Eagles and Catamounts Collide in Cullowhee Saturday
11/12/2010 11:00:00 PM | Football
STATESBORO, Ga. - The Georgia Southern Football team (5-4, 3-3 SoCon) heads to Cullowhee, N.C., for the first of two games on the road. The Eagles will meet the Catamounts (2-7, 1-5 SoCon) on Western Carolina Hall of Fame Day at Whitmire Stadium. The Eagles closed out the home portion of their schedule last weekend with a 21-14 overtime win over then-top ranked and previously undefeated Appalachian State. Western Carolina welcomes Georgia Southern for its final home game of 2010.
KICKOFF
3 p.m., Saturday, November 13th at E.J. Whitmire Stadium (synthetic/capacity 13,742)
WHERE TO LISTEN
In his fifth year as the "Voice of the Eagles," Chris Blair will call all the action for Saturday's matchup on the 17-station Georgia Southern Radio Network. Eagle standout Terry Harvin provides the color commentary and Ryan Chambers brings the sideline experience to the broadcast. The game can be heard locally in Statesboro on 102.9 WPMX-FM or globally online at GeorgiaSouthernEagles.com/Eaglevision. A complete list of affiliates can be found at GeorgiaSouthernEagles.com/radionetwork. Inside Whitmire Stadium Eagle fans can listen to the Georgia Southern Radio Network broadcast by tuning in at 88.3 FM.
WHERE TO WATCH
Georgia Southern fans will be able to view the Eagles-Catamounts football game webcast on the Western Carolina Athletics website. Visit http://www.catamountsports.com/allaccess/ and select live events. Registration may be required.
THE SERIES
Georgia Southern owns an 18-2 record against the Catamounts and has won the last 15 straight contests. Both losses to Western Carolina have taken place in Cullowhee. Saturday's game, the first in the series to take place in the month of November, marks the latest the two teams have ever played during a season. The games in 1941 and 2009 were the two earliest with the Georgia Southern and Western Carolina meeting for the 1941 season opener and the 2009 Southern Conference opener.
THE COACHES
Jeff Monken, with 21 years of coaching experience, is in his first year as head coach of the Eagles. The Joliet, Ill., native picked up another win over a ranked team last week after Georgia Southern defeated top-ranked Appalachian State 21-14 in overtime at Paulson Stadium. Earlier in the season, the Eagles beat #10/#11 Elon at home 38-21. Monken served for five years as an assistant coach on Paul Johnson's staff at Georgia Southern from 1997-2001. During that time, the Eagles went 62 and 10, winning five straight SoCon championships and won two national titles. He joined Johnson at Navy, helping the Midshipmen to five straight bowl appearances, and then at Georgia Tech, where the Yellow Jackets won an ACC title and earned an Orange Bowl berth in 2009.
Catamount head coach Dennis Wagner, in his third season at Western Carolina, picked up his 50th career head coaching win this year. Wagner spent six seasons as the offensive line coach/assistant head coach at Fresno State after eight seasons serving as head coach at Wayne State College. Prior to his appointment at Western Carolina, Wagner was the offensive line coach at Nebraska from 2004-2007.
Playing center at Ellsworth Community College in 1977, Wagner earned was a Junior College All-American pick. He finished his playing career at the University of Utah. Wagner was an All-Western Athletic Conference and honorable mention All-America selection at offensive guard.
COACHING CONNECTIONS
Three current members of the Georgia Southern coaching staff have connections to the Western Carolina program. John Scott,Jr., the Eagles defensive line coach, and Lamont Seward, the Eagles wide receivers coach, are former Catamount players and assistant coaches. Scott, a 2000 graduate and four-year letterman, Scott returned to coach at his alma mater as defensive ends and outside linebackers coach for two seasons (2006-07) and defensive line coach for one (2008). Scott was a second-team All-Southern Conference pick at defensive end in 1998 and his total 31 TFLs ranks 10th on Western Carolina's all-time career chart.
Seward coached the wide receivers at his alma mater, increasing the reception totals of then-juniors Michael Hines and Eddie Cohen, with Cohen going on to claim WCU's single-season record for reception yardage with 1,208. Seward is a member of the SoCon All-Decade Team (1997-2006) and finished his Catamount playing career third on the Catamount and SoCon list for receptions with 190. His 2,972 receiving yards placed him third on the WCU career list and fifth on the SoCon all-time list.
