Option not going anywhere for Eagles
Once upon a time, Georgia Southern football fans were treated to the sight of billboards, highlighted by a picture of a new head coach, proclaiming, “There is no option.”
The purpose of the billboards in 2006 were to promote ticket sales, but they featured also a play on words as the face in the photo was Brian VanGorder, whose first major decision was to do away with the Eagles’ triple-option offense.
VanGorder’s one season with the Eagles finished with a 3-8 record, and shortly before National Signing Day, he resigned to take a job with the Atlanta Falcons. Following three seasons under Macon native Chris Hatcher, the Eagles hired Georgia Tech assistant Jeff Monken, who quickly reinstated the option offense. The result was three trips to the FCS playoffs, a win at Florida and a new job for Monken, who is now the head coach at Army.
Willie Fritz came next, and he stuck with the option. Fritz’s first team in 2014 won the Sun Belt Conference championship in Georgia Southern’s first year in FBS play. Last year, the Eagles followed up with the program’s first bowl appearance and a 56-27 win over Bowling Green in the GoDaddy Bowl. Fritz, however, didn’t coach in that game after accepting the head coaching position at Tulane.
He was replaced by Tifton native Tyson Summers, who was on VanGorder’s staff, and that brought concerns about what would happen with the option offense. Summers, who was the defensive coordinator at Colorado State last year and at Central Florida before that, has gone to great pains to emphasize the option isn’t going anywhere.
“We’re at a place where tradition matters, where running the ball matters,” Summers said at the Sun Belt Conference media day. “We’re not going to do something just for the sake of going in a different direction or putting an odd stamp on something.
“We’ll continue to be a shotgun triple-option team. There’s no question about that. We’re in a position where we have people who can do that.”
Georgia Southern led the nation in rushing last year with 363 yards per game and was outrushed only twice — by Appalachian State and Georgia State in games the Eagles lost.
Georgia Southern schedule
Sept. 3 Savannah State
Sept. 10 at South Alabama
Sept. 17 Louisiana-Monroe
Sept. 24 at Western Michigan
Oct. 5 at Arkansas State
Oct. 15 at Georgia Tech
Oct. 22 at New Mexico State
Oct. 27 Appalachian State
Nov. 5 at Mississippi
Nov. 10 Louisiana-Lafayette
Nov. 19 at Georgia State
Dec. 3 Troy
This story was originally published August 27, 2016 at 6:57 PM with the headline "Option not going anywhere for Eagles."