If Georgia Southern loses at No. 5 Ole Miss on Saturday—the Rebels are a 36.5 point favorite—it won’t be because the Eagles were intimidated by playing in a packed SEC venue. It’ll simply be because  the Rebels were the better team.

Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, which seats 64,038, is one of the more iconic college football venues in the sport but it won’t be current Eagles players first venture into a big time hostile environment:  two years Georgia Southern got a 45-42 win at Nebraska in front of 86,862 and last year held a 14-7 third quarter lead at Wisconsin before 75,610 in a 35-14 loss. And then there’s the every-other-year trip to Appalachian State 

Cam Williams wasn’t around for the trip to Nebraska but he was at Wisconsin’s Camp Randall Stadium last year and the sixth-year senior from Bakersfield, Calif., saw plenty of action in big stadiums in front of large crowds while at Washington.

So, when the Eagles take the field Saturday for the 7:45 game which will be televised on the SEC network intimidation will be the last thing on Williams’ mind. And he will be helping quell any such feelings among his teammates.

“It’s football,” the 6-0, 205-pound Williams said. “I think it’s football for all of us. You can’t let that (venue environment) get to you. If you’re playing the game worrying about focusing on the fans, I think you’re in the wrong sport to begin with.

“Going into the stadium to play football is not that hard. There will be a lot of fans but like I said at the end of the day it’s just football. We have to go out there and have fun.”

The defense struggled against Boise State as it yielded 56 points, the most points the Eagles have ever given up at Paulson Stadium, but it has rebounded nicely in wins at Nevada and last Saturday against South Carolina State had a 60-yard interception return for a touchdown by Tracy Hill, Jr.

Against the Rebels the Georgia Southern defense will be going up against what will undoubtedly be the best offense it will face all season and Williams said it will be crucial for the Eagles to maintain their composure regardless of how the game is playing out.

“I think the most important thing is to control what we can do for ourselves,” Williams said. “I play safety and I have to make sure my cornerback can trust me to do my job and I can trust him to his job.

“We have to communicate. We want the defense to run well and communicating is a big thing,” Williams said. “We started slowly against Boise which is one of the better teams we’ll play this year. The last game we tackled and communicated better.”

There’s no reason to think the Rebels are not going to score. After all they’re averaging 56 points per game, but the challenge for the Eagles, Williams said, will to be keep things from getting out of hand.

“I think we’re relying on our preparation throughout the week,” Williams said. “If they score, we can’t get our heads down. We can’t talk negative to each other. We’ve got to study film this week and get prepared for them.

“They’re going to score, we’re going to score. We’re going to make mistakes, they might make mistakes. At the end of the day, we have to come together as a team as we’ve been doing since the summer.”

As a player who started the first six games of his career at Washington as a true freshman Williams has plenty of experience playing in some of the most iconic stadiums in college football, i.e., Huskies Stadium, at Oregon, in the Rose Bowl, at USC’s Memorial Stadium, etc.

It was against a Clay Helton coached USC team he had one of his best days when he had two interceptions and five tackles in a win over the Trojans.