Archive for April, 2012

Here are some excerpts from the Raiders press conference with general manager Reggie McKenzie and coach Dennis Allen after the draft. I’ve cut and pasted some of the questions and answers that were about the defensive line or Christo Bilukidi, who became the first Georgia State player to be drafted when Oakland took him in the sixth round on Saturday.

Q: Reggie, you drafted a couple of D-linemen who got into football late and some people see them as projects, do you see them as projects? And are they people you can be patient with to try and bring along?

McKenzie: Yeah, with all these guys, to a certain degree, are going to have to be brought along, but yes the D-linemen did get into football late but they are very good prospects. Even though they are a little raw we feel like we can coach those guys up and they will eventually be pretty good players.

Q: How do you, when you look at a guy like Bilukidi, who has not had a lot of football experience, he is pretty raw and he goes …

Continue reading Raiders on Bilukidi and other news »

Georgia State linebacker Jake Muasau said he has been invited to the New York Giants’ rookie camp and that he hopes to earn a free-agent contract. The camp begins next Thursday.

Muasau could become the second Panther to join a NFL team after Christo Bilukidi was selected by the Raiders in the sixth round of the NFL draft on Saturday.

“I’m going to go out there and do my thing and see if I can get a contract,”  Muasau said.

Muasau, 6-feet, 1-inch tall and 243 pounds, was one of the top playmakers for coach Bill Curry in the team’s first two seasons.

Muasau had 106 tackles with 16.5 tackles for loss and three interceptions. He also forced four fumbles and recovered four fumbles.

He said he had spoken to a Giants scout a few times during the past two weeks. He thinks they want him to work out at outside linebacker, though he said he’s comfortable playing defensive end or inside linebacker, positions he also played for the Panthers.

Muasau said he and Bilukidi have spoken since …

Continue reading Jake Muasau will attend Giants’ rookie camp »

In a historic moment for Georgia State sports, defensive tackle Christo Bilukidi was selected by the Raiders in the sixth round of the NFL draft on Saturday.

Bilukidi is the first player in the program’s short history to be drafted by a NFL team.

“It opens doors now,” he said. ”Georgia State has a lot of athletes. Downtown Atlanta is a huge media market. It’s good that we are moving to FBS. It will open doors to athletes at Georgia State. It’s great for the community.”

Bilukidi  had 10 sacks with 16 tackles for loss in Georgia State’s only two seasons. He was mentioned as perhaps a late-round selection in the run-up to the draft. He worked out or visited with more than a dozen teams, including Oakland. But he was mostly considered as a legitimate prospect for the CFL. He, along with his coaches, may have been one of the few who wasn’t surprised when the Raiders picked him at No. 189.

“I’m not surprised at all,” he said. ”I worked hard for it.”

Georgia State coach Bill …

Continue reading Bilukidi drafted by Raiders in historic moment for GSU — updated »

Here is part III of a Q&A with Georgia State football coach Bill Curry:

Q: Switching back over to the Sun Belt. Coach Hunter told me that there has been some negative recruiting related to the switch from the CAA. Has it been the opposite for you? Has there been more positive feedback.

A: There’s been a lot more positive feedback but will there be negative recruiting? Of course there will be. Do you think in the Presidential election there will be some negative ads? Yes, there will be negative recruiting because that’s what people do.

We try hard to sell the positives of Georgia State. I don’t allow my coaches to get into negative recruiting or say snide remarks about the other side. But we know we are going to catch all kinds of stuff about that.

Q: Since the Sun Belt moves, have there been more scheduling opportunities for Georgia State?

A: Yes. There will be more scheduling opportunities and the economic benefits are simply obvious.

Q: Care to name any of the …

Continue reading Part III: Curry on negative recruiting and scheduling opportunities »

Here’s part II of a three-part Q&A with Georgia State football coach Bill Curry.

Here’s part I from yesterday.

Q: Switching to the improvement hoped for in special teams, some of that may have changed during the past week (with the suspension of kicker Christian Benvenuto and dismissal of quarterback/punter Bo Schlechter), but how did that look by the end of spring practice?

A: It looked better. We haven’t done anything to write home about. We spent more time in the spring than we normally do on things like kickoff and kickoff return. Most teams only do Pat, field goal, block, punt and punt return in the spring. We did all the teams. We worked on technique, we worked to make starters understand that being on the kickoff coverage team is more important than starting on offense and defense. You are going to stay on it. You aren’t going to be pulled off because you sprained your pinky.

