A Signing Day Q&A with new Georgia State coach Trent Miles. I'll start posting soon a player-by-player analysis on the blog, which will go into more details about today's signees.
Q: First Signing Day, how do you feel?
A: It went well for the short period of time our coaches had to go out and recruit and establish relationships. We’ve got some young men that are going to make us bigger and stronger and faster in the long run. We are looking for great things. We will know more in about three years.
Q: How satisfied were you with the in-state recruiting efforts?
A: Very satisfied. If you look at what we signed… Obviously there are some that you wish you could have gotten, but we got some that we didn’t think we’d get. It all balances out. There’s enough in this state to go around. There’s so many players in the state of Georgia, from wining programs that are well-coached. The high school coaches here do a great job. When you watch them on film you are seeing a great product.
We had basically five weeks of recruiting. Most of the programs have had more than a year with these guys. I feel really good about where we are.
Q: Talk about your philosophy as you start to build this team?
A: We wanted to build from the inside out, as far as big guys on the line, and then work our way out to the skill position. We always try to get speed. We needed an upgrade in size. We believe bigger is better. We have a certain prototype for each position as far as height and weight and length and all that stuff. AT the same time there are always exceptions to the rules. We took some exceptions but I think for the most part we’ve got ourselves in a position where we will be building with bigger guys and hopefully our line sizes will get bigger and bigger.
Q: Were you going after specific positions, or just big bodies and then figure out what you will do with them?
A: We targeted specific positions, but you aren’t going to turn away a guy that’s a really good player and you aren’t sure if he’s going to grow into something you take him.
There are certain guys that we will take at one position, but in a year from now will grow into another position. You have to be able to project and see where guys will be one, two, three years down the line.
Q: What is your philosophy on redshirting?
A: We want guys to compete. We want guys to have an opportunity to play. Some are going to redshirt and some are going to play. Some will have to make the adjustment to college, academically, some size wise, some from a speed of the game standpoint, some from a social standpoint. There’s different factors on why kids redshirt but we give everybody the opportunity to come in and compete. The players determine who starts, not us.
Q: Are the offensive line and the defensive line the two position groups in which you are most happy with the work?
A: I’m happy with all of the results, but we are always going to be at team that takes as many linemen on both sides of the ball as we can get. Always. That’s just through past experience, that’s where you build your team. You have to have your quarterback and you have to have your linemen on both sides of the ball. We will find skill guys. That’s always going to be big numbers for us every signing year.
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