Georgia State has a new Panther in town.
On March 25, Georgia State head football coach Shawn Elliott announced the newest edition to his staff, Eman Naghavi. A former offensive line coach and offensive coordinator at the University of Louisiana, Naghavi will serve as the Panthers’ new offensive line coach.
He will replace Thomas Austin, who is now the offensive assistant coach at Clemson.
Naghavi played college football at McNeese State University from 2005-08. Seven years after his career ended as running back, he became the offensive line coach and recruiting coordinator at his alma mater in 2015.
While playing for the Cowboys, Naghavi led the league in rushing and total offense for two years in a row and scoring offense for three years.
His tireless efforts helped the team achieve an undefeated regular season in 2007, culminating in a Southland Conference Championship victory.
After receiving his Bachelor’s degree in business administration in 2008, he broke out into the business world.
But Nagahvi’s came quickly after coming to a realization: he couldn’t step away from the game he loved.
“At first, I didn’t know if I wanted to [coach],” Naghavi said. “I played college ball, and I was pretty good, and I actually got out into the business world, and I figured out really quick that that’s not what I enjoyed doing.”
Naghavi’s true passion was coaching, and he’s had a massive effect on the programs he’s coached since he realized that.
“I enjoy coaching,” Naghavi said. “[I like] making guys do things that they’re not comfortable doing and then seeing it translate onto the field.”
Naghavi started coaching the offensive line at the University of Louisiana-Monroe after two years of coaching at the University of Texas from 2013 -15 and two years at his alma mater, McNeese State, from 2015-17.
While at ULM, Naghavi led his offense to rank second in total and scoring offense in the Sun Belt.
“I had a lot of experience [at ULM],” Naghavi said. “That’s definitely been a great advantage, just working in the Sun Belt. Being able to build those guys up and be able to compete in the Sun Belt and know what the Sun Belt’s about has helped me in my career so far, especially taking the job here at Georgia State.”
The Panthers’ offense has been on fire on the field and will only get better as the former three-time All-Southland Conference pick makes his first steps onto the field.
“The cool thing about coming here is we’ve got a lot of returners back,” Naghavi said. “They’ve been pretty good offensively [the] last few years, so I’m just trying to learn what they’re doing. Maybe change a couple of techniques but try to keep everything the same and try to build off of the success that Coach Glenn and Coach Elliott have been doing on offense.”
