AJC: Georgia State Football Goes 8-3 in 2011

Not much in depth but a score prediction from the AJC's Mark Bradley:

Georgia State will go 8-3. It will, however, lose 51-10 at Houston on Sept. 24. Which, when you consider the Panthers lost 63-7 at Alabama last season, will be a sign of progress.

If we go 8-3 in 2011, I'll do backflips down Decatur Street.  This would be an tremendous success.

Notes from Coach Curry's Call In Show

Yesterday marked the final Coach Bill Curry Call In Show of 2010 and he gave tremendous insight and mapped out the recruiting process and the offseason while discussing the Alabama game.

Some highlights:
-All of the coaches watched the Alabama film and they were itching to get to the practice field again.
-CBC was disappointed in the games results but the team did not hang their heads, they kept fighting vs. Alabama.
-Spotlighted RT Grant King, TE Arthur 'Bully' Williams and QB Kelton Hill for their play vs. the Crimson Tide.
-Curry looks back fondly on the season and says that he was glad they scheduled the way they did.  It would have been easy to schedule "cupcakes" every week and win every game. 
-Recruiting Game Plan: Based on current roster, we could sign 8 right now, expects that number to grow to 10-12 (or more) in February (I fully expect some academic and football related attrition).  Coach Curry rolled down his wish list: Defensive Line, Safety, Linebacker, Quarterback (Coach Curry's goal is to sign 1 in every cycle) and a Kicker (big loss in Iain Vance but we can sell immediate playing time).
-More Recruiting: Says staff has hit JUCO ranks hard as well as South Carolina, Georgia and South Florida.
-One pretty cool note: The team received a police escort from the Alabama state line to the stadium and then from the stadium to the Georgia state line.  That's impressive folks.

Georgia State Falls 63-7, Completes Season #1

I just got back as my wife and I stayed in Birmingham and both of us worked this morning.  I could not be more proud of this team. Yes, there were negatives from last night but the game proved to our players that the off season begins today and work is to be done.

Last Night's Game helped in many ways but I believe 3 of the most important:

1. Recruiting - It's absolutely crucial to let recruits know we are not afraid to play anyone, ever.  We want the best, to play against the best. 

2. Off Season Strength & Conditioning: Can you imagine this game tape or highlights in our weight room?  Guys finishing a set or thinking about this game as they prepare for spring practice, will be more motivated and understand that they have to be physically dominant in order to prepare and compete at that level.  Our Front 7 and starting OL will make gains this off season, I can assure you.

3. Fundraising: I had the privelege of sitting near some of our larger donors and last night got our alums motivated to say, "We need your help."  I'm all in folks, we have a product that is worthy to carry the Georgia State name and we need our alums to rally around this team this off season and into 2011. 

This puts a cap on football season and we finished 6-5.  Absolutely fantastic and it is going to be a fun ride.

Alabama Gameday!

Welcome to Thursday, November 18th!  For most of our country, this is just the Thursday before Thanksgiving. For Panther Nation, this is the day we take on the #12 Alabama Crimson Tide at vaunted Bryant Denny Stadium.

I hope you enjoy it as my wife and I will be in the building tonight!

See you in Tuscaloosa!

It's Really Tuesday?

Good Morning and Happy Football Tuesday!

Before many of you wonder what I'm drinking in my coffee, our football team practiced is practicing this morning and installing the Alabama gameplan.

Football season ends on Thursday at Alabama and it's been a very successful winter sports season.

*One quick non-football note: Volleyball ended their season yesterday with a 3-1 loss to Delaware wrapping up their best campaign since 2005 finishing 14-14 and 8-5 in CAA play.

Monday Quick Hitters - 11.9.10

Good Afternoon and Happy Monday Panther Nation!

I hope you enjoyed the last home game of the season and it was certainly exciting and gut wrenching all at once.  Glad to have clinched a winning year and a winning record at home.  Absolutely awesome.

In my preview, I highlighted the turnover battle (which was even), our ability to jump to an early lead (which we did 10-0) and playing well against the pass (eh, not so much).  A clutch play by Jamal Ransby and a good final stand by the D clinched it.

The Panthers will have until Wednesday off and will begin preparations for FBS #12 Alabama.

On to the Links...

Media Recap the Lamar win: A great job, as always, by our guy CT for compiling these. GSU Link

Georgia State as the Example? As many of you may know, Kennesaw State announced that it was going to be playing football.  Now it's the funding portion that is up to a student vote today.  Let's just say the faculty and alumni are not as excited as we were back in 2007 and 2008.  AJC Link

Georgia State Attendance 'Excellent' in 1st Season: Good work by our guy Ken at the AJC.  AJC Link

Alumni Tailgate for Alabama game

Thanks to "The Voice" for sending this over.  I hope you guys are making plans for T Town  & Nov. 18th.

Alumni Association will be hosting a pre-game tailgate party in Tuscaloosa before the Ga State/Alabama game.

Location: Pavilion adjacent to the President's Mansion at The University of Alabama
Time: 4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Bama Dining will be onsite providing our food and beverages.

