GREENVILLE, S.C. —How do you eat an elephant?
    One bite at a time.
    That’s what No. 3 Georgia Southern has been doing since losing at The Citadel, 23-21, in its first Southern Conference game of the season.
    Bite-by-bite the Eagles (5-1, 4-1) have run off four straight wins, and are now down to a three bite season.
Georgia Southern will be looking to maintain its grip on first-place in the SoCon race in a 1:30 p.m. game Saturday with Furman (2-5, 1-3) at Greenville, S.C.
    After losing to the Bulldogs the Eagles were faced with the elephantine task of winning out and hoping Citadel would somehow lose two games — which it now has — if they were to successfully defend the title they won last year.
    Only once in its 92 years of existence has the SoCon produced a champion with two losses in conference play, and that came in 2007 with Appalachian State and Wofford sharing the crown as each went 5-2.
    App State, Wofford, and Chattanooga are the other conference teams with one loss. The Eagles handed previously unbeaten Wofford its lone loss with a solid 17-9 win last Saturday.
The Mountaineers host the Terriers on Saturday while the suddenly dangerous Mocs host a two loss Samford team which is fighting for its playoff life. The Bulldogs lost to App State last week when the Mountaineers scored with 22 seconds to play.
    After playing Furman the Eagles must go to Chattanooga before returning home to meet Appalachian State on Nov. 5 in their final conference game of the season.
    “It’s still a wide open race,” Georgia Southern coach Jeff Monken said. “There’s a lot of football left. We can’t do anything about (what other teams do), except what we do.
    “Each time we win it makes the next game bigger.”
    But, first there is the matchup with archrival Furman, a rivalry which usually has either championship — their first two meetings resulted in a national championship for each — or playoff berth implications.
    While the stakes are high for Georgia Southern the Paladins find themselves playing for a measure of respectability as they try to avoid their second losing season in the last three years, and their third straight loss to the Eagles.
Prior to posting a 5-6 mark in 2010 you have to go back to 1998 to find a Furman team which won fewer games than it lost.
    Needless to say Furman, which last made the FCS playoffs in 2006, would love to  put a crimp in an old rival’s championship plans.
The Paladins, Monken said, are a dangerous team, and cannot be taken lightly despite their record.
    “A lot of times records are deceiving, and certainly that’s the case with Furman,” Monken said.  “They’re a good team. They’ve played some people tough.”
    The Paladins lost to Samford on a field goal in the final minute, dropped a three overtime decision to Coastal Carolina and lost at Wofford, 20-17, when they were inside the 10-yard line only to have a pass intercepted.
    Furman, which also lost to Clemson (41-7) and Chattanooga (31-10), is not bereft of talent.
    Senior tailback Jerodis Williams has 815 yards rushing, and is fifth among active SoCon running backs with 2,742 career yards and 28 touchdowns. Freshman quarterback Reese Hannon has completed 105-of-169 passes for 1,291 yards, and his favorite target is Will King with 34 receptions for 541 yards.
    Georgia Southern counters with a punishing running game which is averaging 408 yards per game led by Dominique Swope’s 662 yards.
    Quarterback Jerick McKinnon has 528 yards to give the Eagles two of the top six rushers in the conference.
    Offensively the Paladins are averaging 395 yards per game, but they are allowing 390.6 including 266.5 passing.
    Fortunately for Furman the Eagles are not a passing team. Georgia Southern has completed only 12-of-33 attempts for 207 yards. Kentrellis Showers is the Eagles’ top receiver with six catches for 89 yards.