The Georgia Southern football team is coming off spring break and early this week they returned to Paulson Stadium to continue spring practice.
“It’s great to be back after break” said coach Clay Helton. “I really like the way the defense is coming together under coach (Mike) Mutz. I think right now our strength is our defensive front and I like the way the linebackers are coming around with the way Rashon Myles Jr., Diego Aviles, Jacob Hammonds and C.J. Allen are playing. Probably our biggest area of growth is in the secondary with several newcomers learning a new system and it’s good to have Aaron Sears who has been a part of that system. We also have guys that will help coming off injury like Tracy Hill Jr. and Chance Gamble.”
The Eagles have plenty of holes to fill on both sides of the ball, but are particularly busy on the offensive side where they lost all 11 starters from a year ago.
“On offense we probably have the most growing pains,” Helton said. “Any time you replace all 11 starters even when you have a ton of talent, it is just going to take some time. We have a way to go from a chemistry standpoint. It is practice eight and I’m so glad we still have 32 more to go before we play.”
The job of finding the right chemistry and players to put in the right spots falls on the shoulders of offensive coordinator Ryan Aplin.
“It’s quite a challenge, but luckily we have a great staff and a lot of talented players to work with,” Aplin said. “The job now is trying to find the right pieces. We have more guys than we have had come in for a while, especially from the portal. We are trying to find out who is who and what they do well and find out who we are going to be going forward.”
One key part of the offense is the addition of North Carolina transfer quarterback Max Johnson. The 6-5 lefty is actually entering his seventh year of playing collegiately with stops at LSU, Texas A&M and most recently at North Carolina. He has battled injuries throughout his career, but when healthy is capable of putting up impressive stats as he has thrown for over 6,000 yards and 49 touchdowns in his career.
“You have to be able to bring in a guy who is humble and still is able to lead and I think that is what Max brings us,” Aplin said. “He has done a great job of stepping in and leading the young guys and has taken time to find out who these guys are on and off the field.”
Johnson said Aplin is a big part of why he came to Georgia Southern, as well as being able to be a part of a pass-first offense.
“Leaving UNC I had a few options,” Johnson said. “I did a lot of praying and talked to my parents and I honestly thought this was the right place for me. Georgia Southern is known for throwing the ball now and there are a lot of great players on the team. This is my seventh offensive coordinator but I love working with coach Aplin and this offense is a lot like what I had when I was at LSU.”
Being one of 11 new starters on the Eagle offense puts Johnson in a similar position to a lot of his teammates who have been hard at work trying to build chemistry.
“Things really started for a lot of us back in January,” Johnson said. “We got some work in with player run practices before spring ball to get to know each other. I think things are coming along really well and I’m excited to keep this going.”
