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Blog

Game Preview: Georgia Southern vs. Bowling Green (The GoDaddy Bowl) 

by Jeff Allen of Jeff Allen Sports

         
It’s the Sunbelt Conference vs. the MAC as the 8-4 Georgia Southern Eagles and the 10-3 Bowling Green Falcons collide in the GoDaddy Bowl in Mobile, Alabama. Both teams have already seen their head coaches move on to other programs but after that, there are not awhole lot of similarities between the two teams. Georgia Southern runs the option and is 8-0 when they rush the ball for 325+ yards. Bowling Green features a wide open but balanced spread offense. The BG’s won nine of their final 10. The line opened up Bowl Green -7.5 with the total 65. There has been no movement on the side. The over took some action last week getting to as high as 66.5 but the “sharps” immediately started taking back and we are back the original number of 65. At this writing there is a 60% chance of rain at the 8:00 PM EST kickoff on ESPN so do your due diligence.

It’s been an up and down year for Georgia State. It started with a 44-0 spanking at West Virginia before the Eagles ripped off five straight wins. GSU then lost its showdown game with Appalachian State and played Georgia very tough before falling 23-17. The regular season ended with an inexplicable 35-7 home loss to Georgia State as a 20-point favorite in a game that Southern managed just 203 total yards of offense. As mentioned, this is an option team that throws for just 61 yards per game but features four backs with 600+ yards led by Matt Breida (1540, 8.2, 16 TDs) and L.A. Ramsby (772, 12 TDs). The Eagles defense has good numbers and is ranked 21st overall in the nation but the was shredded by throwing quarterbacks in the two games (West Virginia, G State) that they faced them which could be an omen in this matchup.

Bowling Green was the class of the MAC all year long and the proof was their rout of Northern Illinois in the conference championship game. The losses were non-conference losses to Tennessee and by a field goal at home to a pretty good
Memphis outfit. The Falcons only conference blemish was a 44-28 home loss to a raging Toledo team in a game where they turned the ball over five times. The offense is led by big armed QB Matt Johnson (69%, 4700, 43/7) and backs Travis Greene (1220, 14 TDs) and Fred Coppet (796, 5 TDs). Four BG wide outs have at least 56 catches and 627 yards led by Roger Lewis (82, 1476, 15 TDs). The defense is decent by MAC standards with its chief weakness coming against
the pass (90th) which doesn’t figure to be a problem here.

This matchup features a dichotomy of styles with Georgia Southern’s option attack and stout defense opposing an offensive juggernaut that plays to outscore you in Bowling Green. GSU makes it’s first appearance ever in just its second year in Div-I. Bowling Green was probably hoping for something a bit better but reports are that they are ready to play. Both head coaches have taken other jobs. GSU’s Willie Fritz is taking over at Tulane while Bowling Green’s Dino Babers has moved on to Syracuse. The Sunbelt and MAC met on Saturday when touchdown favorite Appalachian State was beaten straight up by a middle of the road Ohio Bobcat squad. If both teams come to play, Bowling Green would appear to be the better team. Whether they can cover a touchdown against a team fired up about playing in its first Bowl and with a likely overwhelming edge in crowd support remains to be seen.

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