New is the codeword at Georgia Southern

STATESBORO - Georgia Southern has a new coach, a new fullback and a new quarterback. The expectations sound all too familiar. <br> <br> National championship or bust. <br> <br> ``Nothing has changed,&#39;&#39; said Hakim Ford, who takes over for record-setting fullback Adrian Peterson. ``We&#39;ve just got to fill those spots, take a leadership role like the guys in the past have, and win another national championship.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Hmm, sounds pretty easy. Then again, the Eagles have reason to be confident, even though Peterson, coach Paul Johnson and quarterback J.R. Revere have moved on. <br> <br> Georgia Southern has won six national titles in the football program&#39;s two-decade-long modern existence. There was one brief downturn in the mid-1990s, but the Eagles quickly bounced back when Johnson was hired as coach. <br> <br> His teams won five straight Southern Conference titles and two national championships. Last season, the Eagles fell a bit short of their annual goal, losing to Furman in the I-AA semifinals. <br> <br> Maybe they were distracted by Johnson&#39;s impending departure. The coach headed to Navy as soon as the game ended, leaving behind a 62-10 record. <br> <br> Moving quickly to maintain continuity, Georgia Southern promoted offensive coordinator Mike Sewak to head coach the very next day. He retained five members of Johnson&#39;s staff, giving the returning players a sense that it&#39;s just another new season. <br> <br> ``Coach Sewak and coach Johnson were really neck-and-neck. They were like brothers,&#39;&#39; Ford said. ``They knew everything that the other one was doing. Basically, we&#39;ve not changed. Coach Sewak was a great one to fill those shoes. We didn&#39;t want anyone else.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> For the most part, the Eagles are doing things the way they always did. Certainly, the option offense will look numbingly familiar to the scheme that racked up 39.7 points per game during the Johnson era. <br> <br> ``I&#39;ve worked my whole life coaching-wise trying to perfect that offense,&#39;&#39; said Sewak, who will take over the play-calling duties from Johnson. ``I don&#39;t know if we&#39;ll ever get it perfect, but we&#39;re going to keep tinkering with it.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Sewak&#39;s transition would be a lot easier if he still had Peterson, the leading rusher in I-AA history. He rushed for 1,795 yards and 21 touchdowns as a senior, finishing his career with 9,161 yards and 114 TDs. <br> <br> ``That&#39;s a difficult situation,&#39;&#39; Sewak said. ``You&#39;re never going to replace the best back in I-AA history.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> But someone has to start at fullback. Ford, a 5-foot-11, 206-pound sophomore, gets the nod after rushing for 278 yards in a backup role last season. <br> <br> ``It&#39;s always hard to fill someone&#39;s shoes, especially a great guy like Adrian Peterson,&#39;&#39; Ford said. ``I&#39;m just taking it one day at a time, getting better with each practice. It you start looking at the big picture, all the records he set, everything can kind of slip off track.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> At quarterback, sophomore Chaz Williams and Trey Hunter are vying to replace Revere, who rushed for 1,017 yards and passed for 1,158 in his final season. Williams and Hunter spent most of the season on the bench, getting into a few games when the score got out of hand. <br> <br> They went into preseason workouts sharing the first-team duties, but Sewak is confident someone will emerge before the Eagles open the season Aug. 29 at Delaware. <br> <br> ``We would be hard-pressed to change from series to series, though I could see where both quarterbacks will get to play,&#39;&#39; he said. ``One of those guys has to rise up and take it.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Sewak believes the offensive scheme makes it easier to replace players such as Peterson and Revere. <br> <br> ``We have a system and we&#39;re always recruiting to that system,&#39;&#39; the coach said. ``We believe the secret sauce is that triple option. The kids have taken ownership of that. It&#39;s belongs to them.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> The Eagles have made great strides on defense under coordinator Rusty Russell, the son of former Georgia Southern coach Erk Russell. Last season, they allowed a school-record 12 points a game and ranked in the top 10 nationally in three of the four major categories. <br> <br> Seven starters return, led by monster lineman Freddy Pesqueira. <br> <br> ``We did some good things on offense,&#39;&#39; Sewak said, ``but the defense was up to the task.&#39;&#39;

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