EagleMania Wrote:BlueRaiderPride Wrote:MaXx Wrote:Last year they barely beat us at their place, 37-35. I'm hoping we can pull off the win this time around.
I must say, it sure is nice to pull for programs ran in equal-opportunity fashions in that they do not run off long-time friends to the university who are million dollar donors like GSU did here recently!
Blue Raider Pride:
Who is this million dollar donor you're referring?
First I've heard about this. :rolleyes:
You guys need to chill. What did Sam say that was so untrue? What school did Sam pick out and slam? 
Irked Russell: Fie to Eagles
Tony Barnhart - Staff
Wednesday, February 18, 2004
Perhaps no man is tied closer to the identity of a school than Erk Russell is to Georgia Southern. Russell built Georgia Southern football from nothing into a Division I-AA national power and remained its most famous celebrity long after his retirement in 1989.
Now, Russell has issued a statement that all but severs his ties with Georgia Southern, which he has helped as a fund raiser and unofficial representative. The move follows the firing of his son, Rusty, Georgia Southern's defensive coordinator since 1997.
"Your highest highs are never as high as your lowest lows are low," said Erk Russell, 77. "I've felt all of that at Georgia Southern. This is the lowest of those lows."
Rusty Russell was fired after a 7-4 season in which the Eagles' defense allowed 21.1 points per game and gave up fourth-quarter leads in three of its losses. His father was upset with coach Mike Sewak's statements when announcing the firing.
"I visited with Coach [Erk Russell] on those matters," Sewak said at his Jan. 14 news conference. "He's our tradition. He brought me here."
Erk Russell said that comment made it sound as if he knew before the fact that his son would be fired. In fact, he said, the meeting with Sewak came at his insistence and only after he learned of the firing. Rusty Russell was told his fate in late November. Erk Russell met with Sewak in early December.
"I never would have responded the way I did unless there had been those statements in the media," Erk Russell said. "It read as if we had met on the matter, discussed it, and that's the way it came out. But that's not the way it was."
Erk Russell said he asked Sewak whose decision it was to fire Rusty Russell. When Sewak said it was his decision alone, Erk Russell said: "I'm gone, too."
Sewak and Georgia Southern athletics director Sam Baker issued statements on the matter but would have no further comment, said Tom McClellan, the school's athletics media relations director.
Said Baker: "I have the utmost respect for Coach Erk Russell, but I support our head coaches' prerogative to make difficult decisions regarding their program. To elaborate any further on this matter would not be of benefit to any of the parties involved."
Sewak worked two seasons as an assistant to Erk Russell in the mid-1980s, and Sewak and Rusty Russell were the top candidates for the head coaching job at Georgia Southern when Paul Johnson left for Navy after the 2001 season. Sewak, the offensive coordinator, got the job. Sewak would only say that: "I feel for the position Coach [Erk] Russell is in."
Erk Russell won Division I-AA championships at Georgia Southern in 1985, 1986 and 1989 and was defensive coordinator at Georgia for 17 years.
Contacted at his home in Statesboro, Erk Russell insisted that he was angry not because his son was fired but because of the way Georgia Southern handled it.
"If Rusty has gotten fired because he was a sorry coach or did something irresponsible, then I'm the first one that will tell you that the head coach has the authority and the responsibility to do what he thinks should be done," Erk Russell said. "That is not what this is about."
Erk Russell would not say whether he would ever attend another Georgia Southern football game or any school function with his former players.
"At this point I'll never say never," he said. "At this point right now I'm not really thinking about things like that. I'm just trying to shake this. When the time comes we'll see what happens."
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*Georgia Southern* AD slams Sun Belt!
May I use that one?
