The state of Georgia is just under 60,000 square miles, which ranks 24th among the 50 United States of America. There is a good chance that 50-year-old Dell McGee has seen much of those square miles in his life.
McGee, a Peach State native with deep ties to the area from over a decade of high school coaching experience, takes over a Georgia State program that began playing in 2010 and has appeared in six bowl games in the last nine years, winning four, including three in the last four seasons.
McGee replaced Shawn Elliott, who agreed to return to South Carolina as tight ends coach and run game coordinator, at the end of February. Who will make up McGee’s first staff with the Panthers?
Georgia State Panthers Coaching Staff
Head Coach, Dell McGee
McGee enters his first season as a collegiate head coach with 22 years of experience as an assistant, the last eight of which he spent across the state at the University of Georgia primarily working with the running backs while helping the team to its College Football Playoff titles in 2021 and 2022.
In his eight seasons under Kirby Smart at Georgia, McGee coached four 1,000-yard rushers: Nick Chubb (2016-17), Sony Michel (2017), D’Andre Swift (2018-19), and Elijah Holyfield (2018). Chubb and Michel amassed over 8,400 combined yards and 87 touchdowns. Chubb, Michel, and Swift, as well as James Cook and Zamir White, were all taken in the first four rounds of the NFL Draft.
Born in Columbus, Ga., McGee has spent almost his entire coaching career in his home state. Before going to Georgia, McGee worked two seasons as the running backs coach at Georgia Southern (2014-15). In Dec. 2015, he served as the interim head coach and led the Eagles to a victory in the GoDaddy Bowl.
Before spending the 2013 season as an analyst at his alma mater, Auburn, where he reached the BCS national championship game, McGee was the head coach at George Washington Carver High School in Columbus, where he helped build a perennial powerhouse that recorded seven straight seasons with 10 or more wins from 2006-2012, highlighted by the 2007 Class AAA state title.
Before getting into the coaching profession, McGee was drafted in the fifth round of the 1996 NFL Draft by the Arizona Cardinals and spent time with both the Cardinals and Detroit Lions over three NFL seasons. He also played in NFL Europe, the XFL, and the Arena Football League in a seven-year professional career.
Offensive Coordinator, Jim Chaney
Jim Chaney enters his first season at Georgia State with 39 years of coaching experience at the collegiate and professional levels.
Chaney’s career features stints as the offensive coordinator at Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Pitt, Purdue, and Cal State Fullerton. He and McGee first worked together at Georgia from 2016-18, highlighted by the Bulldogs’ berth in the 2017 CFP National Championship game.
In addition to coordinating the Georgia offense, Chaney coached quarterbacks in 2016 and 2017 and the tight ends in 2018, while McGee coached the running backs. Together, they produced some of the most prolific offenses in Bulldogs history, including school records in rushing yards (3,876) and rushing touchdowns (42) in 2017.
Chaney worked two stints as offensive coordinator at Tennessee from 2009-12 and again from 2019-21. While serving as the Volunteers’ interim head coach in 2012, he led UT to a season-ending win over Kentucky.
In between, he was the offensive coordinator at Arkansas (2013-14) and Pittsburgh (2015) before going to Georgia in 2016. Chaney also worked as an offensive analyst with the New Orleans Saints (2021) and Texas A&M (2023), and he was as assistant to the head coach at Georgia Tech (2022).
His NFL experience also includes three seasons (2006-08) coaching the offensive line and tight ends for the St. Louis Rams.
Before his time with the Rams, he spent nine seasons (1997-2005) as the offensive coordinator with Purdue under head coach Joe Tiller, where his offenses ranked in the top 10 in the nation in total offense six times and led the Big Ten in passing five times.
His time with the Boilermakers overlapped with two-time Heisman Trophy finalist and future NFL star Drew Brees, as well as Billy Dicken and Kyle Orton — each of whom led the Big Ten in passing under Chaney.
Defensive Coordinator/Linebackers Coach, Kevin Sherrer
Kevin Sherrer will enter his first season on McGee’s coaching staff as the defensive coordinator/linebackers coach. A veteran coach with experience at the professional, collegiate, and high school levels, Sherrer also arrives in Atlanta without crossing state lines as he spent the 2023 season at Georgia Tech as the linebackers coach/co-defensive coordinator.
Sherrer previously worked with McGee on the Georgia staff for two seasons, including the Bulldogs’ 2017 season which ended with a berth in the CFP National Championship game.
In between, Sherrer won two national titles as a member of the staff at the University of Alabama as well as three high school state championships as an assistant coach in the state of Alabama. He then spent two seasons in the NFL as an assistant coach for the New York Giants. He served as the Giants’ inside linebackers coach in 2020, and then as the linebackers coach in 2021.
MORE: Simulate the College Football Season with CFN’s College Football Playoff Predictor
Before the NFL, Sherrer spent his previous five seasons coaching linebackers in the SEC, first at Georgia (2014-17) and then at Tennessee (2018-19). In four seasons at Georgia, he coached two All-Americans (Leonard Floyd and Roquan Smith), five all-SEC honorees, and the 2017 Butkus Award winner in Smith.
