College Football Predictions – Georgia St Panthers 2019 NCAA Football Preview
2018 Recap
Record – 2-10
ATS – 2-7-3
GLUG, GLUG, GLUG.
Any hopes of a decent season went down the proverbial drain in the second half of the season when the Panthers kept losing and losing. They ended up finishing with a seven-game skid and a mark of 2-10 which was very disappointing considering they won a bowl game in 2017. Their only win over an FBS foe last year was a surprising PASTING of a decent ULM squad by a score of 46-14.
Let’s discover whether or not the Panthers have what it takes to post a rebound season.
2019 MEGALOCKS Opening Power Rating
East Division – #4
Sun Belt – #7
Georgia St Panthers 2019 Outlook
OFFENSE
The Panthers had a relatively anemic offense last year and only managed to post 24 PPG (#9 Sun Belt) and 378 YPG (#7 Sun Belt). The hope is that new OC Brad Glenn can work some magic and allow Georgia St to take advantage of the talented offensive players on the roster.
Senior QB Dan Ellington is a dangerous dual-threat QB who is one of the best in the Sun Belt. Ellington is coming off a campaign in which he threw for over 2,000 yards and 12 TDs whilst scampering for 625 yards and 5 TDs on the ground. The RB group is deep and their top two RBs (Tra Barnett, Seth Paige) both return for duty. They lose legit #1 WR Penny Hart who finished his career at Georgia St as the #3 all-time leader in receiving yards (2,950). The good news is that everyone else in the WR ranks is back this season and we expect the unit to be above-average. The Panthers boast an experienced offensive line that should facilitate good rushing statistics (171 YPG LY).
We expect Georgia St to improve their output for the 3rd consecutive year (24, 20 PPG L2Y).
DEFENSE
CARNAGE.
That is the only way to describe what happened in 2018. The Panthers went from allowing 24.8 PPG (#3 Sun Belt) to 37.4 PPG (!) which placed them 2nd last in the conference. The run defense was horrible (251 YPG) and they allowed a seemingly impossible 72.8% completions which was DEAD LAST in the FBS. WHOA NELLIE, indeed. Oh, and they couldn’t put any pressure on opposing QBs and tallied a measly 13 sacks (#125 FBS). What about this year?
The defense is young and returns seven starters to the mix. There is enough talent on hand to expect an improvement over the prior year. The DL has experience and decent size inside but they will miss DE Marterious Allen who was the best player on the line in 2018. Leading tackler LB Ed Curney is back in the mix at LB and they have a pair of promising sophomore CBs. We have a hard time seeing these guys applying pressure on opposing QBs and that will put a lot of stress (again) on the secondary.
We expect the PPG figure to improve but it still appears to be one of the weaker defenses in the Sun Belt.
SPECIAL TEAMS
The Panthers boast one of the best punters in college football in Brandon Wright who also handles the FG kicking. Wright had a 42.8 (!) yard net last season in the punting department and made 7/11 three-point attempts. They will definitely miss their dangerous return man Penny Hart.
Schedule Analysis
Overall – It’s not going to be easy to get to six wins and a bowl bid. Their non-conference slate includes road visits to Tennessee and Western Michigan, and a home date with Army.
Potential ATS Trouble Spot – Army (October 19)
There will be almost no time to prepare for the insanely efficient Army rushing attack given that this game falls between a pair of conference tilts (at Coastal Carolina, Troy).
Season Win Total
Over 3.5 -150
Under 3.5 +130
MEGALOCKS says:
That number looks pretty low. Lean to the ‘over’.
MEGAmazing Tidbit
CAT FIGHT, yo. Georgia State vs Georgia Southern.
The two schools have a long-standing argument over who is the REAL ‘GSU’. Georgia St believes that THEY are the real deal since they became a university in 1969, a long time before Georgia Southern did so in 1990.
MEGALOCKS ATS Outlook: Positive
Loyal MEGALOCKS readers were dazzled by our Georgia St prognostication last season in which gave them a poor ATS outlook and opined, “We recommend staying clear when building your weekly betting cards unless they show signs of life in September.” Well, they did indeed have a poor season vs the number. And after beating something called Kennesaw St in week one they were plastered the next three weeks. Can we hit BACK-TO-BACK JACKS and nail another Georgia St prediction?
This is still a young team that is most likely to miss out on postseason action. We hope that QB Dan Ellington can stay healthy and give this team a chance to pull some upsets. From a betting perspective, this team should be catching a lot of points on many occasions and fly under DEGENERATE radar. The Panthers are just 9-13-4 ATS (41%) over the past two years but recall that in the previous four campaigns they were an impressive 28-20-1 (58%) vs the number whilst fielding terrible teams. Don’t go nuts, just keep them in mind.
Want more Georgia St Football ?
WEBSITE
http://www.georgiastatesports.com/SportSelect.dbml?SPID=5671&SPSID=53624
FORUM
http://georgiastate.247sports.com/Board/Georgia-State-Panthers-Message-Board-Forum-59462
NEWS
http://www.espn.com/college-football/team/_/id/2247/georgia-state-panthers
http://bleacherreport.com/georgia-state-football
http://www.ajc.com/sports/georgia-colleges/
https://www.sbnation.com/college-football/teams/georgia-state-panthers
TWITTER
Hashtag – #OurCity
Accounts to follow
https://twitter.com/GeorgiaStateFB