Jacksonville State is 1-2 on the season, but the record is deceiving.

The Gamecocks have gone on the road and lost in two extremely venues for visitors, one of which Georgia Southern fans are most familiar.

Coach Charles Kelly’s team opened at North Dakota State, a place the Eagles visited when competing in the FCS playoffs, and left a loser. The Bison, currently 3-0, have moved up to FBS this season and it was no surprise they clipped Jax State, 33-7, in a game which got away from the Gamecocks early and then everything snowballed.

Then after coasting past Eastern Kentucky, 49-7, JSU went on the road to face Ohio University and wound up dropping a 29-27 four overtime game. It was the Bobcats’ 15th straight win at Peden Stadium, second in FBS only to Indiana’s current 17-game home winning streak.

Jacksonville State will be looking to get back on the winning track at 7 p.m. Saturday when it hosts Georgia Southern (1-1). The two teams met for the first time since 1999 last year at Paulson Stadium with the Eagles pulling out a 41-34 win.

The game will be televised on ESPN+ and Georgia Southern is a 4.5-point favorite.

Against Ohio the Gamecocks did everything but win the game. The Bobcats never led until the end when they converted a two-point attempt.

Jacksonville State, which held a 447-262 advantage on offense, was then stopped a half yard short of the goal line as it attempted to force a fifth extra period.

“They made the plays they had to,” Kelly said of the Bobcats. “You can’t give good teams second opportunities and we did that. I think we’ve got a good football team but when you go on the road you can’t make the mistakes we made.”

Jacksonville State had held the Bobcats in check until the closing minutes when Ohio drove 90 yards in 18 plays and scored with 1:34 left in regulation.

The Gamecocks responded as Kelly hoped as quarterback Caden Creel drove his team to the Ohio 20 only to have Garrison Rippa’s 37-yard field goal attempt as time expired sail wide right to send the game into overtime.

It was an unusual miss for the normally reliable Rippa, who is from Locust Grove, Ga., led Conference-USA last year in scoring with 103 points as a freshman and kicked three field goals as time expired to win games.

In addition to Rippa’s miss the Gamecocks also had two touchdowns called back because of penalties.

Rippa, along with Creel, were major factors in the Gamecocks going 9-5 last year, losing to Kennesaw State (15-13) in the C-USA championship game.

This is Jacksonville State’s third year playing in FBS and two years ago they won the C-USA championship. After the season Coach Rich Rodriguez left for West Virginia and Kelly took over after serving as the team’s defensive coordinator.

Coming off a loss at Clemson the Eagles will have a challenge on their hands as they face off a team defending its home turf and looking to avoid a 1-3 start to what they were expecting to be another championship caliber season.

Kelly is pinning his hopes for success on Creel who came from No. 3 on the depth chart to a player who turned the Gamecocks’ fortunes around.

Starting the last nine games the multi-talented senior---he had yards last year passing, running, receiving and on a punt return—eclipsed 1,500 yards passing and 1,000 yards rushing. In the game against Georgia Southern he did not attempt a pass but had 13 yards on three attempts.

Creel, along with Navy’s Blake Horvath, led FBS quarterbacks last year with seven 100-yard rushing games and he’s off to a good start this season.

With a goal of getting 2,500 yards passing and 1,000 rushing Cree has 677 yards and six touchdowns passing and 218 on the ground. His 303 yards total offense per game is second in the conference.

“I think it’s obvious Caden is a lot more comfortable in the pocket this year,” Kelly said. “I think he understands what he’s got to do to keep developing on it.

“I think the offensive line has done a good job, too, of protecting him back there and he’s more comfortable with it. The other thing is just making sure he manages the game. He doesn’t have to win it, he just has to do his job.”

Creel leads the Gamecocks in rushing and wide receiver Jamill Williams, thanks to teams double teaming Deondre Johnson, has 14 catches for 188 yards. The 6-foot-8 Johnson led FBS last year in average yards per catch (24.13) on 30 receptions for 724 yards after transferring from Rutgers.