August 04, 2010 Alex Brown

d.alex.brown@gmail.com

    How great is it to ride by the practice fields and see the banks of Beautiful Eagle Creek full of activity as the team begins its preparation for another football season?
    This time of year is always fun. Anticipation runs high. And of course, here in Statesboro, expectations are always just a little too lofty. But we wouldn’t have it any other way.
    Why play if you don’t expect to win?
    I don’t think anybody realistically expects the Eagles to win a national championship this year. But after four years of mediocrity, what would be a considered realistic goal? A .500 season? For some reason, I can’t bring myself to call middle of the pack a goal. This is Georgia Southern, dadgummit. Average isn’t good enough.
    So, playoffs? Is that a reasonable goal? The playoff field is expanding to 20 teams this year. So 7-4 in the Southern Conference should get you in, right? Maybe. Or maybe they will just let the top eight Colonial teams in. “All hail the CAA” seems to be the trend these days.
    But honestly, are the playoffs this year realistic? I don’t want to be too optimistic here, but let’s look at this team briefly. The defense looks like it’s going to be pretty solid. The offense — well, who knows? It’s such a different system than what most of these guys have ever run before.
    But we do have a quarterback with experience in Jaybo Shaw. I’m not by any means saying he is the savior of the program, but this scheme works. And with someone at the helm who has Division I game experience, it should run much more smoothly than if we had to rely on someone fresh out of high school.
    Look what happened when Paul Johnson came to town in 1997. Coming off a 4-7 season under an interim head coach, PJ’s Eagles advanced all the way to the second round of the playoffs.
    But is a playoff berth something the Eagle Nation should expect? Personally, I don’t think it’s completely out of the realm of possibility. With that said, I also don’t think anybody needs to be calling for head coach Jeff Monken’s job if we don’t make the postseason. With the amount of attrition this program has seen over the last several years, it’s a wonder we can even fill out a two-deep roster.
    Practice started this week regardless. And those guys are out there busting their tails in the suffocating heat and swarming gnats — staples of a Statesboro August — all to get this program back on top. They are working toward winning championships no matter what the pollsters say — these Eagles were picked to finish seventh in the conference. The mission of proving those folks wrong began this week.
    As hard as it is to believe, kickoff is just a month away. The time to GATA starts now in the 100-degree heat. If you’ve set foot outside in the last couple of weeks at 2:45 in the afternoon, you know that if these guys can beat this heat, the opponents on the schedule don’t look quite so tough. But that’s not to say Navy and App aren’t going to be very tough ball games.
    Next week we’ll take a look at the offense and who will be impact players. The following week, we’ll do the same for the defensive side of the ball. We will talk about the season and each opponent the week after that. And then it will be game week and we’ll preview the season opener against Savannah State.
    Practice has started folks — it’s football season. And Sept. 4 will be here before we know it.

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