The first group of assistant coaches hired by Bill Curry reflects the sort of experience he believes is needed to get the Georgia State football program off to a successful start.

"If you had told me coming in that I would have been able to hire people like this, I would have said you were crazy," Curry said. "It's a good starting point."

Officially on board are assistant head coach and recruiting coordinator George Pugh, offensive coordinator John Bond, defensive coordinator John Thompson and football operations director Mike Riddle. Curry expects two others to join the staff before the end of the month.

Pugh, who also will be the receivers coach, was part of the original staff that built the Alabama-Birmingham program.

"Getting George is a tremendous advantage for us," Curry said. "He's produced in this scenario, which none of us have been in. And he's been very successful at getting players to UAB, a lot of them from Georgia."

Pugh, who played four years at Alabama, including the 1973 national championship team, also is known for producing quality receivers. He coached the Falcons' Roddy White at UAB.

Bond spent last season as offensive coordinator at Georgia Tech. He was not retained when head coach Chan Gailey was fired. Bond has 25 years of experience, including time as offensive coordinator at Northern Illinois from 2004-06, where he first met Curry.

Thompson coached linebackers on Curry's staff at Alabama. He was head coach at East Carolina from 2003-04. He was defensive coordinator at Ole Miss in 2007, but lost his job when the administration fired head coach Ed Orgeron.

Riddle was a walk-on at Kentucky during Curry's tenure. He's been the football operations director at Indiana and most recently was on the staff at Riverside Military Academy in Gainesville.