Before moving to the SEC, Sherrer spent one season as defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach at South Alabama (2013).
Sherrer’s first full-time position at the collegiate level came at his alma mater, Alabama, as director of player development from 2010-12. In his final two seasons at Alabama, the Crimson Tide won back-to-back national championships.
Associate Head Coach-Special Teams/Director of Quality Control, Carter Blount
Carter Blount, who possesses 13 years of special teams experience at the collegiate and professional levels, joins the Georgia State staff for his first season as assistant head coach and special teams coordinator.
He arrives in Atlanta after two seasons at Georgia Tech, where he served as a senior special teams analyst, and one year in the NFL as a defensive quality control/assistant linebackers coach/game management/special teams assistant with the New York Giants.
Blount has been directly involved with special teams throughout his career, beginning as a graduate assistant at South Alabama in 2011. He went on to serve as special teams coordinator and cornerbacks coach at Birmingham Southern in 2014, followed by six years as a special teams analyst in the SEC at Georgia (2015), LSU (2016), Alabama (2017), and Tennessee, where he held the title of senior special teams analyst from 2018-20.
Nickels Coach, John Adams
John Adams joins the Georgia State defensive staff as nickels coach for his first collegiate coaching season after leading Cedar Grove High School — located just a few miles from the GSU campus — to two state championships in the last three years (2021, 2023).
Before he was elevated to head coach, Adams served as Cedar Grove’s defensive backs coach from 2016-20 and helped the program to two more state titles in 2018 and 2019.
Adams attended Southwest DeKalb High School, where he played under legendary Georgia high school football head coach Buck Godfrey. He went on to the University of South Carolina, where he was a member of the baseball team.
Cornerbacks Coach, Antreal Allen
Antreal Allen enters his third season at Georgia State after spending the 2022 season as the assistant secondary coach before earning the title of cornerbacks coach in 2023. He will keep that same role in 2024 under McGee.
Before returning to GSU in 2022, Allen spent the previous two seasons (2020-21) as the defensive backs and special teams coach at Shorter University in Rome, Ga.
He lettered four years for the Panthers, playing both cornerback and safety from 2014-17. As a senior in 2017, Allen was the starting safety in Georgia State’s first bowl victory for a Panther defense that set the GSU season record for fewest points allowed per game.
Wide Receivers Coach, Dameyune Craig
Dameyune Craig joins the Georgia State program as the wide receivers coach after six seasons (2018-23) at Texas A&M, where he also coached wideouts.
Before going to Texas A&M in 2018, Craig had previous stints with Florida State (2010-12 and 2017), Auburn (2013-15), LSU (2004 & 2016), South Alabama (2008-09), Tuskegee (2006-07), and the Miami Dolphins (2005).
Craig reunites with McGee, who was his teammate on the Auburn football team in the 1990s.
Defensive Line Coach, Jeremy Hawkins
Jeremy Hawkins enters his first season at Georgia State as the defensive line coach. He previously held the role of defensive line coach and defensive run game coordinator at Eastern Kentucky for the past four seasons. He helped EKU to back-to-back winning seasons in 2021-22, including a berth in the 2022 NCAA FCS Playoffs.
He previously worked on the staff at Mercer, LSU, and UAB.
Running Backs Coach, Will Healy
Will Healy enters his first season at Georgia State as the running backs coach. Before spending the 2023 season at UCF as the assistant head coach and senior offensive analyst under head coach Gus Malzahn, Healy was the head coach for seven years at Charlotte (2019-22) and Austin Peay (2016-18), where he was the 2017 FCS national coach of the year.
Healy’s coaching career began in 2009 in his hometown as the quarterbacks coach at Chattanooga. He spent seven years (2009-15) on the Mocs’ staff, switching to coach wide receivers in 2010 and also working as passing game coordinator and recruiting coordinator.
Offensive Line Coach, Manrey Saint-Amour
Manrey Saint-Amour joins McGee’s first staff at Georgia State as the offensive line coach after both worked together at Georgia.
Saint-Amour was a quality control coordinator for the Bulldogs and has prior coaching experience at Charleston Southern, Alabama, and Florida State.
He played at Georgia Southern (2011-14) where he was an all-conference center.
Quarterbacks Coach, Ryan Williams
Ryan Williams joins McGee’s first staff at Georgia State as the quarterbacks coach after both worked together at Georgia.
He served as a quality control assistant for the Bulldogs from 2018 to 2023, working primarily with the quarterbacks and receivers.
After beginning his college career at Memphis, Williams appeared in 11 games at quarterback for the University of Miami from 2012 to 2014, throwing for 506 yards and four touchdowns.
Safeties Coach, Jeremiah Wilson
Wilson joins the Georgia State defensive staff in 2024 as a safeties coach after serving on the staff at Auburn, Tennessee, Florida State, Chattanooga, and Akron.
Most recently, Wilson served as an analyst on the defensive staff working with the secondary at Auburn in 2022 and 2023. He spent the 2021 season at Akron as the secondary coach and defensive passing game coordinator.
College Football Network has you covered with the latest news and analysis, rankings, transfer portal information, top 10 returning players, the 2024 college football season schedule, and much more!