STATESBORO — In a COVID-19 environment that created turmoil for nearly every college football team, Georgia Southern and Louisiana-Monroe have been two of the most impacted teams in the nation. This Saturday, those two teams will finally face off.

For the Warhawks, this past offseason was anything but normal in every way imaginable. On August 21, the team was forced to suspend all football activities due to an outbreak of the COVID-19 virus within the team. 

The stoppage would come to an end on September 1. However, just one day after football activities resumed, Warhawk Defensive Coordinator and Assistant Head Coach Mike Collins resigned for reasons that still remain mostly unknown. In addition, the team was also forced to postpone their September 5 game at Troy due to COVID-19 and Hurricane Laura.

On the other hand, Georgia Southern was missing a total of 33 players for their season opener against Campbell. The Eagles also had their game against Florida Atlantic postponed due to a COVID-19 outbreak within the Owl program.

Chad Lunsford and the Eagles have taken the adversity and turned it into motivation, accumulating a hardfought record of 1-1. However, Matt Viator and the Warhawks have yet to do the same as they are currently winless in 2020.

According to every statistic on both offense and defense, Louisiana-Monroe has been arguably the worst team in all of football. On offense, they have scored an average of 10 points per game and have averaged a measly 37 rushing yards per game. 

It does not get much better on the defensive side of the ball as the Warhawks allow an average of 35.3 points per game and allow over 260 rushing yards per game.

All of the aforementioned stats should bring stars to the eyes of Eagle fans as everything points to Lunsford’s team being able to run wild on a weak Warhawk team. Arguably the biggest strength of Louisiana-Monroe’s team is their passing game as they average over 240 yards per game through the air led by sophomore quarterback Colby Suits.

With all this being said, Georgia Southern should be able to run the ball at will on offense. On defense, the Eagles will force the Warhawks to throw and play right into their gameplan focused on stopping the ground game. Lunsford’s team should take control of this game early and dominate an inferior Louisiana-Monroe team.

DJ’s Prediction: 41-13 Eagle victory