State of the Program: Georgia State Panthers

Head Coach: Dell McGee is entering his first year with the program. He came in late but appears to already be bringing a new energy around the program. You can check out my grade of his hire here https://updogsportstalk.com/2024/05/07/college-football-coach-hire-grades-georgia-state/

Program Outlook: Georgia State is still a relatively new program, but they’ve already had some success, including bowl wins and wins over bigger programs. A Sun Belt title eludes them. Dell McGee is going to hit the recruiting trail hard, it felt like under the previous regime player development was good but they weren’t recruiting as well as you would expect given the territory they are in. It’s a fresh new beginning for the Panthers.

How does the 2024 Roster look?: There’s a lot of transition here. Even before Shawn Elliott left a lot of top players transferred out (one could wonder if that was why Elliott left.) There’s now a large class of players transferring in (30+) to help provide competition about everywhere and sort out the QB position, Georgia State brought in 4 QBs! All indications are that Zach Gibson who came in from Georgia Tech is the favorite to win that job, he’s the most experienced but it’ll be interesting if Georgia State can run the ball as well, Gibson is more of a pocket passer so his legs aren’t much of an option. It will be up to the offensive line to provide consistency, when they hit their blocks the results were great but they missed too often to allow a loss of yards and mess up the drive.

Screenshot from fbschedules.com¹

2024 Schedule Thoughts: If Georgia State hits on a lot of transfers this schedule could provide a lot of opportunity, finally playing their foe from just down the street in Georgia Tech could allow for an early momentum building win, plus they get Vanderbilt at home weeks later. All non-conference games are winnable. The downside is if the transfers don’t hit and make this a full reset year every non-conference game is losable, even Chattanooga isn’t the easiest FCS foe this year. The conference schedule is pretty tough, the Panthers are in the toughest division in the Sun Belt and get Texas State/Arkansas State from the West which isn’t a favorable draw. It’s not going to take a lot to make Georgia State the underdogs in every conference game.

Vegas Projection: Georgia State’s win total is set at 4.5 geared slightly toward the over. Vegas is projecting them to be pretty competitive without a full rebuild.

2024 Best Case: The team comes out firing and shows that new leadership can take them further. Georgia State grabs city bragging rights with a season opening win over Georgia Tech, and a couple weeks later they handle Vanderbilt at home to move to 3-0. Georgia State blows out rival Georgia Southern for the sweetest 4-0 start. They ride the momentum from there to a 10-2 season with close losses on the road to Appalachian State and James Madison. They don’t win the Sun Belt east as a result but after the bowl win this is still the best season in program history and a great way for the Dell McGee era to begin.

2024 Worst Case: It becomes apparent why Elliott left so suddenly. Despite using transfers to try to patch up the holes it’s apparent right away the roster was gutted. They’re blown out by Georgia Tech and it gets even worse with an upset loss to Chattanooga. They go to 0-4 when they get blown out by Georgia Southern who eventually wins the Sun Belt. Georgia State goes 0-12 with mostly uncompetitive losses, more players transfer out in the offseason making roster building even tougher.