Ragin' Dave's Georgia Southern Preview
Georgia Southern had a pretty good 2020 season where they finished with an 8-5 record. They started the year with a close win vs Campbell, then a very close loss to us on a last second FG. They got 2 wins after that vs two really bad teams in UMASS and ULM to make them 3-1. They then lost a pretty good game to Coastal Carolina, then went on a 3 game win streak vs USA, Troy and Texas State. At that point they were 6-2 and also 4-1 in conference. The tail end of the season was not as good, as they lost to Army by 1 point, Georgia State by 6, they did beat FAU, and then finished the season with a loss to App State by 8. They won the New Orleans bowl game by a score of 38-3 vs La Tech. But this is a team that lost 40% of their offense by losing one player, QB Shai Werts, who transferred to Louisville and moved to WR, ironically he has only played in 1 of the 3 games for Louisville and has not recorded a stat for them. Shai was a special player for them. So far this season they are 1-2 and have not looked good at all, but they have been missing their projected starting QB, due to suspension. They beat Gardner Webb a FCS team 30-25 and then have lost FAU and Arkansas by a combined 83-16.
QB--As stated above, Shai Werts was the long time QB for Georgia Southern and when he transferred out their offense was in flux. They had assumed that James Graham would battle Justin Tomlin for the starting job, but Graham a transfer from Ga Tech, who ran a similar offense was moved to WR and then abruptly entered the transfer portal and Tomlin was suspended for the first 2 games of the season. The two games were split between Cam Ransom a Freshman, Amare Jones a Senior RB and Sam Kenerson a Redshirt Freshman WR from Baton Rouge. They did get Tomlin back last week but he only completed 11-23 for 65 yards and rushed for 10 carries for 65 yards. This is a triple option attack and while they do throw the ball more than allot of triple option attacks it is mostly about their running attack. Tomlin is a good one who is a redshirt Junior who has been in the program since 2018 season. While he is not Shai Werts, he is the best of the other options for them and a capable thrower of the ball. If Tomlin struggles we will see a number of guys who could back him up.
RB--The assumption was that JD King would be the starter at RB, but he has not played in a game this year as he was hurt last year vs Troy and has not played since. The other main stay at RB is Logan Wright, Wright is a bruiser at 6'0 225, he has been their main guy at Running back, but they have a number of other guys who will contribute. Amare Jones who has played at QB, is more of a RB and was suspected to be the starter their, he is a transfer from Tulane. Gerald Green has 20 carries on the season. But this team has 6 guys with 10 or more carries on the season and of their 5 TD's this season 4 have been on the ground and 2 were by Logan Wright. Wright has 39 carries on the season for 243 yards a 6.2 yard average and 2 TD's. As a team they have rushed it for 138 carries for 721 yards, in comparison they have throw it 72 times for 334 yards. 2 of their better running backs did not return for this season in Wesley Kennedy and Matt LaRoche.
WR/TE--Their WR's don't see allot of action but they do have 1 pretty good one. Khaleb Hood has 15 of their 39 receptions for 136 yards. No one else has more than 6. Hood was their 2nd leading receiver last year behind Malik Murray who did not return. Hood only had 15 catches all last year, Murray only had 21. They other guys to watch out for are Emil Smith and JJ Mcafee. At TE Beau Johnson is a pretty good one, but only has 6 catches on the season for 27 yards, but 3 of those were vs Gardner Webb for 25 yars. Since then he has 3 catches for 3 yards.
OL--They are not huge on the O Line, but they are athletic as expected by a triple option team. Their biggest guy is only 310 lbs and most of them are right at or below 300 lbs. 4 of the 5 are returning from last year with the best of them being their LT Brian Miller and their LG Aaron Dowdell. Both could be on the all SBC team this year. Their center is Logan Langemeier a transfer from Jacksonville University.
