The 2016 college football season has reached the halfway mark. Let that sink in a moment.

It’s a bad feeling. Fall is the best time of the year, and college football is the best sport in the world. The fact that both of these things are halfway over is sad.

Georgia Southern has put together a 3-3 record in the first half of the season. It’s certainly not where they want to be or what they’re capable of, but the season is by no means over. Two of those losses have come from non-conference opponents in Western Michigan and Georgia Tech.

The one-point loss against Arkansas State was a tough blow to the Eagle’s pursuit of a second Sun Belt trophy, and it’ll take a few things to occur for them to be in the driver’s seat again.

“We’re not excited about where we’re at by any stretch of the imagination,” Tyson Summers, GS head coach, said.

He did add that nobody in the locker room is pointing fingers or turning their backs on each other. The general attitude among the players at the postgame press conferences after the loss to Georgia Tech reflected that. Everyone had a “move past it” attitude.

“We thought we were going to be undefeated, probably along with every other team in the country. But things happen; anybody can lose in football, anybody can win,” Kevin Ellison, senior quarterback, said. “You have to just be able to move on and keep playing hard.”

That’s exactly what they need to do after three consecutive defeats, the longest such streak since the 2009 season. The schedule doesn’t let up either, as they’ll play their fourth straight game on the road this week against New Mexico State. After that is a home date with Appalachian State and a trip to Ole Miss.

The rest of the schedule is more kind, as the Eagles get UL Lafayette and Georgia State, arguably the two worst teams in the conference, in the latter part of the season.The Eagles cap off regular-season play with a matchup against Troy, who boasts an impressive 5-1 record and is a perfect 3-0 in conference play.

GS needs to win out in Sun Belt action to keep any title hopes alive, and they need Arkansas State to slip up, possibly against Troy in a few weeks. The team knows they need outside help to be atop the conference standings again, but for now, it’s about taking it one step at a time.

For the Eagles, that means a road win against New Mexico State this weekend.

Senior linebacker Ironhead Gallon said, “The thing we’ve been trying to preach to each other is ‘bounce back.’ You can’t change anything that happened in the past.”

Photo courtesy of Mick Miller.