Georgia native Tyson Summers is Georgia Southern's new head coach

Georgia Southern's new head football coach is one with serious Georgia ties.

The school announced the hiring of Tifton native Tyson Summers on Sunday night, and scheduled a news conference on Saturday in the Ted Smith Family Football Center.

Before then, the Eagles will play in their first bowl game. Georgia Southern faces Bowling Green in the GoDaddy Bowl in Mobile, Alabama on Thursday.

Summers is the defensive coordinator and safeties coach at Colorado State, under head coach and former longtime Georgia assistant Mike Bobo.

The Rams defense is ranked 20th in the country in passing defense, giving up just 186.3 yards per game heading into the Arizona Bowl. After dropping two overtime games early in the season, the Rams closed the regular season on a four-game win streak, with three of those victories coming on the road.

"Besides the day I married my wife and the days my children were born, this is right up there as one of the most exciting moments in my life," Summers said in a release. "This is home for my wife, Beth, and I and we're excited to be able to get to Statesboro and carry on the proud traditions of both Georgia Southern University and the Eagle football program.

"I'm looking forward to building off the offense that is in place and continuing to progress with the defense. I'm just exceptionally excited to be a Georgia Southern Eagle."

The school went less than two weeks without a head coach since Willie Fritz was named to the same position at Tulane on Dec. 11. Dell McGee is the Eagles' interim head coach.

Summers was the defensive coordinator at Central Florida from 2012-14.

Summers was an assistant at Tift in 2002, then at Presbyterian in South Carolina for a year as defensive backs coach.

He was a graduate assistant at Troy and Georgia for a year, followed by a season as safeties coach at Georgia Southern.

Summers spent five seasons at UAB under then-head coach and Maconite Neil Callaway, from 2007-11.

He joined the Central Florida staff and helped the Knights to two bowl wins and an American Athletic Conference title.

Summers' hiring at Colorado State was announced on Dec. 29, 2014, by Bobo, who had been on the job for a week.

Summers's father Andy was a star football player at old Lanier High, and went on to play running back at Florida.

This story was originally published December 20, 2015 at 10:19 PM with the headline "Georgia native Tyson Summers is Georgia Southern's new head coach ."