They meet on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights.
For as much as two hours, Georgia State’s quarterbacks, wide receivers and tight ends will gather to go over the plan for that week’s game. But they will go over more than just the play sheet. They will discuss hypothetical situations and discuss how what they will do and how they are going to react.
Their leader/teacher isn't a coach. The four hours the coaches get each day with the players has long since expired. The guy at the front of the class is quarterback Nick Arbuckle.
“Nick is a genius in the film room,” said wide receiver Donovan Harden, his eyebrows raised and using a tone that’s clear he’s just not paying an empty compliment.
The evidence is hard to dismiss. Since the meetings started the Panthers are 2-2, could be 4-0, and just set program records for passing yards (471) and total yards (643) in last week's victory at Texas State.
Arbuckle said he was taught how to truly watch film to learn, and not like he’s watching TV, by his dad, who was a coach, and by his high school football coach, whom he described as a genius.
The Panthers will gather again this week to prepare for Saturday’s game against South Alabama. Georgia State needs to win its next three games to become bowl eligible for the first time in the program’s short history.
The meetings started after the team’s worst offensive performance of the season against Appalachian State. The Mountaineers played a different scheme than Georgia State expected, dropping back instead of pressing.
The Panthers posted season lows in points (3) and yards (225) in a 37-3 loss. Arbuckle said he reasoned that next week’s opponent, Ball State, would likely try to play a similar defense as the Mountaineers. He wanted to make sure that the offense was as ready as it could be. They discussed ways the receivers could adjust routes, how to release against press coverages, how to line up to create leverages against cornerbacks, anything to give them an edge.
The Panthers passed for 412 yards and won 31-19.
“It’s incredible focus the receivers bring,” Arbuckle said. “I can’t do the things for them on the field. It speaks the world for them that they are able to focus for an hour to 2 hours to comprehend everything we talk about and then translate that to the field.”
Arkansas State and then Louisiana-Lafayette tried fronts and coverages against Georgia State that they hadn’t played in previous games, specifically designed to Arbuckle. The changes culminated in last week’s win against Texas State. The Bobcats tried everything, starting with man to man before switching to a dime defense on the first play of the second half. Georgia State had seen that defense, but not that early in the game.
Davis saw the same thing Arbuckle did. Davis blew by the cornerback, got the safety to slide outside and then cut inside, where Arbuckle hit him for a 48-yard gain.
“Arbuckle is a great quarterback, probably the best in the conference,” Texas State coach Dennis Franchione said. “He has such a command of things. It didn’t really matter to seem what we did.”
It’s not all just what Arbuckle does in the film sessions. Some is also what the team works on during the week. Davis’ 34-yard opening touchdown was the result of Arbuckle recognizing Texas State trying to muddy its look by having players stand up and move around before the snap. Arbuckle moved Glenn Smith to the correct side to block, told the line which way to shift and communicated with Davis the route for an easy touchdown. Penny Hart’s touchdown 17-yard touchdown came when both saw the linebackers pinching in, leaving the outside open.
“Right now, they are hitting their groove, which is fun to watch,” offensive coordinator Jeff Jagodzinski said.
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