Trying to win is only half the problem at Georgia State
Cheryl Levick hopes Trent Miles can jump-start Georgia State on and off field. (Jason Getz/AJC)
Georgia State held a news conference Monday.
Or maybe it was more like a pep rally.
There was pre-recorded, whip-up-the-crowd music blaring through arena speakers. There were cheerleaders and a mascot named Pounce and a pep band in the bleachers and maybe 100 folks, many in the employ of the university, who stood up and applauded as if on cue.
Just as well. Because the job facing Trent Miles as Georgia State’s second football coach isn’t merely to win games, it’s to make sure more than just friends and family of the running back and the long-snapper are aware that a game is even being played.
All new programs lose games. They lack athletes, tradition and an identity. The most troubling aspect of the fledgling Panthers is not that their win totals were only 6, 3 and 1 in the first three seasons. It’s that their attendance dropped from just OK to off-the-radar during that same span. The announced averaged during this season’s 1-10 season was 12,312. The actual number of bodies in seats were closer to between 5,000 to 8,000 (that’s being generous), and many left at halftime.
Given that enthusiasm for a college football team drained so quickly, it’s appropriate to wonder if starting the program, given the costs involved, ever was a good idea. Remember, this is a concrete, commuter campus that rarely even has supported basketball well.
Athletic director Cheryl Levick nodded in agreement when asked about the declining fan and student support, then commented: “This is a critical hire. [Miles] has to come in and turn this program around in terms of establishing a winning tradition, in terms of getting the students in the stands, and the fans cheering. So he’s got a job on the field and off the field, and he knows that.”
There’s no turning back now. Not with millions of dollars already invested in startup costs, a new practice facility and the seemingly premature leap from the Colonial Athletic Association to FBS and the Sun Belt. Georgia State officials have no choice but to embrace the build-it-and-they will come philosophy. They don’t want to think of the alternative.
Levick again: “We have to produce a winning, exciting product on the field. If we do that, the students will be back in the stands.”
Enter Miles. He has been in worse situations. He came from Indiana State. His predecessor went 1-32 in three seasons. Miles was told, “Fix it or we’re shutting it down.”
No, seriously. The school was going to shutter the football program.
Miles didn’t do any better in his first two seasons: 1-22. But he was viewed as Lazarus-like for going 19-14 over the next three.
He’ll have to raise the dead again. He wanted this job so badly after Bill Curry’s retirement that he sent Levick a bound 42-page plan on how he would fix every aspect of the program. He knows what he’s getting into.
“I’m not a head football coach — I’m a CEO of a football department,” he said. “That’s just the way it is. I’ve got to fund raise. I’ve got to raise attendance. I’ve got to recruit, put together a staff, educate young men.”
Referencing fans leaving games early, he added: “We have to give people something to be interested in. We have to get them to buy in and take ownership and stock in the team. When you do that, it’s hard to get up and walk out.”
He’ll bring in a new staff. Don’t be surprised if one of the assistants is former Falcons wide receiver Terance Mathis, a long-time friend since their days together at New Mexico (Mathis was a senior and Miles a graduate assistant in 1989). Mathis is an assistant at Savannah State but the future of that coaching staff is tenuous. It’s not just a coincidence that Mathis attended Monday’s news conference.
“I think he’ll do great,” Mathis said of Miles. “He’s not a high-profile name where people say, ‘Oh, I know him, he’ll win.’ But he’s a coach who has won and does it right way. I’ve seen him recruit. We’ve been after the same kids before. He’s come to Atlanta and taken kids out of our laps.”
Win games. Build a program. Grow the fan base. It’s the same mission statement as three years ago. It doesn’t look any easier now than it did then.
By Jeff Schultz
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109 comments Add your comment
Not Disappointed
December 3rd, 2012
3:44 pm
Just say what you really feel!
I cant wait for your opinon on KSU and their new program!
mike
December 3rd, 2012
3:46 pm
Jeff,
Are you suggesting they just shut down the team and close up shop? You seem to have made that case.
itpdude
December 3rd, 2012
3:55 pm
As a GSU alum, undergrad and grad, I agree. GSU should not have gone into football and concentrated on some of their advances in basketball. Unless. Unless they were able to attract a high profile coach with instant name recognition not only in Georgia but in the region, if not nationally. I hoped Reeves would have been the first coach because he brought that kind of recognition, but his involvement was in only setting up the program. Reeves didn’t have much to do with recruiting or being the face of the program and nothing to do with the coaching.
That was a mistake. Nothing against Coach Curry, but he lacked that name recognition. And nothing against Miles, but I’ve never heard of him. He coached at Indiana State for a total record of 20-36. sure, he went 7-4 last season, but who cares? It’s Indiana State.
No offense to Miles, I wish him the best, but GSU is setting him up for failure.
5150 UOAD
December 3rd, 2012
3:56 pm
Best of luck to the Coach but GaState should have joined the HBCU.
