Kevin Ellison running Georgia Southern offense in key stretch

Kevin Ellison is no stranger to big-game pressure.

The Georgia Southern senior quarterback got a taste of it as a freshman four years ago when he was under center in place of an injured Jerick McKinnon and helped lead the Eagles to an upset win over Florida in The Swamp.

The following year, he was a key player as Georgia Southern won the Sun Belt Conference in its first year playing on the FBS level, and, last year, he was instrumental in guiding the Eagles to a 9-4 record that included their first bowl win, a 58-27 smackdown of Bowling Green in the Go Daddy Bowl.

All of that success, however, is in the past.

Ellison now finds himself preparing to play quite possibly three of the most important games of his career, starting at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday night at Paulson Stadium against Louisiana-Lafayette. The game will be televised on ESPNU.

Georgia Southern (4-5, 3-2) needs to win two of its final three games to become bowl eligible. The Ragin’ Cajuns (3-5, 2-3) find themselves in a similar predicament, as they must win three of their remaining four games to go bowling.

The Eagles have lost four of their past five, with the most recent loss coming last Saturday when they lost 37-27 at Mississippi. ULL is coming off a 23-10 home loss to Idaho.

ULL has been one of the top teams in the Sun Belt, having made four straight trips to the R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl during the 2011-2014 seasons. However, last March, the NCAA lowered the hammer for recruiting violations, and the Cajuns had to vacate 22 victories, including two bowl wins.

Despite the loss, Georgia Southern came out of the game with renewed confidence heading into the final stretch of the season.

After putting up only 65 yards rushing in a 34-10 loss to Appalachian State, the Georgia Southern ground game rebounded by putting up 267 yards rushing against the Rebels.

“We need to win this game to work toward our goal of getting to a bowl game,” Ellison said. “We’re very excited about this game, and we came out of the Ole Miss game with our heads held high.

“It was kind of depressing not being able to get the running game going (against Appalachian State), but we were able to get the running game going against Ole Miss. We want to stay on that same path Thursday.”

Head coach Tyson Summers, who made a change at the play-calling position last week when he named former Valdosta State head coach David Dean to replace Rance Gillespie in that position, was encouraged by what he saw of Ellison and the offense last week.

“You never feel good about a loss, but we saw some vast improvement,” Summers said. “It was the first time in a couple of weeks we were able to run the ball like we want.

“We got some movement up front like we want, and the running backs hit the a hole little better because of that.”

For the first time this season, Matt Brieda had a 100-yard rushing game as he picked up 100 yards on 22 carries that included a 68-yard touchdown run, the longest of the season by an Eagles back.

But it was the play of Ellison that gave Summers encouragement about his team being able to put together a strong finish. After playing the Cajuns, the Eagles go to Georgia State before returning home to play Troy in the season finale.

“Maybe not statistically, but I thought it was Kevin’s best game managing the game the way I thought we needed it managed,” Summers said. “I thought he was able to do those things and do it with a lot of efficiency throughout the game.”

This story was originally published November 9, 2016 at 9:42 PM with the headline "Kevin Ellison running Georgia Southern offense in key stretch."