Georgia Southern wins ugly over Texas State, 38-30

It may have set the sport of football back a few decades, but Georgia Southern did enough to earn its third win of the year 38-30 over Texas State on Saturday night.

This was an ugly contest for both sides filled with penalties, turnovers, dumb coaching blunders and blocked kicks. You name it, this game had it.

First off, Cam Ransom should absolutely have a future under new Eagles coach Clay Helton, having thrown for 125 yards and a score before exiting with an injury, including a 48-yard strike to receiver Derrick Burgess Jr. with 5:55 left to go in the first half.

Outside of a few bad decisions throwing the ball that can be ironed out with game experience, Ransom looked decisive both passing and running the option, making some outwardly wonder why the team had been starting Justin Tomlin every week.

After Ransom’s injury, this game got real ugly for both teams. A blocked punt returned for a touchdown by Texas State before halftime evened the score at 17, and the scoring floodgates opened after half. Southern returned the favor, blocking a punt of their own and returning it for a score to open the third frame, and the teams traded scores from then on.

In a series of events that would put in perspective how sloppy this game was, late in the third quarter Georgia Southern had its field goal attempt blocked, only for the Bobcats to fumble the recovery of the block, and set the Eagles up with a first down. Two plays later, Tomlin tossed his lone touchdown pass of the game to tight end Beau Johnson to give GS a 31-24 lead.

On the Texas State’s side of things, the play calling was pretty baffling considering how well they had been moving the ball through the air.

Tyler Vitt finished the night 30 of 47 for 276 yards and an interception, and Bobcat receivers were taking advantage of porous secondary play for the majority of the game. But the baffling part was Jake Spavital and company deciding to run the ball 35 times as a team at 2.2 yards per carry, stalling many of Texas State’s drives.

Photo by John Rivera/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Jalen White finished the game as the leading ballcarrier for Southern, notching 82 yards on 10 carries and two of the Eagles’ touchdowns. Offensive coordinator Doug Ruse did show a fair bit of variety in his play calling when Ransom was in, but Tomlin’s decision making as a quarterback hamstrings what this team is able to do offensively.

Eagles fans are rightfully crossing their fingers that Ransom is able to play next week against a ranked BYU squad.

Lastly, the announcers for this game were absolutely awful. Outside of openly cheering on the team from San Marcos, they would misidentify players and even question why the referees would even penalize the Bobcats.

God help any fans of opposing teams that have to watch a Texas State home game moving forward.