Georgia Southern Extra: Eagles football team making trial run to Savannah on Saturday

Memorial Stadium in Savannah will never be confused with Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska.

The latter is the intimidating home of the Cornhuskers football team and its loyal fans, who fill the 85,000-plus seats in a sea of red on game days. Nebraska has an NCAA-record streak of consecutive sellouts going back to 1962 and stands at 382 games entering the 2022 season.

Georgia Southern visits Lincoln on Sept. 10 in what will be the Cornhuskers' second home game this season. The Eagles are on the road for four of their first six outings.

So the team sees benefits to playing an intrasquad scrimmage in a simulated road trip to Savannah's Memorial Stadium this Saturday at 10 a.m.

"These guys are going to have to be great road warriors and have a great mindset," new head coach Clay Helton said, " a mindset of toughness and physicality right out of the gate, no matter where the ball is played and put down.

"This is a great opportunity. Every opportunity is an experience, whether it's good, whether it's successful or a failure, we're going to learn from it," added Helton, whose team opens at home against Morgan State on Sept. 3. "To be able to do this prior to going to a Nebraska, our first road game, is invaluable."

The players will meet early Saturday for breakfast, then load up the buses around 8 a.m. for the road trip to Savannah. Team equipment and staff also will make the commute as the Eagles football team returns to Memorial Stadium, which served as a host site before Paulson Stadium was ready on campus.

The free scrimmage will be followed by a Little Eagles Football Clinic for ages 6-12 expected to start around 11:45 a.m. Register for the clinic online at gseagles.com or in person starting at 11 a.m. at Memorial Stadium.

The trip to Savannah serves multiple purposes.

“This goes twofold: to be able to engage our alumni and fan base, but also to be able to get a great training tool. That’s wonderful,” Helton said, and added that families with children should come out for the clinic as well.

Director of Athletics Jared Benko said GS teams want to be more prevalent in the Savannah market with activities such as the scrimmage and children’s clinic as well as sports camps in other sports. GS had been unable to conduct some events involving the public during the pandemic, and Benko is excited to increase activity at the Georgia Southern University Armstrong Campus and at off-campus locations.

“Now you’re seeing more and more an extention of what we’re trying to do in the Savannah market and that’s get down there and be present,” Benko said.

Keeping up with Jones

Amare Jones has made an impact in his short time thus far in Statesboro after transferring from Tulane before the 2021 season. His football career goes back much further to his youth in Texas.

His connection to the Lone Star State has made him eligibile for the Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award. The fifth-year receiver is among the 63 players on the 10th annual Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award Watch List, announced recently.

The award recognizes the top offensive player in Division I football who also exhibits the enduring characteristics that define Earl Campbell: integrity, performance, teamwork, sportsmanship, drive, community and tenacity; specifically, tenacity to persist and determination to overcome adversity and injury in pursuit of reaching goals.

In addition, the nominee must meet one or more of the following criteria: born in Texas and/or graduated from a Texas High School and/or played at a Texas-based junior college or currently playing at Texas DI four-year college.

Jones earned first-team All-Sun Belt honors from Pro Football Focus last year. The Frisco, Texas, native earned starts at quarterback, running back and receiver last season and caught 25 passes for 351 yards, ran for 196 yards on 41 carries and threw for 45 yards. He was third on the team with 547 all-purpose yards.

The Watch List announced will be narrowed to up to 16 semifinalists in November and then up to five finalists in December. They will be selected by broadcasters, commentators, journalists, fans and previous winners. The finalists will be brought to Tyler for The Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award Banquet scheduled for Jan. 11, 2023.

This year's Watch List includes:

• 63 players from nine conferences and two independents (American Athletic, ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Conference USA, Mountain West, Pac-12, SEC, and Sun Belt)

• Players representing universities from 32 different states and 53 schools

• Wide receivers lead the nominations with 29, followed by running backs (14), quarterbacks (10), tight ends (five), offensive linemen (four), and tailback (one).

A player does not have to appear on the initial Watch List to be eligible to win the award. The Watch List is made up of players nominated from their respective schools.

The 40-Year Football Team

To commemorate the 40th year of modern football at Georgia Southern, the Eagle Football Alumni Association and the department of athletics have partnered for a special project.

Fans will be voting for the 40-Year Team, position by position, over designated days, leading up to the full team announced Sept. 2 — the night before the 2022 season opener against Morgan State in Statesboro.

Fans vote only once per voting period. The poll for wide receivers and defensive backs opened at 12:01 a.m. ET on Aug. 15 and closes at 11:59 p.m. ET on Aug. 18.

Other voting periods are Aug. 1-4 (offensive and defensive lines), Aug. 8-11 (specialists and slot backs), Aug. 22-25 (running backs and linebackers) and Aug. 29-Sept. 1 (quarterbacks).

