Week 3 Preview: Georgia Southern vs Jacksonville State

Georgia Southern opens their home slate in Statesboro at Paulson Stadium vs Jacksonville State Saturday.

This marks the seventh time the Eagles have met with the Gamecocks with the Eagles coming in with a five game winning streak with the last game being played in 2002.

The Eagles came off another disappointing game last weekend against USC while Jacksonville State had a huge win over Conference USA contender in Liberty. Georgia Southern enters the game as three and a half point favorites.

Georgia Southern

The Eagles are off to a rough start to the season after back-to-back losses in California coming to Fresno State and USC. Last weekend’s loss to the Trojans marked the most points (59) they had given up in almost three decades.

Defense has been the story of the season so far as the Eagles have given up 50.5 points per game so far this season while also allowing a staggering 1,282 yards of offense.

The Georgia Southern offense has also been less than desired as quarterback JC French IV has only passed for 337 yards and four touchdowns through two games.

The receiving core will also need to be much more of a factor this weekend as guys like Dylan Gary and Dalen Cobb have yet to get overly involved within the offense.

If Georgia Southern is going to get the train rolling their explosive offensive players are going to have to start creating separation and challenging defenses to show why this is a top offense in the Sun Belt Conference.

Jacksonville State

The Gamecocks were written off by most people going into the season, after Rich Rodriguez left for the head coaching job at West Virginia.

After a 1-1 start with a win over a solid Liberty team and a low scoring four quarter game with UCF, this game for Georgia Southern has gotten significantly more difficult.

The Jacksonville State defense has played very well, only giving up 20.5 points per game this season. Georgia Southern will need to get their top offensive targets the ball to stretch the Gamecocks defense and secondary.

Last week Jacksonville State’s running back Cam Cook ran for 195 rushing yards, two touchdowns, and almost seven yards-per-carry.

The Gamecocks passing game has been a bit shaky however as they only threw for 52 yards last weekend against Liberty. Their running game has been the story of their offense though, as they went for 338 yards on the ground in their win last weekend.

It should be a great matchup this Saturday. The Georgia Southern crowd will be in it early for the home opener. If the Eagles can win at the line of scrimmage and stop the Gamecocks run game they’ll put themselves in a great position to win.