Big South Feature: Kenji Bahar Helps Build a Contender
By Brian Mull
Big South Correspondent
Kenji Bahar attended the Monmouth University football camp during the summer before his senior year at Calvert Hall, a private boys school in Towson, Md.
Monmouth offensive coordinator Jeff Gallo watched the 6-3, 160-pound quarterback throughout the week. He possessed the live arm, mobility and instincts required to excel at football’s most important position. Even more impressive was the 16-year-old’s maturity. Monmouth would start competing in the Big South Conference in the upcoming fall of 2014 and needed someone to build around, to help the program become a consistent contender.
The coaches told Bahar he could put his stamp on the program, make it his. They were actively upgrading the talent around him to put a championship level team in place. Bahar had about 10 scholarship offers from other FCS schools, but no recruiting stars beside his name.
Monmouth helped make him a star instead. As it turned out, the Hawks found the man who would rewrite the record book, lead them to their first appearance in the national playoffs and eventually their first Big South Conference championship, clinched last week with an eighth consecutive victory.
“My goal was to come and change the program,” Bahar said. “As long as we had the right mindset going into each season you see the progression that we made throughout our years here. It was just the foundation that was laid before me. I saw a program on the rise before I even came.”
Bahar is the 2019 Big South Offensive Player of the Year. He owns Monmouth school records in passing yardage (9,220), total offense yards (9,568), passing completions (763) and passing touchdowns (68), and has climbed into the top five on the Big South career list in each area.
On Saturday, he guides the Hawks (10-2) into their first FCS playoff home game, facing Holy Cross at noon in Kessler Stadium (ESPN3).
“It’s almost a thank you to him for trusting us when we were recruiting him,” Gallo said of the playoff home game, a landmark moment for a program that still operates shy of the 63-scholarship maximum the NCAA allows FCS programs.
“We had a vision of where we wanted to go and knew we needed a kid like him to get there. When we recruited him we told him he could make this his and he’s made this experience and program into what he wanted it to be.”
Bahar redshirted in 2015, ran the scout team, learned the playbook, got stronger. Monmouth was 5-6 overall and 3-3 in the conference. He started 2016 as a 175-pound backup to Cody Williams and coach Kevin Callahan said at the time: “I feel very confident in his ability to lead this football team, if it were ever necessary.”
The opportunity arose with three games remaining in the season. Williams was battling injuries and struggling. Bahar kept improving every week. He became the starter on Oct. 29 against second-year program and future conference heavyweight Kennesaw State, sent onto the field to manage the game with a simple, straightforward set of plays.
Building off that experience, Bahar and Monmouth ascended to unprecedented heights in 2017. He completed 61 percent of his passes, threw for 2,368 yards and 16 touchdowns, steering the Hawks to a 9-3 record which earned an at-large bid to the FCS playoffs and a first-round matchup against established power Northern Iowa in the noisy UNI Dome.
The Hawks fell behind 7-0 on the first drive and 21-0 in the first quarter and Bahar pressed, foregoing simple passes to chase spectacular plays as he tried to dig his team out of the deep hole. He threw a career-high four interceptions and Monmouth lost 46-7, the entire program overwhelmed in its debut on the national stage.
The disappointing afternoon revealed to everyone involved the excellence that was required to succeed against the nation’s top teams. Sure, they’d made progress. But there was a long way to go.
“I was trying to make plays,” Bahar recalled. “As I’ve grown older, you just have to let it come to you. The big plays are going to happen. As a young guy, redshirt sophomore, I was looking to make a deep long throw, trying to force it. Now I’m making better decisions.”
To say that moment provided motivation for Bahar to work even harder is the obvious narrative. It is also inaccurate. He took the loss hard, his coaches say, but the motivation to improve and compete is innate, present from the day he arrived on campus, and certainly for many years before.
“He knew he was a better quarterback than what he showed that day,” Callahan said. “But it spurred him to continue to develop his understanding and knowledge of what we’re doing offensively and because of that he’s having the year he’s had right now.”
The Hawks finished 8-3 in 2018 but lost 51-14 to Kennesaw State, which again won the Big South title.
Bahar entered this, his senior season, weighing 190 pounds, receiving interest from NFL scouts and determined to help the Hawks overcome their Big South nemesis in Georgia. The teams met on Nov. 2nd at Fifth Third Bank Stadium in Kennesaw when the Owls were ranked in the top five in both national polls.
After falling behind 7-3 in the first quarter, Monmouth reeled off 42 consecutive points. With the veteran Bahar at the helm, the Hawks decimated the nation’s top-ranked defense, churning out 517 yards of total offense and a flawless 332 through the air. Bahar also ran for 92 yards and a touchdown, in complete command of the offense he now understands as well as any coach on the staff.
“I’ve seen a lot of things thrown at me,” Bahar said. “It comes with film study and what my coaches teach me about how defenses, blitzes and fronts work. The game becomes slower. Going down to Kennesaw that was a big accomplishment for myself and my team and everybody that supports the Monmouth program.”
Callahan and Gallo have landed in a situation any coach would envy. They’ve turned over the offense to an experienced quarterback who is the unquestioned leader of the team.
“To his credit he’s become a real student of the game,” Callahan said. “He has a great understanding of our offense. He has a great conceptual understanding of what defenses are trying to do. He can see things that are happening, he can get us into the right plays. We give him quite a bit of freedom over the ball to get us into run plays, to get us into pass plays to change protection. He does it all for us. It’s been a steady and constant progression.”
Bahar is 254-of-384 (66.1 percent) on the season for 3,262 yards with 28 touchdowns and eight interceptions, ranking in the top 10 nationally in several categories. He’s also rushed for four scores. Surrounded by a cache of weapons, including Pete Guerriero, the nation’s leading rusher, the Hawks have cranked out 487 yards and 36 points per game. Eight Hawks have at least 100 yards receiving and seven with 18 receptions or more.
“His ability to spread the ball around is what makes us so dangerous,” Gallo said. “He has the ability to get the ball where it needs to go. That’s what makes him so special. On any given play any one of four or five kids can touch the ball based on what the defense dictates and he can get us into the right play.”
That type of poise is what those around the Monmouth program have come to expect from Bahar, who already holds a business administration degree from the university.
On the day Bahar started his first game at quarterback, Kessler Stadium was still under construction, as was the Monmouth program on the field. Three years later, 4,000 fans will come there Saturday to savor one last image of a player whose legacy at the school is as permanent as the concrete, bricks and steel around them.