NEW ORLEANS — Two months into last season, Georgia State seemed to be the same struggling, puttering program that its to-that-point 1-18 Sun Belt Conference record indicated it was.
Then the Panthers blew out Texas State, 41-19, and followed that with home victories over South Alabama and Troy. Then, in the most stunning Sun Belt result since the league adopted its current configuration, they upset Georgia Southern 34-7 to cap the regular season.
The four-game winning streak to end the season led to the team's first bowl game in its third seasons as an FBS program. The fact that the Panthers lost to San Jose State, 27-16, in the Cure Bowl didn’t matter a whole lot toward improved perception. The Panthers, entering Coach Trent Miles’ fourth season, are on the Sun Belt radar now.
“They realize now what they can do and what they should be expected to do,” Miles said. “Now they’ve got to go out and continue to do it, because it’s not going to come easy.”
On the strength of last year’s finish, Georgia State was picked fourth in the Sun Belt preseason poll of head coaches, despite having lost quarterback Nick Arbuckle, who was last year’s Offensive Player of the Year. But the winner of a three-man quarterback race — Emiere Scaife, Conner Manning and Aaron Winchester — will have two all-Sun Belt receivers Robert Davis and Penny Hart to help ease the transition. The Panthers also return their top four rushers and three starters on the offensive line.
“I don’t know that you replace a Nick Arbuckle and the stats that he put up,” Miles said. “If they could just be the best that they can be, we’ll be fine.”
If so, a collection of nine returning starters on a defense that held teams to 14.3 points in its last four Sun Belt games, and allowed 24.6 points per game in all conference games, could help Miles’ program take the next step.
His path at Georgia State is starting to look familiar to that of his rebuilding job at Indiana State. The Sycamores went 0-12 while playing 18 true freshmen in Miles’ first season there in 2008. They went 1-10 the next year before three consecutive winning seasons, leading to his jump Georgia State.
The Panthers went 0-12 in 2013, when playing 19 true freshmen, and 1-11 in 2014 before last year’s bowl game appearance and 6-7 finish.
What comes next for Georgia State is likely up to whoever emerges from the quarterback race. Arbuckle threw more passes (486) than anyone in the Sun Belt and still completed 63.2 percent of his passes for 4,368 yards and 28 touchdowns. Of the three competing for a job, only Scaife threw a pass last season — and he was 0-for-8.
But judging by the last month of last season, the Panthers have at least taken a step forward.
“It’s a process, and people don’t understand that,” Miles said. “And even the people who think that they do, around Year 2, are going ‘It’s time, it’s time.’ … People have to have patience and understand you’ve got to fix things behind the scenes long before it’s fixed on the football field.”
FOOTBALL PREVIEWS
Arkansas State reporter Troy Schulte previewed each team in the Sun Belt conference. Read each one below:
Georgia State Panthers at a glance
2015 RECORD 6-7, 5-3 Sun Belt
ALL-TIME SUN BELT RECORD 5-18 in three seasons
COACH Trent Miles (7-30 in fourth season at Georgia State, 27-66 in ninth season overall)
RETURNING STARTERS 15 (six on offense, nine on defense)
2015 OFFENSE (SB RANK) 26.9 points (seventh), 432.8 yards (fourth), 96.9 rushing (11th), 335.9 passing (first)
2015 DEFENSE (SB RANK) 28.3 points (third), 405.6 yards (fourth), 181.1 rushing (fourth), 224.5 passing (seventh)
KEY PLAYERS WR Pennt Hart, WR Robert Davis, TE Keith Rucker, DB Bobby Baker, DL Shawayne Lawrence
KEY LOSSES QB Nick Arbuckle, DB Tarris Batiste, LB Joseph Peterson, P Will Lutz
TITLE SCENARIO Georgia State will get every opportunity to prove if it's ready to be included among the Sun Belt elite this year. League favorites Appalachian State, Arkansas State and Georgia Southern all appear on the Panthers' schedule this season. They have to travel to Appalachian State, but that's not a rough trip for Georgia State like it is for most in the league, and get ASU at home on a Thursday night, and Georgia Southern at home Nov. 19. The games that could decide between another bowl or not come Oct. 15 at Troy and a season-ending trip to Idaho on Dec. 3. The nonconference schedule provides an opportunity for at least two victories, with a season-opening home game against Ball State — the Panthers won in Muncie, Ind., last year — and a Oct. 22 game against FCS Tennessee-Martin. Georgia State also visits Wisconsin on Sept. 17, but if it wins at Air Force, picked second in the Mountain West's Mountain Division, on Sept. 10 and starts 2-0, it might be an indication that a corner really has been turned in Atlanta.