Panthers can't get out of their own way Texas State (3-4, 1-1) 38 Georgia State (0-7, 0-2) 21 The Panthers took the opening kickoff and held the ball for over 5 minutes but could not punch it in for 6 and had to settle for three. Texas State answered with a quick TD drive, but the Panthers responded with a long touchdown drive of their own to lead 10-7 early in the second. The Bobcats took the lead for good with two TD's before the half, the second coming after Ronnie Bell threw an interception trying to lead GSU to a go-ahead TD before the half. It was 21-10 at halftime. Texas State came out and drove into the red zone, but for one of the few times this season the Panther defense held them to 3 points, so Texas State led 24-10. Bell led the Panthers on another drive that stalled near the 5 and had to settle for three to cut the lead to 24-13. On the next TSU drive, they were forced to punt and the Panthers responded with a TD drive and a 2-point conversion to trail 24-21. "I thought we started to show some character right there, running off 10 straight points and getting back into the game, we needed another stop defensively," Smith said. It didn't happen. The Bobcats rolled down the field in 6 plays to re-gain the 10 point lead, then the final bit of disaster struck. Bell threw an interception that was returned for a TD, thus sealing the fate of the Panthers yet again. Bell and the offense did mount another drive in the waning moments, but Bell re-injured the elbow (the Panthers also lost sophomore WR Robert Davis for the remainder of the season with a broken femur suffered in the second quarter). Ben McLane led them to the shadow of the goal line but three plays from the one netted 0 yards and 0 points. "The red zone hurts, we get two FG's instead of TD's probably losing anywhere from 4 to 8 points, then get none at the end, and give them 7 on the pick, it's called beating yourselves," Smith commented. Bell will be out another week with the elbow injury, " We could sit here and complain and say woe is me, or we can get back to work tomorrow and prepare and try to get our first win of the season over South Alabama, we'll see how we respond," Smith finished.
Well you're not exactly playing with Alabama, you know haha. I wouldn't bail I would just keep on playing and recruiting and working to build it and you will either start going to bowl games and realize you built them up or get fired after afew years. I'd let it play out like that, as a matter of fact I'm thinking of starting a dynasty with one of these new teams and see what happens after afew years. Either I can build them up or I get fired haha.
At this point, the administration would be doing me a favour if they fired me, lol. jk, I'm going to ride out the five year contract if I get that far, then see where it goes from there. I just keep finding ways to lose games instead of winning of them, but as I have said before, I think this is a pretty accurate representation of what Georgia State is going to go through, not only are they just beginning to play in FBS, but they just started football in 2010, so it's not like even some of the other small schools on the game that at least have something. So, on we go.
Panthers Come Close, but Fall Short South Alabama (3-4, 1-1) 38 Georgia State (0-8, 0-3) 31 South Alabama came in with one of the worst offenses statistically in the nation; Georgia State came in with one of the worst rush and points against averages in the nation. Something had to give; naturally it was Georgia State. South Alabama ran for 189 yards on 21 carries for 3 touchdowns, and passed for 293 yards, but committed one turnover. Georgia State ran for only 96 yards on 38 carries, but Ronnie Bell played, and passed for 385 yards on 28-38 passing and 4 touchdowns. Senior WR Lynquez Blair, playing for the injured Robert Davis, caught a school record 18 passes for 262 yards but was credited with 4 drops. In a back and forth battle, Smith lamented two missed opportunities. "We had a chance to get points at the end of the half, but I opted to go for the TD instead of the sure three and we came away with nothing," Smith noted. Two of those drops were by Blair, but they were heavily contested. "We could have gone into the locker room tied at 21, or down 21-17, but I thought the way the game was going, I needed to go for the TD, there," Smith continued. Then, at the end of the game, after South Alabama had taken a 38-31 with 2:34 remaining, the Panthers mounted a drive and had first and goal at the 7. A run by Howse and a run by Bell could only push the ball to the four yard line. Smith and his staff decided it was all or nothing at this point as they let the clock continue to run down, a pass to Blair was dropped/knocked away on third down. Georgia State ran a slant looking for Blair on fourth down, but it was well-defended and South Alabama came away with the win at rainy Ladd-Peebles Stadium. "This is no fun, I know how the players feel, we feel too as coaches. But I will say this, these players believe in each other and want to make plays for each other and their university," Smith said in response to a question about his team giving up on the season. The Panthers stay on the road next week when they travel to Lafayette to take on the Ragin' Cajuns of Louisiana-Lafayette.
