By: Mac Brown, @SSN_GSU
It’s 4pm on a Friday in mid-April in Atlanta and there’s not a cloud in the sky. Tiger is pushing to make the cut in Augusta, the Braves are battling a division foe, and the beautiful weather of spring is giving the city its yearly revival. There’s so many fun things to do that one might lose count. And yet thousands of Georgia State students, alumni, and fans made the trek down to Center Parc Stadium to witness the new era of Georgia State Football. The Dell McGee Era.
If you’ve ever had the pleasure of attending a GSU Spring Game, you probably noticed the energy inside and outside of the stadium wasn’t exactly at its highest. However, walking into Center Parc Stadium on this beautiful Friday afternoon felt much different. There were several tailgates, there were police directing traffic, there was even a dang carnival. It didn’t just feel like a spring game for a program that mattered, it felt like a full-on game day. From the moment you arrived in the vicinity of CPS, you could tell this was something new. The energy was palpable and the new era was off to a bang before the first ball was even snapped.
The game itself was like almost any spring game that includes a new coach, new staff, new starting QB, RB, WR1, CB1, and just about any other important position. There wasn’t a ton of scoring as the Black Team beat the Blue Team by a score of 17-11. Incoming Georgia Tech transfer Zach Gibson found Ja'Cyais Credle in the end zone in the first to put the Black Team up 7-0. This is a connection that many Panther fans may see a lot this fall as both of them have been working out together since Zach first transferred. The other two touchdowns came off of pick-sixes, one by Jacorrei Turner in the second quarter and one by Jaylen Jones in the fourth. There was also a safety for the Blue Team, which was their first points of the game in the third quarter. Needless to say, it wasn’t the cleanest game ever but as alluded to earlier in this paragraph, that is to be expected when coming in with so many new parts. The Jones pick-six in the fourth made the game close late with the Blue Team even having an opportunity to win (or tie) on the last play of the game. They weren’t able to pull it off but Coach McGee may be okay with that. CDM said in the postgame presser that if the game ended up in a tie he was going to have to “figure out if everyone gets winners meals or if everyone gets losers meals”. The Black Team sealed their steak and shrimp dinners and left an easy decision for CDM with a pass deflection in the end zone to win the game.
Whether it’s making all of the players shake three hands a day and meet new people on campus, inviting essentially every single recruit in the state of Georgia, or having a rap legend in Pastor Troy perform at halftime. It’s more than clear that a new era has begun for Georgia State Football. Whether this new era will be filled with championships or not is yet to be determined. But after a spring game and atmosphere like that, it’s hard to think that it one day won’t.