Pull up a lawn chair, friends. Royce Ogeechee here, sweet tea in one hand and my granddad's old wooden playbook binder in the other. Welcome to this week's Creek Side Chat. Hail Southern.
First, the honest news: Georgia Southern doesn't play this Saturday, Oct. 24. It's an open date. That works out fine for this old farm kid, because the Eagles already did their work for the week. They went to Norfolk on Thursday night and brought home a win. And when the bye is over, the next game is the one that circles itself on every Bulloch County calendar. App State is coming to Statesboro on Halloween.
Part 1: A Thursday Night Win in Norfolk
Georgia Southern beat Old Dominion 23-15 on Thursday, Oct. 15, at S.B. Ballard Stadium, in front of 17,912 people. That makes us 3-4 overall and 2-1 in the Sun Belt. I'll take it, and I'll take it with extra ice.
It didn't start pretty. Old Dominion opened the game with an 11-play, 75-yard drive and a 20-yard touchdown pass to tight end Leon Haughton Jr. But the Eagles answered right back with a 12-play, 75-yard drive of their own, and Terrance Gibbs ran it in from 11 yards out. Tied 7-7.
Then the defense took over. Aaron Sears recovered a fumble, and Tripp Bryant kicked a 33-yard field goal. Bryant added a 43-yarder and then a 31-yarder in the final minute of the half. Three field goals in one quarter, folks. My granddad used to say a field goal is a touchdown that wore its church clothes. We were dressed up for Sunday by halftime, 16-7.
Turner Helton hit Gibbs for an 11-yard touchdown at the end of an 11-play drive in the third quarter, and it was 23-7. Gibbs scored on the ground and through the air, and that's the kind of night that gets you a sweet tea rating of five full glasses. ODU did hit a 71-yard touchdown pass and a two-point conversion with about 10 minutes left. But it got no closer.
Helton went 23 of 30 for 205 yards. Alex Taylor caught seven passes for 75 yards. Tyrese Woodgett ran for 77. Anthony Bynum had two sacks. And look at this, from AP: Old Dominion managed only 65 rushing yards on 32 carries. That's 2.0 a carry. We had the ball for 36:26.
Now, the binder has notes in the margin, and they're honest notes. We were flagged 13 times for 120 yards. We went 3-for-12 on third down. Those are bye-week chores, like fixing the fence before the cows get out.
The Bye Week
So nobody plays Georgia Southern this Saturday. Here's how I'll spend it. I'll rate a couple of tailgates I'm not even going to, just for practice. And I'll keep one eye on Thursday night, because App State hosts unbeaten James Madison in Boone on Oct. 22. Whatever happens there, the Mountaineers will have nine days to get ready for us. We'll have had two weeks. Granddad would call that a head start.
Part 2: App State, Halloween, and the Prettiest Little Stadium in America
On Saturday, Oct. 31, App State visits Allen E. Paulson Stadium. ESPN lists the kickoff time and TV as not yet announced.
App State is 4-2 and 1-1 in the league. I'll be respectful, the way Granddad taught me, because this rivalry has earned it. Jaquari Lewis has 346 rushing yards and eight touchdowns, per ESPN, and he just ran for four touchdowns at Coastal. Sam Pickett III has 411 receiving yards. Caleb Sandstrom has five sacks. The Mountaineers average 29.5 points a game. That's a real football team.
But the Mountaineers come in with a few things to answer for. They scored three points in their last home game, a loss to Old Dominion, and that's the same ODU team we just beat in Norfolk. Their run defense gives up 137.8 a game, according to ESPN. And they'll be playing their second Sun Belt game in nine days after hosting a team that's 7-0.
Now, the history, from the binder and from CollegeFootballData.com. Last November, Georgia Southern went up the mountain and won 25-23 in Boone. WTOC reported that Tripp Bryant, then a freshman, made four field goals that night. The year before that, we beat App State 29-20 in Statesboro. And in 2022, at Paulson, we won 51-48. In Statesboro, the last two times App State visited, they went home the long way, with nothing but the leaves to look at.
The rivalry has a name, and it's a good one: Deeper Than Hate. It's a terrible name for a Sunday school class, but it's a perfect name for a football rivalry. Deeper than hate, kinder than you'd think.
Then there's the stadium. Wikipedia says the phrase "Prettiest Little Stadium in America" was coined by Erk Russell, the coach Georgia Southern hired in 1982 to start the new program. Erk's bust now stands along the fence near the Gene Bishop Fieldhouse. And this program has six FCS national championships, per Wikipedia. App State has a lovely stadium on a mountain. We have a pretty stadium, Erk's blessing and six trophies.
Let me open Granddad's binder to the page with the dog-eared corner. Wikipedia says Erk Russell's Eagles won their first national championship in 1985, then went back to Tacoma in 1986 and beat the Arkansas State Indians for another one. Erk won one more in his final game in 1989, and Tim Stowers' Eagles made it four in 1990. The program has also produced two Walter Payton Award winners, which makes it one of only five schools with more than one. Granddad wrote "1985" on the first page in pencil, and I won't let anybody erase it.
Tales From Two Towns
Statesboro. This is home, the 'Boro, the county seat of Bulloch County, with 33,438 people at the 2020 census. Wikipedia says the Georgia legislature created the town of "Statesborough" in December 1803. In 1906, it was picked as home of the First District A&M School, which grew into Georgia Southern. And Statesboro inspired a whole song. Blind Willie McTell wrote "Statesboro Blues" in the 1920s, and the Allman Brothers Band recorded a well-known version. Name me another Sun Belt town with its own blues song, friend. I'll wait right here on the porch.
Boone. Boone is a fine little mountain town of 19,092, Wikipedia says, up in the Blue Ridge, and its folks are kind. But here's the story of how it got its name. Daniel Boone camped there on several occasions. That's it. The man pitched a tent a few times, and they named the whole town after him. Down here, we'd call that a tailgate. Boone also had a little railroad nicknamed "Tweetsie," until the flood of 1940. Statesboro has a song. Boone has a train that tweets.
And one more thing, App State. You're bringing your boys down from the mountain to the flat, warm country of south Georgia on Halloween. Come hungry, bring a light jacket, and leave your snow boots at home. We'll have the sweet tea ready.
Creek Side Checklist
1. Clean up the flags. Thirteen is too many. 2. Keep running the clock. 36:26 of possession is how you keep a good offense on the sideline. 3. Get Bryant in range. The young man has been App State's worry before.
Rest well, Eagles. Hail Southern.