New Georgia Southern football coach Jeff Monken said before the season that the return of the triple option offense wasn’t going to be a “magic wand” that would solve all the Eagles’ problems.
Perhaps not, but so far so good.
Georgia Southern is 3-1 – the lone loss a 13-7 defeat at Navy – and opened Southern Conference play last week with an impressive 38-21 win over Elon.
“It was certainly a great win for our team and for our program,” said Monken, whose Eagles are now ranked No. 16 in the FCS coaches’ poll, while Elon dropped from 11th to 21st.
Monken, an assistant under Paul Johnson at GSU when the Eagles won national titles in 1999 and 2000, galvanized the fan base when he arrived. He’s also fired up a tradition-rich program that went 21-23 from 2006-09.
“I definitely think we’re a little surprised at how well we’re playing,” all-conference defensive tackle Brent Russell said, “but we’ve been working hard and Coach Monken, he’s a great coach.”
Against Elon, a playoff team last season, the Eagles did what they’ve done all season – run the ball effectively, control the clock and play good defense.
“I don’t think we did anything we didn’t expect,” Russell said.
The Eagles rushed for 379 yards passed for 129 and had the ball for 39 minutes, 33 seconds. In the third quarter, Georgia Southern held the ball for all but 3:17.
“One of their drives [last Saturday] was like eight minutes, and I had to loosen and stretch back out before going back out there because it just took so long,” Russell said. “I’ve never sat on the bench that long.”
The Eagles, who play at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga on Oct. 16, lead the SoCon in scoring defense (15.8 points per game). They’re second in scoring offense (34 ppg), total defense (284.2 yards per game) and rushing defense (84.2 ypg).
Monken is an intense, no-nonsense coach and has reiterated again and again this season that the Eagles, regardless of results, have a lot of room for improvement.
“We’re a work in progress,” he said. “We’ve got a long way to go in terms of just being the kind of team that we want to be or we’re going to need to be to be able to challenge for a conference championship.”
Contact John Frierson at jfrierson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6268. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/mocsbeat.