Special teams will be the way we win this year. We worked every day on a circuit of special …

Continue reading Part II: Curry on another surprising player and strength and conditioning »

Here is Part I of a three-part Q&A with Georgia State football coach Bill Curry.

I will post part II in the morning. Part III will go up on Wednesday.

Q: With the discipline issues the team has experienced the past two years, are you surprised that you are still having to dismiss players, that lessons haven’t been learned?

A: Yes. I’m disappointed, bitterly disappointed and very surprised. Having been in established programs before, we all understand that there are moments when dismissal becomes necessary. But they were few and far between. This run of this kind of behavior is really disappointing.

Q: Do you chalk the issues up to immaturity or players trying to take advantage of the coaching staff and the rules?

A: Well, we work on it daily. We reiterate what our stands are daily. We have a code of honor when it comes to academic dishonesty and yet we’ve had some student-athletes who thought it was OK to have a shot at being academically dishonest. I’ve had to drop …

Continue reading Curry on discipline and what surprised him about QB Ben McLane »

Georgia State’s Charlotte Lorentzen won the Colonial Athletic Association women’s golf tournament for the second time in three years on Sunday.

She finished 1-over 73 at St. James Plantation (A nice course for you golf folks) in Southport, N.C.

She shot rounds of 75, 69 and 73.

It is her fourth win this year and fifth of her career.

Charlotte Guilleux, the 2011 winner, finished in sixth.

– Doug Roberson, AJC. Please follow me on twitter @ajcgsu.

Continue reading Lorentzen wins CAA women’s golf title »

Backup quarterback Bo Schlechter was dismissed from Georgia State’s football team on Friday following his arrest Thursday morning after a fight at a Buckhead bar.

Two of his teammates, placekicker Christian Benvenuto and linebacker Dexter Moody were also arrested, but weren’t dismissed by coach Bill Curry. They were suspended indefinitely. Moody was already on suspension after violating a team rule during spring practices in March.

“We have very stern standards about interaction with other people and when they are broken, the consequences are permanent,” Curry said. “We will not have people who create public mischief on our team.”

According to Atlanta Police spokesman Sgt. Curtis Davenport, three men told police they were attacked by the GSU students at the intersection of West Shadowlawn Drive and Peachtree Street in Buckhead. At least seven Atlanta police cars arrived on the scene and eventually handcuffed six men, among them Schlechter. Police found one of the victims with …

Continue reading Schlechter dismissed from GSU football team »

Georgia State football coach Bill Curry and his coaching staff honored these players today for their work during spring practices:

DOMINATOR AWARD

Ulrick John (T, Jr.)

MOST IMPROVED

Offense: Mark Young (WR, Fr.-R)
Defense: Nate Anthony (CB, Jr.-R)

HUSTLE AWARD

Offense: Nathaniel Minor (WR, So.)

Defense: Davis Knowles (LB, Jr.-R)

LEADERSHIP AWARD

Offense: Jordan Giles (WR, Jr.-R)

Defense: Akeen Felder (OLB, Sr.-R)

BEST PERFORMERS

Offense: Albert Wilson (WR, Jr.)

Defense: Demarius Matthews (CB, Jr.)

HEAD COACH’S AWARD

Ben McLane (QB, Fr.-R)

Kail Singleton (S, Jr.-R)

Rendell Wilder (RB, So.-R)

– Doug Roberson, AJC. Please follow me on twitter @ajcgsu

Continue reading GSU spring football awards »

Georgia State’s sand volleyball (not beach volleyball, sand volleyball) signed three players this week to join the team, which will begin play in the spring of 2013.

One of them, Karlee Kavanaugh, is from Alaska. Chugiak to be exact. If memory (and Wikipedia) serves, it’s a suburb of Anchorage.

The other signees are former Miami All-American Lane Carico and Molly Smestad, a transfer from Arkansas at Monticello.

Kavanaugh was selected to play in the USAV HP Beach Championships last year, and she finished second in the Alaska State Beach Volleyball Open Championships. She was also a first-team all-state selection.

“Karlee is a solid player who gets better every time she steps on the sand,” coach Tami Audia said in a statement. “She is a dedicated player who travels far distances for training. With good size and a keen sense of the game, Karlee will be a fun contributor to watch all four years of her career.”

– Doug Roberson, AJC. Please follow me on twitter …

Continue reading Apparently, they play sand volleyball in Alaska »