Still seeking their first victory of the season, the Georgia State football team (0-3) will play it’s first conference game against the Richmond Spiders (2-1) at the Georgia Dome on Sat. at 3:30 p.m.
Head coach Bill Curry said that there will be changes in response to the team’s losing streak.
“No one on our team or on our staff is happy with the way we have been performing, so we are all pulling together to work. We have changed some practice procedures,” Curry said to Georgia State Athletics.
One of the aspects that Curry put most emphasis to work on during practice is speed.
“When you start the game and your team is obviously not dealing with the speed of the game the way you could or should, you need to practice against someone who is faster,” Curry said. “So we are going best-on-best more than we have – that’s sort of an NFL thing – and we are doing it at a speed as fast as we can while keeping people healthy.”
So far, the lone bright spots for Georgia State have been running back Donald Russell and punter Matt Hubbard.
Last game against Texas- San Antonio, Russell rushed for 76 yards on only ten carries.
Hubbard doesn’t cease to impress the Georgia State fan base, as he has the best average in the nation for kicks (50.6 yards).
With quarterback Ben McLane’s injury on Saturday, reserve quarterback Ronnie Bell had a chance to play some minutes and showed he could be a good weapon too.
“He did some great things,” Curry said at the Texas-San Antonio postgame conference.
Bell thinks he could be a reliable quarterback for whenever he’s needed.
“I think I showed we have a good backup quarterback, as well as a good starting quarterback, and that I can lead the team if the situation needed me to,” Bell said.
Richmond will visit the Dome with victories against Virginia Military Institute and Gardner-Webb under their belt. In those two last games, the Spiders did not allow their opponent pass the 8-point mark on the score.
Offensively, Richmond seems solid as they tallied 41points versus Gardner-Webb and 47 against VMI.
Curry noted Richmond’s senior quarterback John Laub’s quickness.
“They have allowed zero sacks all season, and it’s easy to see why. The ball comes out in a hurry, and he’s very accurate, Curry said to Athletics. “And when he runs, he doesn’t slide; he runs over you.”
According to Athletics, the game will be covered by the radio stations Newstalk 1160 AM (WCFO) and AM 1690 (WMLB).