Special Teams--Anthony Beck is their punter and a pretty good one. He is averaging 45+ yards per pun including a long of 59. He has 4 punts over 50 yards so far. They are 4-4 on split between 2 guys, Alex Raynor and Brit Williams. Williams is 3-3 with a long of 49 and Raynor is 1-1 with a long of 32. Williams is their KO guy as well, he has 9 of the 11 kickoffs withonly 2 TB's. So Chris Smith should get a chance to return some. Their best WR, Hood, listed above is also their punt returner, he has only returned 1 punt so far, far 0 yards. He is also their KR, with only an average of 17.5 yards, the other guys is Dexter Carter Jr., yes that Dexter Carter, who played RB for the SF 49ers.
D-Line--Georgia Southern plays a 3-4 Defense with 2 DE's and 1 NT. They are a veteran group up front. Dillon Springer and Justin Ellis are the DE's and CJ Wright is the NT. They are all Seniors, AJ Watkins who is a Junior is another one to watch out for. Justin Ellis is the best of the bunch though. He has 11 tackles on the season including 1 TFL and 1/2 a Sack, but CJ Wright is leading the team with 2.5 sacks on the season from the NT position, so they can get some pressure on the QB from the D-Line.
LB-- The 4 starting LB's are Benz Josue, Tre Allen, Randy Wade and Khadry Jackson. Jackson is a transfer from UNC. But the guy who leads them in tackles is actually Kevon Glenn a transfer from FSU. Glenn and Jackson are 2 of the top 3 tacklers on the team and they are athletic. Glenn has 17 tackles on the season and Jackson has 14. They are a tough combination in the middle. Randy Wade JR and Benz Josue are both in double digit tackles at LB. The LB core is the strength of this team on defense. Also not like our competition last week, the front 7 of GSU is much better than the back end.
DB--But they do have 1 really good CB, in Derrick Canteen a Sophomore. He will be matched on the other side by Darrell Baker, who is pretty good as well. At Safety they have Justin Birdsong and Anthony Wilson. Birdsong is tied for the lead in tackles on the team with LB Glenn and Wilson has 10 tackles as well on the season. The amazing thing is that this team has not forced a turnover all season. They have forced 3 fumbles but have not recovered any and they have not intercepted a pass as of yet. The also do not turn the ball over much as they only have 2 on the season, 1 INT and 1 Fumble.
OFFENSE--This is not a team that is balanced, they are a run first team. They are only averaging 15 points per game on the season, and 30 of those were vs GWU. They average 219 yards per game on the ground and 111 through the air. And as bad as they are on defense on 3rd down they are worse on offense. They only have converted 32% of their 3rd down conversions but 6-10 on 4th down. So they do go for it allot on 4th down. They are not a heavily penalized team only averaging about 33 yards per game in penalties on about 5 penalties per game.
DEFENSE--The strength of this team coming into the season was supposed to be the defense. They were a veteran group with allot of Juniors and Seniors on the two deep. They have not showed that so far. As they have given up 36 points per game, now 2 of those games were vs pretty good competition in Arkansas and FAU, but remember they allowed 25 vs Gardner Webb an FCS opponent. They are giving up 172 yards per game on the ground and 353 yards per game through the air for a total of 525 yards per game. GWU had 415 yards against GSU. What is amazing is they are actually worse then us on getting off the field on 3rd down. They have given up 56% on 3rd down and 50% on 4th down.
Overview-- I think we should be able to pass against these guys as they have been awful vs the pass so far this season. We need to beat them up front on the Oline. Give Levi some time to make good decisions and on defense watch the option. They are going to move the ball vs us, that is their M.O., but we have to shut them down when they get into the redzone and not allow the big gashing yards. We are better then them in almost every statistical category, Total yards, Passing yards, points and even 3rd down conversions on offense, we are also better then them in almost every category on defense, total yards against, Passing yards against, Rushing yards against, points against, and 3rd down % against. The only area that they beat us is offensively running the ball, which is to be expected. We ar a 13.5 point favorite as of this morning.
I think we win this game, but it will be closer than we want it to be. If I had to guess, I would think:
Cajuns 31
Geo Southen 17
Geaux Cajuns
Quote
Originally Posted by JayWalker
