Hoping to re-capture some of the magic of its Thursday night opener last season, Georgia State scheduled its spring game for Thursday rather than the usual Saturday date.
It may well increase attendance from last spring’s crowd of 3,000, but it will come at a cost of attendance on the sidelines. Two starters will miss the scrimmage entirely because they have class Thursday night. Others will arrive in waves at the Georgia Dome as their classes end.
“It’s kind of crazy, but that’s Georgia State,” said running back Parris Lee, smiling. “We make it crazy.”
The issue forced the scrimmage to be moved from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30. Players without conflicts, which are most of the team, will be on the field by 6:30 for drills as their teammates arrive from campus by bus. All but center Ben Jacoby and guard Joseph Gilbert, who will be in class until 10 p.m. and will miss the scrimmage, are expected to be at the dome by 7:15 p.m. NCAA rules prohibit athletes from missing a class for practice unless in conjunction with an away game.
Further, coach Bill Curry will be without about 11 players because of injury, most sustained during spring practice. Among them are offensive tackle Grant King and linebacker Jake Muasau, two starters from 2010 who sustained concussions in spring practice.
“That part is very frustrating, but everybody in the world goes through it,” Curry said.
The team will pit the first- and second-team offenses and defenses against each other. The second teams will be filled with walk-ons, Curry said.
Two players who will be scrutinized are quarterbacks Kelton Hill and Bo Schlechter. They are competing for the starting job, as 2010 starter Drew Little will serve a four-game suspension at the start of the season for violating team rules.
Curry said Hill took a “head and shoulders” lead at the start of the team’s 15 practices, but that Schlechter has charged late. Schlechter, like Hill a rising sophomore, came in as a quarterback but moved to wide receiver during last season. Both have exhibited better study habits and corresponding understanding of the offensive scheme.
“Just being able to call the play, you might have a play that has 10, 11, 12, 13 words in it,” offensive coordinator John Bond said. “To say the play in the huddle can be intimidating. I think that their comfort level is so much greater now.”
Hill will scrimmage with the first team, Schlechter the second.
“A lot last year, I was on one target,” Hill said. “Now I’m [looking] all over the field.”
Cornerback Nate Anthony already has been a surprise of spring practice, having moved over from wide receiver.
Curry said he thought secondary coach Anthony Midget “was shocked at how quickly Nate picked up the mental assignments going from offense to defense.”
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