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SUN BELT CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA DAYS

July 22, 2019

Shawn Elliott

New Orleans, Louisiana

SHAWN ELLIOTT: Good afternoon, everyone. I'm going to talk a little bit about our upcoming season. In this coaching profession, you always hear coaches say how much they anticipate a season and how they're excited for the season to come and things of that nature. But when you look at our season from a year ago and you reflect on it, I don't think anybody in our conference is probably more excited in anticipation of hitting the field August 1st, August 2nd when we prepare for our first practice to go out there and really transform what we had from a year ago, which was youth, inexperience that gained a little bit of knowledge, a lot of heart and learned the hard way on some tough situations and see just how we took that, developed it in the off-season and move it right forward into our new camp, our new fall, our new season.

I think we have a wealth of experience. When I say a wealth of experience, I think we're returning 18 of 22 starters. We've got a solid special teams nucleus coming back. We have one of the top two kickers in the country. We're returning a great leader in our quarterback in Dan Ellington, one I think is going to have not a breakout year because I thought he had a pretty good season a year ago, but one that I think can really elevate our football team from a play standpoint and from a leadership standpoint.

When I look at this football team and I kind of evaluate it and kind of compare it to the previous two teams that I've had here at Georgia State, I instantly know who our leaders are, and that's very, very important in this day and age. We know exactly who our leaders are, both offensively, defensively and special teams, and that's a real comforting feeling, that you don't have to go in each and every week and try and demand leadership and try to grow and develop leadership on a week-to-week basis. And that is something that I'm probably more excited about in this season than I have the previous two because I know those four, five, six guys that are there when things get tough, when things get hard, that they're ready to go, they're ready to take control and make the difference in our football season.

It's always a time that as a football coach that you sit back and you kind of smile because this is what we do. It's who we are. If you're a football coach, this is the time of year that everybody is grasping for. So many people talk about spring practice and they're excited for that, but I'll be honest with you, it's about the competition, it's about playing for championships, it's about molding young men and pushing them to be the very, very best they can be, and seeing exactly what you can get out of that football team, and that's where we are this year.

A lot of unknowns, but like I said, we do bring back experience. We've got a good football team, I think, and it's going to be a good, competitive football team.

Any questions?

Q. You talk about Ellington coming back. How big of a deal is that for you guys?
SHAWN ELLIOTT: Well, certainly. Every good football team has, I think, one common denominator. That's a good quarterback. And that good quarterback has to be a good leader. And I think we have that in Dan. Dan was a guy that stepped on our campus a year ago, won the starting job, did well. Did well, but after a year of experience, after a year of being around our team, he has grown in so many different areas, from a knowledge standpoint of the game, from a leadership standpoint on how he can take control of our football team, whether it's on a practice field or in a game-type situation. And he's elevated his football play. He had a fantastic spring, as most everyone would say they all did. But I look for Dan to be a primetime player in our conference this year.

Q. What was your decision-making process in selecting Brad Glenn to be your new offensive coordinator? And I might as well ask about your new D-line coach.
SHAWN ELLIOTT: Well, in hiring Brad Glenn, Brad and I had a prior relationship at Appalachian State. We worked together for four or five years at Appalachian State. At the time he came in to coach the wide receivers. Coached our inside slot receivers, and then ultimately became the quarterback coach and play caller there at Appalachian State.

We had an outstanding quarterback play during his tenure there, and he has continued to do that with his offenses at Western Carolina. I believe there's -- don't hold me to this, but I believe there's four or five quarterbacks that have actually rushed for a 1,000 and thrown for 2,000 and he's coached two of the five in NCAA history. This is a guy that knows how to get production out of that position, and we feel like we've got a man in that spot that can go out and do it on the field, and he was just a perfect fit for myself, from a comfortable standpoint, knowing that, hey, we can communicate really well because we've done it on championship teams before, to bring him in and do it here at Georgia State.

Like I said, once he walked in, it was a no-brainer. We were very comfortable, everything moved very smoothly. Our players generated and gravitated towards his coaching style, and it was a really home-run hire.

As far as Coach Long, our defensive line coach, Coach Long is no longer with us at Georgia State due to health concerns, and we have hired Travian Robertson as our defensive line coach.

Q. Just wondering what's the main position group you guys have been focusing on improving throughout this spring and summer?
SHAWN ELLIOTT: Well, if you watched us from a year ago you would say our secondary was probably a sore spot, and everywhere on our defense, to be quite frank. We have to improve. But I think our back end, I think our safeties and our corners. I think -- I believe the last eight, nine, ten ballgames, whatever it was, we were starting four freshmen in the back end. That's hard. I mean, that's hard to do. So that's an area where you've got to develop, first of all, more experience, and they gained that and game experience, and those are tough. Those are tough ways to go out there and learn to play the game of football. You're just playing at a high-school level, and then all of a sudden you're the starter here going against some pretty talented wide receivers.

