National Signing Day has become one of the biggest days of the sports year as thousands of recruits sign their letters of intent and pledge their commitment to play college football. At the Georgia State football offices, head coach Bill Curry and his staff watched as 16 players faxed in their letters of intent to become the newest members of the Panther football family. Walton safety Kyle Vorster had already early enrolled in school for the spring and he makes up the 17th member of this class. The 2012 class includes eight linemen, four defensive backs, two quarterbacks, two linebackers and one wide receiver. Coach Curry said his staff was, “really, really pleased” with this year’s recruits adding, “this is by far our best group athletically and academically.”
Eight of the 21 seniors leaving the Panthers this year were either offensive linemen, defensive linemen or were edge rushers from the linebacking corps. Because of this, the Georgia State coaching staff had to put an emphasis on recruiting talented lineman to replace the veteran group that was leaving. Curry said about bringing in these eight freshmen linemen, “you gotta replace the people that you lose, and hope to replace them with people that are a little bigger and faster than the previous group, and that’s what we did.”
Because of the departures from the interior, many of these freshmen will get a chance to compete for serious playing time as freshmen and some will have an opportunity to start. Four offensive linemen depart from last year’s starting group, so there are many chances for these young players to step in and play major roles early in their careers. Aaron Thomas from Dothan, Ala., Garrett Gorringe from Grayson, Treavor Flanigan of Trion and Mark Ruskell of Duluth could potentially be four freshmen starters on the offensive line.
The quarterback situation for the Panthers is just as wide open as the line. Two freshmen quarterbacks, Nathan Schuster of Chattooga High and late commit Mark Weidenaar from Lakeside High, have been added to the quarterback mix. They will join Kelton Hill, who finished the season as starter, Bo Schlecter, who began the year as starter, and redshirt freshman Ben McLane out of Brookwood High. Curry and offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach John Bond will have their work cut out for them during spring practice and summer training camp with five quarterbacks all battling for the starting job. As Curry said, “it’s always open competition [for the starting job].” Hill and Schlecter each have the experience factor on their side as each has started multiple games under center for the Panthers. McLane had the opportunity to learn the offense during his redshirt year, and he will look to show off his skills in camp in an effort to earn the starting job.
The staff has not made any decisions on redshirting the freshmen and will give all five quarterbacks every opportunity to earn the starting job, no matter how little experience they have. As Curry said, “We expect all those guys to compete, and there are schools all over the country that have played true freshmen and redshirt freshmen at the quarterback position, so if one of [the freshmen] wins the job based on merit, then that’s who we’ll play.”
With open competitions going on for starting jobs all over the field, this year’s camps will be very intriguing to keep an eye on. The Panthers are gearing up for their first season in CAA conference play, one of the top conferences in FCS football. Despite the tough competition in conference, Curry will make no excuses saying, “anytime we play in a conference, our goal is to win the conference, and yet we’re realistic enough to know that with these great football teams…we are gonna be hard pressed to compete with them on a regular basis, but that’s exactly what we expect to do.”
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