Eagles Travel to Georgia Saturday
11/13/2012 4:31:00 PM | Football
GAME INFORMATION
Date / Time: Sat., Nov. 17 / 1:30 p.m. ET
Site: Athens, Ga. / Sanford Stadium (92,746)
TV: WSB-TV Channel 2 / ESPN3
Play-by-Play: Bob Neal; Analyst: Darryl "DJ" Jones; Sideline: Zach Klein
Local Radio: Georgia Southern Radio Network
Play-by-Play: Chris Blair; Analyst: Terry Harvin; Sideline: Ryan Chambers
Live Stats: georgiadogs.com
Game Notes: Georgia Southern / Georgia
Twitter Updates: @GSAthletics / @GSScores
Game Day Central
Series: Georgia leads, 4-0
Athens: Georgia leads, 4-0
Statesboro: N/A
First Meeting: 1992 – L, 34-7
Last Meeting: 2008 – L, 45-21
Streak: Georgia, 4 wins
STORY LINES
SoCon Co-Champions Georgia Southern (8-2, 6-2) travels to Georgia for their final regular season game of the 2012 season. The 1:30 p.m. contest in Athens, Ga., will air on WSB-TV Channel 2.
The Eagles, however, are not done scoreboard watching. A Citadel win over Furman Saturday will tie them for fourth place with Samford and will give GSU the league's automatic bid to the FCS Playoffs.
Saturday will mark the fifth-ever meeting between the two in-state schools, with Georgia holding a 4-0 advantage in the series.
Offensive Coordinator Brent Davis will not only be returning home when GSU visits Georgia Saturday but will also be returning to face his Alma mater. Davis started his playing career at The Citadel where he spent two seasons before transferring to play for the Bulldogs.
QUICK HITS
Georgia Southern faces Georgia for the fifth time in program history, a program that was revived by former Georgia defensive coordinator Erk Russell.
GSU named Tom Kleinlein, former Deputy Athletic Director at Kent State, Athletic Director Monday night.
QB Jerick McKinnon was named SoCon Offensive Player of the Week after scoring five touchdowns against Howard.
McKinnon is the first Eagle to account for five touchdowns in one game since Antonio Henton in 2008 and is the first to do so in a regulation contest since Jayson Foster in 2007.
Georgia Southern has not been shutout in 215 consecutive games dating back to a 45-0 loss to Montana in the 1995 FCS Playoffs.
Georgia Southern won a share of their 10th Southern Conference Championship and can claim the leagues' automatic bid to the playoffs if The Citadel wins Saturday.
The Eagles lead the FCS division with 401.2 yards of rushing per game.
Georgia Southern has tallied 350 or more yards of total offense in all but one game this season including 597 last week against Howard.
The Eagles are 0-19 all-time against FBS opponents.
Dominique Swope has scored a rushing touchdown in nine-straight games, including a pair of touchdowns in each of his last three games.
GEORGIA SERIES HISTORY
Georgia Southern travels to Athens for the fifth time in program history this week. GSU has averaged 24.5 points per game in the last two games against the Bulldogs.
SOCON CHAMPIONS
With a 6-2 mark in league games, Georgia Southern shares the 2012 SoCon Championship with App. St. and Wofford. The championship is Georgia Southern's 10th in program history and the first back-to-back titles for GSU since the Eagles won six-straight titles from 1997-2002.
AQ EXPLAINED
Georgia Southern's conference slate of games may be over, but the Eagles can still capture the Southern Conference's automatic bid if The Citadel defeats Furman Saturday. A win for the Bulldogs would tie them for fourth place with Samford and force a three-way tie that can not be broken by comparing the records of GSU, Appalachian State and Wofford against teams No. 4-9 in the SoCon standings. The next tie breaker is points allowed in SoCon games, which would give the Eagles the league's automatic bid into the playoffs.
ALL-TIME RECORD
The Eagles have played in 393 games since the re-start in 1982, putting together a 285-109-1 (.721) record. Only two teams with more than 150 total games played have a better winning percentage than the Eagles: Michigan (.735) and Notre Dame (.732).
