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Home > Terence Moore > Archives > 2008 > October > 22 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USBill Curry getting head start on Georgia State football
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
You’re Bill Curry, and you’re highly energetic (translated: you can’t stand doing nothing). But you’re the coach of a Georgia State football team that won’t have its first kickoff until 2010.
This waiting can’t be good.
So why is Curry sounding like a 68-year-old kid on Christmas morning? Well, he already is opening some of his gifts. Most strikingly, there was last week’s tryout that drew 55 participants. Said Curry, “It was unbelievable. I didn’t think we’d have more than 10 kids. We turned a bunch away, because they didn’t get there in time to sign their disclaimers and all. So I’m going to have another tryout.
“I found a long snapper. I found a punter, and there were two or three guys who could really run and catch. Two or three big guys. And there were a whole bunch of folks that are just really fired up about football coming to Georgia State.”
There also is an upcoming pep rally, where Curry will announce his recipe for tailgating to the crowd. Plus, he wants folks to know that he will give two scholarships to walkons. He laughed, adding, “So there are all kinds of exciting, fun things going on that I’ve never done before.”
Yeah, but you’re Bill Curry, and since you left home in College Park to star at Georgia Tech during the early 1960s, you’ve always been within a chinstrap of live football games in a mighty way. You were a splendid enough NFL center to start for two Super Bowl teams. You were an assistant coach with the Green Bay Packers. You spent 17 years as the head coach at Georgia Tech, Alabama and Kentucky. You later became an ESPN analyst for more than a decade through last season.
No, this waiting can’t be good, especially with Bulldogs and Yellow Jackets prospering all around you, and with NCAA limits on what you can do at Georgia State right now. So Curry spends his current Saturdays doing what?
“I’ve had Saturdays where I have sat and charted exactly what games I’ve wanted to watch, and I’ve studied four or five football games from start to finish,” Curry said. “I’ve also, for the first time in my adult life, driven to Charlotte, N.C., to attend a fall baseball game where my 11-year-old grandson was pitching. Then I left there to go to a football game where my 9-year-old grandson was playing center for his team. And then I left there to go to a junior high game where my son — the dad of those two boys — coaches the junior high football team in his community.
“To experience that, it was one of the nicest days of my life. I’ve never been able to do that before — ever.”
Curry also travels the nation as a motivational speaker, and he has a recently published book that he will sign at Georgia Tech on Saturday before the Jackets’ homecoming game against Virginia. Still, his primary focus involves trying to find ways to make “2010” not sound so distant for Georgia State football.
For instance: Curry received permission from the NCAA to spend an entire game day with another coaching staff. That will complement what he did earlier this summer, which was send his Georgia State assistant coaches to observe Clemson’s two-a-day practices. Said Curry, “I’ve got friends who have visited with the Georgia staff. I’ve talked to (Georgia Tech coach) Paul Johnson, and he has invited us over. There just hasn’t been the right occasion for us to get together yet.”
It’s coming, though.
Just like Georgia State’s first football season is coming — slowly.
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Comments
By lagert
October 22, 2008 1:41 PM | Link to this
Give em’ he!! coach
By E-Roll
October 22, 2008 2:31 PM | Link to this
Well I like Bill Curry can not wait until the first time that we kickoff as a football program. The only thing that I wish for besides this is that our kickoff occurs at Herndon Stadium instead of the Gerogia Dome. Two blocks west of the Georgia Dome is a stadium that was built for the Olympics that seats about 15,000 and doesn’t have a football team playing in it because of the Morris Brown College fiasco. College football in the fall, outdoors and in a stadium that is newer than the Georgia Dome would be ideal. Our fans would still get off at the same MARTA station or park in the same lots, come on guys football outside and a few blocks from campus this is a no brainer!
By STATE
October 22, 2008 4:28 PM | Link to this
Curry’s the man! Go G-STATE!!!
By Rye-Rye
October 22, 2008 8:06 PM | Link to this
I’m so excited about 2010, I can’t see straight. Just forked over some money to to the GSUF last night, as a matter of fact. Got my season tickets already. Can’t wait till signing day!
By Poor Move
October 23, 2008 8:21 AM | Link to this
Bill Curry as a coanchor, is great. Bill Curry as a coach, is an idiot. Great record at Bama, or was he playing with Perkins recruits. Never beat Auburn.
Horrible record at Kentucky. Never beat Auburn.
So, so record at GT. Never baat Auburn.
Record againt Auburn. Like 0-10.
Not that he will ever play Auburn at GSU, but GSU will never be a contender as long as he is coach.
By to AJC
October 23, 2008 8:28 AM | Link to this
I just sent something that I sent last night that did not get posted.
I hope you aren’t filtering negative posts. I will cease to visit your site, if so.
By Tech75
October 23, 2008 11:32 AM | Link to this
I have always admired Bill and the way he conducts himself - a true role model; great leader, high ethics and morals. He is the right person to start this program and lay the foundation. I wish him all the success in the world; he’s a good man.
However; I still think GSU will be third-banana to UGA and GT, on a par with GaSouthern. That’s a tough hill to climb.
By Mike Lum
October 23, 2008 12:32 PM | Link to this
That Herndon Stadium idea is a good one, and it would be a lot cheaper as well. Hopefully the crowds will be more than 15,000, though!
By Red Clay Hound
October 23, 2008 12:49 PM | Link to this
Hey TM, we think you would make a great beat writer for state!
By MWC
October 23, 2008 5:47 PM | Link to this
TM, Great article about Coach Curry.Also great idea about Herndon Stadium (E-Roll)! Ga State, making soild, good moves.TM, several good articles in a row…whats up with that? I don’t agree with you most of the time, but still love ya! Peace
By Bleu_Bayou42
October 24, 2008 2:16 PM | Link to this
Bill Curry played his college ball at Alabama, not GT.
By Wayne
October 24, 2008 5:32 PM | Link to this
Bill, may you have as much success at State as Erk Russell had at Ga. Southern in an inaugrual program.