MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Today at 5:30 p.m. at the Cramton Bowl in Montgomery, Ala., Georgia Southern will take on Eastern Michigan in the Raycom Media Camellia Bowl.

It’s a team from the north against a team from the south - a team that spreads the ball around through the air against a squad that is content to run and pitch all day.

Those are some stark differences, but there are far more similarities.

Both teams are among the nation’s best in turnover margin. Both are relatively new to the bowl scene. Both win with slow and steady offense that combines with opportunistic defense and both are riding momentum and emotion after missing out on bowl season last year.

So maybe it’s fitting that both squads are also the Eagles.

Both Eagles coaches were at the Cramton Bowl Friday afternoon for one final pregame press conference as the pomp and circumstance of bowl week began to shift toward the seriousness of two solid teams playing their final game of the 2018 season.

“We’re excited to be here,” GS coach Chad Lunsford said. “The city has been great to us and we’ve enjoyed ourselves, but we’re also here to play one more game. This is all about the legacy that the 2018 team is going to leave on this program.”

Three years ago, Georgia Southern earned a bowl bid in its first year of eligibility as a new FBS squad and went on to win the GoDaddy Bowl. The freshmen on that team looked forward to more of the same as their careers progressed, but GS spent the last two years scuffling along and missing out on another trip to college football’s postseason.

The main goal this season was to rebound from a 2-10 mark last fall. Georgia Southern exceeded all expectations with a 9-3 mark, giving those former freshmen — now outgoing seniors — one final game and a chance to leave the team as successful as when they found it.

“It was such a great start to come in out of high school and go right to a bowl game,” senior running back Wesley Fields said. “That’s something I wanted to do again. It means a lot for me and my brothers in this senior class to get back to a bowl and go out and play one more time.”

There are similar sentiments coming from Georgia Southern’s opponent.

Eastern Michigan was in a bowl game as recently as 2016, but hadn’t been to one since 1987 before that.

Playing in the shadow of Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan just 10 miles away from the EMU campus in Ypsilanti, it has been a tough road for the ‘other’ Eagles over the last half-century or so.

Following a brief stretch of greatness in the 1950s, winning seasons were few and far between for Eastern Michigan as the school has just one conference championships — and now three bowl appearances — since the 60s.

But the culture is changing and the morale is soaring for EMU. The team brings a veteran-laden squad to Montgomery and has every intention of making the most of its 13th game of the season.

“I’ve been saying it all week, but I don’t want to stop saying it — we’re really glad to be here,” EMU coach Chris Creighton said. “We’ve enjoyed ourselves and we’ve practiced well. Getting to eight wins and hoisting a trophy is something that no one on this team has done, so that has been our focus since we found out that we’d be going to a bowl game.”

Echoing Lunsford's constant claim that he wants his players to enjoy success and the bowl game experience (so long as they remain focused on the task at hand), Creighton felt confident that his players can take in everything the bowl experience has to offer, so long as their game day responsibilities are still residing somewhere in their thoughts.

He wasn't nearly as willing to give himself or his staff the same latitude.

"We were all excited to be headed to a bowl," Creighton said. "We wanted the guys to celebrate, but when we saw Georgia Southern pop up, I knew we would have a lot to prepare for."

Win or lose for either team, the similarities will remain the same. Both Georgia Southern and Eastern Michigan have plenty to be proud of this season. More importantly, both can build off of this experience to make bowl week more of a trend in the years to come.