Georgia State officially announced the hiring of Rick Minter as defensive line coach and John McDonell as senior offensive analyst on Friday.

The two veteran coaches have been working with the team since spring practices began more than a week ago.

Minter is the father of defensive coordinator Jesse Minter. Rick Minter is formerly head coach at Cincinnati for 10 years. Before Georgia State, he spent the previous three years as an assistant coach in the NFL with the Eagles. He has also coached at Notre Dame, South Carolina and Kentucky, among other places. Georgia State's defensive line returns senior starters Jalen Lawrence and Shawanye Lawrence, redshirt junior Mackendy Cheridor, and several key backups. Minter replaces Tony Samuel, who accepted a job with UNLV.

MacDonell spent the previous four years at Tulane, where he coached the offensive line. He has also coached at Washington State, Stanford, Notre Dame and Purdue as part of his more than 30 years in college football. Georgia State’s offensive line is coached by Harold Etheridge. The group returns starters Sebastian Willer, Alex Stoehr, Michael Ivory and Gabe Mobley, as well as several key backups.

The Panthers went 6-7 last year and will hold their first scrimmage of the spring at 9:30 a.m. Saturday.

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Former Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Norman Arey died Oct. 11, 2025 at the age of 84. In addition to sports writing, Arey also co-wrote the popular "Peach Buzz" society column. (Courtesy of the Arey family)

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Members of the conversion crew take a break as the main scoreboard is lowered to the floor to be worked on as the arena gets ready for the next concert at State Farm Arena, Thursday, October 2, 2025, in Atlanta. The crew was working on creating a stage for the Friday, Oct. 3 Maxwell concert. (Jason Getz/AJC)

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