Deciding who makes a football team’s travel roster isn’t as easy as it sounds, but the Georgia Southern Eagles put together a rough draft of the travel squad on Monday in preparation for Saturday’s season-opening game against Samford in Birmingham, Ala.
Roughly 70 Eagles will make the trip. Of course the entire two-deep will suit up, but deciding which backups to bring gets tricky.
“There’s some guys who may not play unless someone’s hurt,” GSU coach Jeff Monken said. “It really comes down to the health of those guys in front of them — who we may need in case someone goes down — and who we need on special teams. Those are the two biggest factors.”
Four players, all true freshmen, will not be eligible to start the season due to the pending approval of transcripts with the NCAA clearing house.
Slotback Seon Jones, cornerback Emanuel Orange, offensive lineman Maurice Hunt and wide receiver Charlie Brower are still pending clearance.
“Hey, there’s rules in place, and we absolutely are always going to follow the rules here,” Monken said.
Some players are still unsure of their status on the travel squad.
With senior Jaybo Shaw, sophomore Jerick McKinnon and redshirt freshman Ezayi Youyoute in the mix at quarterback, highly touted true freshman Prince McJunkins is still un-
decided.
“We like to take the freshmen quarterbacks — we always do — just to give them the experience of being on the road,” Monken said. “We use the extra quarterbacks as signalers, and we try to bring as many as we can. Right now (McJunkins) is not a guy who’s factoring in at quarterback on Saturday, but who knows down the road.”
Kickoff is at 7 p.m.