Key takeaways from Georgia Southern's 23-21 loss to Buffalo in Camellia Bowl

Georgia Southern’s raucous fan base turned Montgomery, Alabama into Statesboro West for the Camellia Bowl.

Thousands of the Eagle faithful made the post-Christmas road trip to watch the climax of Coach Clay Helton’s first season, one marked by memorable upsets and record-breaking performances by transfer quarterback Kyle Vantrease. Georgia Southern’s fan support was made even more noticeable by the absence of fanfare for their opponent, the Buffalo Bulls. The Christmas weekend blizzard that blanketed upstate New York and most of the northern United States snowed in the team’s cheerleaders, marching band, radio crew and most of their fans, preventing them from traveling.

On the field in central Alabama, though, Buffalo owned the advantage. The Bulls’ ball-control offense limited Vantrease’s opportunities and held Georgia Southern 10 points below its season scoring average.

Here are key takeaways from the Eagles’ 23-21 loss to Buffalo.

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Vantrease steady but not spectacular in farewell performance

The record-breaking quarterback is the first star of the Helton era. He set single-game, single-season, even career passing records in just one season with the Eagles and sparked a program turnaround that has fans excited despite an average 6-7 win-loss record.

He threw for 352 yards and two touchdowns in the Camellia Bowl. His 79-yard touchdown strike to Joshua Johnson on Georgia Southern’s first offensive play of the second half tied the game and showed potential for late fireworks from an offense facing a defensive secondary so depleted by injuries and transfers that a wide receiver started at corner.

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But Vantrease never found a rhythm and an interception early in the fourth quarter led to Buffalo taking what would prove to be an insurmountable 23-14 lead with 8 minutes, 38 seconds left.

Vantrease had been the focal point in the leadup to the game, and not just because he came into the Camellia Bowl with the chance to set his fifth school record, this one for career pass completions. Vantrease transferred to Georgia Southern earlier this year after five seasons playing for Buffalo, a team he led to two bowl victories as a starter.

Vantrease described playing against his former team as “just a normal game” but called his one season with Georgia Southern as “special all the way around.

“It renewed my love for the game and for college football,” Vantrease said on the Georgia Southern Sports Network’s postgame locker room show. “The passion of the fan base and the passion around this program showed me what college football is all about.”

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Georgia Southern defense worn down on the line of scrimmage

Buffalo’s offensive line is built to play in the inclement weather of upstate New York. The five Camellia Bowl starters averaged 6-foot-5 and 320 pounds and leveraged that size advantage against Georgia Southern.

Buffalo held a 16-minute advantage in time of possession and answered three of the Eagles’ four scoring drives with touchdowns of its own — and the Bulls ran out the clock to claim the victory following Georgia Southern’s final touchdown drive.

Buffalo’s offensive line made fourth-string tailback Tajay Ahmed the game’s most valuable player. The senior entered the game with just one carry all season but ran 27 times for 98 yards and two touchdowns in place of injured teammates.

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Missed opportunities haunt the Eagles

The bus ride back to Statesboro will be a difficult one for several Eagle players whose miscues turned out to be missed opportunities against the Bulls. Any of these plays could have changed the outcome.

Wide receiver Beau Johnson tripped over his own feet at the 9-yard line after catching a would-be touchdown pass early in the second quarter. The Eagles’ settled for a field goal.

Georgia Southern’s offense ran four plays inside Buffalo’s 5-yard line on a pair of drives and failed to score touchdowns, forcing a pair of field goals and costing the Eagles potentially eight points. Three of those plays were called runs, taking the ball out of Vantrease’s hands.

Wide receiver Khaleb Hood fumbled a screen pass deep in Georgia Southern territory, setting up a Buffalo field goal.

Cornerback Jalen Denton dropped a sure interception — with plenty of running room in front of him — in the second half.

Helton puts program 'on track'

Georgia Southern Athletic Director Jared Benko made a bold move early in the 2021 season to fire Chad Lunsford as coach. He made a wise one to hire Helton in November, before that season ended, giving the new coach a jump on recruiting as well as the chance to instill his culture in the locker room quickly.

Helton brought credibility: six-plus seasons as the head coach at Southern Cal and a Pac-12 championship. That USC fired him in the middle of the 2021 season — five days before Georgia Southern parted ways with Lunsford — matters to the Eagle faithful only in that it make him available for hire.

He recruited Vantrease and, in the words of Benko, “got this program back to where it needs to be.” Asked following the Camellia Bowl about his outlook for Georgia Southern’s football future, Helton highlighted the biggest change he’s seen in the program over the last 14 months.

“The one thing that we do have right now is so much more confidence than what we started with,” he said. “These kids know they are not out of any situation. The best is yet to be. I look forward to starting all over again.”

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Georgia Southern Eagles football faces Buffalo in Camellia Bowl