2013 Georgia State Spring Football Analysis

Georgia State Panthers 2013 ... Head Coach: Trent Miles

Georgia State Panthers

2013 Schedule
8/29 Samford
9/7 Chattanooga
9/14 at West Virginia
9/21 Jacksonville State
9/28 OPEN DATE
10/5 at Alabama
10/12 Troy
10/19 at Texas State
10/26 at ULM
11/2 WKU
11/9 OPEN DATE
11/16 Louisiana
11/23 at Arkansas State
11/30 South Alabama

Why To Be Excited The Panthers are loaded with veterans coming off a disastrous 1-10 season. Ten starters return to an offense that gets all five starters back including four seniors up front to protect quarterbacks Ben McLane and Ronnie Bell, who each got their feet wet last year. The defense might have been awful against the run, but it welcomes back the entire front line working around big nose tackle Terrance Woodard and should be better on the outside hoping for John Kelly and C.J. Stephens to add more punch into the backfield.

Why To Be Grouchy The team needs 57 miles to go to be even decent. At the FCS level, GSU wasn’t even close losing nine of the ten games by double digits. How did it do against FBS teams? It was blasted 51-13 by Tennessee and 38-14 by UTSA, but everyone else did whatever they wanted, too. The secondary that was ripped apart by anyone who could throw a forward pass loses safeties D’Mario Gunn and Demazio Skelton, two of the team’s top four tacklers.

What Needs Working On The offense has to stop turning the ball over and it has to find a running game. Youth and inexperience were the issues to work through, but the turnovers never stopped and the problem got worse as the season went on with 23 interceptions on the year and 12 lost fumbles. The ground game has to do something right after hitting 100 yards just three times all seasons long with the only 200-yard day – a 274-yard, three score effort against Rhode Island – the only win of the season.

Non-Conference Games: Samford, Chattanooga, at West Virginia, Jacksonville State, at Alabama
Realistic Best Case Record: 4-8
Worst Case Record: 0-12
Likely Finish: 1-11
Pre-Preseason Projected Wins: Chattanooga
Pre-Preseason Projected Losses: Samford, at West Virginia, Jacksonville State, at Alabama, Troy, at Texas State, at ULM, WKU, Louisiana, at Arkansas State, South Alabama

Schedule Analysis: The Panthers might be full of veterans, but does that mean they’re going to be able to come up with more wins after a disastrous 2012? Samford, Chattanooga and Jacksonville State aren’t going to be sure-thing wins – it would be a plus to beat two of the three – and then that might be it. There’s still a massive talent divide between GSU and the rest of the Sun Belt in its current form. Fortunately, there’s only one road game after going to ULM over the final five weeks of the season, but that comes after a run of three road games in four weeks with the fun of going to Alabama along with Sun Belt dates against Texas State and ULM after hosting Troy.

Team Concerns For 2013: The team needs help everywhere after coming up with just one win, and it has to start by not turning the ball over on a regular basis. The O gave it up 35 times in just 11 games with interceptions a major problem. the running game failed to do much of anything on a consistent basis, hitting the 100 yard mark just three times. The defense that got gouged against the run has to be far stronger in the front seven.

The 2013 Class Is Heavy On ... Defensive linemen. The Panthers need to boost up the talent level almost everywhere, and it's going to start on the defensive line with JUCO transfer George Rogers out of Miami and end Mackendry Cheridor two nice pieces to work around for the next few seasons. Linebacker Kight Dallas will one day be the team's leading tackler, while Kingsley Ejike is a nice athlete for somewhere in the corps. The offense is going the JUCO route for backfield depth getting quarterback Clay Chastain and running back Gerald Howse, but receiver Calvain Holmes might be the team's best pickup for the O.