Not RocketScience
December 3rd, 2012
3:57 pm
5 Steps for GA State Football to survive:
1. Get GA State in Conference USA…..like this week. Sunbelt is DOA and CUSA needs ATL market
2. Pimp your non conference games(multiple each season) out to anyone anytime anywhere like USM did for years(Fla State, Nebraska, Auburn, etc…)
3. Make sure Chuck Oliver attends all coaches press conferences
4. Hire Jerry Glanville for your Defensive Coordinator…..He is looking to get back into coaching right now
5. Do mobile coaching caravan clinics for recruiting and practices at every high school in the atlanta area
DesignerJacket
December 3rd, 2012
4:06 pm
Take it from a Tech fan that this is not the harshest this writer can get on a team. But, yes, it’s definitely not the “hometown paper” feel either, is it?
Anyway, I’m curious if G-State is going to try to put some residence halls nearer to the dome at some point. I think if that’s where they’re going to play football (read “promote the school”) then having your students close enough to take away excuses not to go seems like one big way to ensure you get an uptick in attendance. I’m not familiar with State’s space planning initiatives, so I’m just kind of wondering out loud about that.
Moobs Johnson
December 3rd, 2012
4:10 pm
Any chance they can play Tech? We need all the guaranteed W’s we can get with our high school offense.
The real GSU is in Statesboro
December 3rd, 2012
4:14 pm
Truest column ever written!
GStateBen
December 3rd, 2012
4:27 pm
Good, honest write up Jeff. These opinions have been uttered not only by fans but by detractors since the announcement of football.
BTW, Terance Mathis was OC and WR coach at Savannah State. Definitely a local guy (Redan HS/Atlanta Falcon) who can help.
GT Dude
December 3rd, 2012
4:39 pm
This is a difficult job, maybe a job better left to Bardem and Bailey
Panther in College Park
December 3rd, 2012
4:45 pm
The truth hurts, but it is needed to try and keep our AD honest. I love GSU so much, but what Schultz wrote is something I have thought about many times. I hope that Coach Miles can help right the ship and make me proud that GSU has a football team.
Go Panthers!
Mel in Midtown
December 3rd, 2012
4:50 pm
I’m an Indiana State alum living in ATL. Here’s the dope on Trent Miles. He took over a program that had the longest losing streak in the country – 33 games. At Indiana State, football just killed time before the beginning of basketball season (see: Larry Bird). Talk about tough recruiting!!! Yet, he turned it around in 4 years, and this year beat the then #1 ranked FCS division school. I agree that I think that GA State should have concentrated on basketball, ad I doubt the wisdom of another college football program succeeding in ATL, but, if it IS going to succeed, then Trent Miles is the guy that can do it!! Ironically, the head coaches of bot GA State’s football and basketball programs came from Indiana schools.
Buckeye
December 3rd, 2012
4:50 pm
Shhh.
Perhaps tom brown won’t come around.
Stinger2
December 3rd, 2012
4:53 pm
Give Trent Miles a chance to do what most may think impossible before throwing
Ga.State out the window. If he has a 48 page plan to revive the program, at least
let him show the alumni, .fans and students 24 pages
Nativebird
December 3rd, 2012
4:56 pm
Build? Fund raise? Raise attendance? CEO? Blah blah blah. Just win baby…….everything else will take care of itself.
Falcon228
December 3rd, 2012
5:04 pm
If the “U” and Pitt can contend as a commuter campus bring it on.
KSUgrad
December 3rd, 2012
5:19 pm
GSU made a big mistake jumping to FBS/Division I. They should have ground out at least another four or five seasons in Division II, try to establish a winning tradition. At this point all the team is good for is to run padded scrimmages for teams like Alabama (granted, the school gets fairly well paid for doing this, but the kids that have to take the a$$ whipping don’t see a cent…). What recruit wants to sign up for that? I sure wouldn’t. I’d rather go play for UT-Chattanooga or App. State or something, play teams that are the same caliber. They’re just setting themselves up for getting crushed by almost every D-I school they play.
I hope my Kennesaw State team, whenever it is they decide to get going (I guess we’re aiming/hoping for 2014 right now), makes the wise decision to hang out in D-II for a while and establish a tradition, as well as play with teams we actually have a shot at beating. I for one would love to establish a new in-state rivalry with the real GSU down in Statesboro. Our men’s basketball programs only met for the first time in history just last month, so we’re already working on that rivalry…
Hope
December 3rd, 2012
5:35 pm
Thanks Mel in Midtown,
Go Panthers !
GSU
December 3rd, 2012
5:36 pm
“I for one would love to establish a new in-state rivalry with the real GSU down in Statesboro.”
I guess that small school mentality is hard to shake.
blackbird13
December 3rd, 2012
5:38 pm
Winning solves a lot of problems, but wins are going to be tough to come by for years. The move to Sun Belt is premature, especially given the game-day attendance requirements GSU will have to meet to avoid probation. A big part of the problem is that the Dome is a sterile, uninspiring venue when only half-full, much less when it’s only 20 percent full.
Go Tech
December 3rd, 2012
5:52 pm
You watch. The dogs will be adding Ga. State to their schedule soon.
