STATESBORO — Missed assignments, lack of effort, missed tackles, missed opportunities, inconsistent kicking game, sloppiness — in just about one breath Georgia Southern coach Jeff Monken summed up 60 minutes of frustration that’s been eating him up since last Saturday night.
Wait a second, it couldn’t have been that frustrating. The Eagles play host to St. Francis tonight at 6 in Paulson Stadium after coming off a 77-9 pasting of Savannah State in the season opener.
“I think our guys need to have an understanding that it’s important to play up to our standard and not lower the standard because we think it can be lowered and that’s good enough to get by with,” Monken said.
The last thing St. Francis, from Loretto, Pa., needs to hear is its opponent’s woes. Want to hear some real problems? Try matching up your 34-scholarship team with a team transitioning to the 85-scholarship Football Bowl Subdivision.
Try devising a plan to slow down an offense that just rushed for 576 yards and produced 651 yards total.
Try taking a team that has never won more than five games in a season since joining the Football Championship Subdivision in 1993 and pitting it against Monken, who has never won less than twice that amount in five years as an assistant here and another three as head coach.
“(Monken) holds his standards high, and he’s probably trying to keep his team motivated,” said St. Francis coach Chris Villarrial. “Any time you win by a score like that you’ve done a lot of things right.”
Facing reality
Villarrial played 11 seasons in the NFL, eight with the Chicago Bears, and was a teammate of former GSU great Adrian Peterson. Villarrial is realistic about what his team faces in the 10th-ranked Eagles.
“We know about Georgia Southern’s tradition,” he said. “They’re big, physical, well-coached. It’s a very challenging game for us. It can be scary.”
Amazingly, another team from the Northeast Conference, Central Connecticut State, came to Statesboro in 2006 and defeated Georgia Southern 17-13 despite facing similar long odds.
Of course, that was a three-win Eagle team coached by Brian VanGorder.
St. Francis has a 10-45 record during the last five years; GSU was 10-4 last year. Two years ago, the Red Flash traveled to North Dakota State and lost 56-3.
Monken can’t worry about the disparity.
“It’s my job as the head coach to make sure we have the right attitude, that we’re prepared and that we play to our standards,” he said.
Senior quarterback Jerick McKinnon and junior fullback Dominique Swope lead the Eagles’ potent triple-option attack that paced the FCS with an average of 399.4 rushing yards a game a year ago. McKinnon rushed for 1,817 yards and 20 touchdowns. Swope had 1,246 yards and 16 scores.
McKinnon and Swope had 107 and 100 yards, respectively, in the opener against Savannah State.
St. Francis won only five games in four years from 2008 to 2011 before winning five last season, despite playing without running back Kyle Harbridge, who missed the 2012 season with a knee injury. Harbridge, now a senior, rushed for 1,474 yards in 2011.
Safety Jake DeMedal, a first-team All-Northeast Conference performer, is a key to the Red Flash defense after leading the team with 88 tackles last season.
“They’re a well-coached football team, a tough team and they run the ball effectively,” Monken said. “We don’t normally play teams from that league so I don’t know what to expect. I’m sure they’re going to come down here like a ball of fire. It’s their opening game and they have a chance to play a team highly ranked the last few years. That always excites teams, it does for us.
“We’re expecting their best effort, and I hope we’ll play a lot better.”
Note
Game time for GSU’s Nov. 2 game against Furman in Paulson Stadium has been changed to 1 p.m.
ST. FRANCIS AT GEORGIA SOUTHERN
Records: SFU 5-6, 4-4 Northeast Conference in 2012, 0-0 this season; GSU 1-0, 0-0 SoCon in 2013
Where: Paulson Stadium
When: 6 p.m. today
TV/radio: No TV/WZAT 102.1 FM (Savannah); WBMX 103.7 FM (Statesboro).