College Football Predictions – Georgia St Panthers 2017 NCAA Football Preview
2016 Recap
2016 Record – 3-9
2016 ATS – 7-5
The Panthers were coming off their first ever bowl appearance last season (2015 Cure Bowl) and were hoping to keep things rolling in the right direction. Oops. The campaign got off to a rough start with a home loss to Ball St in week one. They were competitive against Wisconsin on the road (!) (lost 23-17) and played Appalachian St pretty tough, but at the end of the day, it was a downward-spiraling 3-9 record. On to 2017 with a new venue and a new HC.
2017 MEGALOCKS Opening Power Rating
Sun Belt – TBD
OFFENSE
It all starts at quarterback and the Panthers should be in good shape with senior Conner Manning (no – not that Manning – OMAHA !) at the controls. Manning will need to improve on his completion percentage (55.5%) and TD-INT ratio (16-13) for Georgia St to be a threat in the Sun Belt. MEGALOCKS GEORGIA ST INSIDERS note that he looked good in the spring. The passing game will be helped immensely by the return of WR Penny Hart who was an 1,100 yard man in 2015 but missed most of last campaign due to injury.
The running game was putrid last season. The Panthers could only muster 88 yards per game rushing, and amazingly, that marked the third straight season in which they could not crack the “100” barrier. The top two RBs return this season but Kyler Neal led the team (!) with just 314 yards on the ground. The production will obviously have to increase significantly if the Panthers want to sniff a bowl game. The line does return 4/5 starters and we feel like an uptick is coming. Just not sure what kind of progress they will make. <grabs popcorn>
DEFENSE
The Panthers’ stop unit played pretty well last season and ranked mid-pack in the Sun Belt in scoring defense (26.6) as well as total defense (381). This season they return 7 starters to the mix and need to fix the leaky run defense (207 yards per game allowed) and achieve more PENETRATION (18 sacks) The pass defense was really good last year (#1 Sun Belt pass efficiency defense) and they only gave up 8 (!!) TD passes all season. Three starters return to the secondary, so if the front 7 can do a better job as noted above, this defense has the potential to be really good.
SPECIAL TEAMS
The Panthers did manage to return a KO for a TD last season, but other than that, their special teams were pretty ugly last season. It appears that Brandon Wright will be in charge of the P and PK duties.
Potential ATS Trouble Spot
October 14 – at ULM. This will be the Panthers’ 4th road date in five weeks and ULM could be a sneaky team in the Sun Belt. Not saying, just saying.
MEGAmazing Tidbits
The Panthers move to “Georgia State Stadium” this season which used to be TURNER FIELD – home of YOUR HOTLANTA BRAVES.
MEGALOCKS ATS Value Rating (10) 7.5
MEGALOCKS says:
Overall, we give the PANTHERS a 7.5 ATS Value Rating (Very good) this season.
New HC Shawn Elliott steps into a decent situation with an experienced roster, a good QB and an above average defense. We believe that there is enough enthusiasm and talent on board to make a run at a bowl game. The Panthers are 28-20-1 ATS (58%) the past four seasons despite only winning 10 (!) games over that time horizon. THEY ARE GONNA KILL EM GUY hates teams like this but we will put these bad boys on our watch list to start 2017.
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