BariBlue
December 3rd, 2012
5:54 pm
As a current student, I have seen what having a football team has done for this school. When I arrived at GSU in 2008, school spirit was almost nonexistent. Once the football program kicked off on 09/02, our students seemed to finally come together to support OUR school. Even with our losing record, school spirit is way better than what it once was. Where once the campus was dominated with GSU students wearing SEC school shirts, you now see way more Panther shirts. Are we perfect? No. Do we have a lot to improve on? Heck yeah! So please excuse me, Shultz, but I believe you are completely wrong in questioning whether GSU should have ever fielded a football team. This is what our school needs in order to be a competitive in-state option. Why else do you think schools like Mercer and KSU are following our lead? If similar schools like Pitt can make football successful, then so can we. Rome was not built overnight…. a winning tradition will take some time, especially now that we are in the FBS. Football at Georgia State can succeed… we just need the right leadership in charge… and Coach Miles is exactly that. Go Panthers!!!
Skeptic
December 3rd, 2012
6:17 pm
Should’ve hired Petino–looks like she’s his kind of “boss”
Skeptic
December 3rd, 2012
6:18 pm
I meant, “PetRino”, but you know, either one apply
Mikey D.
December 3rd, 2012
6:29 pm
“All new programs lose games. They lack athletes, tradition and an identity.”
Not all, Jeff. Georgia Southern brought in the late, great Erk Russell to start a football program completely from the ground up. He won, and he won big and fast. Granted, Southern was the exception, but with the right coach it can be done. Good luck to G State and Coach Miles. Wishing you guys luck in the future (unless you’re playing Southern, of course…)
panama
December 3rd, 2012
6:54 pm
Schultz only shills for Power 5 conference schools. What else is new. Someone should sack him…really…they should
R Reagin
December 3rd, 2012
7:23 pm
Thank you Mr. Schultz for speaking truth. G-state (GSU is Georgia Southern) doesn’t need a football team and you folks at Kennessaw need to take in at least two games at the Dome before you jump in. The Signal (State student newspaper) had a recent series where they broke down the student fees. I, and my other Panthers, currently pay $86 per full term semester for the football team. That’s not the full athletic fee, that’s the cut of the athletic fee that goes to the football program. Next year its supposedly going to $95. So, for the glory of having “school spirit” and a bookstore that is clothing students in Panther regalia, a student is looking at payments of over $700 for 8 full semesters (we’ll round to $90 per semester) MINIMUM. Takes you five years to graduate because you have something else going on…like a JOB. That’ll be $900, enjoy the band.
I’ve so often been told that it’s a “great tool for recruiting students”. As I said, I am a student at State (only 4 semester hours to go after Thursday), I know the student body: The last thing State needs is students who choose their institution of higher learning based on a football team. They need to recruit the best students available to balance out the 20% of the student body (thanks HOPE scholarship!) that has no business in college, much less a major research university. Truth hurts.
This was never anything but the fevered dream of some poor alumni who felt left out of the water-cooler discussions where co-workers regaled others with tales of victory forged by their alma mater. Meanwhile, 3 miles away, a school that has won national championships, was the first college team (maybe still the only) to win the Orange, Cotton, Sugar, and Rose Bowls, a team with the best fight song in all of football (sorry Notre Dame and Wisconsin) cannot fill its stadium. What were they thinking? Did they not realize that no matter how nice the G. Dome is, with 40,000 people in it, it’s still empty and you’ll be playing your home games in a abandoned cave?
…one more class, just one more!
GStateBen
December 3rd, 2012
7:27 pm
@MikeyD Southern had far less market competition and NCAA regulation. He could win because there were only three teams in the state at all. I commend him but the fact that Southern has not been nationally relevant in more than a decade.
FCS football does not move the meter outside of Statesboro. It just doesn’t. Recruits believe it is D2 football.
Good luck to the Eagles this weekend but ODU is simply amazing on offense.
GStateBen
December 3rd, 2012
7:31 pm
@R Reagin Interesting post. So if the program was wining, would this change your perception? What about beating those folks who you enjoy the first song so much in every sport? Would the money be worth it?
It’s okay to root for other teams as you obviously have an affinity for the trade school. Universities are far more successful garnering support through athletic endeavors rather than $100 per plate dinners for the Biology Dept.
Congratulations on your near graduation and I would be interested to see how you feel in ten years Vs. Right now.
Hairy Dawg
December 3rd, 2012
7:38 pm
Georgia State will be alright. It’s a large university with ample resources. Having a younger coach who sees himself as being on a mission is important, too. As great a man as Bill Curry is, I don’t think anybody can say that he’s a great football coach. Trent Miles, especially for his own career track, has all the incentive in the world to do a good job in Atlanta. I’d love to see the Dawgs and Tech schedule Georgia State. Sure, we’d both whip the Panthers, but the point is that we’ve got another FBS school in this state. Georgia Southern has never shown the guts to move up. I’ll never understand that.
I like Bill Curry, but...
December 3rd, 2012
8:11 pm
Shultz, calling GSU a commuter school is dated now. Over 90% of freshman live on campus now. Nearly 70% of all undergrads are in the “traditional” college age range now–as opposed to 35% just 8 years ago.
werty
December 3rd, 2012
8:27 pm
coach miles,
if you are ever trailing by 4 pts on the opponents 5 yd line with 18 seconds left and no timeouts, SPIKE THE BALL!
trust me on this
FootballTopFan(c)
December 3rd, 2012
8:37 pm
Football Top Fan would like to welcome Trent Miles to Atlanta as Head Coach of the Georgia State Panthers football team.
