MACON — Opinions, not footballs, flew through the air.
With more than a month to go before the state’s college football teams begin fall practice in advance of the 2011 season, the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame hosted its annual Pigskin Preview on Tuesday.
From the top of the football pyramid on down, players and coaches shared insights on the game and their teams. A sampling from the buffet:
Georgia Southern coach Jeff Monken, who last year led the Eagles to the FCS (formerly Division I-AA) semifinals, on the possibility of the team eventually moving up to the FBS (formerly Division I-A):
“I think at some point, that may be a reality for Georgia Southern. How soon, I don’t know. I don’t know if it’s next year or 10 years from now or 20 years from now. I think that conversation’s going to be there. ... I think that we’ve got the bones for having the opportunity to be an FBS program.”
Georgia State coach Bill Curry on the possibility of playing Georgia Southern:
“You’ve got eight CAA games, and we’re trying to get one [annual FBS] game, so to schedule another brutal game is probably not the smartest thing in the world. It might be awhile, but I think there’ll be a time when Georgia Southern and Georgia State will want to play.”
Monken expressed a similar sentiment.
Curry on his attempt to recruit former Georgia running back Washaun Ealey, who left the Bulldogs in May and transferred to Jacksonville State:
“We talked with Washaun. We tried to get him to come visit, but he was pretty much set, it seemed to us, on Jack State.”
Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson on his production expectations at B-back, where Jonathan Dwyer gained 1,395 yards in 2008 and in 2009 and Anthony Allen rushed for 1,316 yards in 2010:
“I think a year ago, everybody was talking and scared and worried about replacing Jon Dwyer’s numbers. I don’t know [Allen’s numbers] off the top of my head, but I’d be willing to bet they probably weren’t a lot different than Jon’s. I would hope that would be the case from last year to this year at that position. That’s kind of been the nature of it where I’ve been.”
Johnson, in response to a question about Florida State’s “emergence as a national power”:
“I think they’ve always had good players and have a lot of tradition and a lot of history, but the last time I looked, Virginia Tech won the league.”
Tech B-back Preston Lyons on the team’s summer workouts:
“The attitude’s definitely changed. I don’t think anyone has missed a workout or running session the entire summer. We’ve only been going four weeks. Hopefully we can keep it going the next few weeks.”
Georgia linebacker Christian Robinson on the methodology of new strength coach Joe Tereshinski:
“I’d say we’re working more efficiently right now and we have the mindset we’re not just lifting weights, we’re lifting weights to win a game on Saturday. Coach ‘T’ and his staff have done a great job of providing that vision for us to where the leaders can reinforce it. We don’t have to worry about not knowing where we’re going.”
Georgia coach Mark Richt on the SEC’s new rule limiting signing classes to 25, down from 28:
“All I’m saying is you can still oversign with 25. If you only have room for 15 and you sign 25, you still sign more than you’ve got. The question is everybody’s integrity. That’s the question. Are we all going to do things in the right way? And I think everybody’s trying to do that. It’s not an easy thing to manage.”
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