Could The #FreeGSU Movement Get Legs After All...???

((HT: The Coastal Source))

Georgia Southern student Jeremy Mack has created an online petition to see if his Eagles (and Brother Phil's Eagles for that matter) could get an NCAA waiver to participate in bowl season if there are not enough bowl eligible teams in the first place...

His petititon is hyah...

His interview with FOSG's Big Frank and Stefanie to explain himself is below...


The HQ is for it...

We're fairly certain Southern is for it...

And it might even mean a bid in the Camellia Bowl for them- which is a new bowl game in Montgomery for December 20th, by the way...

The Eagles are currently 7-2, 6-0 in the Sun Belt. They're are currently 1st in the conference standings, and the rest of their season is interesting. The Eagles travel to Texas State and Navy before finishing the season at home against Louisiana-Monroe.

Could be 9-3 or so... and the waiver might be theirs...

Georgia Southern's Win Streak Is 6, But Who Will Coach Troy?

((HT: College Football Talk/The Coastal Source))

We discussed earlier in the week just how successful Georgia Southern has been in their first Sun Belt Conference-Division I season- doing it the right way in developing a football program.

They took care of Troy 42-10 last night and took their win streak to six.

CFT has the numbers on the win:

Georgia Southern, the top-ranked FBS rushing offense at a shade over 400 yards per game, has racked up 1,034 rushing yards in the past five days. They’ve punted twice in 22 combined possessions.

All that running limited Troy to just 44 offensive snaps.

Here's The Big Guy with the highlights


The larger question is: Who will replace Larry Blakeney as the new coach at Troy...?

Here's a name for you...

Rush Propst...

The current Colquitt County (GA) head coach has his Packers ranked top-five in the country and are the favorite to win the state title in the highest classification in the state. He has maintained in the past that he is the "best college coach in the country that no one has hired."

The situation makes sense. A program in trouble in need for renewal and rebuilding. It gives Propst the chance to go back to Alabama to coach and he can work his system to build it his way in a Division I football conference.

So there...

Propst needs seven more weeks worth of wins to go coast-to-coast and, then, it's on Troy... and up to Troy...

Willie Fritz And Guerilla Marketing

((HT: Georgia Southern their own selves))

When Willie Fritz left San Houston State for Georgia Southern, some folks thought he was crazy...

They were right...

Out of the blocks, Fritz has them contending for a Sun Belt Conference title (which they can't claim) and has Brother Phil beside himself with Division I football glee...

Doing it the right way will do that when you're elevating your program from Division I-AA to Big Boy Football.

Fritz was looking for the biggest crowd in the history of the the newly-expanded Paulsen Stadium before Thursday night's game with Troy.

What do you do to drum up support...???

Invade Fraternity Row- specifically the Sigma Chi house...

The Reason: Coach Fritz Visits Sigma Chi from Georgia Southern Football on Vimeo.

See...???

Told you he knows his marketing...

Former Tennessee Titans Kicker Rob Bironas Dies In Crash

((ht: newschannel5.com))

Former Tennessee Titans kicker Rob Bironas was found dead late Saturday night after a single vehicle crash in Nashville, Tennessee.

The 36-year old Bironas is the all-time leading scorer in Titans history and was known as one of the most clutch kickers in the NFL.

According to our friends at Newschannel 5 in Nashville, police say Bironas's GMC Yukon went off the road at a high rate of speed, crashed into some trees, flipped and landed in a drainage ditch less than a mile from his home.

They tried to get him to Vanderbilt's Memorial Hospital but he passed away en route.

Bironas, who began college at Auburn and then transferred to Georgia Southern, started his pro career in the Arena League.

In 2005, he won a job with the Titans and was voted all-pro in 2007 and 2008. The Titans released him before the 2014 season began.

He was active in the Nashville community through his charitable foundation which provided opportunities to under privileged kids throughout the Metro Nashville area.

Bironas was married former to NFL star Terry Bradshaw's daughter Rachel this past June.

Our friends at NewsChannel5 provide video:

Cupcake Saturday: Ga. Southern Drops 83 Points on Sav. State

There were some pretty big numbers put up in Week 2 of the College Football season as most of the big "Power 5" schools took this week to schedule any of the cupcake schools they could convince to take a big payday.

And yes, there were some blowouts, Florida beats E.Michigan 65-0, Clemson scores 73 vs. S.Carolina State.

But nobody scored more than 1st year FBS team and my alma mater, Georgia Southern of the mighty Sun Belt Conference.