We wish Coach Miles and the Panthers the best of luck and success.
Georgia State football program has unlimited potential !!!
Panthers
December 3rd, 2012
9:37 pm
You’ll eat your words schultzs.
Anyone can kick us when we are down… Coward.
Bobby
December 3rd, 2012
9:45 pm
I like this guy’s attitude. I’ll have to renew my season tickets next year just to see what he can do.
Bobby
December 3rd, 2012
9:51 pm
Don’t worry Georgia State Alumns and fans. Schultz is always somewhat of an unprofessional jerk when writing about any team except UGA. Why he wasted space in the AJC for his diatribe and scorn of GSU is beyond me other than maybe he had nothing else going on today after Saturday’s loss by his beloved Dawgs. He has to pick on someone.
R Reagin
December 3rd, 2012
9:57 pm
@ GStateBen: you probably wouldn’t want my opinion in ten years because then I’ll be 61. And no, I wouldn’t care if the panthers were beating Tech, Alabama, or Georgia (well maybe ugag). I do pull for the Jackets, which is only slightly better than pulling for State, but I used them as an example because they have 100 years of football tradition and can’t fill a 50,000 seat stadium in downtown Atlanta. And they, like almost every major school, have a campus and college atmosphere right there at the stadium. None of that exists at the Dome. Going down to the Dome on a Saturday afternoon with 8000 of your fellow students is just depressing. It’s a hideous venue for college football UNLESS it’s full and the fans are there for a championship game with a split crowd.
And about those $100 plate dinners; You honestly think that money goes to the university? Heck, they could have just raised tuition $10 per student per semester and brought in more money than they will EVER see via the banquet route and each student would have the other $80 bucks of their football payment back to put towards a $150 text book. College football is a saturated market. Like the NBA, we already have too many teams.
And I’m curious about how this Sun Belt minimum attendance penalty works. Not sure how they’re going to avoid having to pay it, because sending the students 5 emails a week during the season hasn’t made a dent in attendance yet. They joined a conference they’re not ready to compete in that has a minimum average attendance number State has met maybe 3 times in 3 seasons. Because not enough people care, State will end up raising athletic fees so students seeking an education (some still believe that’s at college is for) will pay the “empty-seat” penalty for what the first huge fee hike didn’t buy, a program that can compete for the sports-entertainment dollar in Atlanta.
Let’s not wait 10 years. You tell me how good it feels in 5 years when they have won 15 more games (that’s probably generous) and the lack of attendance in their massive home stadium has become a national joke. Then you can tell me if your $700 was worth it. Meantime, I’ll be watching Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Florida State, and two dozen other tradition-rich programs I’ll always care more about than G-State regardless of how many degrees I get there.
…and werty is right. I’ve seen a team get off four, yes four plays into the end zone in 14 seconds…SPIKE THE BALL..unbelievably dumb!
Moobs Johnson
December 3rd, 2012
10:25 pm
I remember when Reggie Ball had a chance to beat the Dawgs at the end of the game. On fourth down he decided to throw the ball out of bounds. That Sir, is unbelievably dumb!
Pantherfan93
December 3rd, 2012
10:33 pm
So wait… @Reagin, you would rather cheer for a team with tradition, but when it comes to your school trying to start that tradition… you think they shouldn’t. As an alumni, who also has season tickets, I would rather help start a tradition, even if it started on the losing foot, than just attaching myself to what may be more mainstream. Just my opinion.
MadDog
December 3rd, 2012
10:36 pm
@Hairy Dawg, are you serious? Ga Southern doesn’t have the guts to move up? There’s been discussions for many years and fortunately they’ve been the school smart enough to not do it until now. Traditions, unreal winning record, and a perrenial power in D1 FCS is ready-made for FBS football. Can’t wait for those extra scholarships. Sure gave Ga and Alabama a run with those 63 scholarships! Wish Ga State the best but unfortunately they are throwing a ton of money into this. Sunbelt is one of the cheapest conferences to exist in. CUSA costs much more. Not a bad thing when ESPN is televising GSU vs ODU on Saturday.
Dawg Bite
December 3rd, 2012
10:48 pm
Again, just why is GSU playing their home games in the Dome rather a smaller, more cozy venue such as Grady stadium or the like? The Dome must really be a tomb with only 8-10k in there! Good luck to GSU, but I think you are on the same track as UAB. B’ham has never embraced that program, and they have floundered for years. Atlanta is a UGA town 1st, then has a huge UT, UF, UA, AU following and with GAT having trouble filling their stadium GSU will never be embraced by Atlanta. I would guess that most GSU students could not care less about them having a football team. JMHO
Pantherfan93
December 3rd, 2012
10:49 pm
Now, i am not questioning the history and tradition of Southern football. Y’all are champions at the FCS level time and time again. But why did you only draw 8,888 for the last playoff game?
WhatyoutalkingaboutWillis?
December 3rd, 2012
11:17 pm
Instead of a football program can the staff just get raises??? It’s going on five years now… come on!! I also wish that GSU didn’t play in the dome.. they need a smaller place….
Go Panthers!!
