Football gets a mention in CNNSI's Stewart Mandel's Mailbag

There has been some buzz lately about new football start-up Georgia State University. They hired Bill Curry as head coach, they will call the Georgia Dome home and, recently, Alabama's former prized recruit, Star Jackson, transferred to the school. Georgia is a huge football state with only two FBS teams. Where do you see this program in 10 years?


-- Ben, Dayton, Ohio

To me, the most intriguing part of the Georgia State's upcoming first season is that Curry, the former Alabama coach who had a brick thrown through his office window, is bringing his start-up team to Tuscaloosa on Nov. 18. We're talking about not just an FCS team, but a team that's yet to play an official game, facing the defending national champions. The carnage could be grotesque. And yet at the same time it's a fantastic p.r. move by Curry, whose team won't likely garner much coverage once its first game passes but will get a burst the week of that game.

As for his program's long-term potential, one need only look at some of the upstart Florida schools for a model. I don't know that Georgia State will be playing in a BCS conference within nine years of Inception (saw the movie last weekend; overrated) like USF did, but Curry could conceivably follow the fast-track of Howard Schnellenberger, who started Florida Atlantic's program in 2001, had it playing in the Sun Belt by '05 and reaching its first bowl by '07.

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