Ga. State: This will be a good season if...

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The offensive line develops unity in a hurry

Coach Bill Curry favors an offense based on the run, which means the line will need to make holes. The added challenge is that on a unit where teamwork and synchronized movement are crucial, the Georgia State line basically had 29 practices to mesh, a process that can take a season or more.

“They’ve got to keep improving right up to and through the first game and through the season,” Curry said.

Curry and offensive coordinator John Bond have struck a hopeful tone about the line’s progression. Curry has a good deal of confidence in center Ben Jacoby, a Buford High grad who transferred from Ball State. He’ll be flanked by guards Joseph Gilbert and Harrison Clottey and tackles Clyde Yandell and Grant King. Gilbert and Yandell are transfers from Georgia Tech. The team lost a likely starter in Michael Davis, who tore an ACL in preseason practice.

The freshmen are quick learners

As Curry well knows, there are so many ways to lose football games — penalties, turnovers, poor special-teams play, fatigue, lack of discipline. Being inexperienced and new, the Panthers likely will have opportunities to lose games on their own.

They won’t need to give their opponents any help.

“Whatever team I’m with, our goal is perfect ball security,” Curry said. “If we pull that off, if we keep the football, we will have a very good chance to be effective on offense and defense.”

The team doesn’t come undone

Perhaps the most dreaded scenario for Georgia State — that the team would line up a raft of freshmen — was averted when several junior college players and a handful of FBS (formerly Division I-A) refugees transferred in and claimed starting spots, infusing the Panthers with needed experience and talent.

However, they’re still backed by redshirt freshmen and freshmen. Moreover, to help learn the schemes, transfers have taken a lot of reps in preseason practice.

Said Curry, exaggerating only slightly, “Depth is a huge issue for us because nobody has any experience.”

The quarterbacks are ready to play

While he won’t name a starter, Curry expects that all four of his quarterbacks — Kelton Hill, Drew Little, Bo Schlechter and Star Jackson — will play this season, and not merely because he is counting on injuries or play that necessitates substitution.

“I think we’re going to need all of them,” he said.

It bears mention that all but Jackson, a transfer from Alabama, are freshmen, and Jackson threw all of 18 passes for the Crimson Tide in their 2009 national championship season. Efficient, smart play and inexperienced quarterbacks generally don’t live in the same neighborhood, but the Panthers will have to count on gentrification.

“I think [consistency] is the thing that most any coach asks for,” Bond said. “Just, you want to know when you call a play what you’re going to get.”

The product draws in the fans

The legacy of the first season goes far beyond wins and losses.

If the Panthers are like other recent start-up teams in Atlanta, fans will check out what they have to offer. There may be curious college football fans for whom Georgia Tech’s single-game ticket prices — tickets for ACC games start at $45 — are out of the budget. Further, Georgia State has no shortage of local alumni who will be ready, or at least interested, to support the team.

If Georgia State can provide entertaining football and a memorable game-day experience — the latter may not be so easy in the Georgia Dome, which can swallow a crowd of 10,000 — the team could find its niche. It would help with recruiting and would build on itself.

However, if it doesn’t, there’s no saying that the fans have to come back.

-- Ken Sugiura