Can you take a guess at how far Statesboro, Georgia is from Las Cruces, New Mexico? 1,000 miles? 1,500 miles? Try 1,670 miles.

How about a nice, smooth 23-hour drive through Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas before arriving to play a 2-3 opponent, New Mexico State?

Or maybe instead of driving they have a cross-country flight, the first Georgia Southern would take this season. Playing on a Thursday night last week sure sounds good now, doesn’t it?

In a normal week, teams have a routine schedule that they follow. For example, watching film, workouts and conditioning on Monday, full pad practices on Tuesday through Thursday, and a light practice on Friday.

This week, head coach Willie Fritz and his assistant coaches will have to condense the normal weekly schedule in order to accommodate the distance they will have to cover for the game on Saturday.

Despite the unorthodox schedule, let’s keep in mind that Georgia Southern has had a span of nine days in between the App State game and this game against New Mexico State.

That translates to extra time to prepare. It also means that players have time to recover as they prepare to take on a pass-heavy Aggie offense.