A New Frontier, Georgia Southern’s Journey to College Football’s Top Division

In 2010, a string of events set in motion a movement, an evolution of Georgia Southern Football that helped morph the program into what it is today. This time period and the events it held were exciting, hopeful, and controversial to many fans but launched the Blue and White into a new era.

In the wake of a disappointing 2006 season, the Eagles remained stagnant for the next three seasons under Coach Chris Hatcher, going a mediocre 18-15 with no NCAA Division I-AA playoff appearances. Following this period, a new football coach and a new University President changed everything.

On Nov. 29, 2009, Jeff Monken was named Georgia Southern’s 11th head football coach ahead of the 2010 season. Monken had previously served as a running backs coach for the Eagles under Paul Johnson from 1997-2001 and was serving as Georgia Tech’s running backs and special teams coach at the time of his hiring. On Jan. 4, 2010, Dr. Brooks A. Keel assumed the role of President at Georgia Southern University. Together, the two authority figures raised the spirit of Eagle Nation with Monken handling the athletic side of things and Keel the political aspects.

The 2010 season started off decently with a close 13-7 loss to Navy and a 38-21 upset win over No. 10 Elon. However, entering the Nov. 6 game at home against No. 1 Appalachian State, the Eagles were only 4-4. 

With the game tied 14-14 at the end of regulation, the Eagles entered overtime with the ball first. Quarterback Jaybo Shaw rushed for 16 yards on third down to set up first and goal from the 4-yard line. Robert Brown scored the go-ahead touchdown on the next play up the middle to put the Eagles up 21-14. Facing third and 10, the Mountaineers’ DeAndre Pressley, who went on to be a finalist for the Walter Payton Award (FCS’s Heisman), scrambled to the GS 10 where he was met by Darius Eubanks and fumbled the ball. The ball slowly rolled backwards 4 yards where Eagle linebacker Josh Rowe recovered it to secure the massive 21-14 upset. 

Had the result of this game or the events that followed gone the other way, this whole story could have been very different. 

After knocking off the top-ranked Mountaineers, the Eagles finished the regular season with victories over Western Carolina and Furman to earn an at-large bid to the I-AA playoffs for the first time in five years. Georgia Southern would win three games over South Carolina State, William & Mary and Wofford before falling in the semifinals to Delaware 27-10.

Despite falling short of a national title in 2010, the 2011 squad was ranked No. 3 in the country in the preseason polls and Statesboro had an undeniable buzz entering the season. The Eagles rose to the No. 1 spot after just two weeks and remained there for six weeks. Unfortunately, App State returned the favor from 2010 as the No. 5 Mountaineers downed Georgia Southern 21-17 at Kidd-Brewer Stadium. 

The Eagles bounced back with wins over The Citadel and Wofford to claim their first Southern Conference title since 2004 but lost a hard-fought, 45-21 contest at FBS’s No. 3 Alabama in a game where the Crimson Tide kept in most of their starters until the 44-second mark of the fourth quarter. Alabama went on to win the BCS National Championship that season. The season once again ended in the semifinals of the playoffs with a 35-7 blowout at the hands of the newly emerging dynasty of North Dakota State. The Bison went on to win their first national title in the next game. 

After returning to national prominence once again, a lot of fans began to talk about the possibility of moving up to the FBS level in the near future. Some fans were not entirely serious, but more of a kind of fantasy of who in the FBS the Eagles could beat based on recent games against Alabama and Navy. Others were very much against the idea for many reasons. 

Traditionalists cited that Georgia Southern would be a small team in a small conference competing for six wins to make a bowl or get blown out every year. Others claimed that it did not make sense for financial reasons based on a feasibility study on the subject conducted in 2008. Despite these opinions, there were a very large number of those who wanted to make it all a reality; this group included Dr. Keel and Monken himself.

Then Athletic Director Sam Baker was one of those against the move but resigned in July of 2012 after 17 years in the role. Later that fall, it was announced that a student vote would determine the future of the football program and Allen E. Paulson Stadium. The vote would add a $25 fee toward the expansion of the stadium, a $75 fee to move to the FBS and a $10 fee for Sustainability and Green efforts on campus. 

Pre-vote, a lot of debate occurred around town and campus on the issue. The topic was even discussed heavily in sport management classes. Activist groups such as the Student Eagle Club Leadership Board, under the direction of former athletics marketing director Gordon Hunter, campaigned heavily in favor of students voting “yes.”

The season began before the vote occurred with the Eagles riding a lot of momentum and started the year ranked No. 3. In the opener, the team blasted Jacksonville 58-0 at home before being upset 23-21 at The Citadel. 

On Sept. 28, more than 9,390 students (nearly 55 percent of students) voted to pass all three issues with the FBS vote gaining a 61.2 percent approval and the stadium expansion vote gaining 70.4 percent. The vote would not affect the 2012 season but the search for an FBS conference was underway.  

Following the Citadel loss, the Eagles won six straight and rose to No. 2 in the rankings. Again, 15th-ranked Appalachian State pulled a 31-28 upset, though not without some controversy. The Eagles again won a share of the SoCon Title and reached the semifinals for the third straight year after wins over Central Arkansas and Old Dominion, and again faced North Dakota State for a chance to go to the championship game. This time the contest would be a lot more evenly matched.

The 2013 season served as a transition year, therefore the team would be ineligible to compete for a seventh national title. After losses to Wofford, Samford, App State and Furman, few expected much down the stretch of the final FCS year. After defeating Western Carolina and Elon, the Eagles headed to the Swamp to take on the Florida Gators for the final game.

Georgia Southern went in with 19 scholarship players injured and beat the Gators 26-20 without even completing a pass. Florida had a late chance to avoid the upset but was stopped on the 17-yard line as time expired. The Eagles’ last FCS game had miraculously produced their first win over an FBS opponent. 

During the offseason, Monken took a job as the head coach of Army West Point but left the ship with no captain in uncharted waters. 

In 2014, the Eagles lost last-second contests against the Atlantic Coast Conference’s North Carolina State 24-23 and Georgia Tech 42-38 which, despite the losses, gave fans some confidence heading into Sun Belt play. The team proceeded to win seven straight conference games. After a tough loss to Navy, the Eagles capped the year with a 22-16 win over Louisiana-Monroe to cap an outright, 8-0 SBC Championship in the first FBS season.

In the years since, Georgia Southern has won two bowl games, knocked off two AP Top-25 ranked teams (both APP) and has stayed competitive with power-five schools including an overtime loss to Georgia in 2015. 

There have definitely been highs and lows since the turning point events that led to the current era. Time will tell what this new frontier brings but one thing is for sure, there’s no turning back.