Just like IRL, it should take about 3-4 years to get the results you want to see out of your team. You figure, you are working with another coach's recruits right now. Can't expect you to do very well if your players don't fit the type of offense you want to run. Now that you got your first recruiting class done, see where they are in their JR/SR season and base your success off of that. Keep your head up, and keep chuggin' along.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who doesn't quit a dynasty if they don't go bowling in their first couple of seasons.
stick with it smitty! Though, if the game is too difficult, you could consider some minor edits to the sliders
Appreciate all the good thoughts, guys. This team is so bad, it's comical. The ratings are so low, though, with the first recruiting class, they did go up a couple of points in each area. I have said this before, I think it is realistic because GSU just started football at all three years ago, they are recruiting against the SEC and ACC and even Georgia Southern who has more tradition and clout in the area. I think the frustration stems from the AI a little bit. Every error that can happen to a team happens to us; and it seem no errors happen to the other teams. The missed tackles, dropped passes by wide open receivers, the missed blocks on a LB coming straight at my RB, the kick-off return team that misses blocks, only to see my KO team get absolutely flattened by the other team; the slow DB's who are rarely in position to make a tackle, ugh. And, wymreaver, (I'm saying this with tongue in cheek) I refuse to make the game easier because then I will think the win may have been because the slider was tweaked, lol. So, I will continue to plug away at this, and I will keep trying to recruit defense because I think you can scheme enough on offense, if you just have some confidence that the defense can make some stops. Sidenote: I am going to Michigan for a few days. I plan to take the game with me, and I will play some up there, I will likely not update each game because, get this, my folks are unable to get high speed internet up there. So, I may write up a season ending summary, then however many games I play up there, then get back on schedule next week when I return home. Thanks so much for following along and all the encouragement you guys have offered.
The Carnage Continues UL-Lafayette 59 Georgia State 17 (0-9, 0-4) Georgia State's defense came in ranked last in the nation against the run, and it reared it's ugly head once again. ULL's senior running back Alonzo Harris ran wild, on only 10 carries he gained 238 yards and scored 5 TD's. ULL ran the ball for a total of 313 yards on the rainy afternoon, and only needed to throw 12 passes for 182 yards and 3 touchdowns. The Ragin' Cajun defense was also solid as they forced three Ronnie Bell interceptions and limited him to 15 of 33 for 268 yards and 2 TD's. He was also sacked three times. The GSU running attack, if you can call it that, never really got going netting only 73 yards on 36 carries. ULL had 495 yards of offense and found itself with good field position on the four kickoff returns they had, the turnovers, and punt returns. ULL was only forced into four third down situations and converted three of them, two for touchdowns. Georgia State was not able to control the clock the way they had in the previous couple of games and could not sustain enough drives to keep their defense off the field. "We have to find a way to come up with some stops on defense. We're putting so much pressure on the offense, that it makes it difficult to relax and make plays, and I think everyone is trying to do too much, on both sides of the ball, and when you force things, bad things happen. We need to relax, and just play football, and the coaches need to relax and call better plays, too. We need to stay away from passing on obvious situations, and doing things that get us behind the chains," Smith said. Smith bristled when questioned if his team seemed to give up in the second half. "That's a question that gets asked by someone who doesn't know what is going on. Someone who does not see us practice every day; someone who does not see these kids on campus; someone who does not know what it means to go and battle for each other every day; there is no quit in these players or this staff, so anyone that thinks that doesn't know enough about the sports he is covering," Smith finished. Next week, the Panthers play host to the 4-5 (3-1) UL-Monroe Warhawks. ULM controls their own destiny in the Sun Belt as they trail Troy and South Alabama but still have to play each of them in the last three weeks of the season. "We could take them out of the Sun Belt title chase and damage their bowl hopes next week, and with our record, we have plenty of motivation to go out and play our best game of the season," Smith said as he previewed next week's game.
Buddy, in my Defensive Coordinator dynasty, where I plan on climbing the coaching ladder for 6 years before becoming a head coach, I started with Georgia State as their DC. They are not only the worst team in the game, but everyone is also rated slower than other teams. I've gotten crushed on defense, I imagine on offense it's just as tough. I request anyone who thinks they are patient to use difficult sliders and play with that team. What you're doing is going to take some time. I hope you stay there through the entirety, but I will say that you should stay away from FCS teams. Anytime I played them with Georgia State, I had a harder time stopping them then Alabama or West Virginia. As far as how your defense is playing, I can't remember if you listed your type of system, but I suggest recruiting 1 and 2 star JuCo athletes like crazy for a little boost. Walking into a defense where your Dime CB is a 59 overall isn't enviable at all. Keep with it Ron!
I don't know if you're just trying to use one playbook but u might want to think about changing playbooks until you find one that you really like. My offense, when with GSU stalled horribly for awhile. Changed playbooks about 4 times until I found the glorious Arizona Playbook and took off. I was just the OC and the defense really played out of their minds which really helped me out. I know if I was HC I wouldn't of done nearly as well, so just keep it up. I know I'd def be throwing controllers around though, because I was pissed when I started dropped games left and right
Yes, fantasyboi, I switched up playbook both on offense and defense in an effort to make it work. Offensively, it wasn't so bad, I average around 23 points, and scored over 30 on various occasions, I just could not stop anyone on defense. As you read on, you will notice that I agree with you on jumping into HC instead of being a coordinator first.
