While the team has been on campus working out most of the summer, the official start to the 2023 Georgia Southern (GS) football season was signified Wednesday morning as the squad took the field at Allen E. Paulson Stadium for the start of preseason camp.
The team went through a spirited two-hour practice in helmets and jerseys after starting the day with an early breakfast at Bishop Fieldhouse, position meetings and a brief walk-through.
The rest of the day consisted of lunch, a lift, a team meeting, practice review, dinner, installation meetings and finally a snack before breaking for the evening. The team will repeat this schedule for the next three days before having Sunday off.
Head coach Clay Helton was pleased with the up-tempo practice and praised the team for how it handled the heat on a warm summer Statesboro morning.
The official start-of-camp roster was released on Monday and it features 129 players. A new, one-time rule by the NCAA allows 120 to report to camp and practice while the rest can begin their acclimation period once classes start. With the Eagles having open practices, the players not working out as part of the 120-man roster are allowed to be in attendance and watch practice to help keep them up to speed and ready to go when they can hit the field next week.
GS begins its fall term in a week, on Monday, Aug. 14.
The practice means the official debut of the new turf at Paulson Stadium. The old turf was replaced this summer and the team had been holding individual workouts on it, but today was the first official team practice on the new turf.
The team is welcoming lot of new faces this season. The Eagle roster features 97 returning players and 32 newcomers since the spring. GS returns a total of 10 starters, seven offense and three on defense, and 36 letterwinners.
GS added 54 players — 26 transfers and 28 true freshmen — since the end of the 2022 season. Of the 26 transfers, 15 are FBS transfers. The Eagles added a total of 11 first-year transfers with previous Power Five experience at Georgia, Kansas State, Kentucky, Illinois, Nebraska, Pitt, Syracuse, Texas A&M and Washington.
After having Shai Werts start 46 of 51 games at quarterback from 2017-2020, the Eagles had five different quarterbacks start over the 25 games played in 2021 and 2022.
Of the six quarterbacks on this year's roster, only Colton FitzGerald had seen action for GS heading into this year, and that was for four snaps late in last year's season-opening win over Morgan State. The other five on the roster — Beau Allen, Davis Brin, David Dallas, JC French and Coby Walton—all enter the year having never taken a snap as an Eagle. Only Virgina and Colorado have less FBS game experience at their school.
GS is one of four current FBS teams (there are 133 this year) that has never had a 1,000-yard receiver in a season. Khaleb Hood set the GS school record last year, but came up just short of the milestone and finished with 925 yards. The other three schools never to have a 1,000-yard receiver are: Army, Navy and USF.
GS's 2022 offense had the biggest improvement in the FBS from 2021 in multiple categories: completions per game (+17.0), passing attempts per game (+23.8), passing yards per game (+178.2) and quarterback sacked percentage (-8.34).
The Eagles have nine players on the roster born in the 1990s. Offensive lineman Brian Miller, who is 24 years old and recently celebrated his fifth wedding anniversary, is the oldest on the team and is entering his seventh season of eligibility. Georgia Southern also features a 23-year-old true freshman punter in Alex Smith, who hails from Australia.
Below is the practice schedule for the remained of preseason for fans who wish to attend:
- Thurs., Aug. 3: 10 a.m. (Paulson)
- Fri., Aug. 4: 10 a.m. (Paulson)
- Sat., Aug. 5: 10 a.m. (Paulson)
- Mon., Aug. 7: 10 a.m. (Paulson)
- Tues., Aug. 8: 10 a.m. (Eagle Creek; full pads)
- Wed., Aug. 9: 10 a.m. (Paulson)
- Thurs., Aug. 10: 10 a.m. (Paulson)
- Sat., Aug. 12: 5:30 p.m. (Scrimmage #1; Paulson)
- Tues., Aug. 15: 9:50 a.m. (Paulson)
- Wed., Aug. 16: 4:20 p.m. (Eagle Creek)
- Thurs., Aug. 17: 9:50 a.m. (Paulson)
- Fri., Aug. 18: 4:20 p.m. (Paulson)
- Sat., Aug. 19: 10 a.m. (Scrimmage #2; Paulson) ... Time could change
The Fan Fest and Lil' Eagles Clinic will take place on Aug. 12 around the first scrimmage. The Women's Clinic will take place on Aug. 13. For more information, click here.