The Eagles beat Savannah State Saturday evening 83-9 in front of a packed house in Paulson Stadium.

Southern ran for 599 yards and only tried 5 passes, completing 4 of them and the Eagles led the game 69-0 after 3 quarters.

Friend of the OSG and fellow Ga. Southern alum Big Frank Sulkowski brings us the highlights.

Ga. Southern's "Eagle Invasion" Recruiting Video Includes Statue Head-Butting

((ht: ajc.com))

One of the great things about co-owning a Sports Blog is you can write about your alma-mater.

Which is why I'm posting this Georgia Southern football recruiting story.

Much like the fine folks at the AJC, we don't know much about incoming head coach Willie Fritz. Fritz takes over for the departed Jeff Monken who left for Army this past offseason and comes from Sam Houston State in Texas.

And Southern, a traditional FCS (1-AA) power school, has moved up to the greener if not bigger enviorns of FBS (D-1) Football. Specifically the Sun Belt conference.

So, while the 'ol alma-mater may never again win a National Championship again in football, at least coach Fritz has brought a modern edge to the folks in Statesboro. The Eagles are steeped in tradition, having won multiple FCS titles under legendary head coach Erk Russell.

Check out the schools football recruiting video, which features the coaching staff paying tribute to Russell before heading out on their respective missions...

Army Hires Jeff Monken as Football Coach

---Sigh---

And we sigh because as a Georgia Southern Grad, we're losing a pretty good football coach.

Army has a new football commander. The Military Academy announced Tuesday morning Jeff Monken, the now former football coach at Georgia Southern will take over the program.

Monken, who's been pretty successful in Statesboro going 31-12 in 4 seasons, will succeed Rich Ellerson who was let go after a 3-9 season. He had success with Georgia Southern, who will be moving this season to the FBS level Sun Belt Conference, after a 7-5 season highlighted by a rousing win over the University of Florida.

He's a disciple of the Paul Johnson school of option football, much like Navy coach Ken Niamulatolo and is expected to get paid somewhere in the ballpark of the $1 million plus salary Niamulatolo is pulling in.

It leaves the Eagles in a lurch as they now take their turn on the Coaching Carousel.

Why Ga. Southern Beating Florida Means More to Me Than It Does You

By now if you are a College Football fan, you know that Georgia Southern beat the University of Florida 26-20 Saturday afternoon.

And yes, anytime an FBS (Div-1AA) team beats a FCS (Div-1) team, it's a big deal. It's even bigger if they beat a team from the once mighty SEC.

It also gives the SEC bashers (everyone who lives outside the Southeastern U.S) more fuel to argue the SEC isn't what people think it is. Especially this year.

You can argue that Florida had so many injured players and was playing their 3rd string QB. And for what it's worth, Ga. Southern was down 16 scholarship players with injury too.

But no, the reason it means more to me than you: I went to Georgia Southern. I was there when the program was in year 2 (1983--I'm old). I was there for the first two National Championships the Eagles won (1985, 1986).

GaSouthern vs. SCState 1985

Going to a smaller school is different than going to a big one. Especially if you live in the south. Sports talk radio, TV and others don't pay attention to the little guys. Ever. They consider games like this a joke.

It's tough when your whole life you get asked "You Georgia or Florida?" or growing up in Florida it was "Florida or Florida State?".

How 'bout neither?

Me…and most of my friends don't consider ourselves bandwagon jumpers. Living in the South, there are millions who claim to be fans of schools they never attended. And many of them are the psychotic ones with the tricked out decorated buses or traveling all over the southeast going to games or doing crazy stuff degrading or trying to embarrass their opponents. Not us.

No, sorry, if you went to a small school like Georgia Southern, that's your team. It's always your team. You don't get to pull for anyone else.

When I graduated from Southern (1988), my friends and I tried to go to all the "Big School" games we played afterwards. We were there in 1986 when we played Florida, in a thunderstorm and set a "Then" stadium record for most yards rushing. We lost 38-14, but we were hoarse for a week.

I didn't get to go to Tallahassee in 1988 when we led FSU 10-6 after 3 quarters. I was working my 1st TV job in Lynchburg, Virginia. And when I came back from working a UVA football game late that afternoon, my Sports Anchor told me "You guys are beating FSU", my 1st response was "I call bullshit". We didn't win, we lost 23-10. But we scared them.

Fast forward a couple years. We were in the stands, at Jordan-Hare stadium when the Eagles walked to the locker room at halftime, leading Auburn 17-3. We all made a pact if we won, we were going to get arrested. We didn't win, but we scared the crap out of them.

