Georgia State football coach Bill Curry said Wednesday that moving to FBS would help the Panthers’ recruiting enormously.
“We’ve had very good FBS-type players tell us, ‘The day you announce FBS I’ll sign with Georgia State,’” he said. “Would they have done it? Who knows?”
The Panthers have played the previous two seasons on the FCS level. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Tuesday that the school has commissioned a report that details the impact of moving to FBS. Athletic director Cheryl Levick said Georgia State hasn’t been invited to join another conference. The earliest Georgia State could play an FBS schedule is the 2014 season.
Curry said he has dealt with the question of when Georgia State would move to FBS since the day he was hired in 2008. His reply then was “we don’t even have a football yet.”
His reply now is just as muted. He said Wednesday he hopes his players keep that same pragmatism this season, when they will try to improve on last season’s 3-8 record as they begin their first year playing in the Colonial Athletic Association, which is considered one of the better FCS conferences.
“If we think about anything other than getting our guys ready in the classroom and on the field, then we are whistling ‘Dixie,’” he said. “We aren’t stupid enough to think about any other league. This will be a tough league. We don’t think about anything else, don’t know anything about anything else. We just keep working.”
Curry also said the possibility of coaching at college football’s highest level won’t sway him from deciding at the end of the season if he will sign a new contract with Georgia State. His contract ends in June 2013. He has repeatedly said he won’t make a decision on his future until this season is over. Levick has repeatedly said that Curry is welcome to coach at Georgia State for as long as he wants.
“What piques my interest is S.C. State,” he said of his team’s Aug. 30 season opener at the Georgia Dome. “Anybody that thinks about anything else, I’m going to slap them upside the head. They will have their head gear on so it won’t hurt.”
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