December 3rd, 2012
11:36 pm
Kind of a cheap shot at the fan base in regards to declining attendance when it’s admitted at the very start of the article that our win totals went from 6 to 3 to 1.
There is no history to fall back on. No family legacies to get us going.
To be frank, I’m proud of the thousands of us that have stuck around through all this mess.
Erk Russell's Barber
December 4th, 2012
12:01 am
as a State Alum, I was stunned when it was announced State was gonna have a football team.
its pointless, as is being borne out by attendance. look at basketball. sports at State have always been a rat hole to throw money into.
this was an ego thing by State. a school which made its bones by financial education should have been able to do market research and come to the conclusion the rest of us already knew. it ain’t gonna fly.
the only, and I mean only team in the area which draws well all the time is UGA football.
BariBlue
December 4th, 2012
12:09 am
R Reagin is a Southern Troll… it’s too obvious. For one, what sane person would be against supporting their OWN school creating a winning tradition, which will in turn increase the value of their degree?
462 JC Camp Student Center
December 4th, 2012
12:15 am
GSU will be fine. Very good academics, large alumni base and a very large, traditional student population just dying for something to rally around. Miles is the man to bring it all together.
Stop with this “G-State” nonsense. Georgia State University has been GSU since 1969.
Billy Ray
December 4th, 2012
12:21 am
8,888 fans at a playoff game? Could it be that Georgia Southern’s program is just not capable of playing at the FBS level? There just isn’t any support down in little ol’ Statesboro. Perhaps the FCS is as good as it gets for our little cousins down I-16.
It certainly is possible that Georgia State will one day be bigger than UGa in enrollment and in football.
john
December 4th, 2012
1:20 am
Ga State needs to be merged back into the school a couple miles north and become Georgia Institute of Technolgy and Georgia State University..
BravesFan79
December 4th, 2012
4:24 am
I just dont understand the point of being a fan of a team with NO…0 percent chance of ever winning a national championship. I went to Ga State for a semester back in 2003, those artsy kids (the ones who actually live in the city) could care less about sports!
BravesFan79
December 4th, 2012
4:38 am
Congratulations for giving a bunch of C level students who could care less about grades FULL rides, meanwhile how many deserving A students got screwed out of academic scholarships??
Wait… i see your vision GSU… in the year 2050 GSU will finally make it to a whogivesacrap.com bowl after posting a 6-5 record and will face the almighty Louisiana Technicial Institute, where they will win, and the whole team will receive free milk and cookies, and a Tshirt to prove they were there. Yes… one day all the millions of dollars spent, and all the undeserving scholarships handed out will of been worth it…. just be patient fans and wait for that free Tshirt after winning some meaningless bowl game, for that’s the best you can ever hope for!
BravesFan79
December 4th, 2012
4:46 am
R Reagin: The most realistic and honest post ive ever seen on any G-State article ive ever read. 2 bad the fools who dreamed up this fools gold idea couldnt ‘keep it real”
Paddy
December 4th, 2012
7:07 am
The best of luck to Coach Miles. This is a great hire for GSU. If CTM is busy winning games, recruiting, fund raising and pumping up attendance; what is the Athlectic Dept going to do? Create a great game experience, thats what we were told this summer. Sell some damn tickets Levick and get your hands dirty like you have asked your coach to do.
MoreyG
December 4th, 2012
8:22 am
someone connected is making money on this program–it is not for the students, who are paying more tuition to support a program that cannot possibly earn a profit.
Walking with a Panther
December 4th, 2012
8:35 am
@ Bravesfan 79
Well these days, it looks like the Braves has about as much of a chance of winning a World title as GSU a national championship and you still support them!! What does a better chance at winning a championship have to do with supporting your team?? If that was the case, everybody would be Yankees, Lakers, Alabama, and Cowboys fans.
OldTimer
December 4th, 2012
8:38 am
You are a very negative person. Always a negative outlook unless it is your Favorite Bulldogs you are
discussing. Why not be an optimist?? Sure they will have growing pains but they also have a tremendous opportunity!!
DaveDawg
December 4th, 2012
8:52 am
It’s not a premature leap out of the CAA. In fact, the CAA (with no natural rivals) is what killed Georgia State’s start-up momentum. GSU should’ve done more with the excitement and attention that comes with starting a new program. The Sun Belt conference will, obviously, generate more excitement. Hopefully Kennesaw State paid attention and will start off in the Southern Conference.
@BillyRay
December 4th, 2012
8:54 am
Yeah… those attendance figures are a product of this State’s flagship program playing in its biggest game in +30 years. Georgia Southern averages +20k on the season and State is sub 10k. #Truth
GTBob
December 4th, 2012
8:58 am
Here’s an idea. How about a joint venture? Grant Field is close by, and doesn’t have the cavernous empty feeling the Dome does when only 5,000 of your friends are with you. Tech could supply the facilities,and G-State could supply the football team and coach,since Tech lacks both. The joint venture brand could be GT-SU. Everyone will know instinctively that the missing last letteris a given.
GSU Panthers
December 4th, 2012
9:01 am
I will NEVER attend another GSU game until we have a winning record again. I’m sick of wasting money on a team that NOBODY cares about and a team that never wins.
