STATESBORO, Ga. () — The Georgia Southern football team continues preparation for its first game of the season. The Eagles are calling this a “Mock Game Week.” Essentially, they will act as if a game is on this coming Saturday, even though the first game of the year is a little over a week away.

A lot of media attention has been given to the quarterback position, but QB’s best friend is a strong running game. The Eagles return junior David Mbadinga and senior OJ Arnold. They hope those two can fill the void left by Jalen White.

Of course, to have a strong running game GSU needs the need guys in the trenches to perform well. Last year, Georgia Southern finished third from the bottom in rushing yards in the conference.

“When you have a group that’s that tight knit,” Mbadinga said, “it is the next guy up and we’re ready. We have that mindset. Everybody in the room is ready because this is football. It’s a rough game. You never know what happens. And everybody in that room needs to be ready.”

“My dad has always taught me there’s trained and untrained and this group is trained,” head coach Clay Helton said. “It’s been a three year project of building this football team and it’s been a lot of acquisition of young players developing them up. But then the retention piece has been huge to.”

Georgia Southern opens the season in California. They play Fresno State on Aug. 30.