ATLANTA — Georgia State football coach Bill Curry announced at a press conference in Atlanta on Thursday that he will retire from coaching at the end of the 2012 season. Curry’s decision affects a program that has a short but notable history with South Alabama and is preparing to become a Sun Belt Conference rival of the Jaguars.
Curry, 69, was hired by Georgia State in 2008 to build its football program from the ground up. He came to the Panthers after spending 11 years as a television analyst for ESPN.
Curry Explains Decision
Curry said leading the startup program in his hometown had been a career highlight and that the coming season would be the proper point to step aside.
“The opportunity to start a football program at a university that I love, in my hometown, and the privilege to coach these young men has been one of the highlights of my career,” Curry said. “This has been a labor of love, but after this season, it will be the right time to step away from coaching.”
He added that his health was not a factor in the decision. “I am blessed with good health, but I am ready to move on to other things in my life and devote more time to my wife, Carolyn, and our children and grandchildren,” Curry said.
Georgia State Bound For Sun Belt
Curry’s announcement comes four months after Georgia State said in April that it would move its football program up to the Football Bowl Subdivision level and join the Sun Belt Conference, the league in which South Alabama competes.
The move puts Georgia State on a path to become a conference opponent for South Alabama, which is also a young program making its own transition to the FBS level.
History With South Alabama
South Alabama and Georgia State, two of the newest football programs in the country, have already met twice. The schools completed a home-and-home series that ended last season, with each team winning once.
The Jaguars won the first meeting in Mobile. Georgia State won the rematch in overtime at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, where the Panthers play their home games.
South Alabama, coached by Joey Jones, began playing football in 2009, one year before Georgia State fielded its first team under Curry in 2010.
