By BJ Bennett
SouthernPigskin.com

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This is a program that long ago started with a simple leap of faith. A generation later, Georgia Southern is coming for college football’s best.

Above all else, tradition is what Georgia Southern is bringing to the Sun Belt Conference. From off the interstate and off the radar, a program born again and baptized in ditch water quickly became a national power. Success was overwhelming and immediate. An attitude of persistence spread like boll weevils on a cotton crop. The results, with all due respect to metro Atlanta, brought six flags to Statesboro.00

From day one, the Eagles have never apologized for their ambition. In 1982, Georgia Southern’s first season since before World War II, the school went 7-3-1. Three years later, the Eagles won their first national championship. They won another the very next fall. One of the most unlikely reclamation projects in the history of the game, Georgia Southern brought talk of big-time football to dinner tables in rural parts of the Peach state. It’s a tale topped in a home-style relish.00

“A good story just makes you feel better,” legendary head coach Erk Russell once acknowledged.

A new chapter, for the Eagles, is soon set to begin. Georgia Southern will open play as a member of the FBS Sun Belt Conference on August 30th at North Carolina State. It’s a fascinating change for one of the true pillars of FCS, formerly 1-AA, football. The Eagles ended that era, offering foreshadowing for the future, with a historic triumph at Florida this past November. The win was one over an established SEC power, but doubters and critics alike.000

Much has been made about Georgia Southern’s new role as the Eagles move forward. They are joining a league where just one team finished 2013 with a losing record. Conference co-champions Louisiana-Lafayette and Arkansas State both won bowl games, Western Kentucky beat Kentucky and Louisiana-Monroe topped Wake Forest. Since 2007, five different Sun Belt teams have at least one victory over a BCS foe; only FBS newcomers Georgia State, South Alabama and Texas State have yet to join the club. The Eagles are ahead of the curve.

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Landmark wins are nothing new for Georgia Southern. The Eagles won their first game of the modern era, as a club team, 16-9 over Central Florida in Jacksonville. Their first NCAA victory came 14-0 against Florida A&M in a contest played down the road in Savannah. Paulson Stadium was formally opened with a 48-11 trouncing of Liberty. Russell’s Georgia Southern “franchise”, as coined by Lewis Grizzard, shutout Jackson State 27-0 in 1985 in a sign-of-things-to-come playoff debut. The Eagles claimed a national title three weeks later, edging rival Furman 44-42.00

The 1989 season was one filled with a lifetime’s worth of memories. The Hugo Bowl, played on September 21st, paired home-standing Georgia Southern and Middle Tennessee State against both one another and a category four hurricane, a furious roar of rain and wind ravaging the low country right off the nearby coast. The Eagles slopped to a 26-0 victory, then right to shelter. The now-famous battle with the elements was ESPN’s second Thursday night game broadcast ever.000

Georgia Southern’s third national championship was won that December, in Statesboro, in a 37-34 classic with future NFL Pro Bowler Larry Centers and Stephen F. Austin. Quarterback Raymond Gross led a furious rally and a late field goal by kicker Mike Dowis helped the Eagles become the first program in NCAA Division I history finish a season 15-0. Fittingly enough, that historic milestone was Russell’s final moment. Perfection, seared like the end of a victory cigar, stands as his lasting legacy.

As Russell won a title in his last go-round, Tim Stowers did the same in his first. The Eagles reeled off eleven consecutive victories in 1990, outscoring UCF and Nevada a combined 80-20 in the semifinal and championship rounds. Later in the decade, Paul Johnson brought Georgia Southern back to the national forefront. Led by the iconic Adrian Peterson, the Eagles went unscathed in 1998 before losing in the finals.

Johnson’s juggernaut continued to overwhelm. Georgia Southern, again, won back-to-back national championships in 1999 and 2000. In the final game of the 20th century, absolutely nobody was able to stop the Walter Payton award-winning Peterson; he, however, forever stopped time. Peterson tore through Jim Tressel’s Youngstown State defense, like a birthday boy through wrapping paper, in one of the most famous plays in college football history. The distance was 58 yards, the message was immeasurable.

During the Johnson era, the Eagles went a combined 62-10 in five years. The minutia is even more impressive. Georgia Southern won two national titles, made the semifinals in every season but his first and won at least a share of the conference championship every single time. Of the losses, two were to 1-A schools, three came in the playoffs and four were by 12 points — total.

Most recently, Jeff Monken took the Eagles to the final four in each of his first three efforts. With Georgia Southern ineligible for the postseason this past year, he and the Eagles settled for an aforementioned 26-20 win at Florida instead. Paced by veteran Jerick McKinnon, the option-offense amassed 429 total yards, all rushing. For a program that was born off and running, they ended a famed three-decade stretch the exact same way.00

Even as the setting changes, the expectations won’t.

“The challenge here at Georgia Southern is to attain the same type of success we have had at the FCS level at the highest level of competition in college football. That is what our goal is,” head coach Willie Fritz explained at his introductory press conference.

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There is a special energy around town as the Eagles prepare for what lies ahead. Paulson Stadium is undergoing dramatic expansions and renovations. A statewide re-branding campaign is in full swing. Earlier in the month, Fritz signed a nationally-acclaimed recruiting class. The haul features prospects from nine different states and five offensive linemen averaging over 6’3”, 304 pounds. Though the roster is full of top-level talent, what makes Georgia Southern so special registers off the charts.

“I think Georgia Southern will bring tradition to the Sun Belt, something that the players and fans take great pride,” Peterson stated.

On the field and in the stands, that determination is on full display.

“I believe the program stands for excellence. I believe that our fan base is the true meaning of dedicated fans,” Jayson Foster, the 2007 Walter Payton Award winner, continued. “I think we will bring along a winning attitude and a sense of belonging. Georgia Southern is a reflection of work ethic and pride that will always show up on Saturdays. Our fans carry that around.”

Despite the uncharted territory, confidence is widespread and for good reason. School faculty voted against football’s renewal in the late 1970s, practice fields were lined with a drainage canal and financial limitations forced the use of basic tape for helmet stripes; the Eagles were still the best team in the country in just their second sanctioned year. Opposition of all types has long been welcomed, then defeated.00

“I’ll tell you, they are going to get one of the best coming in from the FBS. Georgia Southern is0 a powerhouse that knows how to win and is going to win regardless,” added Dallas Cowboys safety and former Eagle J.J. Wilcox on “Three & Out” on the Southern Pigskin Radio Network. “A lot of tradition will be brought in, a lot of hard nosed players that want to and know how to win.”

This is a program that long ago started with a simple leap of faith. A generation later, Georgia Southern is coming for college football’s best. The Eagles, this fall, will step on the field believing that they belong. A line of yellow school buses will soon deliver that message.