The Eagles have won six FCS (I-AA) national championships and have produced two Walter Payton Award winners.

Georgia Southern first continuously fielded a football team in 1924, but play was suspended for World War II and did not return until 1981.

In 1982, the school hired Erk Russell, the popular and charismatic defensive coordinator at Georgia, to coach the new football team.

In 1989, the Eagles became the first college team to go 15–0 in the 20th century, winning the national championship on their home field vs. Stephen F. Austin.

In the first of many controversial moves, VanGorder scrapped Georgia Southern's famed triple-option offense and did away with certain traditions, such as the team's arrival at home games on yellow school buses.

Erk Russell had also died unexpectedly of a stroke on the eve the first game of the 2006 season after addressing the team on the night before.

Hatcher led the Eagles back to a winning record with a 7–4 finish, barely missing the FCS playoffs.

Monken's hiring signaled the return of the triple-option offense which brought success to the program in years past.

[6] The Eagles finished the 2011 regular season with a 9–2 record; however, they were ousted in the semifinals for a second straight year by the eventual FCS champion North Dakota State Bison.

In the 2012 season, the Eagles finished the regular season with an 8–3 record with a share of the Southern Conference Championship; however, the Eagles fell for a third straight time in what was ultimately the team's final FCS playoff game in the FCS semifinals, losing a rematch of the previous year's semifinal game against North Dakota State.

[7][8] After years of rumors and fan speculation, Georgia Southern announced its intentions to move to the Football Bowl Subdivision level in April 2012.

Baker was an ardent supporter of remaining in the FCS despite then-university president Brooks Keel's proclamation, mainly due to the financial ramifications of moving to a higher level.

[14] Since the Eagles were under transitional status, the university filed for a postseason waiver to allow the Eagles to play in a bowl game; however, the NCAA denied Georgia Southern's waiver request and a subsequent appeal since enough full member FBS teams became bowl-eligible during the season.

Georgia Southern defeated Eastern Michigan 23–21 in the Camellia Bowl, giving the Eagles their first 10-win season since the FCS-to-FBS transition.

Lunsford's team capped the season with an impressive 38-3 victory over the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs in the New Orleans Bowl.

[21] On September 10, 2022, Clay Helton led Georgia Southern to a 45-42 upset victory over Nebraska, earning national attention.

† Interim head coach The makings of the rivalry truly began when the Mountaineers beat the Eagles in the quarterfinals of the 1987 I-AA Playoffs.

After World War II, athletic teams were referred to as the Professors reflecting the school's status as a teacher-training college.

However, in 1959 when the school was renamed Georgia Southern College, a student vote was held to determine the new mascot; among the 104 entries, voters chose Eagles over Colonels by a narrow margin.

A drainage ditch that the team had to cross several times a day during football practice came to be called Beautiful Eagle Creek by Coach Erk Russell.

In 1989, ESPN was to broadcast a Thursday Night Football game between Georgia Southern and the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders.

Hugo ranked as the 11th most intense hurricane at time of landfall to strike the United States in the 20th century, with the highest ever recorded storm surge on the East Coast.

For safety purposes, an open line was kept between the press box at Paulson Stadium and the National Hurricane Center in Florida.

[29] With the subsequent success of the Eagles, the basic design has remained the same, with the only real changes in recent years being a white stripe down the middle of the helmets and the addition of names to the backs of the jerseys.

The flag was carried by safety Derek Heyden, who suffered a career ending neck injury early in the season.

The tradition was started following Lunsford's first win, a 52-point shutout of South Alabama, after the team had gone winless in the first 9 games of the 2017 season.

Freedom was rescued from Matiland, Florida in the first weeks of his life with a permanent injury to his beak and a near-fatal infection.

Prior to the Eagles' first FBS season, Paulson Stadium underwent a major expansion project that included the addition of a new football operations center and more than 6,000 new seats.

[36] The Eagles have won six NCAA FCS national championships, a mark surpassed only by the North Dakota State Bison.

The award, which honors the top offensive player in the FCS, was won by running back Adrian Peterson in 1999 and quarterback Jayson Foster in 2007.