Final Score: Georgia Southern Eagles Upset Troy Trojans 28-24

For the fourth-straight season in a row the Georgia Southern Eagles finished the year with a resounding victory, this time by the score of 28-24 over the Troy Trojans. The question now on everyone’s minds is will this have an effect on the coaching staff.

It doesn’t mean a whole lot in the grand scheme of things but GS put together by far its best performance of the season to get the victory over a nine-win team.

The Eagles played spoiler over Troy, who was going for a share of the Sun Belt Conference title with a win. Kevin Ellison, Matt Breida, Favian Upshaw, BJ Johnson and the rest of the senior class are done, but they at least are going out on a high note.

The whole squad was on point for most of the game by mixing in a for-once successful combination of option plays and short passes. The defense, for its part, did just enough to hang on during the final drive, which fell short of the end zone as Troy went for the win.

The seniors in particular were fired up and Kevin Ellison would not be denied in his final game in blue.

Troy looked fired up on the sidelines ahead of the game, but that energy was nowhere to be found on the field for much of the contest. The Trojans looked sluggish and shell shocked, perhaps a little overconfident of victory.

They only scored three points in the first quarter, and that was because of a fumble by Favian Upshaw. Brandon Silvers did quarterback his team to a score in the second quarter and gave his team a slim 10-7 lead at the half.

Then Ellison ran out for the score you see above and another during the third. I’ll try to hide how sad I am to see him go. Ellison will always be the quarterback who beat Florida.

Anyway, I don’t know where that energy was and the execution for the Eagles all year long. It was an encouraging sign of things to come as we were all reminded just how talented this team is. It was also a reminder just how much of that talent was wasted in 2016 as the team inexplicably piled up loss after loss after loss.

Troy roared back to retake a 24-21 lead in spite of some tough play from the GS defense. Ellison, yet again, wouldn’t be denied as he fired off a bullet pass to BJ Johnson, who promptly romped 64 yards for a touchdown. It was the second score of the day for Johnson, another member of this outstanding senior class who deserved a better sendoff.

Then the defense held on and it was time to celebrate in Statesboro.

But, the big question today was never who was going to win this game. It was always what’s going to happen with the coaching staff. As soon as anything comes out you will know because we will have it up on this website.

I got lots of DMs last night and this morning about Georgia Southern football. You can guess how many of them were about the game. Yea, none.

They were all rumors and things being said about the coaching staff. I do not use anonymous sources and won’t pass any of that on (though I do appreciate the info y’all, keep it coming) but needless to say there is plenty of smoke blowing about changes.

Again, no need for speculation because we should know something by tomorrow at the latest. Until next time, Hail Southern.