Football Continues Homestand Against Furman
10/14/2011 9:29:00 PM | Football
STATESBORO, Ga. - The Georgia Southern Football team (5-0, 4-0) continues a three-game homestand against Furman's (3-2, 2-1) balanced attack Saturday at 3 p.m. The Southern Conference contest will be aired live from Paulson Stadium on the SoCon TV Network. The Eagles will honor the members of the 1986 National Championship team at halftime of the game.
A week after an exciting 28-27 win over Chattanooga, the Eagles face one of the nation's top passing efficiency quarterbacks in Chris Forcier, who leads a balanced Paladin attack. Furman rushes for nearly 200 yards a game and passes for 217.4 a contest behind former UCLA transfer Forcier. He boasts a 190.5 passer efficiency rating and has completed 76 passes from 108 attempts for 1,027 and 15 touchdowns.
"They are not just a passing team. Forcier is doing a great job leading their team. They are running the ball effectively as well," said Head Coach Jeff Monken. "Furman has always been a well coached team. They play hard and play good fundamental football."
Furman is led by first-year head coach Bruce Fowler, who was named the team's head coach in December. Fowler spent 16 years with the Paladins before following Bobby Johnson to Vanderbilt in 2001. He spent nine seasons with the Commodores and served as the team's defensive coordinator before returning to the Paladins.
Robert Brown (Macon, Ga.) rushed for 178 yards to power the Eagles to the one-point win and earned the Southern Conference Offensive Player of the Week honors. Georgia Southern led 21-7 at the halftime break, but survived a Chattanooga comeback attempt to win 28-27.
"It was an unbelievable football game on Saturday. We are fortunate to have won that game after the job they did running the football against us in the second half with a backup quarterback. We somehow managed to find a way to make a play on the two-point conversion," said Monken.
GSU leads the all-time series with Furman 14-8 but will need to snap a road-team winning streak that dates back to 2007. The Eagles were victorious in Greenville, S.C., last season. Georgia Southern rallied from a 28-17 deficit with two touchdowns in less than four minutes to win, 32-28.
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