Can’ Figure Out How to Win UL – Monroe 38 Georgia State 30 For the second time in three weeks, the Panthers came down to the last few plays in the waning moments of a game with a chance to win or tie, but it was not to be. Two incomplete passes in the end zone in the last 8 seconds left GSU still searching for their first win of the season. The Panthers trailed at one point in the game 28-9 and cut that deficit to 28-16 right before the half. They had a rare defensive stop and scored again to cut the lead to 28-23. ULM answered with a FG, and the Panthers were forced to punt early in the fourth quarter trailing 31-23. The punt was returned for a TD to make the score 38-23 with 6:53 remaining. The Panthers scored quickly and forced a punt by ULM and began their march in the last three minutes, but fell 6 yards short as time expired. Broyle Brown played QB in place of the injured Kolton Browning for the ULM Warhawks and completed his first 20 passes and finished 27 of 30 for 349 yards and 2 TD’s. Georgia State ran the ball 55 times for 276 yards led by Ronnie Bell’ 30 carries for 182 yards and 2 touchdowns, but he lost one fumble. “Another tough loss, we’ve had three or four of these this year, we just need to find a way to get one more thing to go our way in a game and get this monkey off our back,” Smith said. The Panthers get that chance as they travel to play Western Kentucky next week.
Still Searching Western Kentucky 35 Georgia State 21 Georgia State played a good defensive first half in only giving up 14 points, but could not get the offense going and trailed 14-7 going into the locker room. “We felt pretty good despite not playing well, we were going to get the ball to start the second half, so we thought we were ok,” Smith lamented afterward. But, some questionable play calling led to three straight scores by the Hilltoppers to take a 35-7 lead early in the fourth quarter. Two late TD’s by the Panthers did little to salve their wounds, and did little to quiet the talk of a coaching change that was beginning to circulate during game week. “I can’t worry about that stuff, you can write what you need to write, we’re going to keep working hard to improve this coaching staff and this team,” Smith said after the game. Ronnie Bell and Ben McLane combined to complete only 8 of 20 passes for 122 yards and 1 TD with two interceptions. The running game produced 210 yards on 44 carries. “Bad coaching, “ Smith said, “we were getting over four yards per carry, we outmanned them on the line, and probably could have pounded them more.” The Panthers have Senior Day next week as they host Arkansas State, who probably need to get one more win to get into a bowl game. “It’s our bowl game, it’s Senior Day, we’ll be ready no matter what people think of our record,” Smith said, not wanting to speculate on his future as GSU Head Coach.
A Win; Is It Enough? Georgia State 27 Arkansas State 17 The Panthers saved their best defensive effort of the season for the last game, and the question was would it save Smith’s job? The Panther defense was on top of things the whole game. They forced an early turnover and held ASU to a FG in the red zone on the next possession. GSU took a 10-3 lead late into the first half and appeared ready to add to it, but Bell was intercepted in the end zone. Arkansas State headed downfield hoping to tie it up at the half, but the Panther defense forced a fumble in the red zone and GSU killed the clock to take a 10-3 lead into the locker room. The GSU offense came out firing on all cylinders and drove right down the field for a TD to take a 17-3 lead. It appeared they would take command but after forcing ASU to punt, Bell threw his second pick and ASU responded with a quick TD to cut the lead to 17-10. The Panthers drove down for a FG as the fourth quarter began to lead 20-10. ASU struck quickly and pulled to 20-17 with just under four minutes to go. Georgia State was unable to produce a first down and after much decision, Smith opted to punt. The Panther defense held ASU and forced a fourth and 11 from their own 21 with about 1:20 remaining. ASU had an open receiver but he dropped the pass. GSU took over and were running out the clock, when T.J. Davis ran in from the 11 with :06 remaining for the final score in the 27-17 win.
Post-Season Georgia State finished the year 1-11, and 1-6 in the conference. The offense averaged just under 24 points per game, but the defense gave up over 40 per game, last in the nation. The Panthers were also the worst defense against the run in the nation. Louisiana – Monroe won the Sun Belt, and UL-Lafayette also went to a bowl game from the Sun Belt. Georgia State played Air Force and Georgia Tech to round out the four bowl teams on the schedule. Ohio State won the national championship and Braxton Miller, their senior QB won the Heisman Trophy. Lynquez Blair set a school record for receptions in a season with 57 despite starting the year on the bench. As the post-season progressed, would the administration keep Smith around for a third year?