It's hard to explain the attachment that I have to the football team. I'm not a crazed SEC type fan who's entire life in the fall revolves around going to or stopping the day to watch every second of the game. I haven't named my dog Eagle or have blue and white painted stuff around my house. I have one Georgia Southern t-shirt and a GSU sweatshirt. But Southern always has a place in my heart.

Heck, how could it not? When I was there, I was at every game. In 1986, I was a DJ on the campus radio station, WVGS. My shift was 10 a.m-1 p.m. And at the time, we started all our games at 1:30. That gave me just enough time to get across campus and make the game.

In 1987, I actually worked the games. I was a Broadcast major and we traditionally shot all the games from the top of the press box. I took it one step further. We scrounged up a second set of gear and while we took turns shooting up top, I would spend the second half and eventually the whole game on the field.

That's where I really got hooked.

Before long I was going to practice on Monday's and interviewing coach Russell and some players about the upcoming game and shipping it to TV stations around the state. By midseason, we started traveling to the games we could drive to. I got to know some of the players and had a couple of them play on my intramural basketball team. And the coolest thing to me, when I saw Erk Russell, he would always say hi to me.

True side story--Every Monday, when I interviewed him, we'd start the same way. "So coach, talk about last Saturday's game. How did the team play and how does it get you ready for next week?" "Well, Phil, 38 is more than 17, we won, they lost, so I guess it was a good week. It should help us be ready when ______ comes to town".

I always have kept up with Georgia Southern Football and always made it known they're "My Team". But I sort of bent my own rule. Some of you know I worked in Sports for a long, long time. And covered the University of Georgia for some 10-years. Got to know some of the behind the scenes folks there and had a nice, cordial relationship with coach Richt. Heck, Brother Jon, Brother Wilkie and I wrote a book about Georgia Football.

And admittedly, I like to see them win.

But Georgia Southern is always in my heart. My 4.5 years there were some of the best--and worst times of my life. I'm so thankful I went there instead of a big school.

True side story--I was accepted at the University of Florida coming out of Lake Brantley High School in Altamonte Springs, Florida. But it was conditional--I would have had to go to summer school and do well before being accepted for a fall term.

I never went.

And if I did, I would never have made it through the core curriculum. I barely made it through my 1st two years at Southern.

So that's why Georgia Southern beating Florida means more to me. Southern had played 20 games against Division 1 schools, we'd never beaten one. Florida had played 47 games against non-Division 1 schools, they'd never lost.

Neither of those statements will ever be said again.


Here's the TV story from fellow Georgia Southern grad Frank Sulkowski of WJCL-TV in Savannah who also knows just how big of a deal this is:

Ga. Southern Beats Florida: Yes, This Really Happened

In a season of bad luck and things gone wrong, we're pretty sure for the once-proud and always big-talking Florida Gators have hit rock-bottom.

The Gators got beat Saturday afternoon by FBS (D-1AA), Georgia Southern 26-20, in the Swamp.

We could go on for a long, long time about all the mistakes Florida and coach Will Muschamp made and how they got beat by a team that threw for 0 yards, but that would be piling on. Wouldn't it?

The now 7-4 Eagles were expected to be a playoff team on their level and are making the move to the FCS (D-1) Sun Belt next season.

But there still isn't a universe that exists where they should beat Florida, yet they did.

429 yards rushing was more than enough for Southern, who up until Saturday afternoon, had never actually beaten an FCS team, never mind an SEC team some thought might compete for a title.

We won't go into too much detail in this story, I will file a column when I have more time, but suffice to say, Florida coach Will Muschamp has a lot to worry about this holiday season. And as for Florida fans. Well, there's always basketball....

ESPN gives us a look at the last play of the game (And yes, I'm still laughing)

 

Georgia Southern Goes Retro

((HT: WTOC-TV))

A lot of schools are always looking for that marketing opportunity that others can't have...

Showing off an old look to salute the past and make a killing off the nostalgia...

Brother Phil's alma, Georgia Southern, is no different...

Georgia Teacher's College wore the style that GSU is breaking out for senior day from 1924-1941

Here's the sweet-looking throwbacks...
WTOC-TV: Savannah, Beaufort, SC, News, Weather

And, the HQ is sure, that Brother Phil will be buying his old-school threads...
As will the HQ...

Something to Ponder: Our Plan To Make College Football Equal To All

Yes, this will be column 8,412,338 on how to fix College Football, because whether you want to admit it or not, the game is broken.

And its all about money and equality--or the lack of it.