But I think that's an area, a point where we need to really improve on. But overall I think our tackling has to improve defensively, and we have to have the ability to stop the run. If we can't stop the run, we're not going to have a solid year.

Q. Your opener at Tennessee is probably going to test a lot of the optimism and the hard work you've done over the summer. Talk a little bit about teams at the Sun Belt level opening against an SEC team and the challenges involved in that.
SHAWN ELLIOTT: Well, the challenge is it's SEC. When you open up against a Tennessee, South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, whoever it is in the SEC, you know how they recruit. And for myself coming from the SEC, I know exactly what type of players they're recruiting. They're recruiting the best of the best. They're fighting for the top-notch players in the country.

So when we go up there to Tennessee, we look to grow as a football team, and it doesn't matter how it goes. That one game won't make or break a football season. It won't break our spirits. If anything, it's going to engage us into a new level of excitement moving into our conference season. There's a lot that can come out of it. A win is the No. 1 thing that we want to come out of it, but I think it's a challenge. You're going in and challenging a great fan base, a storied program, and I think it's an exciting game for our football team.

And I think we probably hit them right at the right time, too.

Q. One of the other guys that you brought along with Dan Ellington was Ed Curney, so he's a redshirt senior and was your team captain last year. Can you talk about what he means to your defense and your locker room?
SHAWN ELLIOTT: Certainly. I think Ed Curney really exemplifies everything about Georgia State. Keep in mind, our football program is just 10 years old. He's a redshirt senior, so he's been here over half of it. The one thing I really want to point out is this young man has seen more growth and change in a football program than probably any other student-athlete that goes to wherever they may go to school. I mean, when he came in, there was no Georgia State Stadium. They leased the Georgia Dome and played in there. There was no weight room. They lifted under a tent after practice. He had to walk across campus to go to a training room. There's a lot of heartaches and battles that he had to go through to get where we are today, and he is solid and steadfast and been right there, very competitive, a great leader, a great young man in his academics and everything to see it through.

I think if you look at a guy like him, you would say, I'd want that guy on my team wherever he is, because a lot of guys can turn the shoulder and say, oh, it's easier over here, they have this, they have that, I'm going to go over here, I may leave out of here, but he stood right there with us. Here he is, he seen the first bowl win in school history, something that at that time they didn't think they would see.

So to have that knowledge, that leadership and someone that's been through the battles that he has, he's got the scars on him to prove it, man, I love those types of individuals. And that's what I'm talking about. When I said we have the leaders already in place, I don't have to go find those leaders or try to develop them week in, week out and say we need that leadership. He's got that leadership. He doesn't have to say a word to know what our team -- the pulse of our team is or to get a reaction out of it. They look to him for that.

Q. With that kind of kid in mind, what are your thoughts as far as the direction we're going in college athletics towards what some would call free agency, the portal, and maybe even beyond that?
SHAWN ELLIOTT: Well, I think in this day and age, it's very easy for someone to pick up and move on. I mean, it's just -- and more importantly, those that do that, you probably don't want them on your football team anyway. I like the Ed Curneys, the guys that stay with you, that tough it out. Listen, every single day is not going to be a great day, and I'll tell every kid that that I recruit. It's not going to be peaches and cream all the time. But those that stay will reap the benefits, the tough days and the heartaches, man, it makes those victories so much sweeter.

And I don't think the ones that probably -- that go and transfer that are looking for the easy way out, will ever experience those great feelings that the young men that stay do.

Q. How would you just describe the state of this league as a football league right now?
SHAWN ELLIOTT: Yeah, well, I think the Sun Belt Conference if you look at us, our three-year bowl history, three-year bowl winning percentage, we're 11-6. We lead the entire country in winning percentage. And by a good margin, too. So when you look at our conference, you look at our coaches, you look at our players in this league, we've got a solid league. And it's only continually just growing and getting better. I mean, this Media Day, and this is just my third year in it, but I can imagine seven, eight, ten years ago what this was, and now look what it's become.

And I think it's fascinating to see. I think it's an exciting league. Like I said, there's good coaches that are coming in in this league, and actually exiting the league because of what they've done here.

We're a challenging league. It's tough, it's physical. Yeah, I think we're right there. We're pushing the envelope with every other conference in the country.

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