Georgia State players aren’t ready to give up on goals after sluggish start

The Georgia State football team has embraced the idea that Saturday will be the start of a new season.

Losing three of the first four games is tough, even when two of those losses came against No. 4 Ole Miss and No. 16 Vanderbilt. The Georgia State players are trying to forget the outcome of those games and focus on this week’s Sun Belt Conference opener against James Madison.

“We know we still have everything that we were hoping for in front of us,” tight end Avion McBride said. “We’re trying to focus on that and not what’s happened. We’re not trying to dwell on anything in the past.”

Georgia State (1-3) is jumping into the deep end of the conference pool. James Madison (3-1) is considered one of the better teams in the Sun Belt; the Dukes beat Georgia Southern 35-10 in their conference opener last week. GSU is 0-4 against James Madison and lost last year’s game 38-7.

Kickoff is 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Center Parc Stadium. The game will be broadcast on ESPN-Plus and can be heard locally on WRAS-FM 88.5 and the Georgia State sports app.

“We go into every football game expecting to win, but the film doesn’t lie,” coach Dell McGee said. “When we see the mistakes, the player has to be honest. The coaches have to be honest. We’ve all got to take accountability. We don’t look at it like, ‘Oh, we played three tough teams, so we’re supposed to be in this situation.’ No, we gave up 70 points. We gave up 63 points. That is not the standard. And we didn’t score enough. We didn’t meet our goals.”

McBride said the team must continue to play with high energy. Nose guard Fuches Lewis II said the team must focus on its physicality.

“Our mindset this year is to be as physical as we can be. No one’s going to be more physical than us,” Lewis said.

Since Georgia State did not play last week, the Panthers had a week of additional separation from the 70-21 loss to Vanderbilt on Sept. 20. McGee said the team spent time paying attention to details and getting off to a good start in conference play, since one-third of the season is finished

“I was reaffirming to our team that it’s only eight opportunities left, and it goes by really fast,” McGee said. “We have to maximize this opportunity. Those four games are already gone and after all the work they put in from January through spring ball through (preseason) camp, summer conditioning, you must make those eight opportunities count.”

The statistics through the first four games aren’t pretty. The Panthers rank next-to-last in the conference in scoring (20.3 points per game) and last in defense, allowing 48 points per game. GSU been flagged for 351 penalty yards, the most in the conference.

Those matters were addressed last week, with the No. 2 and No. 3 players on the depth chart getting plenty of reps.