Georgia State safeties Tarris Batiste and Bobby Baker combined for seven of Georgia State’s 15 interceptions and three of the team’s seven fumble recoveries in last year’s 6-7 season.
Batiste was a senior who has exhausted his eligibility.
Baker returns and coach Trent Miles and defensive coordinator Jesse Minter are trying to find who will play alongside him.
Minter said he doesn’t think it’s unreasonable for the safeties to have as many takeaways as last season. He hopes that it’s not almost half the team’s total because he expects the team to have more interceptions and fumbles recovered than last season.
“Arkansas State led or was second in the nation in interceptions and won the conference,” Minter said. “I think there’s a huge correlation between those two stats. That’s a goal of ours to lead the conference in picks.”
Senior Bryan Williams is working with the first team, but Miles said Cloves Campbell, a former junior-college player who transferred to Georgia State before the 2015 season, did well in winter conditioning and is having a good spring. He had seven interceptions, 12 passes broken up and a fumble recovery at Scottsdale Community College. Minter said junior college players typically perform better in their second seasons after transferring.
Also competing are Trent Hill, who Minter said hopes will play his best in this, his final season, junior Antreal Allen, who is also cross-training at cornerback and nickelback, and redshirt sophomore Ronald Peterkin, who Minter said this is an important spring for.
“I feel like it’s good competition right now,” said Minter, who also coaches the safeties. “We have an older group from a class standpoint, but not a ton of experience in snaps.”
Baker played mostly as the boundary safety last season, but is learning the field side this spring.
Minter said he hopes the experience of the group, combined with having two solid cornerbacks in Chandon Sullivan and Jerome Smith, will enable him to use different coverages to potentially increase the number of takeaways.
The Panthers were fourth in the conference in interceptions, 11 behind the league-leading Red Wolves, and ninth of 11 teams in fumbles recovered, six behind league leaders Troy.
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