A Dangerous Idea
December 4th, 2012
9:04 am
I have always believed that if you flip flopped the athletic programs at Tech and GSU, the Panthers would be a major competitor in the NCAA and Tech could concentrate on its role as one of the leading engineering and science “institutions” in the world. Tech cannot do both. By and large – not in each and every case, of course, but Tech athletes are not true Tech students. Their class catalogs rarely crossover. Let the helluva engineers play DIII ball and unleash the Panthers!
Sanjeev
December 4th, 2012
9:07 am
“All new programs lose games. ” Umm no they don’t!! Georgia Southern started the program with no losing seasons and won a title in their 3rd.
Onlooker
December 4th, 2012
9:08 am
I’m just saying but Ms Levick has definitely still got it going on. Very attractive. Nice dress but was black appropriate?
Sonny Jackson
December 4th, 2012
9:09 am
I think they should put their money and efforts into the Cross Country team!
Dr. Phill
December 4th, 2012
9:11 am
I was a professor at GSU when the President hired Lefty and discussions began about football. The University fills an important niche in the Atlanta area, providing quality under graduate and graduate programs for non traditional and working students. The Lefty experiment and the football program were ego trips for the President who attended basketball practice frequently and went on road trips with the team and rubbed shoulders with coaching greats who were pals of Lefty. The President vowed to create an Atlanta version of Georgetown. Most students were dead against the expenses mentioned in the comment above by a GSU student. Basketball may be successful o
bill
December 4th, 2012
9:16 am
Question: Didn’t Georgia Southwestern try football for a bit of time?
Echoes of Da Dome
December 4th, 2012
9:16 am
…………………………………………………………..
(i guess you need students in the stands to make echoes)
Pantherfan93
December 4th, 2012
9:22 am
@@BillyRay – OK I could see the 8,888 because of the UGA game, but why only 13k for both 2011 playoff games when you get 20+ during the regular season?
@PantherFan93
December 4th, 2012
9:30 am
Its tough to understand why playoffs drop off so badly. Maybe playoffs are so foreign to the college football world. Holiday seasons? Students w/finals? I do know our Greek Community tends to have big events outside of Statesboro at the end of the year and that is a HUGE chunk of our students that attend games.
Jim
December 4th, 2012
9:33 am
GSU needs to play its games at sometime other than Saturday afternoons if they want to increase attendance. I went to the first game three years ago and the enthusiasm was great. I think that game was on a thursday night. There is too much competition on saturday afternoons. It doesn’t matter if you are a student or alum of GSU, you still have “allegiances” to Georgia or Tech because of family, friends, or co-workers. Until the Panthers start winning, they need to play their games at a time when they don’t compete with the two local powerhouses,
itsmeagain
December 4th, 2012
9:35 am
It seems self evident that moving to the FBS would be necessary. We haven’t played a down of FBS football yet, and still we’re criticized for having an attendance which is in line with the upper half of the FCS (the division in which we were in). I wouldn’t expect our attendance to go up until 1) we start winning, and 2) we actually become an FBS team. As for whether fielding a team was worth it, it certainly was. Until we had a football team, i really didn’t care about sports at GSU. Now, i can’t get enough of it, whether it’s football, basketball, baseball, or anything else. It’s changed the students attitude towards the university, and that will only increase as we grow. Big things are happening at GSU, mark my words.
panther04
December 4th, 2012
9:39 am
I don’t expect you to really understand sports in the States.
panther04
December 4th, 2012
9:43 am
We go from one dud coach to another dud coach. It is really frustrating. Nothing big will happen until we get a proven winner as a coach.
Jee S. You
December 4th, 2012
9:49 am
Dr. Phill, You do realize that the President when Lefty was there and when football was decided on isn’t the President now, right?
GTT
December 4th, 2012
10:01 am
I feel for you. Ga. Southern is moving up and I think it’s a dumb move. The president says FBS will raise our name recognition nationally. I think going to the Sun Belt conference may gain us the Weedeater Bowl in Shreveport. Does that raise our recogition higher than being a perennial contender in FCS? I don’t think so. Ga. State has moved too fast, and get out of the Dome into an appropriate-size venue.
Me
December 4th, 2012
10:04 am
The problem with Georgia State, and it started with the announcement, is that they are more worried about recognition (remember the ESPN magazine cover) and a big name coach and more prestigious conference and such, rather than focusing on the hard work required to create a successful program. From the beginning the internet mouthpiece of the fanbase has touted how they would RULE FCS football, they would get the pick of the very best recruits, they would over-take Tech as the number 2 athletics school in the state within 5 years. Blah, Blah, Blah. The big name coaches (Reeves, Curry), the big time stadium (Ga Dome), the big conference invites (CAA, SBC), have translated to little more than a good laughing stock. Burn dumpster fire, burn.
Paddy
December 4th, 2012
10:06 am
GT Bob……..great idea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
GTT
December 4th, 2012
10:20 am
@GStateBen, or whatever. Ga. Southern has not been nationally relevant in a decade? We made the semifinals last season, genius. Your success/relevance envy is not pretty.
GTT
December 4th, 2012
10:21 am
But good luck to Ga. State and sorry you have Ben in your family.
