On the Friday before Labor Day in 2010, Georgia State defeated Shorter 41-7. The Panthers played before a lusty crowd of 30,237 at the Georgia Dome and outdrew the first-place Braves, who were working two miles away at Turner Field. More than just the school’s inaugural football game, it was a Nice Moment. Four years later, it remains the nicest moment GSU has known.
A creditable 6-5 in 2010, Georgia State won three games in 2011, one game in 2012 and no games in 2013. Its opening-night audience has never been equaled or approached. Everyone knew that creating and building a program would be difficult, but the arc of successful start-ups is that they get better as they go. In its hurry to get from nothing to FCS and the Colonial to FBS and the Sun Belt, Georgia State went splat.
The Panthers hit bottom last season, or so they hope. They couldn’t beat anybody, and Georgia State football, which was a hard sell at 6-5, was rendered an afterthought — that’s provided anyone thought about it at all — in the big city.
Charlie Cobb, who just arrived as Georgia State’s athletic director, admitted he’d never seen the Panthers play football before Wednesday’s opener against Abilene Christian. He’s enough of an optimist to say, with a straight face, that he liked what he saw. “I was impressed with the crowd,” he said, speaking of what appeared to others as a modest gathering. Announced as 10,140, the actual attendance was 6,109. Ouch.
Cobb again: “For a team coming off 0-12 playing on a Wednesday night, I think we have a lot to build on — in the stands and in the community. … There’s a large alumni base and a large student population, and Georgia State has a big footprint downtown.”
That’s all true. What’s less certain is if those alums and students and downtowners will ever become rabid Georgia State fans. Greg Manning, once the Panthers’ AD, was never wild about the notion of starting a football program because, he said, “all our students have already chosen their team by the time they get here.” Meaning: Even if you’re enrolled at GSU, your first and deepest love might always be Georgia or Georgia Tech or Auburn or Clemson.
Cobb again: “There’s a big enough niche for Georgia State to be successful.”
Maybe there is. But the best thing that could happen to this program is to exit the Dome, which is too massive for a niche tenant. Seeing as how the place is due to be razed when Arthur Blank’s pleasure palace opens in 2017, the Panthers will have to find somewhere else to play. Georgia State president Mark Becker wants to repurpose Turner Field, which coincidentally is set to lose the Braves to Cobb County, for university usage.
A smaller stadium closer to campus could serve the Panthers well, but the team must hold up its end. It can’t go 22 1/2 months between victories if it’s going to draw a crowd anywhere. Toward that end, Georgia State would seem to have the right man in charge. Trent Miles, hired to replace the retiring Bill Curry after the 2012 season, likewise went 0-12 in his first season at Indiana State. Two years later, the Sycamores were above .500. And it might be a tad easier to find football players in Atlanta than in Terre Haute, Ind.
As the folks in Flowery Branch would say, this is a process. Georgia State has to play better if it’s to have any hope of drawing better, and even then it mightn’t catch on. Nobody said this would be easy, and it hasn’t been.
Wednesday’s game started brightly — the Panthers led 14-3 after 18 minutes — but the fourth quarter saw them nine points in arrears against a team two years removed from Division II and the Lone Star Conference. To its credit, Georgia State kept scoring to put pressure on Abilene Christian, but the game entered its final three minutes with the Panthers two points behind.
A third-down stop and two fourth-down conversions gave the Panthers life. Wil Lutz’s field goal with four seconds remaining made them winners for the first time since Oct.. 13, 2012 — 17 games, 22 1/2 months and two coaches ago. Beating Abilene Christian 38-37 doesn’t mean Georgia State’s problems are solved, but it did deliver another Nice Moment at a most propitious time.
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