Georgia State Panthers:
One of the more fascinating trends of the offseason was the exodus of head coaches to take coordinator or position coach roles. A lot of guys are turned off by what college football has become — an endless fight to keep your players and get your athletic department to pony up dollars to bring in new ones. I don’t know if that is why Shawn Elliott went back to South Carolina to be the run game coordinator and tight ends coach, but I bet it had something to do with it.
He spent seven years leading the Panthers and actually went 4-1 in bowl games, including a Potato Bowl triumph just last year. But, he’s gone and longtime pro and longtime assistant coach Dell McGee takes over for his first attempt at being a full-time head coach.
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McGee served as the interim for Georgia Southern in the GoDaddy Bowl back in 2015 and was a high school coach for eight years in Georgia.
Offense
And that is why McGee is here. He has remarkably deep ties in the Peach State, where he grew up and has coached his entire life except for a year as an analyst at Auburn, where he played from 1992-95. Whether McGee can make the right third-down decisions isn’t as important to Georgia State as bringing in dudes who can ball. So, that’s the hope, but he’s got a long way to go to get there.
That’s because the two best players on offense bolted. RB Marcus Carroll and WR Robert Lewis potentially have NFL futures and they are now in the SEC. Top OL Montavious Cunningham left for Virginia Tech. Oh, and longtime starting QB Darren Grainger ran out of eligibility. McGee brought in some decent transfers, but nothing to match what was lost.
Defense
With no head coaching experience and only three seasons coaching defense, McGee tabbed veteran DC Kevin Sherrer to run that unit. It wasn’t a very good one last season, as the Panthers allowed 6.3 yards per play and finished in the bottom 20 nationally in that department. Over the final five regular season games last year, Georgia State allowed 209 points, including 11 to Old Dominion in the final 1:37 of game play to give the Monarchs an improbable 25-24 win.
McGee and Sherrer actually managed to keep a lot of last year’s starting squad around, but, as I mentioned in my write-up of rival Georgia Southern, that just means your defense wasn’t good enough and your talent wasn’t desired enough to transfer anywhere else.
Outlook
I think McGee could really work out long-term. Dudes who aren’t good enough to get on the field at Georgia, Auburn, and other SEC schools might make their way to Georgia State based on his influence. It just won’t happen this year. I have Georgia State with 3.91 wins, so an easy Under suggestion on their win total of 4.5, but be prepared to pay some vig.
Pick: Under 4.5 Wins