Eagle Defensive Coordinator Brent Pry was an assistant coach at Western Carolina for four years, coaching the defensive line for two seasons (1998-1999), a D-line which included John Scott, Jr. Pry then coached the defensive backs and special teams for two seasons (2000-2001). In 1998, WCU finished ninth in FCS in total defense. In 2001, he helped the Catamount defense earn a number-one ranking in touchdown passes allowed with just five. That same season, Pry's secondary was ranked third nationally in pass defense.
WINS OVER NUMBER ONE
Georgia Southern has notched wins over the number-one team in the country twice in the last six seasons, both at Paulson Stadium. The Eagles defeated top-ranked Furman 27-24 in 2005 and knocked the Mountaineers out of the top spot in the polls with a 21-14 overtime victory last Saturday.
IN OVERTIME
The overtime win over Appalachian State was the program's sixth overtime win and 11th overtime game overall. The Eagles have won three straight overtime games, the streak beginning with the 38-31 OT win over Western Carolina in 2008. In the game against the Catamounts at Whitmire Stadium, Georgia Southern erased a 28-point deficit in less than 11 minutes in the fourth quarter - an NCAA record - to take the game to overtime.
RED ZONE SUCCESS
Georgia Southern began the season a perfect 7-7 in its trips to the red zone and currently stands at a 91 percent success rate (30-33), good for fourth in the nation.
RUSSELL ON BUCHANAN WATCH LIST
Brent Russell's disruptive play as a nose tackle earned him a spot on the Buck Buchanan Award Watch List. The Buchanan Award, presented by The Sports Network and sponsored by Fathead.com, features a stellar 20-player Watch List to identify the top candidates for the Football Championship Subdivision's (FCS) outstanding defensive player award. The award winner will be announced at the national awards banquet on Thursday, Jan. 6 in Frisco, Texas - the night before the FCS national championship game.
SCOTT SCAMPERS FOR RECORD
Junior kickoff return specialist Laron Scott (Warner Robins, Ga.) broke Anthony Williams single-game record for most kickoff returns in a single-game with his 146 yards against Samford last weekend. Scott's 76-yard return brought the Paulson Stadium crowd to their feet and accounted for more than half his total on the day. Scott has 615 kickoff return yards on the year, just 100 shy of Nay Young's 1986 season record of 715. Scott's 2010 total is second only to Young on the single-season chart.
ROBERT BROWN NAMED FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK
Freshman running back Robert Brown (Macon, Ga.) was named the Freshman of the Week by the Southern Conference for his performance in the Eagles' win over previously top-ranked and undefeated Appalachian State. The players of the week are selected by the league office.
With the score tied at 14-14 in the overtime period, Brown ran four yards for the game-winning touchdown en route to a 21-14 final. The Georgia Southern defense preserved the win with a fumble recovery on the Mountaineers' possession in overtime.
Brown, the Eagles' leading rusher this season, carried for a career-best tying 20 attempts for 61 yards and had one reception for 16 yards in the win.
EVEN MORE FOR MORA
With two PATs against Wofford, junior kicker Adrian Mora (Dalton, Ga.) tied and then set the Georgia Southern career record for consecutive PATs made, currently standing at 71. Mora has been perfect in PATs in his career, 77-77 (31 in 2008, 19 in 2009, and 27 straight so far in 2010). Mora has accounted for at least one point in every game in which he has played.
LONG AND THE SHORT OF IT
Sophomore slotback Darreion Robinson (Bishop, Ga.) holds the distinction of scoring the touchdowns on the Eagles' shortest and longest drives in 2010. Robinson sprinted for 76 yards on the first play of an Eagle series for a touchdown against Wofford, taking a mere 16 seconds off the clock. Against Appalachian State, Robinson ran for a two-yard score just before the half. The drive ate up 9:27 of clock and tied the previous high of 16 plays in a drive.
SUPPORTING THE GULF COAST
Southern Conference football teams will show their support for those being negatively impacted along the Gulf Coast by wearing helmet decals with the initials "GC" during the 2010 football season. More than 170 SoCon football players come from states that share a coastline being affected by the oil spill. The nine institutions that play SoCon football agreed to display the decals to express their support and encouragement for the people living in the region.
GAME UPDATES
Live stats can be followed on GeorgiaSouthernEagles.com website by scrolling to the schedule at the bottom of the home page and clicking on the "Live Stats" link. Score and quarter updates will also be available on twitter.com/GSScores.
