Plenty of energy surrounding Tyson Summers at Georgia Southern
In terms of offseason energy, there’s no shortage of it surrounding the Georgia Southern football program.
The Eagles are coming off a victory in their first bowl appearance in program history, not to mention arguably the top signing day class of any Group of Five program.
Taking the reins in Statesboro? Tifton native and first-year head coach Tyson Summers, who was in the Macon area Tuesday night for the Georgia Southern Coaches Caravan Stop at Circle W Ranch.
“The thing I love about Georgia Southern is that Georgia Southern is about people. It’s very people-based and people that are passionate about Georgia Southern and passionate about winning,” Summers said. “The expectations are high, and we wouldn’t want it any other way.”
Summers met and addressed Eagles fans in attendance on Tuesday. He was joined by golf head coach Carter Collins, men’s basketball head coach Mark Byington and athletics director Tom Kleinlein.
Being head coach means a different approach to this time of a year for Summers. As an assistant coach, he’d spend a good portion of this time of year recruiting potential student-athletes. These days, the role is being part of a barnstorming tour that includes luncheons, dinners, meet-and-greets with corporate partners and golf outings.
“The biggest transition has, honestly, been not being on the road recruiting,” Summers said. “With things like this, you’re recruiting to the fans, people in communities and people that love Georgia Southern. You are just selling Georgia Southern to a different group of people.”
One constant question Summers predictably gets at many stops: the Eagles’ offensive philosophy with him as head coach. The offensive mindset will be a run-based attack, with the forward pass being implemented to keep defenses honest when needed.
“We’re a gun-option team, we’ll continue to be a run team with everything we do,” Summer said. “We’ll take opportunities when we get them when teams try and load the line up. We’ll sit there and look for opportunities to be efficient throwing the ball.”
Charged with running that offense are co-offensive coordinators Rance Gillespie, former head coach at Peach County and Valdosta, and David Dean, formerly the head coach at Valdosta State. Gillespie will coach quarterbacks, with Dean handling the receivers.
As for how the offensive staff is working together to this point? So far, so good, according to Summers.
“It’s gone really well, the first thing I looked at when I was hiring for our staff was hiring good teachers. The next thing I looked for was the best possible position coach that you could hire and trying to hire good recruiters,” Summers said. “When you start looking at the game plan going into each week, it’ll be all that. It’ll be Rance and David and obviously me having a big say in what direction that I think we need to go. Allen Mogridge is a fantastic offensive line coach, and his background gives the ability to do a lot of different things. It’ll all be a group effort.”
This story was originally published May 10, 2016 at 9:36 PM with the headline "Plenty of energy surrounding Tyson Summers at Georgia Southern."