ADMISSION:
●FREE for current Alumni Association members and children 3 and under.
●First Alumni Association member guest and children ages 4-12 - $5.00 per person.
●All other guests $10.00 per person.

For further details, call the Alumni Assn office at 404-413-2190.

Alabama closes school early prior to GSU game

Tuscaloosa City School System students will will attend classes for half a day Nov. 18 because of traffic concerns related to the University of Alabama-Georgia State football game, the Tuscaloosa News reports.

AL.com Link

My take:  Anyone who doesn't think that this game will be absolutely packed is nuts.  Yes we are a first year program, yes it's a week night but having a former Alabama coach come back to Bryant-Denny with a first year program from Atlanta.  There will be very few empty seats come November 18th.  I'll be there.  Will you?

Our Opponents Impressive this weekend

Gamecock players letting out a Rebel yell in Oxford on Saturday

Photo Courtesy of Rogelio V. Solis/Associated Press

Jacksonville State - 1-0 It all starts with our Week 3 home opponent Jacksonville State.  They walked into Ole Miss and capitalized on 3 Rebel turnovers and beat them in 2 OTs 49-48.  A great win for them and I've got to believe they'll be very excited and will have a very large following on Sept. 18th.

Campbell - 1-0 Our Week 4 opponent defeated previously winless UVA-Wise 20-16 for their season opening win.

Morehead State - 0-1 Our Homecoming and Week 5 opponent absolutely got housed vs. James Madison losing 48-7.

Savannah State - 0-1 Our Week 6 opponent headed to Statesboro to face the Georgia Southern Eagles and received a worse beating that Morehead State did, losing 48-3.

North Carolina Central - 1-0 Our Week 7 foe beat Johnson C. Smith 59-0.

Old Dominion - 0-1 Week 8 road opponent ODU had a tough go and lost to non scholarship Jacksonville University 35-25 at home.

South Alabama - 1-0 Week 9 road opponent beats NAIA Pikeville (Ky.) 59-0 in front of 22,376 fans at Ladd Peebles Stadium.

Lamar - 0-1 Week 10 and final home game opponent loses to #11 McNeese State 30-27.

Alabama - 1-0 (0-0 SEC) The defending BCS National Champions defeated San Jose State 49-3 without Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram. 

Through Week 2 our opponents are 6-8 (Lambuth lost on Thursday night to the Wonder Boys of Arkansas Tech.

Question #6: How will the team respond to success/failure?

May be the hardest question to answer but that's why I open it up to you. CBC has mentioned that he's already prepared to speak to the team after the Alabama game.  What about if Shorter takes it out on us Game 1?  How then do we respond?

I have complete confidence in CBC and staff to have us ready to keeping us going. 

What do you think?

Game vs. ODU on CSS

Great news from the Virginian-Pilot.  This makes 3 games on television this season: Morehead State on CSS, ODU on CSS and Alabama on ESPNU.

$450,000 Reasons to Play

This was not much different than the answer Georgia State coach Bill Curry gave to ESPN the Magazine when asked about playing Alabama.

So, one good reason for guarantee games is that good athletes get exposure to more noted talent and they get a chance to elevate their game to a higher level.

And there are other good reasons to play:

The money's good. The $450,000 check that Alabama will pay Georgia State will go a long way to covering the costs of Georgia State's football program. If your sports program is running a deficit, then another school might be willing to help close that financial gap for you.

Latest ESPN the Mag Coverage of Building the Program

It was a joke. Surely, it had to be. "It's our first year!" Bill Curry said into his BlackBerry. "No. We're not doing that."

It was February and the 67-year-old Georgia State coach, taking a break from Grandparents' Day at Sarah Smith Elementary School, near his Atlanta home, was talking to Bill McDonald, an associate athletic director at Alabama. McDonald had worked with Curry throughout the 1980s, at both Georgia Tech and Bama, but what he had just said seemed ridiculous. He wanted Curry's newborn Georgia State Panthers, who don't even start playing until next season, to plan a trip to Tuscaloosa and play the resurgent Crimson Tide.

"When is the game?" Curry asked.

"Nov. 20, 2010," McDonald replied.

"Come on," Curry told him. "Let's talk about 2012 or 2013."

"Nope. Take it or leave it."

"You can't be serious about this. We have mostly freshmen. Just give me another year, at least."

"Can't do it."

Football Nuggets and Other Rumblings

President Mark Becker speaking to the Tampa Bay Alumni group dropped the following nuggets:

-The Falcons Visitor's Locker Room will be redone and rethemed for Georgia State. Imagine walking a recruit into the Georgia Dome and it has our logo, our colors in the largest FCS stadium.

-Speaking of the Georgia Dome, football seating will be restricted to the lower bowl (23,000) with students in one endzone and advertising banners in the other. We need to sellout the lower bowl to think about expanding into the higher levels.

-Homecoming game will be vs. Morehead State on October 2nd.

-We currently have 3,000 tickets committed for Alabama and trying to get more.

More notes to come...