A Look at the Upcoming College Football Season

It won’t be long now. Time to oil up your recliner and ice down the beverages ‘cause the smell of pigskin is in the air. I’m not talking about fried pork rinds either, no siree, I’m talking about football!

The much anticipated arrival of it was evidenced Tuesday when the head coaches from 12 colleges and universities from across the state gathered at the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in Macon for the Eighth Annual Peach State Pigskin Preview, where they made themselves available to the media. After interviews, some real pig was made available to the coaches, players and media as they all enjoyed a barbecue.

Jasper County High School graduate Matt Hyde will be returning for his senior year, anchoring the offensive line of the LaGrange College Panthers this fall. Head Football Coach Todd Mooney said, “We’re excited to have Matt back this fall. He’s gone through a series of shoulder problems over the years but he’s 100 percent healthy now and he’s been working hard all summer. He’ll start at left offensive tackle where he’s been a great attribute to out team.”

The LaGrange College football team engineered the single biggest turnaround in NCAA Division III history during the 2008 season by going from an 0-10 in 2007 to a 9-2 record in 2008. The Panthers won the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SLIAC) championship with a perfect 7-0 record and received an at-large bid to the NCAA Division III National Tournament, before they were eliminated in the second round.

LaGrange begins its 2009 season on September 5 at 1 p.m. at home versus Birmingham-Southern.
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Georgia Tech Head Football Coach Paul Johnson was also on hand to talk some football as he enters his second year at Tech. In his first year he made Tech one of college football’s biggest surprise stories of 2008. Prior to the season Sports Illustrated projected Tech to finish 3-9 and the ACC media picked them to finish fourth in the Coastal Division.

Coach Johnson led the Jackets to a 9-4 season, a share of the Coastal Division title and a Chic-fil-A Bowl berth. While getting to this position the team beat three nationally-ranked teams—Florida State, Miami and Georgia.
Coach Johnson said, “Our expectations never change, we expect to win every game and we’re excited and looking forward to getting started. We have the potential to be a really good football team and compete for an ACC championship. But, we’ve got a lot of work to do, we have to play consistently and we need to stay healthy.”

While the Jackets return many key players from last season, they remain one of the youngest teams in college football. There are only 10 seniors on the roster, and only six of those players are on scholarship.

“We need to get better in a lot of areas,” Coach Johnson said. “We can be better on offense. Certainly, we can be better on defense and there’s a lot of room for improvements on special teams, especially on kick and punt returns.”

We’ll find out early if last year was a fluke because after an opening warm up game versus Jacksonville State on September 5, the Jackets will play back-to-back Thursday night games on September 10 and 17 versus Clemson and Miami on ESPN.

Meanwhile, cross state rival Georgia and Head Coach Mark Richt has made it clear that he and his staff are hungry for a championship just like the fans. Coach Richt, who is starting his ninth season in Athens, said he is going to have a renewed emphasis on attention to detail and accountability.

“The main thing for us is we absolutely want to maximize our potential in every area of our program. I want our coaches to get better, for myself to become a better leader, our players to become the best possible players they can be academically and socially. We’ve got the ingredients, but we play in a tough league and everybody else is trying to do the same. We’ll be banging heads and doing the best we can be.”

Even though the Dogs finished 10-3 last year, they still fell short of expectations after beginning the season ranked number one. Still, it was the sixth time in seven years they have won 10 or more games and also finished among the nations’s top 10 teams in the final national polls.

They’ll be tested early when they kick off their season on September 5 in Stillwater versus the Oklahoma State Cowboys.
Down on Beautiful Eagle Creek in Statesboro, Head Coach Chris Hatcher, going into his third year at Georgia Southern, seems to be poised for a break out season. Even though the team went 6-5 last year, three of those losses were by a heartbreaking total of four points. And the Eagles set a NCAA record for the largest fourth quarter comeback against Western Carolina. They also staged another late comeback and defeated The Citadel in three overtimes.

Another NCAA record was shattered when they played in four overtime games, and the season culminated with several passing records were broken in a 17-10 win at Furman when returning Junior Quarterback Lee Chapple seemed to come into his own.

The Eagles will open their season versus Northeastern Conference University of Albany (NY) at home on September 3, and travel to South Dakota State on September 12, before beginning conference play versus Western Carolina at home on September 19.

There’s a new kid on the block who wants to play football, and it’s the Georgia State University Panthers, coached by none other than Bill Curry, former head coach at Georgia Tech, Alabama and Kentucky.

The team is scheduled to play its inaugural season next fall, 2010. However Coach Curry has been very busy getting ready for that first game. He said, “We’ll be competing in the Colonial Athletic Association, which is the Championship Subdivision, formerly known as NCAA Division 1AA.
Conference rivals will consist of Richmond, James Madison and Delaware, among others. Currently we have 27 scholarship players and 40 or 50 walk-ons, and we’ll begin practice with those players this August. We’re already recruiting our next class and will add those players next February, plus we intend to add some junior college transfers.”

When asked if he thought the Panthers would be ready to compete next fall, Coach Curry said, “Football is a very unforgiving sport and provides no excuses. There is never any mercy given because your team is made up of freshmen and sophomores. So when you take the field in the Dome, where we’ll be playing our home games, you better be a good football team.”

Savannah State University will begin its second season under Head Coach Robby Wells and starts their season on the road versus Livingstone College in Greenville, S.C. on September 5. Their home openers is on September 12 versus Alabama State University.

The Valdosta State Blazers under third year Head Coach David Dean will open their season in the Gulf South Conference versus Newberry at home on August 29.

Also in the Gulf South Conference the University of West Georgia Wolves begin their season under second year Head Coach Daryl Dickey. After going 0-10 in his first year Coach Dickey said the only way was up, and with 24 returning lettermen that could happen. The Wolves will inaugurate their new stadium on September 5 versus Lambuth.

Head Coach Mike White and the Albany State University Rams kick off their season versus Chowan University in Murfreesboro, N.C. on August 27, and open up at home versus Kentucky State University on September 5. Coach White and the Rams have made the NCAA Division II playoffs for the last five years straight.