Georgia Southern sacks Summers; interim replacement has Central Georgia ties

          The hiring of Tyson Summers as Georgia Southern’s head football coach in December of 2015 was met with mostly positive reviews.

          By the end of his first season, he was facing a slew of criticism, and made a number of staff changes, including firing co-offensive coordinators David Dean and Rance Gillespie, both of whom are suing Summers and athletics director Tom Kleinlein for contract issues discovered after they lost their titles. 

          Summers restored a version of the much-revered-in-Statesboro triple option offense in the offseason. He couldn’t restore any success, or offensive continuity, and was fired Sunday, a day after the winless Eagles lost 55-20 to winless Massachusetts.

           Summer went 5-13 in a season and a half, coming to Statesboro after serving as Mike Bobo’s defensive coordinator at Colorado State. He is from Tift County and his father was a standout football player at Lanier High in Macon in the 1960s.

          “Tyson did a great job in areas that the public doesn't see,” Kleinlein said in the statement released by the school, “but at the end of the day, the results on the field weren't where we needed them to be as we continue our growth as an FBS program.”

          His interim successor has connections to Central Georgia.

          Chad Lunsford is from Elberton, but graduated from Georgia College, and began his coaching career down the road at Georgia Military College, serving as a student assistant, then running backs coach and then linebackers coach.

          After two seasons at Appalachian State, he spent three seasons at Georgia Southern - 2003-05 - as running backs and slotback coach.

          Lunsford followed the 2006-07 year at Griffin by returning to GMC as special teams coordinator and linebackers coach for two years. Lunsford was hired by formerGSU head coach Jeff Monken in 2013 after four years in football administration at Auburn.

          Lunsford was a nominee n 2016 for the Broyles Award for the top assistant in FBS football. HE was promoted to assistant head coach before the 2017 season.

          His wife Tippy (Hyde) is from Macon and graduated from Tattnall.

          Georgia Southern plays at Troy this Saturday. On Georgia Southern’s staff as director of football administration is Steve Dennis, a Macon native, Lanier grad, and former athletics director at Troy.