Coming off the best season in school history, the Georgia State Football team goes into the 2022-23 season with high expectations looming over their heads.
After a lackluster 1-4 start to the season, the Panthers ended with an 8-5 record and went on to win the TaxAct Camellia Bowl on Christmas Day against the Ball State Cardinals. Beating the Cardinals meant GSU has won two out of their last three bowl game appearances.
After solidifying themselves in the record books last year, the Panthers look to reach greater heights this year. The team made key additions to the roster during the offseason, both offensively and defensively.
Special Teams and Recruiting Graduate Assistant Zach Conowal believes this year’s recruiting class is not one to be reckoned with.
“We’ve got a damn good recruiting class,” said Conowal. “KZ Adams, man. He ran for over 3000 yards at South Carolina. He’s good. We’ve also got a lot of good defensive players, and we became a lot stronger on the offensive line. We’ve definitely got some interesting prospects.”
Big-name schools tend to dominate in the transfer portal, but not so fast said the Panthers.
Over the offseason, Georgia State gained an absolute tank from Eastern Illinois University. Georgia-native from Dawsonville, offensive-lineman Bryson Broadway, coming in at 6’4, 270 pounds, is ready to solidify himself in this program.
“I’m new to the program,” said Broadway.
“I want to improve skill-wise because this is better competition than t I’ve [ever] faced. I’ve played teams like the University of South Carolina before, but now I [will] play those types of guys every single week.”
“Personally, I want to see myself grow and learn the offense to the point where I not only know my position, but I’ll know what the guards are doing, what the centers are doing and how to read the defense perfectly.”
Despite starting the season 1-4, the Panthers never quit. Competition is what turned this team around last year. Ironically, competition is exactly what the epitome of spring football is in itself.
It’s open season, and players get a chance to show just why they deserve to be on the field. Redshirt senior Ben Chukwuma has seen the competition throughout his tenure and saw firsthand how prevalent it was last season.
“There was a lot of competition amongst the players [last year],” said Chukwuma. “Everybody wanted to play. Even the scout team was going hard. Everyone was giving it their best and that was the main thing that pushed us to where we ended last year. Everybody was going at it to take a position.”
The Panthers have many goals headed into next season, but winning the Sun Belt Conference Championship seems to be the overarching goal for them next season.
“You change a couple of things from last year, and we’re a 9-4, 10-3 team last year,” said Conowal. “I’m looking for an SBC championship, Elliot’s [head coach is] looking for it, and that’s the expectation, so we need to deliver it.”
Claiming the conference crown would be a feat that hasn’t been done in school history, but as this program has shown time and time again – rough seas eventually turn to smooth sailing.
Following the spring game, fans can watch the Panthers play their first regular-season game against the University of South Carolina on Sep. 3.
