Opponent Preview: Fresno State
The Georgia Southern Eagles will open the 2025 season on August 30, 2025 in Fresno, California against the Fresno State Bulldogs.
The Eagles, coming off of an 8-5 (6-2 SBC) season in 2024, look to continue building on the growth since Clay Helton took the helm in 2022. Entering his fourth season as the Head Coach, Helton has a multi-year starter at the quarterback position for the first time. JC French IV comes into the 2025 season with a new swagger and a full offseason of preparation as the starter.
Week One’s opponent, Fresno State, was one of the ten teams that kicked their season off on August 23, 2025 as they played in Lawrence, Kansas against the University of Kansas in front of 41,525 fans. DraftKings Sportsbook had Kansas as a 13.5-point favorite at kickoff, but the Bulldogs failed to cover as they lost by a score of 31-7.
EJ Warner, the son of NFL Hall of Famer Kurt Warner and a former Georgia Southern recruit, got the start at quarterback for the Bulldogs. On their first drive of the game, Warner was 4 of 4 for 64 yards. That drive ended with a 3-yard touchdown run by RB Elijah Gilliam. That was really the only bright spot offensively for the Bulldogs as the next three drives ended in two punts and an interception respectively. Just before halftime, Warner led the Bulldogs on a nine play, 38 yard drive that ended in a missed field goal as time expired in the second quarter.
Fresno State got the ball after halftime and were putting together a decent drive before EJ Warner fumbled and the Jayhawks recovered near midfield. Two and a half minutes later, the Bulldogs got the ball back after a Kansas touchdown and that drive ended in another interception - Warner’s third turnover of the night.
The Bulldogs could not establish any sort of rhythm offensively and struggled to find any room on the ground. They finished the night with 29 rushing attempts for 37 yards. Sophomore RB Bryson Donelson saw the most action out of the backfield and finished the game with 11 carries for 34 yards. In the passing game, eleven different players caught a pass from EJ Warner. The leading receiver was senior WR Josiah Freeman who finished the night with 3 catches for 43 yards. Warner completed his first start as a Bulldog going 18 of 29 for 179 yards with two interceptions and a lost fumble.
Defensively, the Bulldogs struggled mightily as they surrendered 8.8 yards per pass and 5.8 yards per rush. The Jayhawks scored all 31 points on their first six drives of the game. Senior LB Jadon Pearson was by far the best player on the Fresno State defense and finished the game with 12 tackles including one tackle-for-loss which was 8 more than anyone else. The group did finish with 5 tackles-for-loss including a sack, so the defense is capable of disrupting an offense.
Fresno State will go back to the drawing boards and start preparation for Georgia Southern this week. DraftKings Sportsbook has the Bulldogs favored by 1.5-point over the Eagles, but that was before the game against Kansas so it will be interesting to see how the line shifts in the coming days.
Georgia Southern is 2-1 in Week One under Coach Clay Helton with wins against Morgan State (2022) and The Citadel (2023) with the lone loss coming last season against Boise State. Looking forward to the 2025 Week One matchup with Fresno State, the Eagles offense is more than capable of having success offensively as they return QB JC French IV, WR Josh Dallas, RB OJ Arnold, RB David Mbadinga, RB David Mbadinga, WR Dalen Cobb and a very experienced offensive line while adding WR, Camden Brown (Auburn), WR Dylan Gary (West Georgia), WR Brian Green, Jr. (Florida), TE River Helms (Western Kentucky), and TE Ahmon Green (Georgia State) via the transfer portal. Look for Offensive Coordinator Ryan Aplin to be a bit more committed to the run game and make an effort to get these tight ends involved in the offense early and often.
On the other side of the ball, Defensive Coordinator Brandon Bailey returns quite a bit of depth in the secondary as CB Chance Gamble, S Justin Meyers, CB Tracy Hill Jr., NB Ayden Jackson, CB Dorrian Smith, CB Ethan Pouncey, and S Prince Green III all return in 2025. In addition to them, S Jayden Davis (Georgia Tech) and CB Antonio White Jr. (Rutgers) were brought in via the transfer portal. This is the most talented and deepest secondary unit we have ever seen at Georgia Southern.
For the front seven, the biggest loss was MLB Marques Watson-Trent who transferred to Nebraska in the offseason, but App State transfer Brendan Harrington was brought in to help fill that void. DE MJ Stroud, DT Latrell Bullard, DE Davion Rhodes, DE Jacob Ferguson, DT Da’Shawn Davis, LB Davon Hicks, and LB CJ Allen Jr. all return in 2025 and the staff used the transfer portal to add DT Uche Iloh (Georgia Tech), LB Brandon Tyson (Elon), DT Marcus Downs (UCF), and Caleb Moore (Southern Miss), in addition to Harrington, who will provide some size and depth to this unit. After giving up 428.6 yards and 27.62 points per game in 2024, this unit has all the makings of being much improved in 2025 but only time will tell.
Georgia Southern matches up well with Fresno State and this should be a great game to kickoff the 2025 slate for the Eagles.
Players to Watch for Fresno State
QB EJ Warner (6’0”, 203 Pounds)
8,814 yards and 58 touchdowns at Temple (2022-2023) and Rice (2024) before transferring to Fresno State this season
RB Bryson Donelson (5’11”, 205 Pounds)
77 carries for 462 yards and 3 touchdowns as a true freshman last season
CB Al’Zillion Hamilton (5’11”, 185 Pounds)
Finished 2024 with 52 tackles, 5 tackles-for-loss, two forced fumbles and two interceptions
LB Jadon Pearson (6’1”, 220 Pounds)
42 tackles and 3 tackles-for-loss for Utah State in 2024 before transferring to Fresno State
12 total tackles including a tackle-for-loss in Week Zero matchup with Kansas
