Thursday night's Peach State college football scoreboard: Option Offense 2, defense 0
It may have been in the top 10 nights in Paul Johnson’s career.
The option offense went 2-0 as the underdog, and was convincing in both games.
His old school used the offense to stun No. 25 Appalachian State in the 35th meeting between Georgia Southern and ASU, the host Eagles rolling to a 34-14 win on ESPNU.
Several states to the north, Georgia Tech and former Northside QB Tobias Oliver ran roughshod over Virginia Tech 49-21 in Blacksburg.
The Jackets and Eagles combined for one pass completion.
Box scores are in the Scoreboard in Daily News ‘n Notes
Georgia Tech rolls Virginia Tech
The numbers were kind of staggering.
Redshirt freshman QB Tobias Oliver ran 40 times for 215 yards.
Virginia Tech had only seven more offensive plays as a team.
Georgia Tech rushed 71 times for 465 yards, and only had 12 negative yards in all that.
That, special teams and defense, was behind Georgia Tech’s 49-21 win over Virginia Tech.
The game was tied at 7, 14, and 21. And then that was it. The Jackets scored late in the second quarter for a 28-21 halftime lead, and they added two touchdowns in the third and one in the fourth.
Georgia Southern rolls App State
It’s almost impossible to think where Georgia Southern was a year ago:
Now, the Eagles have a rousing win over a ranked FBS team, and there’s no team they’d rather have hammered on national TV than Appalachian State, a 34-14 victim of a near-perfect GSU effort in the rain.
A crowd about 6,000 short of capacity showed up and made its presence known, bringing back memories of the good ol’ days when these two battled for Southern Conference and national I-AA titles.
GSU quarterback Shai Werts ran for 129 yards and a score, and the Eagle defense – minus Peach County alum Sean Freeman because of injury – helped ASU to five turnovers.
Werts connected with Houston County alum Darion Anderson for a 57-yard score 23 seconds into the second quarter for the Eagles’ first touchdown. ASU tied it, but not for long, a Mountaineer turnover setting up Wesley Field’s score with 9:53 left in the second.
And it was the Eagles’ night from then on.