STATESBORO - Favian Upshaw, who was named MVP of the 2015 GoDaddy Bowl, has been named the running backs coach for the Georgia Southern football staff as the running backs coach, as announced Monday by head coach Chad Lunsford. The former Georgia Southern quarterback joins an offensive staff led by Doug Ruse, who was his position coach and offensive coordinator his final three seasons in Statesboro.

"We are beyond excited to add Favian Upshaw to our coaching staff as the running backs coach at Georgia Southern," Lunsford said. "He is a great example of a GS Man and will have an immediate impact on our program. Favian was a Georgia Southern great as a player and now gets to add to his Georgia Southern legacy as a coach. He has played and coached in our offense and that is an invaluable resource for our staff and student-athletes. Favian has worked for everything in his career and it is awesome for us to add a former Eagle student-athlete who understands what is to be a GS Man on and off the playing field. G.A.T.A."

Upshaw returns to Georgia Southern after two stops at two schools that did not play during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, he was named the quarterbacks coach at Benedict College and was in the wide receivers and A Backs coach at Savannah State in 2020. Prior to those two stops, he was a graduate assistant coach at Tulane University in 2018 and 2019 under former Eagle head coach Willie Fritz.

"I'm so excited to be back coaching for Eagle Nation," Upshaw said. "As a player, I always dreamed of coming back and coaching here. I'm unbelievably thankful for Coach Ruse and Coach Lunsford for believing in me and trusting me for this position. Hail Southern!"

Upshaw served as Tulane's on-field assistant coach for the quarterbacks during the 2018 Cure Bowl, a convincing win over Louisiana, and was apart of the first back-to-back bowl wins in school history. In 2019, Pro Football Focus ranked Tulane as the ninth-best rushing team in the country and the team finished season with a schoolrecord of 5,841 total yards. He served as the offensive assistant coach with a concentration on quarterbacks while assisting the coaching staff with daily operations including practice planning, film related activities, and coordinating individual, position, and staff meetings.

Prior to Tulane, Upshaw was the co-offensive coordinator and a teacher at Astronaut High School in his native Titusville, Florida.

Upshaw is no stranger to the Georgia Southern program, racking up over 2,400 yards of total offense in four years as a co-starter at quarterback for Georgia Southern. His breakout year for the Eagles came in 2015 when he rushed for 583 yards and six touchdowns. In his senior year, he threw four touchdown passes despite being limited with injuries.

He was named the MVP of the 2015 GoDaddy Bowl, leading his team to a 58-27 victory over Bowling Green in the Eagles' first bowl game in school history. He helped secure the championship with a career-high 199 rushing yards on 12 carries with four touchdowns. Both the yardage and touchdwon totals still stand as school bowl records. Upshaw has been a part of three winning bowl teams, one as a player and two as a coach.

Upshaw graduated from Georgia Southern in 2016 with a degree in sport management and a minor in business administration and earned his Master's degree in liberal arts from Tulane in 2020.

Joe Graves, who was announced as the running backs coach in February, will move to the tight ends coach and will also be the special teams coordinator. Nick Jones, who was hired in February, has left the program to pursue another professional opportunity.