The day that Tim Bowens has been waiting for is here.

It's Sept. 7 and for the first time, Bowens, the new Clark Atlanta University head football coach, will lead his Panthers on the field when they host Livingstone College at 7 p.m. at CAU Panther Stadium.

"I'm going to excited about it," Bowens said.  "It'll probably be a sense of relief to be honest.  To go ahead and get going.  But we want to enjoy every moment of it and be correct in it.  And seizing the moment."

It's a moment that will serve as Bowens first as a collegiate head coach after a veteran career as an assistant on the Football Bowl Series and Football Championship Series level.  The former Alabama receiver was the running backs coach at Georgia State last season.

Now he takes over a program that was 3-7 last year, though they lost five games by seven points or less. This season, the Panthers were tabbed by Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference coaches and sports information directors to finish fifth in the SIAC East Division.

But Bowens has four players who were named to the preseason All-SIAC team in wide receiver Johnathan Sanders, offensive lineman Paul Coleman, punter/kicker Ty Woods, and defensive lineman Breante Glover.

Bowens and his staff have surrounded them with a host of newcomers

"The quarterback position, Charles Stafford has done a good job - and P.J. Sanford - and we have to get the other guys in getting back to going. Elijah Odom's done a good job," he said. 
"At running back, we've had a couple of guys that I think will be able to help us and be able to run the football.  And then our receivers, they've been pretty solid. I'm excited to see two guys who we thought were going to be possibly backing up those guys and kind of made themselves equal to those guys who are playing.  So we've got some pretty productive things going on as far as that.  The tight end position, those guys are getting better and we've got to continue to get healthy in that position.  Offensive line, we've got to continue to get healthy in that position. We're pretty youthful there. 

"Defensive line, I'm really excited about them," Bowens said. "We've got some guys who have been playing with some great effort.  We've got to consistently do that, time in and time out. I'm fired up to see those guys get after it.

"Our linebacking crew, we're going to have some new faces there, so I'm looking forward to seeing those guys be able to read and do what we do defensively and be able to go make some plays. Secondary wise we've got some youthful players there too. 

"There's a lot of excitement," he added. "Guys are getting opportunities and then some guys who have played before, played on defense last year or whatever, we feel like these guys are really buying into what we're doing with Defensive Coordinator Darius Buck, Offensive Coordinator Greg McLain and Special Teams Coordinator Corey Sullivan.  So, we're fired up about where we are."

These new Panthers take on a Livingstone squad that was 3-6 last season, losing four of their last five.  But the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association Bears had the CIAA's top rushing defense, giving up just under 95 yards a game.

On offense, quarterback Miles Hayes returns after he finished in the CIAA's top 10 in total offense with 974 passing yards and 113 rushing yards in 2018.

"You see them on defense, they were a one-high team," Bowens said. "They were a split defense. They were multiple on offense.  They did a couple of things special teams wise that could give people fits. We've got to make sure we're on our A-game in everything we do.

"They've got a couple of defensive linemen that are really good players, and they've got a quarterback who is supposed to be pretty good," he said "So we've got to make sure we contain him.  And they play well on defense. We've got to take advantage of everything they give us, and we've got to protect the football and we got to get the football."

Bowens promises that Panther fans will see a Clark Atlanta squad that's going to play hard on every snap.

"When people see us, they ought to see a mentally and physically tough football team," he said. "We want to be that. We want to exemplify that. We want to be relentless. We want to make sure when people see us, we run after the ball, we get after people on offense. We want to play very physical, very aggressive. We want to be a very aggressive football team, with or without the football in our hands.  We want to be accountable.
"When people see us, we don't want to be blowing coverages, we don't want to run wild. We want to make sure when people come see us, they are coming to see a well-coached football team. So that's the thing we want to be able to see.  We want to see production on both sides of the ball; we want another team to know when they leave the field, they know they've played Clark Atlanta University."