GEORGIA'S MOST SUCCESSFUL TEAM
While the Eagles don't get the national attention of their larger in-state cousins, Georgia Southern has had the most success of any in-state team. Georgia Southern has more national championships (six) than both Georgia (five) and Georgia Tech (four) and all six have come since 1985 while Georgia Tech has just one (1990) and the Bulldogs haven't won a title since 1980. In terms of wins, Georgia Southern has 284 wins since 1982 as compared to UGA's 263 and GT's 206.
McKINNON NAMED POTW
After totaling five touchdowns during Georgia Southern's 69-26 win over Howard, QB Jerick McKinnon was named the Southern Conference Offensive Player of the Week. The honor is the first of his career. McKinnon rushed for a career-high 198 yards and three touchdowns and completed two passes for 32 yards and two touchdowns against the Bison. The Marietta, Ga., native became the first Eagle since Antonio Henton in 2008 to be responsible for five touchdowns in a game and the first since Jayson Foster in 2007 to do so in regulation.
McKINNON STRIKES FOR FIVE TDs
QB Jerick McKinnon is the first Eagle to be responsible for five touchdowns in one game since Antonio Henton threw two passing scores and ran for three others in a 34-27 overtime victory against Northeastern on Sept. 13, 2008. The junior ran for three scores and tossed two touchdown passes in Georgia Southern's 69-26 win over Howard. The last Eagle to score five or more touchdowns in regulation was Jayson Foster, who tallied six rushing touchdowns in a 42-32 win at Coastal Carolina on Sept. 15, 2007.
1,000 YARD RUSHER
Quarterback Jerick McKinnon crossed the 1,000-yard plateau during the Howard game, becoming the third different Eagle to rush for 1,000 yards in the last three seasons. McKinnon is also the first of those three to do so during the regular season. The junior's season rushing total of 1,053 currently ranks 16th all-time behind Greg Hill's 1998 rushing total of 1,061 yards.
ALL-TIME AGAINST FBS TEAMS
Saturday's game is the 20th contest for the Eagles against a FBS opponent. The Eagles are 0-19 against FBS opponents despite a number of close calls. The Eagles held a 10-7 advantage with nine minutes left in the 1988 game at Florida State. Legendary Seminole Head Coach Bobby Bowden said of the Eagles, "They whipped us in every phase of the game except the score." Last year GSU fell to Alabama by a 45-21 margin, scoring more points than national runners-up LSU in two combined games against the Tide. The following chart lists GSU's games against FBS opposition.
SECOND MOST 500 YARD GAMES
For the third time this season Georgia Southern rushed for 500 or more yards in their win over Howard. The three 500-yard rushing performances during the 2012 season is the second most in school history. Only the 1999 team rushed for 500 or more yards in more than three games. The fifth of the Eagles' six national championship squads tallied six 500-yard rushing games, including two in the FCS Playoffs. The 1999 squad also holds the program record for most rushing yards per game (419.0), while the current GSU team currently stands in second with 401.2 rushing yards per game.
TOUCHDOWN JERICK
QB Jerick McKinnon has thrown five touchdown passes in just 14 pass completions on the season. McKinnon's percentage of pass attempts for touchdown (19.2%) currently ranks ahead of school record holder Jayson Foster, who tossed eight touchdowns in 62 passing attempts (12.9%) during the 2005 season. Boosted by the high touchdown rate, McKinnon's passing efficiency of 229.86 would rank also rank as the highest in school history if he met the qualifying number of 100 attempts on the season.
REPLACING LARON
J.J. Wilcox has filled in nicely as the Eagles primary kick return this season after the school record holder for kickoff returns, return yards and return average Laron Scott graduated after last season. In 19 returns this season Wilcox has 530 yards good for sixth place in the record books. His 27.9 return average also ranks third all-time.
APPROACHING 100 STOPS
In just his first season as a starter, senior linebacker John Stevenson could become the first Eagle to reach 100 tackles since Josh Rowe in 2010 with 17 more stops this season. The Stone Mountain, Ga., native had previously recorded a season-high of just 21 tackles during the 2010 season and entered this year with a total of 45 career tackles. Stevenson has recorded 10 or more stops six times this season.