GTBob
December 4th, 2012
10:24 am
You could call the Joint Venture “experimental” or “exploratory”. And to designate it as such, the logo on the helmets would read GT-SU X.
Dr. Phil
December 4th, 2012
10:33 am
Levick is too old for Petrino. Does she have a teenage daughter?
Tommy
December 4th, 2012
10:38 am
I am going to say it again, and again, and again, that the Board of Regents and the State of Georgia should merge GT with GA State. It is a no brainer and tremendous money saver.One team, one President, one head coach, one of everything. Is this too simple for them to understand?
Shultz is an idiot
December 4th, 2012
10:47 am
Jeff,
Must be since to sit back and judge everything Ga State does with negative comments. Oh right I’m a journalist I don’t do anything I just report..must be nice.
It is not the critic (Jeff Schultz) who counts; not the man (Jeff Schultz) who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man (Trent Miles) who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause (not Jeff Schultz); who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
Schultz you are nothing.
Eagle Fan
December 4th, 2012
11:00 am
“All new programg lose games”
Sorry, but this is incorrect. Georgia Southern didn’t “lose”, they actually won very quickly. UTSA isn’t losing. USA had a couple undefeated seasons to start. Good luck to the new regime at State. Nowhere to go but up!
Paddy
December 4th, 2012
11:20 am
Eagle Fan…….lest we forget; ODU didn’t lose! There were some solid plans out there to follow by GSU. They decided to go with a plan that many have tried and all have failed. Did no one at that U. read a basic Sports Marketing book or confer w/ the world class Business school at GSU? Sell tickets and don’t do anything if it does not help the team win. All the fancy stuff comes years later when there is a ton of cash in the bank!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Richard Bagge
December 4th, 2012
11:32 am
Much as I wish GSU luck here, their attendance is smaller than the Georgia Force of the arena football league.
When was the last time the AJC ran a story about them? The team folded fewer than two months ago and the paper never reported it, did it? So why spend inches on the Panthers?
Wayne stuck in AL
December 4th, 2012
11:43 am
Still, no one has addressed the elephant in the room:
Why does GSU have a football team in the first place? (I could ask the same question of UAB and South Alabama, too.)
LetMeJustSay
December 4th, 2012
11:46 am
I sincerely believe Cheryl Levick has been the reason this program is failing, and it is because of her short-sightedness. She lacks vision and she settles for subpar results. She has no ambition, and I truly feel that she doesn’t really care about this school or program.
Paddy
December 4th, 2012
11:59 am
LetMeJustSay……..I think you are wrong on all your point about Ms Levick. Her problem was not selling enough tickets, period. She got sidetracked into the hype of a new program and gimicks and just did things out of order. She can turn it around. Lets see if they really stick to a successful selling campaign. It is the ONLY solution that can guarentee success!
ATL Observer
December 4th, 2012
12:22 pm
1) CTM was a great hire. Anytime you coach football at INDIANA STATE and yet your departure leads the 11:00p news, you must have had some sort of impact.
2) Re: whether it was a mistake to start football in the first place, time will tell. The one thing I’d ask is “what’s the end game?” Is it really going to increase the value of the degree like supporters claim? Central Florida and South Florida are considered like models….are their degrees landing better jobs for their graduates than they were 15 years ago? Or is the end game just to have more students? Hard to buy that for a school that’s already enrolling over 30,000 annually. I don’t like how it’s casually thrown out there that a football program will increase the value of the degree without anyone really exposing that statement to any type of scrutiny.
3) As pointed out by several people above, the biggest problem with the Georgia State program is that they put the cart before the horse (i.e. exposure before winning). Their constant bragging points have been “media market!” (compare the current ten ranked Top Ten programs in college football to the Top Ten media markets, then tell me how much that even matters), “major league stadium!” (that is too big for the team it houses, has seat colors starkly different from the school’s blue, is a cave with a terrible sound system that makes a great band sound awful and no one wants to go to it on a Saturday afternoon), “ESPN cover!” (so that more people can notice that this team employed a mothballed coach who was overrated when he wasn’t mothballed and that his team can’t win), and they had the raw nerve to boast about their 6-5 season when Old Dominion went 9-3 in their inaugural year and Lambuth was among their losses.
4) I’m impressed with Miles’ philosophy: it *is* going to take a “CEO” to make this work. There is an entire culture that needs changing and it’s good that State has a coach that recognizes this.
Astonishing Werepanther
December 4th, 2012
1:03 pm
I will echo the sentiment that, as a student, the whole mood regarding school spirit has changed on campus with the addition of football. There are issues to overcome, and yes, it will take patience, but I still believe it’s part of a great transformation at GSU.
Agent Orange
December 4th, 2012
1:55 pm
So much hate for GSU.
Hate from schools that have nothing to worry about. Very common in this day and age for people to hate for no reason.
Would be nice for once to have people be supportive and not throw something, whatever it is under the proverbial bus for silly reasons.
Paddy
December 4th, 2012
2:15 pm
Atl Observer…..well said!!!!!!!!!!
GTT
December 4th, 2012
3:03 pm
I’ll go out on a limb here and say the number of responses to this column is reflective of the amount of interest in Ga. State football.