We started thinking about this the other day when our alma mater (Georgia Southern) was officially named a member of the Sun Belt Conference and took the leap from 1-AA where we were a perennial title contender, to D-1, where we'll never be one.

Really, that's the crux of the problem here.

College Football has become a game of "Have's" and "Have Not's". And to be totally honest, Division 1 Football SHOULD be broken into 2, or even 3 categories.

If you are still reading this; you probably are asking "Why?"

The thought came to me on Tuesday when an Atlanta area Sports Talk Radio host was making completely uninformed commentary on Georgia Southern's jump. In his world view, you are D-1 "Big Boy" football or you don't exist.

And that's the problem in a nutshell.

The blanket just doesn't fit. It has never fit and it never WILL fit.

It bothered me because I want my school to be able to compete for a "National Title", but now, moving to Division 1, they never will.

They can't. They won't be allowed. And they don't have the talent. Georgia Southern could play Alabama or Ohio State or Georgia or USC 100 times and never beat any of them.

Not once. Not ever.

And that's just wrong. If you are a Division 1 school that can only afford a recruiting budget of $2 million a year, how can you compete against a school that pays their coach that much?

How can you compete against a school with a $10+ million a year recruiting budget?

You can't. You will never get the same athlete's, same coaches or have the same facilities.

Ever.

That's why we say College Football should be broken back up.

The Cartel (BCS Schools) control everything. If you aren't one of them now, you will NEVER be one of them. The nature of the system prevents it.

So let them go it alone. Let them play "Big Boy" Football. Let them be DIVISION 1.

Why not have the 40 or so schools with $10+ million budgets and 70,000-plus seat stadiums and $100 million athletic associations play against each other all the time?

Those schools will and will continue to make briefcases full of money because of that. And even some of those 40 or so schools lose some money trying to keep up.

For a smaller D-1 school, there's no way to make any money.

None.

For Georgia Southern, their travel budget just tripled. There athletic budget, the same. Sure, the students agreed to a $75 person increase in their student fees to subsidize it, but that ain't gonna be enough. For a school with 20,000 students. That's $1.5 million. Add in alumni donations etc and no, you still will never be Georgia.

That's why we want to propose a change. A fairly radical change considering College Football doesn't like such things.

But it needs to be done to give the smaller "Big" schools a chance. A way to compete. A way to have their own title.

Here's our proposal:

Make it a "Sub-NFL" type of thing. 4 Conferences with 10 teams each, top 2 in each go to a playoff and a title. ESPN would pay Billions for it. (Well, actually cable and satellite subscribers would---but that's another story)

It's what the general, unknowledgeable public wants anyway right?

Then take the rest of Division 1 and make them a subset. Take your Sun Belts, your Conference USA's, your MAC's and other conferences and let them play under the old system. Or if you want, the old "Corrupt" bowl system.

But the two groups need to be separate.

And it's for the reason's above. And I'm talking about some surprises. Take your Kentucky's out of the SEC, take your Wake Forests out of the ACC and your Northwestern's out of the Big 10.

Because they'll never win the BCS or whatever they are going to soon call it title.

Ever.

Why should anyone in the Sun Belt have to try and go 12-0, win their conference, win a conference championship game and then pray they MIGHT get invited to a playoff game? And then get killed in said game?

I'm sorry Troy, Central Michigan, Colorado State, North Texas and others, none of you will get to the current College Football playoff....ever.

It's not like this level of football would be totally left out of the TV Money, they wouldn't. Where there used to "1" Sports Network (ESPN), now there are 4 of them. And they need programming.

No, none of these schools would not draw the ratings of a Ohio St/Alabama game, but they wouldn't have to.

Think about this:

College Football in many ways is mirroring the current business climate. CEO's and mega-corporations are making money and getting paid in obscene amounts, but the worker's aren't seeing it.

And the workers will never see it.

We know full well, this will never happen. The NCAA should make it happen if for no other reason than to restore some integrity on some level. But the "Cat" is already out of the bag.

The NCAA doesn't control the College Football playoff system now, and it's out-of-control. Someone needs to reign it back in. Someone needs to make it fair to all.

And that's why they should adopt our system. Really it's quite simple:

Division 1(FBS)---The ESPN league (The Top 40)
Division 1A--The FOX Sports league (The next 82)
Division 1AA-(FCS)---The NBC Sports Net League (Stays as is)
Division 2------The CBS Sports Net League (Stays as is)

Because we like video to cap our stories--our thoughts in song form:

Worst Kept Secrets Continue: Southern To Sun Belt Official...

