Georgia State football coach Bill Curry wanted to see dedication from each of his assistants and players as soon as they walked off the field, 42-35 winners over Campbell, in the season finale.
Though the season started and ended with victories, in between were eight losses driven by performances that often left Curry at a loss to understand, much less explain, how a team couldn’t repeat good practices on game days.
During the offseason, the old-school coach continued his old-school attitude of demanding more discipline and more effort in an attempt to get better results. There were also changes. One coach, defensive coordinator John Thompson, resigned to take another job. Another coach, Anthony Midget, was promoted to take Thompson’s place.
The team will begin spring practice Wednesday as it prepares to play its first season in the Colonial Athletic Association, a league that Curry has said will be very tough.
Georgia State will hold a scrimmage March 31 at the practice facility. Here are five things to keep an eye on during spring practice, which ends April 6.
1. How will the defense respond to Midget and the new scheme?
Georgia State’s defense had many issues last season. The unit gave up 31.2 points and 403.3 yards per game. Thompson changed his team’s scheme midway through the season, and there was some improvement. Midget said he is going to keep things simple this spring to try to improve the players’ confidence so that they will play faster in the new 4-2-5 scheme, which he said fits the team’s strengths better.
“We are looking for guys to make plays and be fast,” Midget said. “We want to develop an identity, play for 60-plus minutes. Demand it from the players and the coaching staff.”
2. Who will take over on the offensive line?
The offensive line was another group that underwhelmed last season, but it also sustained numerous injuries, so much that it was down to its fourth-string center at one point. Four starters are gone from that group, but because of the injuries there are players with experience ready to step in.
“Guys that have played are all guys that have been here,” Curry said. “It’s not as if we were sticking a totally veteran group in, but neither are we putting in redshirt linemen.”
3. Will the new strength-and-conditioning program show results?
Strength-and-conditioning coach Ben Pollard didn’t get much of a chance to work with the team before the 2011 season. His fingerprints are all over the team this season, and Curry and the players like what he’s doing.
The players are lifting a lot more weight than last season, but the team isn’t sacrificing quickness or flexibility. Curry said the team is noticeably faster than it was last season, and also stronger. The lack of both, or either, is one of the reasons the team couldn’t finish games last season. The Panthers scored a total 34 points in the fourth quarter last season, while giving up 123, the most of any quarter.
4. What will be done to improve the special teams?
Perhaps nothing frustrated Curry more than the results of the special teams, which will get a new coordinator with Midget’s promotion.
“I don’t think there’s a one of us that can understand why we were pretty good on special teams [two years ago], and these were the same guys,” Curry said. “We simply failed to make plays.”
No unit was consistent. At one point, the team missed five consecutive field goals, though four were from at least 45 yards. It finished the season missing four more. Christian Benvenuto and Matt Ehasz are back to compete for the kicking positions.
5. How much improvement needs to be seen in Kelton Hill’s passing game?
The Panthers used three quarterbacks last season because of suspensions, ineffectiveness or injuries. By the end of the season, Kelton Hill took over and started the last five games. He finished with 1,021 passing yards and 609 rushing. However, he completed just 54 percent of his passes.
Curry wants to see not only Hill’s accuracy improve, but also backup Bo Schlechter’s and redshirt freshman Ben McLane’s.
Curry hopes that with another year of experience his quarterbacks will operate the offense at a quicker tempo, something they will work on during the spring.
“What’s the mark of the really outstanding offenses of the last four, five years?” Curry said. “The answer is obvious: they are at the line snapping the ball and you can’t get lined up. We’ve been working on that, but haven’t made a concentrated effort to run a lot of up-tempo because we didn’t want to put our defense back on the field in 30 seconds or whatever.”
