PHOTO GALLERY: August 10, 2013
STATESBORO, Ga. – The sights and sounds of progress at Paulson Stadium were the backdrop for Saturday morning's scrimmage as construction crews worked on the expansion and operations building as the Georgia Southern Football team went to work on the field. The Eagles ran 71 plays during a scrimmage that featured good plays for offense, defense and special teams and exposed some areas that still need improvement. Georgia Southern plays host to Savannah State at Paulson Stadium for the season opener three weeks from today.
"I was really looking for effort and to see how hard guys were playing, if we were playing physical," said Georgia Southern Head Coach Jeff Monken. "I thought our guys did a pretty good job, there were some guys who did a really good job and others who need to do better. We certainly need to get better as a football team, we are not where we want to be yet."
Monken and the coaching staff reviewed the film from this morning's scrimmage and planned on using film from this afternoon's practice as a teaching tool for the Eagles tonight. This morning's scrimmage was held on a shortened field due to elements of the construction on the perimeter, but the Eagle quarterbacks moved the ball well downfield. Senior running back William Banks scored the first two touchdowns, the first a 20-plus yard rush and the second, on a short gain. Sophomore Nardo Govan headed due west, and straight up the middle, for his touchdown run.
Newcomer, graduate running back Torrance Hunt, a transfer from East Carolina, and redshirt freshman Kevin Ellison both had touchdown runs later in the scrimmage. Ellison and the Eagle offense persisted on that drive, with the TD coming on fourth down. Additional scoring came from freshman Matt Flynn, who joined the Eagles late this week, as he hit a 47-yard field goal. Brandan Thomas, who eluded several tacklers on his punt return, was stopped short of a touchdown by punter Ryan Nowicki.
The highlight plays weren't limited to the offense. Cornerback Valdon Cooper picked off a pass and senior linebacker Kyle Oehlback had a tackle for loss as the defense went to work. Coaches on both sides of the ball gave instructions to their squads on the field and provided individual instruction as needed throughout the scrimmage.
"In practice situations, there will be coaches in the drills and coaches behind every play to help the guys go where they need to go," Monken said. "In a scrimmage, I try to get the coaches to back off, give the signals, watch what is going on and coach from the sideline more like a game-like situation. That really allows us to find out who knows their assignments and who is going to play hard without someone chasing them down the field."
After Saturday morning's scrimmage, Coach Monken reduced the number of periods for the afternoon session to 12. The Eagles practiced in shells with periods of drills, skelly and team interaction at the Eagle Creek complex.
After speaking with his team on the field, Monken addressed 350 season ticket holders who were invited to attend the scrimmage at Paulson Saturday morning. The individuals in attendance had renewed their season tickets within a 30-day timeframe earlier this spring. Monken thanked them for their support and then drew the winning name for four tickets to the Georgia Southern Florida game in November. Kris Livingston won the tickets and will be headed to "The Swamp" for the Nov. 23rd game.
The Eagles will be back on the practice fields in full pads Sunday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. Monday is a scheduled two-a-day practice with an early session in full pads beginning at 9:15 a.m. and afternoon session in shells at 4:45 p.m.
While Georgia Southern is on the practice field Sunday evening, millions of viewers will tune into NBC Nightly News Sunday at 6:30 p.m. Eastern and learn about the Eagles' new helmet technology. The Helmet Impact Telemetry System (HITS) provides real-time information wirelessly from helmet sensors to a specially equipped laptop that measures and records helmet impacts during practices and games. This monitoring equipment, one part of the research on concussions being conducted at Georgia Southern University, will be installed in a total of 40 Riddell helmets
Georgia Southern Athletics provides up-to-date information on all its sports through its official website, GSEagles.com, through social media channels facebook.com/GSAthletics and twitter.com/GSAthletics, and its new "Eagles GATA" mobile app for Android and iOS. Fans can follow Coach Jeff Monken on his official twitter account, @CoachJeffMonken.
