Georgia Southern, Mississippi hope to get their seasons going

So much of college football is about meeting or exceeding expectations. When teams don’t, it’s tough.

Tough seasons are what both Georgia Southern and Mississippi are experiencing.

The two meet in a non-conference game at noon on Saturday in Oxford, Mississippi. One team’s season is going to get a lot tougher.

Georgia Southern (4-4) entered the season riding a wave of high expectations after going 9-4 and beating Bowling Green 58-27 in last year’s GoDaddy Bowl, the first bowl appearance in program history. The Eagles had 98 percent of their offense returning from that team along with the bulk of a defense that was one of the best in the Sun Belt Conference.

The Rebels (3-5) were coming off a 10-3 season, including a 48-20 win over Oklahoma State in the Sugar Bowl, fortheir fifth straight bowl appearance.

Ole Miss was ranked 11th in The Associated Press poll at the beginning of the season and was still ranked 19th after dropping a 45-34 decision to Florida State in its opener. The Rebels are currently mired in a three-game losing streak.

First-year Eagles head coach Tyson Summers got the Eagles off to a 3-0 start, but Georgia Southern has now dropped four of its past five games, including a 34-10 decision to Appalachian State a week ago.

“We’ve got to come up with a better plan, and that starts with me,” Summers said. “We’ve got to do a better job and get the ship righted here for the next four weeks.

Georgia Southern turned in its worst offensive game of the season as it had only 159 yards total offense, 65 rushing, against the Mountaineers. It was the Eagles’ poorest performance on the ground since they gained 15 yards in a 52-16 loss at Appalachian State in 2009.

It led to a lot of soul searching by Summers with the result being a change in some offensive duties. Summers announced that offensive co-coordinator David Dean would take over the playcalling duties from fellow co-coordinator Rance Gillespie.

Summers emphasized this was not a matter of holding Gillespie responsible for the offensive woes but rather an attempt to get a fresh perspective on what the Eagles were doing.

“Moving forward, Coach Gillespie will focus solely on the quarterbacks, a position that’s had a lot of injuries,” Summers said. “And we’ve got a true freshman sitting there playing. There’s not anything from a title standpoint; we just need to have a fresh perspective on a couple of things.”

Favian Upshaw, who has shared quarterbacking duties with Kevin Ellison, will not play against Ole Miss. It is the third straight game he will miss with an undisclosed injury. Ellison will get at least 80 percent of the snaps against the Rebels with freshman Seth Shuman serving as his backup.

Shuman, who played for Gillespie at Valdosta last year, played in his first game of the season two weeks ago at New Mexico State, and then came off the bench to throw 23 passes against the Mountaineers, completing nine for 75 yards while being intercepted twice.

This story was originally published November 4, 2016 at 4:03 PM with the headline "Georgia Southern, Mississippi hope to get their seasons going."