played a good football team, and when you do that you've got to play good team football and we didn't. We've got to get better and we're trying the only way we know how to do that. We've worked hard this week and had some good, physical practices."
If UC is to turn it around, it will have a good opportunity to do so this week when it plays host to Concord at 1 p.m. Saturday in both teams' West Virginia Conference opener.
The Mountain Lions haven't exactly been world-beaters either thus far, dropping their first two games by a combined score of 68-16. Running back Brian Kennedy leads the Concord offense and rushed for 129 yards on 22 carries against Elon last week.
"Concord is a talented football team," Kirkland said. "They have one of the best backs we'll see all year in the Kennedy kid. We've got to make sure we handle the first few series and play UC football."
