Dogs want to go out a winner

Citadel football players awoke at 5:30 a.m. on sweltering summer days to push around 200-pound sleds, flip giant tractor tires and do chin-ups with heavy iron chains draped around their necks.

They did all that with dreams of upsetting North Carolina, competing for a Southern Conference championship, earning a playoff bid or even just posting a rare winning season. Week by week, those goals have fallen away until Bulldogs seniors are left with this -- one last chance to celebrate with their teammates in a victorious locker room.

That chance comes today at Georgia Southern.

"It would be great to have that one more time," said senior receiver Andre Roberts. "At home, it feels great. But to do that on the road, in our last game, it would mean a lot to our seniors and to our coaches, just being able to leave on a victory."

Said senior linebacker Jordon Gilmore: "It would be great momentum going into the off-season for us. We've got a lot of young guys coming back, who are going to be great players for us, so it would be great confidence for those guys going into the off-season.

And it would be great for the seniors to go out on a high note."

Nobody on either side of this game is thrilled with they way their seasons have turned out. The Citadel (5-5, 2-5) was picked to finish seventh in the SoCon and will wind up at about that level, though close losses to Appalachian State, Western Carolina indicate what might have been.

Georgia Southern (5-5, 3-4), meanwhile, was predicted to finish fourth in the league, but has lost its last three games by a combined 113-48 to App State, Samford and Furman.

In an effort to change things up, Eagles coach Chris Hatcher benched starting quarterback Lee Chapple last week in favor of backup Kyle Collins. Collins threw an interception on GSU's first possession, helping Furman to a 14-0 lead and a 30-22 victory.

Chapple will start today, but Hatcher said both QBs will play.

"We've had a bad year offensively," Hatcher said this week, "but you can't pin that on Lee Chapple. At times he's played well. The one thing about the quarterback is that he relies on the 10 other men on the field more than any other position. Sometimes he has not gotten as much help as he needs."

A 52-16 loss at App State, in which the Mountaineers rolled up 712 yards, sent the Eagles on their current skid.

"After the App game, we lost our confidence," Hatcher said. "The only way to get it back is to go out and win. We're just not playing with a lot of confidence right now.

"I'm not making excuses or whining, but our lack of maturity showed. Some of our young guys have hit the wall. Playing high school ball a year ago and then adjusting to the rigors of a full college season is difficult."

Georgia Southern has allowed a SoCon-worst 42 sacks, a weakness the Bulldogs must exploit. In last week's 31-28 loss at Chattanooga, The Citadel did not register a sack despite 61 pass attempts by the Mocs.

The Citadel also has some uncertainty at quarterback. Freshman walk-on Tommy Edwards got his first start and played well at Chattanooga, throwing for three TDs and running for a fourth. But redshirt freshman Miguel Starks also is expected to play, if not start, as he recovers from an ankle injury that's limited his snaps in the last three games.

The 10 Citadel seniors playing in their final game today are from coach Kevin Higgins' first recruiting class. That class includes Roberts, an All-American and the top receiver in school history, and defensive starters Gilmore, Terrence Reese, Dewitt Jones and Ryan Jones. Fifth-year seniors Dan DeHaven and Tommy Suggs will start for the last time on the offensive line. Other seniors include Ryan Keiper, Nelson Burch and Anthony Maldonado.