Georgia Southern head coach Clay Helton believes the 2-4 Eagles took steps in the right direction despite dropping their second-straight Sun Belt game in a 38-35 loss to Southern Miss Oct. 9 at Paulson Stadium.
After digging themselves a 28-7 hole, the Eagles did manage to outscore Southern Miss 28-10 in the second half, which proved to be too little too late.
“In this world of college football, you have to put four quarters of football together,” Helton said. “When you go back and watch the tape the second quarter against Southern Miss really hurt us. We put more points against them than anyone else this year, but we needed more. I’m proud of the kids and their effort is elite. Their execution needs to be for four quarters and that is our challenge right now as we go into the second half of the season.”
The Eagle offense managed to put up nearly 400 yards of offense, but three costly interceptions by J.C. French didn’t help their cause. They also struggled running the ball once again and were held to zero yards rushing in the first half. They did get 82 yards on the ground in the second half, which Helton believes will carry over into this week’s matchup with Georgia State.
“I thought we really adjusted and did a much better job in the run game as well as the passing game in the second half,” Helton said. “I thought coach Aplin did a great job of targeting Cam Brown with 12 catches for 158 yards and a lot of those were down the field. We finally just cut it loose in the second half and I thought the flea-flicker to Cam kind of got us started. I feel like we need to stay on the attack more like we did in the second half of that game.”
Despite allowing 38 points and remaining toward the bottom of the country in nearly every statistical category, Helton said the defense took a step in the right direction against Southern Miss, particularly in the second half, and is optimistic about the unit going into the Georgia State game.
“Being down a couple of players up front, I thought coach Brandon Bailey did a good job mixing up his fronts and going with some odd packages,” Helton said. “I thought we set the edge much better which was a priority going into the game. We also rallied to the ball and got it on the ground."
Saturday will be Homecoming when the Eagles host in-state rivals Georgia State. The rivalry took on a new component recently, as it is now called the "Georgia Grown Bowl" and Helton knows many of the players on the field Saturday know each other, which adds to the tension and excitement.
“It provides excitement as you know you have a chance to hoist a trophy at the end of the game,” Helton said. “Many of these kids played high school football together and now they go up against each other."
Saturday will mark the return to Paulson Stadium for former Eagle assistant coach Dell McGee, who helped lead the Eagles to a Go Daddy Bowl game victory as the interim head coach after Willie Fritz announced he was leaving for Tulane. The Panthers have been banged up this season and come in with a record of 1-5, but Helton said the Panthers are better than their record indicates.
“I have seen Dell’s team go through injuries and still play good football,” Helton said. “I thought they played really well in a 14-7 loss to JMU two weeks ago. I’ve been impressed by both quarterbacks they have played, including T.J. Finley who we have seen at Texas State, as well as what (quarterback) Cam Brown has been able to do helping to produce 20 points in the second half against App. State. They also have a great receiver with Ted Hurst so we are going to have to be ready on defense.”
Georgia Southern and Georgia State are scheduled for a 7 p.m. start Saturday evening at Paulson Stadium.