YOU’RE FIRED Smith was relieved of his coaching duties, less than a week after the season ended. Smith’s Panthers were 3-21 and 3-11 in the Sun Belt. The offense was coming around to a serviceable level, but the defense never got going, at least until the last game against Arkansas State. Smith was disappointed, but not surprised. “This is a results-driven business, and I simply did not produce enough wins,” he said. “I would like to thank the administration here at Georgia State for this opportunity to live out a dream, I would like to thank the fans for supporting us each week at home and on the road, but most of all, I would like to thank the players and our coaching staff for putting everything they had into this program day in and day out. I think we have put down a solid foundation for whoever follows us in here, and I wish them nothing but the best,” Smith added. When asked what the future held, Smith wasn’t sure. “Of course I want to coach some more, but I need to take some time and re-evaluate if head coaching is where I can be my best, or if going the coordinator route would be best for my family and I,” he commented.
HELLO YPSILANTI As the off-season wore on, and the coaching carousel was in high gear, Smith was offered the opportunity to be the offensive coordinator at Eastern Michigan. “I had a few other offers, but wanted to go back nearer to my parents,” he said. His parents still live in Ohio, and have a summer home in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. “I had quite a few friends go to MAC schools growing up, and I grew up in the area, so this made sense at this point in my life,” he added. When asked about what it might lead to in terms of head coaching again, he said, “too soon to tell, I’m just glad to get to work as the OC at Eastern Michigan. I can’t wait to get started,” he added.
Instead of typing up the re-caps of each game, I will let you know how it goes periodically or by season. My hope is to run a season or two as OC and see if I can latch on to another 1-star program as head coach and see what happens from there. I would like it to be in the Midwest in a school that can qualify for the BCS and see where it goes. Indiana maybe...... Currently 8-2 (4-1). Losses to LSU on the road and Northern Illinois in the conference leave us at 8-2 with control of our own destiny to appear in the MAC championship game. Games at home against Kent St. and at Akron before hopefully the MAC championship and a bowl. To answer your question, or respond to fantasyboi from a few posts ago, OC is much easier, my defense (on sim) is #1 against the run, and #17 overall in national rankings in yards against. So not having to worry about defense has made life a bit easier. So, I will see where this season in the dynasty takes me, hopefully to another head coaching position.
I got Eastern Michigan to 9-2 and needing a win or a loss by Northern Illinois to clinch the MAC West and get into the championship game, so I went down to look at the Bowl Projections and guess what I see? Yep, Georgia State is 6-4 and projected to play Washington in the Las Vegas Bowl, they are 4-1 in the conference. EMU meanwhile is projected to play my former Sun Belt opponent Troy in the GoDaddy.com bowl. Gotta love that irony I guess
Meanwhile, led by senior quarterback Ronnie Bell, the Georgia State Panthers won the Sun Belt with a 6-1 conference record and 8-4 overall. Their defense appeared to be a little better. I'd like to think I laid the groundwork for that season for the Panthers, lol.
The Eastern Michigan season ended at 11-3 with a MAC championship, but a loss to Smith's personal nemesis, at least from his Sun Belt days, to UL-Monroe in the GoDaddy.com Bowl. 4 interceptions doomed the EMU offense, and the running game never got going in the 33-15 loss in Mobile, Alabama. Texas A & M won the national championship over Notre Dame and Johnny Manziel won the Heisman Trophy. Final national rankings for the EMU offense were as follows: Total Yards per Game 424.5 17th Passing Yards Per Game 236.1 35th Rushing Yards Per Game 188.4 19th, this was over 200 but defenses starting clamping down the last 3 or 4 games Points per Game 29.1 56th 31 Rushing TD's 6th in the nation 18 passing TD's 108th in the nation 21 Sacks Allowed 6th in the nation 59% 3rd down conversions 2nd in nation 71% Red Zone conversions 111th in the nation -11 turnover differential 119th Clean up the turnovers and red zone issues, and continue working on the running game Ryan Brumfield gained over 1300 yards and scored 10 TD's rushing, but he is a senior and graduates. Eastern Michigan returns all-MAC TE Cole Gardner, RG Jake Hurcombe, and 2nd team all-Mac RT Andrew Whyte. Georgia State went 8-5 with a bowl loss, they were last in turnover margin (glad to see that didn't change) and their head coach has been in the mix for some of the openings this off-season.
Eastern Michigan's Head Coach left for another head coaching position, Smith was not considered and offered a contract to stay as OC at EMU. He explored other options, nothing of significant interest opened up, so he will stay for a second season as Offensive Coordinator of the Eastern Michigan Eagles. Their 2016 schedule looks like this: Navy @ Michigan State OFF Wyoming @ Kansas State Central Michigan OFF @ Ball State @ Western Michigan @ Ohio Northern Illinois Toledo @ Kent State Akron EMU will have a new Head Coach and new Defensive Coordinator this season
