Playing before a crowd of 24,134 Saturday at Paulson Stadium to open the 2024 season, Georgia Southern and Boise State staged a wild shootout that saw the teams combine for 1,112 yards of offense, but the Eagles fell 56-45 to the Broncos.
Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty ran for a school-record six touchdowns and had 267 yards rushing to help overcome Georgia Southern.
Playing in his first game as the starting quarterback, Georgia Southern's J.C. French was 28-of-50 passing for 323 yards, two scores and no interceptions, and he added a rushing TD.
Boise State led 28-9 with 2 1/2 minutes left in the first half before the Eagles scored the next 21 points to take a 30-28 lead in the third quarter. The teams exchanged the lead twice more before Jeanty scored his final TD on a 75-yard run.
The Broncos jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter when Jeanty broke off two long touchdown runs. The Eagles got on the board in the second quarter when Jalen White punched it in from 2 yards out. A 31-yard field goal by Gavin Stewart brought the Eagles to within five early in the quarter. Right before the end of the half, Dalen Cobb hauled in an 18-yard touchdown catch on a spectacular grab to get the Eagles back into it.
The Eagles built on the momentum from the end of the first half and French scored on an 11-yard run on the first possession of the second half. After a fourth-down stop by the defense deep in Boise territory, White scored from 1 yard out to give the Eagles their first lead of the game.
The Broncos responded with a 14-play drive capped by a 1-yard touchdown run by Jeanty late in the third quarter, giving them the lead back. French connected with Beau Johnson on a 3-yard touchdown pass, but on the next play, Jeanty went 85 yards for his sixth score.
A late scoring run from White, his career-high third score of the game, capped the scoring.
The Eagles were down as many as 19 points but scored on six of seven drives to take the lead before the Broncos' run game took over, finishing with 372 yards and seven scores.
Georgia Southern (0-1) travels to Reno, Nevada, to take on the Wolf Pack of Nevada next Saturday at 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast on TruTV and streamed on Max.
