Eagles fans in search of some positive news after Saturday’s loss to arch-nemesis Georgia State might have received it in the form of the first real rumor to emerge from the coaching search thus far. It’s a name most Georgia Southern fans are familiar with, Army offensive coordinator Brent Davis.

Football Scoop

Army offensive coordinator Brent Davis has emerged as a leading candidate for the open Georgia Southern head coaching job, sources told FootballScoop Monday.

Why is this good news you say? The first name to leak just happens to be a guy straight off of the Paul Johnson coaching tree. That’s a positive sign for most Eagles fans worried that the program would take a new direction away from the beloved triple option offense.

Davis has spent most of the past decade as Jeff Monken’s offensive coordinator at Army and Georgia Southern. He knows the triple option offense about as good as anybody. His name came up as a candidate in 2013 when Jeff Monken left.

Brent Davis’s last game as a Georgia Southern coach was the upset win over Florida, without completing a pass. This past Saturday he one-upped himself and orchestrated a 21-0 victory over rival Air Force without attempting a single pass. That should make Eagle nation feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Theoretically hiring Davis could make assembling a staff even easier. Georgia Southern OL coach Bob Bodine just came from Army in the offseason. Chad Lunsford is not going anywhere. Bryan Cook and Juston Wood are also triple option guys that could stay put. It’s just the defensive side of the ball that is a mystery. (Keep an eye on Kevin Corless)

This makes sense.

Davis had a 38-16 record with three FCS semifinals trips during his stint as the offensive coordinator and offensive line coach at Georgia Southern from 2010-13. He followed Jeff Monken to West Point after the 2013 season and has helped guide their resurgence.

Brent Davis previously served as the running backs coach and offensive line coach at Georgia Southern from 1997-05, working alongside Monken for five of those seasons and under head coaches Paul Johnson and Mike Sewak. His wife also went to Georgia Southern. It’s fair to say he’s familiar with the culture in Statesboro.

Sidestory: I even delivered food to his house as a Boro Takeout driver once upon a time. Good tipper.

Of course, there are critics. Some would rather see someone with head coaching experience come in to fix the mess. Other like to nitpick his past play calling decisions.

To that I say: Erk Russell, Paul Johnson, and Jeff Monken were all assistant coaches before Georgia Southern hired them. I understand the sentiment wanted an experienced head coach to untangle this mess. But the character, charisma, and best fit for the position matter more to me in this search.

Are there flashier hires out there? Sure. But I would be more than content with Brent Davis as head coach; we could do a lot worse as we’ve already found out.

Another interesting tidbit to this story is that there are other candidates:

Sources tell FootballScoop several other candidates have been vetted internally and discussions have been held with more than just Davis.

The detail of the information given almost makes me want to buy that this is a purposefully placed leak, designed to destroy the “Kleinlein hates the option” narrative. There are other candidates but the first one to leak is a flexbone-exclusive guy. It almost seems as if it is a tip-of-the-hat to the restless fanbase.

Whatever the case might be, we’ll keep our ears to the ground, and eyes on Twitter as this story develops.