For the first time in six years, it was playoff time at Paulson.
    Georgia Southern fans showed up in full force Saturday afternoon and were treated to a great performance as the Eagles hammered South Carolina State 41-16 to earn their first playoff win since the 2002 season.
    While hardened fans would like to believe that Saturday’s events will become the running theme in Statesboro in the seasons to come and that the Eagles will return to their previous status as postseason mainstays, the game also ushered in a whole new wave of GSU faithful to playoff football.
    Although the Eagles spent just four years outside of the playoff hunt, thing have changed — and for the better — in the Georgia Southern playoff atmosphere.
    With over 3,000 more students now attending GSU than the last time the Eagles hosted a playoff game – and with this year’s class of  seniors getting their first taste of playoff football – there was reason for a big crowd to show up.
    That is exactly what Eagle Nation — students and alumni alike — did as a crowd of 10,214 was announced.
    “I’ve been to my share of playoff games, and this looks like one of the best attended,” said alumni Stephen Watkins. “It’s good to see how our fan base has grown over the years. The first playoff game I attended was against Florida A&M in 2001. I’m glad to see that there are a lot more students going to the game now.”
    In fact, the only thing keeping the Eagles from setting a Paulson Stadium record for first round turnout was that the NCAA — which takes over the attendance count for postseason games — only counts
students as one third.
    Aside from the increased enrollment, another explanation for the huge student showing seemed to be the longer Thanksgiving break.
    In previous years, students only received three days off of classes, meaning a short trip home if a student wanted to come back for a Saturday game.
    Now that GSU gives students the entire week off and many were able to leave for home last Friday, the prevailing attitude amongst Saturday’s student crowd was that the longer vacation made it easier to sacrifice a day at home to return to Statesboro early.
    “Once I knew we were playing at home, it wasn’t difficult to change my plans,” said junior Jon Wigington. “I got to spend a lot of quality time with the family, eat a good dinner Thursday, and then headed on back to Statesboro for the game.”
    As a student who got to witness his first GSU playoff game, Wigington was grateful for the opportunity.
    “I’m excited,” he said. “You hear about the tradition of Eagle football and you have friends with brothers and sisters who got to see a lot of playoff games. It’s good to finally get to see one myself.”
    Wignington and the rest of the crowd were treated to a show as GSU looked like the Eagles of old in pounding the Bulldogs.
    Now that Georgia Southern is back on track, hopes are high that early round playoff games can become a bigger event than they ever have before.
    “Everything is growing,” said Watkins. “The alumni base, the student base, the town — everything. I just hope no one takes it for granted. There are a lot of teams that wish they could be where we are, so we need to keep showing up to support our team.”

    Mike Anthony can be reached at (912) 489-9404.