Reid in EAV
December 4th, 2012
3:14 pm
I’m a GSU alum, but I never thought adding football was a good idea.
Dwight
December 4th, 2012
3:46 pm
I was a rival coach a number of years ago and I always respected GSU’s athletic program as a unique, familial, and well-run department. They’re athletes were top-notch citizens and the department was excellent at supporting the academic mission. They were also competitive. So little attention has been paid to how the rest of this historically strong athletics department has suffered in the wake of the rush to include football. Despite saying that no sports would be cut as a result of adding football, some sports are being cut and others are barely getting the support they need to be effective. I understand the lure of football but it’s killing everything that was great about that department.
Roger
December 4th, 2012
5:30 pm
It’s not how big the Panther is in the fight but how big the fight is in the Panther. The cohesion of the new assembled staff with the players and their determination will be a big factor. Many principles left by the outgoing Coach & Staff are still valid. The oil of enthusiasm and dedication to efficient practice will go a long way. All will have to pay the price of implementation to the common goal each week.
berry steve
December 4th, 2012
5:49 pm
Roger You took alot of words to say absolutly nothing.
Screwball
December 4th, 2012
5:52 pm
Indicative of the interest (or lack of interest) in GSU sports is the fact that Schultz could write something about Georgia’s backup punter and get more than 90 some comments. Sad.
GSU_Grad01
December 4th, 2012
6:00 pm
What is there to comment on? Seems like a good hire. I was at the 1st game and have given money to the program. Curry is a great man but I am excited to see another coach that has grown a program take the field. Seems like he has a plan, I hope it works.
GSU does face many problems, USF has shown a program can be grown with other schools and even a NFL team in the market.
UGA’s punter would get 20 comments from Tech fans just stirring the pot.
Robert Crawford
December 4th, 2012
6:03 pm
GSU should not have gone into football, basketball, or any sort of athletics. It should have concentrated on academics. If the students wanted sports the school could have given them intramurals.
Hope
December 4th, 2012
7:30 pm
From scratch to Sun Belt,
not bad.
Hope
December 4th, 2012
7:33 pm
At least 73,000 GSU Alumni could fill the Georgia Dome
occasionally.
straightshooter
December 4th, 2012
8:41 pm
Miles looks to be a good hire, but he’ll have his hands full recruiting . He’ll get players, but will they be the right players? You might see him raid the JUCO and Prep School ranks at first, just to get some older kids with experience. There’s a great deal of high school talent in Georgia, but programs all across the country now recognize that.
I read all the time about GSU having talent on the roster, but it never seems to transfer to the field. All of that is not coaching.
By the way, if you want to watch that other GSU from down south, check them out at 12 noon Saturday on ESPN. Should be an interesting game between to totally contrasting offensive schemes.
Why?
December 5th, 2012
12:49 am
As a GSU grad, it kills me to see the school wasting money on football. We’ll never win over the UGA or GT fans. And with Georgia Southern moving up, thats one more team to compete with. The you’re looking at KSU and Mercer soon.
GUStheEAGLE
December 6th, 2012
10:50 pm
State fans just don’t get it. You might have 30K+ students but most of them are commuters. I know because I went to State my first year. Southern has 20K+ actual students who bleed blue. Southern has 6 FCS championships and we make the playoffs almost every year. Our alum and support comes out of both Atlanta and Savannah, making us respected through the state.
Yeah we had record low attendance during last weeks game verse Central Ark. because of Thanksgiving Break and the SEC Championship being in Atlanta. Do y’all honestly think state could have drawn 1000 fans that day? We got 8,800.
Southern joining the Sun Belt will create a huge rivalry with State. One State fans can’t prepare for. Y’all are just lucky you get AJC articles on your side.
Go Eagles
December 10th, 2012
9:33 am
@gstateben – Southern has not been relevant nationally in more than a decade? In the semi finals fro third year in row this year which means in the national finals or semi-finals in 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2010, 2011 and 2012. Yes they had two losing years in the gap, but how many other colleges can claim being in top 5 nationally in last 3 years any level?
Petrel in Jax
December 10th, 2012
12:46 pm
The GSUs, provided they’re both in Division 1-A (forgive me, but FBS sounds silly) should play each other in the dome on Thanksgiving weekend. Many Southern students will be home for the holiday and most State students are from the area anyway. These two schools could have a really great rivalry (the mutual dislike is clearly there already) and likely draw a sizable crowd.
J.R. Atlanta
December 10th, 2012
4:30 pm
My wife is an alumni of Georgia State Unversity (GSU) and has never attended a game! Shame on her! In my opinion the team needs to host home games in a staduim that fits the program “smaller’. The GA Dome games are too large of an atmosphere and GSU would fit well in a staduim like the newly renovated Lakewood Staduim or the old Morris Brown Stadium across from the Ga Dome! Valdosta State (playing in the National Championship Game this weekend) plays in the Valdosta High School Stadium. Georgia Southern’s Staduim is a kool staduim for small college football (semi finals National Championship playoff this weekend). Also play out of conference teams from here in Georgia (great football in this state) for the exposure to the 2nd level of football players available after the Div I schools gooble up what they want. Good Luck to the GSU football programs, I’ll be attending the games again!