GSU could use offensive boost
A winless nonconference season with a loss to an NCAA FCS opponent might spell disaster tonight for Georgia Southern against Arkansas State University, if it hadn’t happened exactly the opposite when the two teams met last year in a nationally televised Wednesday night game.
At the time, ASU was 0-4 and had just lost to FCS-member Central Arkansas, and Georgia Southern was 3-1 with two victories in the Sun Belt Conference.
The Eagles had just lost to eventual-Group of 5 representative Western Michigan and was prepared to make a run for its second Sun Belt title since it became a full-time member in 2014.
Instead, ASU won 27-26, which vaulted the Red Wolves to an 8-1 finish, its fifth Sun Belt title in six seasons and a 31-13 Cure Bowl victory over Central Florida.
Georgia Southern lost five of its next seven games and missed the bowl season with a 5-7 overall record.
“It catapulted us into the rest of conference play with a tremendous amount of confidence that we could overcome adversity,” ASU Coach Blake Anderson said Monday. “It just took a tremendous amount of strength and confidence from that night.”
The offenses of both last year’s ASU team and this year’s Georgia Southern team finished their nonconference season in disarray.
The Red Wolves solved their issues in part by benching Pittsburgh graduate transfer quarterback Chad Voytik in favor of redshirt sophomore Justice Hansen, who had transferred from Butler (Kan.) Community College after first transferring from Oklahoma.
The results were substantial: ASU’s total offense rose from 354.5 yards per game to 392.67 over the next nine games, and its scoring offense improved from 16.75 points per game to 32.
Georgia Southern’s offense could use a boost, but it doesn’t have a Division I transfer quarterback to turn to. The Eagles have redshirt freshman Shai Werts, who is one of eight FBS quarterbacks who made their first start this season.
Through three losses — including a 22-12 loss to New Hampshire, which lost 51-26 to Holy Cross the following week — the Eagles rank third to last in the nation in both total offense (257.3 yards per game) and scoring offense (12 points per game).
The spread option offense’s 57th-ranked rush attack (179.3 yards per game) falls far behind other option teams like Navy (1st, 400), Georgia Tech (2nd, 396) and Army (3rd, 363.6).
The figures are skewed by Georgia Southern’s 41-7 loss to Auburn, in which it recorded 78 yards of total offense. In the two games since, the Eagles have averaged 350.5 yards and 14.5 points.
Georgia Southern has been rotating option offenses since it ran the under-center flexbone under Georgia Tech Coach Paul Johnson from 1997-2001.
The offense morphed into the shotgun-spread option under former coach Willie Fritz during its 2014 Sun Belt championship season. But when Fritz left for Tulane and took along five assistant coaches, including offensive coordinator Doug Ruse, there wasn’t enough holdover to remain highly effective.
The Eagles hired defensive-minded Tyson Summers away from Colorado State for
the 2016 season, who spent the year with two offensive coordinators on his staff before firing them both at the end of the season.
Summers hired Georgia Tech quarterbacks coach Bryan Cook in January, which led to speculation that the Eagles would return to Johnson’s flexbone style.
Those thoughts were dashed in Cook’s introductory press conference.
“We still intend to be a gun-option team,” Summers told the Savannah Morning News. “We want to run the ball as our emphasis, but we still want to be able to throw it.”
So far, Georgia Southern hasn’t been able to be effective enough on offense to remain competitive.
Against New Hampshire, the Eagles began the game with a fumble, two three-and-outs and a missed field goal, which spotted New Hampshire a 22-0 lead.
The offense has yet to score a touchdown in the first quarter. Linebacker Tomarcio Reese returned a fumble for a touchdown against Auburn for the team’s only first quarter score this season.
ASU averages 11.33 points in the first quarter.
“For us, it’s a real emphasis on winning the first quarter,” Summers said Monday.