Spring Hill Country Club in Tifton, Ga. was a tour stop Thursday evening for the Georgia Southern Coaches' Caravan as it served to welcome the program's new head coach, Tyson Summers, a former Tift County Blue Devil player and assistant coach.

TIFTON, Ga. — The Georgia Southern Coaches’ Caravan is swinging across the state as part of its preparations for upcoming athletic seasons. Tifton’s Spring Hill Country Club was a tour stop Thursday evening, where it served to welcome the program’s new head coach, Tyson Summers, who not so long ago was both a Tift County Blue Devil player and assistant coach.

 Summers was joined for the evening by assistant basketball coach Larry Dixon as well as GS athletic director Tom Kleinlein.

 “I’m very honored and humbled to be here,” said Summers as he officially opened the program. He thanked those who made the evening possible, then he called Kleinlein on the stage. Thursday was Kleinlein’s birthday, he said. A cake was brought out and Kleinlein blew out the candles.

 The stage was then turned over to Kevin Bostian, Sr. Associate Athletic Director for Development/Executive Director Athletic Foundation, who introduced Dixon.

Dixon, he said, is part of a staff that, along with head coach Mark Byington, has won 51 games in three years.

“I’d like to thank Tifton for inviting basketball on Tyson Summers night,” said Dixon. He talked about the lineup for the Eagles, which included Sun Belt conference Freshman of the Year Tookie Brown and Mike Hughes, who was named third team all-conference.

 Dixon said he was proud of the academic achievements of the team, who compiled a 2.85 GPA. He then spoke about signees for next year’s squad. “We’re going to get better,” he said.

Bostian next introduced Kleinlein, who went into details about financial contributions.

Kleinlein went into detail about the transition of Georgia Southern from Football Championship Subdivision to Football Bowl Sudivision. The process had originally been set for five years, he said. Suddenly, on Dec. 26, 2013, a phone call was received from the Sun Belt conference that both Florida Atlantic and Florida International were leaving.

When he informed GS President Dr. Brooks Keel of the opportunity to transition, albeit immediately, Keel’s response was “let’s do it,” according to Kleinlein. That was the underlying theme, said Kleinlein, “we have the ability to do way more than people expect.”

Kleinlein presented budget numbers from each Sun Belt team and how GS ranked among them. He pointed out as well how far the revenue goes, highlighting viewing numbers for football games, including 2.3 million who saw the Go Daddy Bowl in December, the program’s first as an FBS school.

 He then cued Summers to talk about the football program. Summers had been hired in December from his defensive coordinator role at Colorado State to take over for Willie Fritz, who had previously been GS head coach.

 “It’s hard to take a step back, relax and see how blessed I’ve been,” he said. Praising his mother for the way she raised him, he said that Tifton was like Georgia Southern in that “we take care of each other.”

 Spring practice had just finished for the team, said Summers, and he said both of his star quarterbacks from a year ago, Favian Upshaw and Kevin Ellison, did well.

He promised attendees that he planned on opening the offense — a bit.

“We’re going to throw it,” he said, “at least three or four times per game.” The Eagles averaged just 10.5 passing attempts per game in 2015, true to their history of being a heavily ground-based offense.

The recruiting class coming in, he said, was their best ever, including their first ever four-star-rated player. For those eyed by GS, he wants his players to fall under something he called STICK: speed, toughness, instructs, character and “kill to compete. 

Summers vowed to stress academics. “I feel very good about where we are with student athletes,” he said. As part of their classes, they have a weekly character education program. For his players, he said he stressed five F’s: faith, family, future, football and fun, in that order.

Summers also that his wife, Beth, “is my rock.”

After his speech, Summers participated in the raffle for GS memorabilia. Given away were sideline passes for the Sept. 17 home game against the University of Louisiana at Monroe and an authentic helmet. Dixon came back to the stage to present the other item raffled, a Byington-signed basketball.