Eagles Finally Set For Home Opener
10/1/2017 8:57:00 AM | Football
After 305 days, the Georgia Southern football squad will finally play a home game in Paulson Stadium when the Eagles host Arkansas State Wednesday night in a nationally televised game that kicks at 8:05 p.m. Georgia Southern will be the last FBS team to play in its home stadium and one of the last to open conference play when it hosts the Red Wolves. Here's all you need to know about the game:
Game 4: Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2017 • 8:05 PM
Location: Statesboro, Ga. (Allen E. Paulson Stadium; 25,000)
Records:
Georgia Southern: 0-3, 0-0 Sun Belt
Arkansas State: 1-2, 0-0 Sun Belt
Broadcast Information
Television: ESPN2
PBP: Kevin Negandhi; Analyst: Rocky Boiman
Radio: Georgia Southern Sports Network
PBP: Danny Reed; Analyst: Terry Harvin; Sidelines: Russ Brown
GS: GAME NOTES (PDF)
A-STATE: GAME NOTES (PDF)
The Series
• Georgia Southern and Arkansas State have split the only two games played in the series. Georgia Southern beat the Red Wolves 48-21 in the 1986 NCAA I-AA national championship game in Tacoma, Washington, but A-State rallied for a 27-26 win last season at home over GS.
• Tracy Ham, now an associate AD for internal operations at GS, rushed for 180 yards and three touchdowns and completed 12-of-21 passes for 306 yards and another score to lead the Eagles to their second consecutive I-AA national championship.
• Against the nation's top-rated I-AA defense, Georgia Southern gained 603 yards in total offense, 297 rushing and 306 passing.
• With the win, Georgia Southern became the first school to ever win back-to-back national championships in Division I-AA.
• A-State got a measure of revenge last year, winning in Jonesboro to tie the series up. The Red Wolves trailed 23-10 with just over two minutes remaining in the third quarter, but Justice Hansen hit Omar Bayless with an 8-yard touchdown pass with nine seconds left, and J.D. Houston made the extra point to lift Arkansas State to a 27-26 Sun Belt Conference football victory.
Home Openers
• Overall, the Eagles are 27-6-1 in home openers with a 27-5 mark at Paulson Stadium since its first game on Sept. 29, 1984 against Liberty. The 2013 home opener, a 77-9 win over Savannah State, was vacated due to NCAA sanctions.
Finally Home
• With Hurricane Irma bearing down on Florida and Georgia, GS and New Hampshire agreed to move their game on Sept. 9 from Statesboro to Birmingham's Legion Field.
• With the move, Georgia Southern will now just have four home games this season at Paulson Stadium, three on Saturdays. That's only happened two other times in the modern era of GS football: 1983 and 1984. In those two seasons, GS played four home games, five road games and two neutral site games.
• Georgia Southern will now not play its first home game until Oct. 4 when it hosts Arkansas State for a Wednesday Night ESPN2 game. It will mark the first time in program history the Eagles will not have a home game in the month of September. In 1984, it was the fifth game of the season before the Eagles played at home while waiting for construction on Paulson Stadium to be completed, but that opener came on Sept. 29, 1984.
• Georgia Southern and FIU are the only two FBS schools not to play at their respective home stadium thus far.
• The University and the Athletics Department will be collecting donations at upcoming home sporting events to help with the relief efforts stemming from Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. The items collected will be shipped off in Georgia Southern's 18-wheeler used for football.
On Wednesdays
• Georgia Southern is 1-1 all-time in football games played on Wednesdays. The Eagles lost to A-State last year in Jonesboro on a Wednesday, but won the GoDaddy Bowl over Bowling Green in 2016 on a rainy Wednesday night in Mobile, Alabama.
Overcoming Adversity
• Adversity is a word Todd Bradley doesn't want to hear as he's been through enough over the past 24 months. As a senior in high school, he was diagnosed with Dermatofibrosarcoma Protuberans (DFSP) in his right shoulder. He was going in to have some scar tissue removed when the doctors diagnosed him.
• DFSP is a rare type of cancer, a soft tissue sarcoma that develops in the deep layers of skin cancer. He had several surgeries to remove the mass and then had a skin graft in which they took skin from his groin and placed it on his shoulder.
• The cancer caused him to miss most of his final season, but he was cleared on a Thursday and played the next night, returning for the final five games of his season. He signed with Georgia Southern in February 2016.
• Last year, Bradley was contributing as a true freshman at both linebacker and special teams before suffering a torn ACL in pre-game warmups at Arkansas State. The week before, he posted seven tackles at Western Michigan and was on his way to a big year before the injury.
• After rehabbing all spring, the sophomore is back full speed for the Eagles and is tied for the team lead with 17 tackles.
• To read about his story, and watch an accompanying video, click the link below.
?? True Blue TV Presents Beyond the Nest:
— GS Eagle Athletics (@GSAthletics) September 28, 2017
Overcoming Adversity - The Journey of Todd Bradley
??: https://t.co/0SO3h1oPb1 pic.twitter.com/UZLm6TaXf9
