Georgia Southern set for midweek game at Arkansas State

Arkansas State fans, Georgia Southern head coach Tyson Summers said in his weekly teleconference, are no doubt “champing at the bit for their first look at Georgia Southern.”

The Eagles (3-1, 2-0 Sun Belt Conference) and Red Wolves (0-4, 0-0) meet for the first time as Sun Belt Conference opponents at 8 p.m. on Wednesday at Centennial Bank Stadium in Jonesboro, Arkansas. This will not, however, be the first meeting between the two teams.

It was 30 years ago that Georgia Southern beat Arkansas State 48-21 in the FCS national championship game in Tacoma, Washington. That was the Eagles’ second of six national titles before they moved up to FBS play in 2014.

Like that game, this one will also have championship ramifications. It will not determine the conference champion, but the winner will have a leg up.

Defending champion Arkansas State has won four of the past five Sun Belt championships and was picked to finish second in the preseason poll behind Appalachian State. Georgia Southern, which won the Sun Belt title in its first year in the conference in 2014 by going 8-0 in conference play, was picked to finish third.

Due to conference scheduling, the two teams did not meet in 2014, and Arkansas State coaches, players and fans could only speculate on what might have been. The Red Wolves’ lone conference loss that year was to Appalachian State, which entered the conference along with Georgia Southern.

“They’re a talented team,” Summers said. “They’ve got good receivers, two good quarterbacks, two good running backs and a big offensive line. They’ve got multiple weapons. We’re going to have to be prepared for tempo and explosive plays that come off of it.”

Arkansas State’s problems, Summers said, can be summed up easily by looking at its schedule.

“You start your season off with Toledo, Utah State and Auburn ... those are hard things,” Summers said. “It’s a very difficult schedule. I don’t think anyone there should be hitting the panic button.

“I know they’re going to get rolling here at some point in time. I just hope we’ve done a good enough job in preparation it doesn’t happen Wednesday night.”

Summers pointed to special teams for Georgia Southern’s first loss of the season, at Western Michigan. Western Michigan returned a kickoff 100 yards and had a 70-yard interception return for demoralizing scores. The Broncos are now 5-0 after crushing Central Michigan 49-10 on Saturday.

“The difference in the game was two turnovers by our offense and a special teams play they capitalized on,” Summers said. “When you play good football teams like they have, having beaten Northwestern, Illinois and us, they have proven they are a good football team and have an opportunity to make some noise in the big picture for the rest of the year.”

Red Wolves head coach Blake Anderson’s team was winless in September for the first time since 2001.

“As you can expect, this is not the result we wanted and not the start we expected,” Anderson said. “But, it is where we are, and we’ve got things we can control that will make us a lot better football team moving forward. The attitude of the kids has been good, and they’ve accepted accountability. There’s also a sense of urgency that we’ve got to right the ship quickly.”

This story was originally published October 4, 2016 at 3:56 PM with the headline "Georgia Southern set for midweek game at Arkansas State."