Shawayne Lawrence still doesn’t need a razor.
It’s a fact his coach, Trent Miles, got wrong during Thursday’s media day to preview Georgia State’s football preview season.
“I’m not shaving yet,” Lawrence said.
It’s easy to understand why Miles got that innocent fact wrong. Lawrence, who started 11 games on the Panthers’ defensive line last year, didn’t turn 18 until the last week of the season. With a baby face, he sometimes played like a viking with 25 tackles, four hurries and a sack, despite admittedly not knowing what was going on most of the time because he was playing a new position.
This year, now with a few black whiskers on his cheeks and chin and an important year of experience, he once will again battle men sometimes three years older than him.
“Imagine what he’s going to be like in two years,” Miles said.
Indeed.
But Lawrence is one of many examples up and down Georgia State’s roster of the type of player that Miles and his staff hope to use to turn the program from one that has won one game in the past two years into a power in the Sun Belt Conference.
Despite being 6-foot-4, weighing 255 pounds and having the athletic ability to play fullback and be a state champ in the shot put, Lawrence didn’t have a lot of offers coming out of Eagle’s Landing High.
But Miles and his staff saw Lawrence’s frame and natural strength and envisioned what he could be. It’s the same formula they used when they signed linebacker Mackendy Cheridor, wide receiver Robert Davis and countless others in their first two classes.
“He’s one of a lot of great building blocks,” Miles said. “I give our staff great credit for being able to evaluate and not get caught up in who is recruiting him. Does he fit our profile? Do we trust our eyes?”
Lawrence didn’t disappoint. He was consistently praised by defensive coordinator Jesse Minter last season because he stuck to his assignments, even if his stats didn’t jump off the page.
This year, Minter and Lawrence expect much more.
“I want to be the best linemen on the team and be the best in Sun Belt,” he said.
Lawrence has put in the work in the offseason.
His bench press has increased 55 pounds to 405. He recently set a new max of 355 pounds on the hang clean, an increase of 80 pounds from last year. His squat has stayed around 500 pounds. He is considered one of the strongest players on the team.
It’s surprising the whiskers haven’t exploded out of his face with the exertion needed to push that much weight.
Combined with his improved strength, Lawrence said he is more relaxed because he is more comfortable in his position.
Last year, he said there were many screen passes that he didn’t read correctly. During spring practice, he said he was able to engage the tackle, read the guard, and then hustle over to tackle the running back when he caught those screen passes.
“I feel like a better defensive lineman,” he said. “I’m learning and becoming more acclimated to the game.”
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