Eagles await UMaine GSU is 28-1 in playoffs at home

Over the years, not much has changed where Georgia Southern football is concerned.

The Eagles are a perennial Division I-AA power, having won six national championships. And Georgia Southern is still utilizing the triple option offense that has given opponents fits for two decades.

Saturday afternoon, the second-ranked Eagles (10-2) will lean on that tradition of excellence when they take on No. 5 UMaine (11-2) in the quarterfinals of the NCAA I-AA playoffs in a 1 p.m. game at Paulson Stadium in Statesboro, Ga.

One new element for the Eagles this season is first-year head coach Mike Sewak, but he had been on the staff the previous five years. Georgia Southern is making its 14th NCAA quarterfinal appearance and is 37-7 in postseason play (.841), the best mark in I-AA history.

The Eagles boast a nine-game winning streak and have won 45 of their last 47 games at home. GSU is 28-1 all-time in the playoffs on its home field.

“They have an established way of doing business,” said UMaine coach Jack Cosgrove, who was a first-year assistant in 1987 when the Black Bears met the Eagles in an NCAA first-round game in Statesboro, a game won by GSU 31-28 in overtime.

“The thing that stands out to me is that they have a great handle on how they want to do things,” Cosgrove said, “whether it’s on offense with their option game, on defense with a basic, simple plan, or their special teams play, which is outstanding.”

Georgia Southern’s trademark is the triple option attack. Directed by sophomore quarterback Chaz Williams (255 carries, 1300 yards, 24 touchdowns) and fullback Jermaine Austin (199 att., 1145 yds., 6 TDs), the Eagles have averaged 397 rushing yards per game, tops in all of Division I.

That includes an average of 6.3 yards per carry.

“It’s their way of being successful. They’ve stuck with it,” Cosgrove said of the option.

Two of UMaine’s Atlantic 10 opponents, Rhode Island and Richmond, run the option, but not as well as the Eagles.

“We haven’t seen this speed, this level of execution and performance,” said Cosgrove, who pointed to Williams and Austin as the keys in the scheme. “If those two are having success, you’ve got problems.”

GSU doesn’t throw much (it runs the ball 88 percent of the time), but has been able to hit some big pass plays because of its tremendous success running the football.

“We come off of [the option] with run-and-shoot routes,” Sewak explained. “We try to go ahead and hit the same play-action passes that have been good to us all along.”

The Eagles have rushed for more than 600 yards twice this season and have averaged more than 300 yards per game on the ground over an incredible 20-year span. GSU is third in I-AA in total offense (478 ypg) and fourth in scoring (36.2 ppg).

Senior center Charles Clarke was voted the Southern Conference’s top offensive lineman, while tackle James McCoy is also a handful.

“Sometimes we’ve got the defense flat-footed, they don’t know exactly which side of the line of scrimmage we’re going to attack with our different motions,” said Sewak, who has had two 100-rushers in a game eight times this season and three eclipse 100 yards in the same game twice, including against Appalachian State.

Defensively, the Eagles have been solid, allowing only 12.7 points and 293 yards per contest. GSU utilizes tremendous speed to make plays.

Heading up the unit are middle linebacker Joe Scott (102 tackles), LB James Burchett (76 tackles) and All-America tackle Freddy Pesqueira, the 2001 SoCon Defensive Player of the Year, who boasts 71 tackles, including six sacks.

“They’re particularly fast,” Cosgrove said. “They play a rather simple style of defense and it allows them to run around and make plays.”

GSU has not allowed a touchdown in its last three home games.

On special teams, Ant Williams is averaging 29 yards on kickoff returns and 11 yards on punt returns.