Game recap: Georgia Southern able to hold on, beat previously unbeaten James Madison
STATESBORO — Georgia Southern's first-year head coach Clay Helton has blended together a roster of veteran Eagles with true freshmen and impactful, experienced players from the transfer portal.
The mix has made Georgia Southern competitive but not always victorious at 3-3 overall, 0-2 in the Sun Belt Conference.
"I see our younger players really developing at a fast pace, which has put us in games against really quality football teams and given us a chance to win," Helton said. "Five of the six games have been in the fourth quarter one-score games. So we're putting ourselves in position that we've won half the games over that period of time."
The season opener was the lone blowout, in the host Eagles' favor, 59-7 over an overmatched FCS Morgan State squad on Sept. 3. Since then, every game has come down to the final period, and sometimes the final minute.
This Saturday, a former FCS team will be in Statesboro, but James Madison is far from overmatched. In fact, the Dukes are undefeated (5-0, 3-0 SBC), nationally ranked at No. 25 and favored against the Eagles at Paulson Stadium.
Helton acknowledged the Eagles' 0-2 start in a rugged East Division puts pressure on them to win the rest of their league games. Coastal Carolina and JMU already are 3-0, and only one team per division advances to the Sun Belt championship game.
"What does 6-2 look like in this conference? I don't know what that'll end up being, but we've got to fight like hell to try to get there," Helton said. "I think it's going to warrant that to have a discussion of being in the championship game (as East Division winner). But in order to do that, you'd better focus on the now, and that's James Madison, one of the better opponents that we'll face all year."
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What time do the Georgia Southern Eagles play the James Madison Dukes?
Kickoff: 4 p.m. ET, Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022.
Location: Paulson Stadium (capacity 25,000), Statesboro
How to watch James Madison at Georgia Southern on TV
Danny Waugh (play-by-play), Cole Neely (analyst) and Emily Grace McWhorter (sidelines) will have the call on the ESPN+ digital streaming network.
Radio for James Madison at Georgia Southern
Danny Reed (play-by-play), Terry Harvin (analyst), Russ Brown (analyst) and Frank Sulkowski (sidelines) have the call on the Georgia Southern Sports Network. The pregame, in-game and postgame shows can be heard in Savannah on WIXV 95.5 FM and on the network's flagship station WPMX 94.9 FM in Statesboro.
Betting: Over/under & point spread
As of Thursday morning, James Madison was an 12.5-point favorite, according to the Tipico Sportsbook. The over/under was 66.5 points. The money line was -475 for James Madison, +340 for Georgia Southern.
Series history
Georgia Southern leads the series 7-1, the last seven in a row from 1986-92 after losing the first meeting 21-6 at Bridgeforth Stadium in 1985. The Eagles are 4-0 vs. the Dukes in Statesboro, 3-1 in Harrisonburg, Virginia.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Georgia Southern score recap: Eagles hang on, beat James Madison
