STATESBORO, Ga. – Quarterback Favian Upshaw accounted for 168 yards and four touchdowns, and Georgia Southern opened the 2016 football season and the era of new head coach Tyson Summers with a 54-0 victory over Savannah State Saturday evening in Paulson Stadium.

The Georgia Southern defense was stout in its season debut and pitched its first shutout since blanking Jacksonville 58-0 in the 2012 season opener in Paulson Stadium. The Eagles held Savannah State to 114 total yards, including 34 on the ground, and recorded three takeaways, four sacks and 11 tackles for loss. Ironhead Gallon posted six tackles, and Ukeme Eligwe finished with five tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss.  

The Eagles rolled up 420 yards and six touchdowns on the ground and unveiled a successful aerial attack to the tune of 185 yards and two scores. Upshaw completed 7-of-10 passes for 115 yards and two touchdowns, and Kevin Ellison was perfect on five throws for 70 yards. It was the most passing yards in a game since 2014, when the Eagles threw for 201 in a 47-24 win over Idaho in Paulson Stadium.

Montay Crockett was the primary beneficiary with three receptions for 73 yards, while Matt Breida and Wesley Fields each caught TD passes. Fields also ran for 87 yards and a score, and Breida carried 10 times for 68 yards and a TD. Demarcus Godfrey rushed 14 times for 124 yards, all in the second half. 

The story
The Eagles scored on their first three possessions of the contest to take control of the game early. Ellison threw to Crockett for a 25-yard pickup down to the Savannah State 2-yard line to set up the first score. Upshaw went around the right side on a keeper for a touchdown two plays later.

The defense gave the Eagles great field position for their next possession when Jay Bowdry jumped on a mishandled handoff by Savannah State at the Tiger 23-yard line. On the third play from scrimmage, Upshaw found daylight again around the right side on an option keeper and raced 33 yards for a touchdown.

Georgia Southern went 82 yards on nine plays, and Fields punched it in from 1 yard out for a 21-0 cushion with 1:21 left in the first quarter. After an 18-yard pickup with his legs, Ellison used his arm to hit Malik Henry for a 26-yard gain to key the drive.

The Eagles scored again with 30 seconds left in the half when Upshaw threw a strike to Breida over the middle for a 12-yard touchdown. Upshaw accounted for 39 yards through the air and 13 yards on the ground in the 10-play drive, and GS led 28-0 at halftime.

Fields scampered 27 yards on the second play from scrimmage of the second half, and Ellison capped the 70-yard scoring drive with an 11-yard run up the middle to put the Eagles ahead 34-0 2:43 into the third quarter, and the rout was on.

Quotable from head coach Tyson Summers
"From a defensive standpoint, they played well. They played hard and they played physical. We'll look and see what their execution was once we get an opportunity to look at the tape but obviously, any time you have a shutout, you've got to feel good about that."

"From an offensive standpoint, I think you were able to look up and see three backs tonight who played well and ran hard and really a fourth one with Troy Stewart there at the end of the game. I certainly feel like we had two quarterbacks who managed the game well outside of one throw in the middle of the field that I wish we had back."

"I know a lot has been said about trying to throw the ball more efficiently, and I believe in that. We only had three incomplete passes tonight and when you sit back and look at it, some of the passes were really what kept us in drives at the beginning of the game and gave us an opportunity to be successful."

"I feel like that we're as talented and as deep as anybody that there is in the country when you start talking about our backfield. I really do – between the two quarterbacks and the three or four backs we had in the game."

Next up
Georgia Southern opens Sun Belt Conference play at South Alabama next Saturday, Sept. 10, and the game will be shown live on ESPN3.

Notes
- Tyson Summers is one of 29 new FBS coaches in 2016. Of those 29, 17 are in their first year as an FBS head coach. Just two of the 14 new "Group of 5" head coaches have previous head coaching experience, including former Georgia Southern head coach Willie Fritz, who is now at Tulane.

- Senior quarterback Favian Upshaw picked up where he left off last year, scoring the first two touchdowns for the Eagles. Going back to the GoDaddy Bowl when he ran for four touchdowns against Bowling Green, Upshaw has now has run for six touchdowns in the past two games. He has accounted for eight touchdowns in that span as he threw two touchdowns Saturday night.

- Six true freshmen played in the game. Monquavion Brinson started at cornerback and other freshmen seeing action were Kindle Vildor, Todd Bradley, Drew Wilson, Mike Jackson and Ty Phillips.

- The 605 yards of total offense are the most since the Eagles put up 660 yards at Georgia State in 2014.

- Favian Upshaw completed a career-high seven passes and had a career-high two touchdown passes.

- Montay Crockett had a career-high three receptions for a career-high 73 yards.

- Eight players made their first collegiate starts Saturday night and 24 Georgia Southern players saw their first collegiate action.

- Tyson Summers is the 10th Georgia Southern head coach in the modern era (full-time or interim for a full year) and coached his first game tonight. The previous nine head coaches have fared pretty well in their opener with six of the nine winning their GS opener.

- Georgia Southern players L.A. Ramsby, Ken Butler Jr., Bernard Dawson, Ryan George, Jessie Liptrot, Christian Matthew and Chaz Thornton were suspended one game for committing a violation of team policies. They will return next week against South Alabama. 

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