Georgia Southern begins Helton era with solid National Signing Day

While the 2021 football season was a rocky one for Georgia Southern (to put it mildly), the Eagles and new coach Clay Helton were able to put together a fairly impressive class considering Helton had overall little time to network, having accepted the job just two months ago.

In this article, I will touch on some of the key position groups targeted by the former USC coach and why the areas were ones of need for Southern.

To start off, quarterback was a focus in this year’s class, as the Eagles inked a pair of signal-callers from within the state of Georgia, presumably with the position wide open heading into next season.

Zak Rozsman is a 3-star QB that signed to the team from Statesboro yesterday, after having moved on from a previous commitment to Southern rival Appalachian State. Rozsman also spurned offers from Georgia Tech and Vanderbilt before his signing.

Elsewhere in the position group, Trinity Christian’s David Dallas signed as a package deal with brother Josh. Both David Dallas and Rozsman’s signings signal a paradigm shift in how the offense will be run moving forward, with neither being the scramblers Eagle fans are used to seeing and both being lauded for their throwing abilities.

Photo by Aaron Gilbert/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Another focus in Helton’s time on the recruiting trail was stocking the wide receiver room with more talent. As of this writing, Georgia Southern presumably does not have established starters at the position, but with the additions of Marcus Sanders, Joshua Thompson, Dalen Cobb, the previously mentioned Josh Dallas and a few athletes that will have their positions finalized once they are members of the team, hopefully whoever emerges as starting quarterback next season has several solid options to throw to.

Offensive line was a point of contention for the team in 2021, but the new Eagles coach was able to get some maulers on the interior to build for the future. Pichon Wimbley, Nate Lewis and Chandler Strong should provide GS with some much needed line depth and might even push for playing time heading into next season. Now all they need is an offensive line coach.

With these players now in place, Helton may still need to hit the transfer portal hard on a few other positions, but the new coach did a solid job holding together several of the commitments from previous coach Chad Lunsford and even adding some impact players on his own.

All that remains at this point is filling out the rest of the coaching staff and installing the playbook for 2022.