By Khadrice Rollins
krollins@ajc.com
Coach Trent Miles is quick to explain that winning is not easy at this level. The Georgia State coach has a 9-37 record during his four-year tenure with the program, but of those 37 losses, 21 have been decided by two possessions or less. It’s no different this season, as six of the Panthers seven losses have come by 15 points or fewer.
In these close contests GSU (2-7, 1-4 Sun Belt) can walk away knowing it can compete against anybody on its schedule. But it’s also in these games that the team is reminded that just a few plays here or there can be the difference between an uplifting victory or a crushing defeat.
On Nov. 3 against Arkansas State (4-4, 4-0), the Panthers found themselves in another one of these situations, and it was a series of special-teams blunders that caused their downfall in the 31-16 contest.
“You give up a blocked field goal for a touchdown, you give up a punt return for a touchdown, you snap a ball 30 yards over a guy’s head, for what ends up being a touchdown — you take those 21 points out, that’s the difference in the ball game,” Miles said. “It’s a broken record. It’s like a couple other losses that we’ve had — it’s three or four plays in critical moments that break down. … When we correct those situations, and play better in those situations and coach better in those situations, then we’ll win football games.”
Now the Panthers welcome Louisiana-Monroe (3-6, 2-3) to the Georgia Dome on Saturday looking to regroup after another tough loss.
Similar to the majority of the other six losses, it’s hard to find fault with the GSU defense in the most recent result. The unit surrendered only 17 points, and one of those scores came after the botched snap on on a fourth down, which meant Arkansas State took over at the Panthers’ 19-yard line.
Although Miles said he would not put blame on the defense, he and the players agreed that although their performance might have been good enough to earn a win, they need to do more to secure victories in these tight matchups. The approach to fixing their occasional slip-ups and keeping motivation when a good game isn’t good enough is simple though.
“Just keep playing hard, keep fighting,” linebacker Mike Shaw said after last week’s game. “That’s all we can do. Try to help our offense out as much as we can, help our special teams, keep playing hard on defense.”
On defense, the guys are pushing toward near perfection to increase their contribution to the team. For guys on the offense just finding consistency could provide a huge uptick in production.
But that has been a challenge so far. The offense has been riddled with injuries all season, and for a team trying to adjust to a new quarterback who is getting his first chance to start at the collegiate level, a never-ending revolving door among the skill position players makes life a bit more difficult.
Miles said they are not using those injuries as an excuse for the production though. Yes, the offense has had to replace last season’s Sun Belt Player of the Year (graduated quarterback Nick Arbuckle) and lost the conference’s Freshman of the Year from a season ago and an All-American talent to a season-ending injury (wide receiver Penny Hart), and both quarterback Conner Manning and backup Aaron Winchester have been banged up the past few weeks, but that is just the nature of the game, he said.
So once again, GSU is looking to correct the few key mistakes that sealed the loss and and get everyone prepared for the opponent ahead and hopefully be ready to capitalize when the key plays present themselves.
“Every week, we’re always right there,” Manning said. “It just comes down to some plays that we’re just not making, but we know that we’re capable of. So we just got to keep working hard, keeping getting better on and off the field, and victories will come.”
