STATESBORO — The Georgia Southern football team will play Liberty on Dec. 21 in the Cure Bowl.

“It’s a great opportunity for our football team to add to the epic story that is Georgia Southern,” Head Coach Chad Lunsford said.  

The game will be nationally televised on CBS and take place in the Exploria Stadium. This will be the program’s third ever bowl appearance and Liberty’s first.

Both teams finished 7-5 overall and the Flames completed the season tied for second in the FBS behind Notre Dame.

91 cents from every dollar made by the Cure Bowl will be donated to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Since 2015, the bowl has raised almost $4 million for cancer research.

The bowl announcement had everyone on pins and needles, but the program has stayed focused and treated this week as a bye week. The coaching staff has emphasized the importance of finishing the semester strong in the classroom.

“We want to put them in a position to be very successful in that area and then the best possible situation to go be successful in a bowl,” Lunsford said. “We were able to work on fundamentals, work on our techniques, our offense, our defense, our special teams and do what we do.”

With Orlando being a prime location for GS fans and students, due to the short four and a half hour drive, Athletic Director Tom Kleinlein has high hopes that at least 8,000 members of Eagle Nation will attend the game. 

Lunsford and staff have been busy on the recruiting trail and have been busy on the recruiting trail, without wide receivers coach Lamar Owens. Owens resigned last week, effective immediately, and will be replaced on the field at the bowl by second-year graduate assistant Dimitri Donald. 

“He’s been involved heavily in game planning,” Lunsford said of Donald’s role. “I don’t expect any drop off… Dimitri will do a tremendous job of that.”

During the team’s trip to Orlando, they will visit Universal Studios, explore CityWalk, visit the Orlando Health Cancer Center and volunteer for the J.A Edwards of America Feeding Children Everywhere Hunger Project.

Amanda Arnold, The George-Anne Sports Editor, gasports@georgiasouthern.edu