New Hampshire Coach Sean McDonnell will be looking for history to repeat itself when his Wildcats take on Georgia Southern at 4 p.m. on Saturday in a game that — due to the oncoming Hurrican Irma — has shifted to Legion Field in Birmingham, Ala.
On the other side of the field, Georgia Southern coach Tyson Summers will also be looking for a historical repeat, too.
McDonnell, who is in his 19th season as head coach at New Hampshire, will be meeting up with the Eagles for the second time, and the previous matchup was one to remember.
The Wildcats, ranked No. 12 in this week’s FCS poll, were a relative unknown in 2004 when they faced a heavily favored Georgia Southern team in the first round of the FCS playoffs.
Chip Kelly, who later went on to coach Oregon, the Philadelphia Eagles and the San Francisco 49ers, was New Hampshire’s offensive coordinator and he had a quarterback in Ricky Santos who was tailor made for his spread option offense.
The game was played, much to then Georgia Southern coach Mike Sewak’s displeasure, on a Friday night for television purposes. In a pouring rain the high-powered Eagles had six fumbles and never got in gear as New Hampshire pulled off a stunning 27-23 upset.
Santos dinked his way to 204 yards passing, completing 22-of-30 attempts, and the Wildcats tacked on 121 rushing to offset 363 yards rushing by the Eagles who had an additional 63 through the air.
“It’s one of the best wins ever at New Hampshire,” McDonnell said. “It was a great atmosphere and no one thought we had a chance to win. We just found a way.”
McDonnell, whose team beat arch-rival Maine, 24-23, in its opener will be looking for a repeat performance in the matchup. UNH’s last win against an FBS opponent was a 28-10 win over Army in 2008, a year after they beat Marshall, 48-35.
Georgia Southern is coming off a disappointing 41-7 season-opening loss at Auburn in a game that was reminiscent of its 44-0 loss at West Virginia two years ago to start the season.
That Eagle team rebounded the following week to blast Western Michigan, 43-17, en route to earning a trip to the Go Daddy Bowl.
Summers can only hope his team can perform as well against one of the top teams in FCS. McDonnell used that win over Georgia Southern to propel his program to one that has reached the FCS playoffs for 13 consecutive seasons. That is currently the longest streak in FCS.
While the win over Maine — both a local and Colonial Athletic Association rival — was huge for the Wildcats, McDonnell knows his team is stepping up in competition this week.
“It’s a difficult to make an evaluation because Auburn is so good,” McDonnell said, “but they’re fast. They ran with Auburn, sometimes past them, and the quarterback is so explosive. He’s like a third running back.
“Their offense has changed from last year. I think they’re going to open it up more against us.”
And, while McDonnell was happy to beat Maine he said his team had much to improve on.
“It’s something to build on, but we have a lot of work to do to become a good football team,”
McDonnell said. “Against Georgia Southern we are going to have to be disciplined with our eyes, and tackle in the open field.”
New Hampshire had 383 yards of offense, 165 rushing and 218 passing, and lost two fumbles last week.
Defensively the Wildcats limited Maine to 352 yards, 113 rushing, and had seven tackles for a loss.
Junior quarterback Trevor Knight, who threw for 1,714 yards and 14 touchdowns last year, was 19-for-30 for 158 yards against Maine, and he also had a team high 79 yards rushing. Sophomore running back Evan Gray had 74 yards after gaining 66 last year.