The Georgia Southern football team wrapped up their spring drills with their annual Blue/White game Saturday at Paulson Stadium. With the White team being made up of the Eagle offense and the Blue Team being the Eagle defense, you may say the defense outplayed the offense as they won the game 43-19.

Coach Clay Helton has praised the defense for showing great progress despite coordinator Brandon Bailey only arriving at Statesboro a week before spring practice. Saturday the defense was awarded points for a variety of things including sacks and interceptions. They’d come through with four interceptions, including a pick-6 at the end of the game.

After the game Helton felt there was plenty to be excited about on both sides of the ball, but was particularly impressed with how the defense looked Saturday.

“I’m really proud of the progress the kids have shown from practice one to practice 15, especially on defense,” said Helton. “You look at our first practice compared to what you saw out there today and that product and you really see how far they have come. I think they played inspired football and I am proud of coach Bailey and the staff for what they’ve done in a short time.”

The Eagles lost a lot of talent and experience off the defensive side of the ball and linebacker marques Watson-Trent feels the Eagle newcomers are starting to come together and he is also taking a leadership role to try and fill the shoes left by graduation.

“Losing your defensive coordinator just before starting spring practice is tough,” Watson-Trent said. “I feel like everyone has bought in, and it took some time but I think today we really showed how we can put it all together. Last year we had a lot of seniors who played six years of football together. When you lose those kind of guys you need guys who can step up and I am trying to do that in being a leader.”

As far as the offense Helton has said they have been solid throughout the spring and he felt Saturday was much of the same thing he has seen on that side of the ball all spring.

“The stars were the stars out there,” Helton said. “You can see Davis Brin came out and played really poised at quarterback. We had long fields a few times and he put us in a position to score and had a touchdown pass and moved the ball downfield every time he had the ball. O.J. Arnold had a 100-yard day and I think we know what we have on that side of the ball.”

Brin led the Eagle offense throwing for 179-yards on 13 of 23 passes including a 9-yard touchdown pass to tight end Keaton Upshaw who transferred in from Kentucky. The only other touchdown came on a 26-yard passing touchdown from Colton Fitzgerald to DeAndre Buchannon. O.J. Anderson led the running game with 127 yards on 11 carries.

“On offense we are always going to be aggressive,” Helton said. “Whether it’s taking shots downfield or going for it on fourth down that is the nature of who we are and how we put up lots of points. You have to have trust in your players and we have plenty of trust in our guys.”

For Tulsa transfer quarterback Davis Brin the spring has been an important time of bonding with his offensive players and trying to build some chemistry. This is something Eagle quarterback Kyle Vantrease explained to him was important for his own success last season.

“I have gotten to know Kyle very well and we are really good friends,” Brin said. “We knew it was important to get in here and create chemistry on and off the field. I feel like I have become more comfortable and confident in this offense this spring. There is a lot of talent here and we have a lot of big time players who can make big time plays.”