To be eligible, a player had to have finished his eligibility at GS, or have graduated before transferring to another school. All players on the ballot were one of the following:

• On the GS Athletics Hall of Fame ballot; an all-conference (first/second/third team) selection or conference award honoree; an All-American; a member of the GS Athletics Hall of Fame; a national award winner; an NFL player; an NFL draft pick; or has their number retired.

The EFAA approved the initial list and had the discretion to adjust the nominations. Fans will have the vote in determining the actual team.

To view the ballots and vote, go to https://gseagles.com/sb_output.aspx?form=201

Game weekend experience

To help usher in another year of Eagle Football, the Georgia Southern Department of Athletics has announced a free concert featuring country artist Dylan Marlowe, who hails from Statesboro.

Marlowe will help kick off the season with a free concert presented by the Georgia Southern Athletics Department on Sept. 2 at 7 p.m. outside Paulson Stadium.

"We are excited to welcome Dylan Marlowe back to his hometown to play a concert for Eagle Nation the night before our first football game," director of athletics Jared Benko said in a press release. "We are constantly adding new elements to help make turn our game days into weekend events, and this concert is the first in a line of fan engagement upgrades and activations coming this season."

More details on the concert will be forthcoming.

Baseball team adds to staff

The Georgia Southern baseball team filled out the coaching staff with two hires and a position elevation, head coach Rodney Hennon announced on Wednesday.

Three vacancies have been filled on the staff. Josh Minjarez, formerly a graduate manager at UT-Arlington, is the new volunteer coach for the Eagles. Chase Wullenweber, who was a graduate transfer catcher at Georgia State this previous season, will serve as the GS graduate assistant this season. Wullenweber played four seasons as an undergrad at Tusculum University in Greenville, Tennessee.

Tyler Owens, formerly Georgia Southern's graduate assistant, has been elevated to the Director of Baseball Operations and Player Development.

Hennon said he was excited to have the trio in the program.

"Tyler Owens did an outstanding job in his role last season and now progresses into his new role as Director of Baseball Operations and Player Development," Hennon said in a press release. "Both Josh Minjarez and Chase Wullenweber played in the Sun Belt and are very familiar with the league.  Both of these young men are very bright, passionate young coaches that who will bring great energy to our program."

The Eagles begin practice on Sept. 15, where they look to continue the momentum from a 41-20 season that saw them host a regional at J.I. Clements Stadium for the first time.

Volleyball Blue-White scrimmage

The Georgia Southern volleyball team will play a Blue vs. White scrimmage in Hanner Fieldhouse on Aug. 20 at 1 p.m. Admission is free.

The Eagles in 2021 were 17-11, the most wins for the program since the 2013 season, and their nine Sun Belt victories were the most since joining the league in 2014.

One of the returning letterwinners is senior middle/right side Baylor Bumford, who was named Preseason All-Sun Belt in the league's Coaches Poll released Tuesday.

The Eagles (67 points, one first-place vote) were picked third in the East behind Coastal Carolina (90; 7) and Sun Belt newcomer James Madison (90; 6), which are tied atop the East Division. Defending champion South Alabama is picked to win the West Division with 92 points and eight first-place votes.

The Eagles open the 2022 season by hosting the Bash in the Boro on Aug. 26-27 in Hanner. Season tickets for the Eagles' 14 home matches are $50, and single-game tickets are $8 for adults and $5 for youth ages 4-12. All seats are general admission.

News and notes

Georgia Southern women's soccer forward Elis Nemtsov and defender Sade Heinrichs earned spots on the 2022 Preseason All-Sun Belt Team. The Eagles were picked to finish fourth in the East Division in the preseason coaches poll.

This is the first time the Eagles have placed a pair of players on the preseason All-Sun Belt squad since 2015 (Nora El-Shami and Melinda Lukas). ...

The GS men's soccer program is offering high school players who aspire to playing the sport in college a one-day fall ID camp on Oct. 2 on campus.

The camp will consist of training sessions and full-sided matches for all attendees. All matches will be video recorded and made available for free to all attendees to assist with recruiting tapes.

Per NCAA rules, sports camps and camps are open to any and all entrants (limited only by number, age, grade level, and/or gender). ...

Daniel Castles, a professional caddie on the Korn Ferry Tour for the last three seasons, has joined the Eagles' staff as an assistant golf coach. Castles caddied in over 45 Korn Ferry Tour events and a PGA Championship. He also has three seasons of collegiate coaching experience, having served as an assistant coach at Palm Beach Atlantic (2018-20) and Anderson University (2012-13). Castles played at Tri-County Technical College in Pendleton, S.C.

For more coverage of Georgia Southern athletics, go to https://www.savannahnow.com/sports/college/georgia-southern/

During football season, look for the Georgia Southern Extra weekly podcast on multiple platforms where podcasts are available.

Nathan Dominitz is the Sports Content Editor of the Savannah Morning News and savannahnow.com. Email him at ndominitz@savannahnow.com. Twitter: @NathanDominitz

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Georgia Southern University Eagles football team coming to Savannah