Georgia St. Building a Program The Right Way

In a year from now, September 2010, Georgia St. will kick off its inaugural football season. I'm excited that the Panthers will finally be playing football, and they're building their program the right way.

The first thing they did was hire a great coach. Bill Curry did an excellent job at Alabama and rebuilding a struggling Georgia Tech program in the early 80s. He will make Georgia St. into a winning football program.

I think it's great that they are building it slowly. Their first season will feature some teams they should probably beat, like Shorter College. However, the big game comes at the end of the season when Coach Curry returns to Alabama, where he coached from 1987-89 and won an SEC Title in 89. The Panthers will take on the Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa. It will be GA. State's final regular season game in their first year of existence.

The Atlanta Metro Area has terrific high school talent, especially in Gwinnett County. Curry will be able to land some of that talent, and since they will be competing at the Playoff Division Level (formerly Div. l-AA), I think they will be very competitive and eventually have winning seasons. I believe that 2 years from now, they will join the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) in football. The school is already a member in the other sports. The CAA is among the finest Playoff Subdivision conferences in the country featuring James Madison, who one the National Title a few years ago.

It will be very interesting to see what Curry's first recruiting class will do this Fall. Now we have three college football teams to cheer for. I'm excited to see what the Panthers' first football season will bring.