The press conference actually happened...

Georgia Southern, Brother Phil, and all the alumni are heading to the Sun Belt Conference for 2014...

“This is a milestone day for Georgia Southern University, and we are very excited to be joining the Sun Belt conference,” Georgia Southern President Brooks Keel, Ph.D., told a standing room only crowd in the Williams Center during the official announcement. “This decision was made with the long-term interest of our University in mind. The Sun Belt will provide our student athletes with an outstanding opportunity to compete at a highest level, and we are excited to contribute to the conference's success both on and off the field. I am equally excited about the opportunity that it will provide Georgia Southern and the more than 75,000 alumni that make up the Eagle Nation.”

Sun Belt Conference Commissioner Karl Benson was present as President Keel formally accepted the Sun Belt invitation. “We have built our reputation around a focus on the student, and this move will allow us to partner to provide our student athletes with the opportunity to compete on a national stage,” said Georgia Southern Athletics Director Tom Kleinlein. “Today, I invite the entire Eagle Nation to stand up and join us on this journey.”

Georgia Southern joins Georgia State as natural rivals in the new conference. The Panthers first Division I year is this season after spending time getting the feet wet in the Colonial Athletic Association.

65 percent of the GSU student body voted to pay an extra $75 a semester to help fund the move. That fee will be collected starting in the fall. Paulsen Stadium will also add 6,300 additional seats.

Gives the HQ the excuse to run this again...
((HT: EaglesGATA))

Going Big Time: Ga. Southern Finally Takes The Leap

I'm really torn about this....

For those of you who don't know, I am a graduate of Georgia Southern, which recently announced they were moving from FCS (the old 1-AA) to FBS (D-1) Football.

Mind you, I'm no youngin', I was at Southern a long, long time ago. Long enough that the 1st game I saw my school play was as a Division II team in the fall of 1983 at Statesboro High School, their 2nd year of existence.

The coach Erk Russell.

And now my school is what a local Atlanta area radio host called today "Going to Big Boy Football".

Should I be celebrating this? Should I be excited? Should I be relieved?

That's not such an easy answer.

In many ways, it's fun being a bigger fish in a smaller pond. Georgia Southern has won 6 FCS Championships since the program began in 1982. I was there for 2 of them.

The world of College Football is not what it once was. There are essentially two distinct classes. The "Have's" and the "No Chances". By moving to FBS (D-1), we move from one to the other.

There will be no BCS Titles for us.

Sure, we appear to be moving to the Sun Belt Conference, which is the perfect "Entry Level" conference in College Football.

And there is nothing to say if we get real successful against the Louisiana-Lafayette's and Troy's of the world, that we can't move up to a bigger conference.

But we'll never beat Alabama.

Sadly, not in this decade.

Nor the next one.

Maybe, just maybe, we'll catch a couple "Once in a Lifetime" players, make a crazy run, catch a few breaks and get to play in a third tier bowl game.

The "No Chances" in college football, they don't get to play in the Rose Bowl. They don't get to play in the Sugar Bowl, Tostitos Fiesta Bowl or even the Chick-Fil-A Bowl. They get the Motor City Bowl, the Champs Sports Bowl or Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl.

But I suppose that is something.

We'll need the extra money D-1 provides, just to pay for that reward, but I suppose it's worth it.

These days nobody pays attention to the lower levels of NCAA Sports. You aren't on ESPN unless you are in the title game. You aren't won't be on Fox Sports 1 either. You may make it to Comcast Sports South or the Regional Fox Sports Net, but that's it.

But you have to make the move.

Georgia Southern outgrew FCS (1-AA) many years ago. But we never could afford to make the move. Playing "Big Boy" football costs a lot of money these days. Sure, if you have a $20 million a year TV contract, you can afford the big travel budget and to pick and choose your opponents.

But not us.

Fly high, you Georgia Southern Eagle, I for one, am very proud of you. Make the move, do what's necessary, GATA and introduce the world to the magical waters of Beautiful Eagle Creek.

Look out BCS, we're gunnin' for ya!~

No, we'll be the ones playing Alabama or LSU on Homecoming, we'll be the ones playing Ohio State or Michigan when they need a breather week. We'll lose.

We may fatten up on the other Sun Belt teams, and hopefully that will happen. If we are lucky, the Sun Belt will expand to 12-football teams and we'll make it to the conference championship.

And then....if we are REALLY lucky, we'll win the conference championship and go to a Bowl game.

Liberty Bowl in Memphis, look out, HERE WE COME!

This happened my second sophomore year at Southern: