It was supposed to end with Lee Chapple.

            Every season since 2004, Georgia Southern has had a different quarterback taking snaps, and when Chapple was dubbed “the guy” after “The Furman Game” in 2008, the curse was supposed to be broken.

            Not so much -

            2004 – Chaz Williams.

            2005 – Jayson Foster.

            2006 – Travis Clark.

            2007 – Jayson Foster.

            2008 – Antonio Henton.

            2009 – Lee Chapple.

            2010 – Nobody can be sure who the starter is going to be, but one thing is for certain – it ain’t gonna be Chapple.

            For a program that has seen five different head coaches don the Blue and White since the last national championship in 2000, it seems almost impossible to think that the team has had more starting quarterbacks than it has guys calling the plays this decade, but facts are facts, and in this case, they’re undeniable.

            I suppose you could put an asterisk next to Jayson’s name on the list, because he was the man in 2005, probably should have been the QB in 2006, and got the ball back in his hands in 2007. Plus, he is one of two on that list (Williams) who finished out their eligibility as the starting Georgia Southern QB. But I don’t buy it.

            It was a new system, a(nother) new coach and a completely different situation.

            No, the curse still stands.

            Now, with the newest coaching staff in place and installing the system that put six (now old and tattered) championship flags on the pole, the question is just begging to be asked – will the curse ever end?

            I think the popular candidate for starting quarterback in the fall is probably Jaybo Shaw, the transfer from Georgia Tech who won’t be a part of the team for another month. If he’s the guy, he will have two years of eligibility remaining. Barring a new recruit coming in and lighting things up on the gridiron over the next two years, he could be a candidate to put an end to the curse.

            The dark horse in the equation is Jawaun Luckey, a transfer who hasn’t played a snap of football since 2007. He led two of the three touchdown drives in the Blue/White game Saturday and two more in the previous Saturday’s scrimmage.

            Of course, if he wins the job, well, he’s only got one year of eligibility.

            One more year of the curse, to be sure.

            Of course, backing away from the situation for a moment and seeing the whole picture gives me pause.

            After all this program’s been through since the fateful day when Travis Clark took a snap from the I-formation and connected on a play-action pass to tight end Hal Scarborough for the first play of the 2006 season and everybody watching just knew GSU football would be forever different, if having a silly little QB curse is the worst of the Eagles’ problems today, that could actually be a good thing for the Eagle Nation.

            Matt Yogus can be reached at (912) 489-9408.