July 14, 2010 Alex Brown

d.alex.brown@gmail.com

    As we discussed last week, things are pretty quiet on the college athletics front here in the dead middle of summer. However, there are a few things going on, so this week’s edition of the Tattler is going to be a bit of a ‘this and that’ type piece.
    A few newsworthy things are going on, but we’ll start with the bad news. Three football Eagles have left the team — highly touted sophomore wide receiver Jamere Valentine, junior running back Chris Teal and sophomore offensive lineman Hunter Poole are all leaving to pursue other opportunities.
    Valentine was a big deal when he got to campus last Fall. In Chris Hatcher’s pass-happy offense, he was primed to put up some recordbreaking career receiving numbers for Georgia Southern. But with the triple option now installed, a receiver’s most important responsibility is blocking with an occasional big pass play.
    Having a big receiver with good hands would have been a nice weapon to have in this offensive system, but Valentine has decided to leave Georgia Southern so we wish him the best of luck.
    Chris Teal would have been another offensive weapon because of his speed. The rumor was he was faster than Jayson Foster in a straight run.
    Although he didn’t have Foster’s moves or quickness (but let’s be honest, who does?), having him as a pitch man on the corner would have been a nightmare for opposing defenses.
    But Teal hadn't played since 2007. He was injured for the 2008 season and missed 2009 due to academics, so there’s no guarantee he had those issues resolved and would have been able to play anyway. But there’s no need to speculate on that now.
    Let’s move on to subjects that are more fun. Three Eagles received preseason honors this week, with defensive lineman and reigning College Sporting News FCS Freshman of the Year Brent Russell leading the charge.
    Russell was named to Phil Steele’s Preseason FCS All-America second team. He was also selected to the All-Southern Conference first team while defensive end Dion Dubose and cornerback Laron Scott were named to the second team.
    Many people are expecting a good year defensively for Southern, since that side of the ball has far fewer question marks. With Russell and Dubose anchoring the line and Scott and senior corner Carson Hill in the defensive backfield, points should be hard to come by for opponents. And we didn’t even mention names like Darius Eubanks, Josh Rowe and Willie Burden. These guys should be good.
    SportSouth announced its SoCon Saturday television lineup and Georgia Southern’s 6 p.m. home game on Sept. 25 made the schedule. It’s always exciting to have games televised and SportSouth reaches more than ten million homes in six states — but I have some beef.
    Why just one Southern game? And not even when App comes to Statesboro or when Georgia Southern plays at Furman? Appalachian makes three appearances and Elon makes two. Everyone else has just one.
    There are two "to be announced" dates at the end of the year. Hopefully that Georgia Southern/Furman matchup on Nov. 20 has some SoCon title implications and will be worthy of television.
    Georgia Southern football season tickets are on sale now. The season kicks off on Sept. 4 against Savannah State and features five home games. Family Weekend is Oct. 9 vs. Wofford and Homecoming will be Nov. 6 when Appalachian State comes to town.
    With this summer heat bearing down on us, the Tattler can't wait for the cooler weather that football season brings. Just seven weeks until kickoff — it’s just about time to dust off the tailgating supplies.

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