Georgia State Football: Breaking Down January Enrollees

Georgia State's season is over and the new semester has begun. That means that schools are starting to get their early enrollees. Georgia State is no exception, as they are adding two early enrollees in addition to a couple other players. Let's take a look at them.

Early Enrollees

Cedric Stone (5-foot-11, 170 lbs.)

Position: Cornerback

Recruiting Rankings: Rivals (Unrated) 247Sports (Unrated)

High School: Phillip O'Berry Academy of Technology (Charlotte, N.C.)

Primary Recruiter: Defensive Coordinator Jesse Minter

Other Notable Offers: None

Cedric Stone is very good once he has the ball in his hands. He shows enough quickness and shiftiness that he will be a danger to run it back for a touchdown whenever he gets an interception or as a punt returner. As a cover guy, he's decent but not great. He will stay tight to his man and seemed to be playing in more of a bend-don't-break style of defense. He tries his hardest to be a hard-hitter, which will get him into trouble at the next level. He was having some trouble in his highlight film bringing some of those guys down with the first hit. He'll need to work on better tackling technique.

Jonathan Ifedi (6-foot-1, 195 lbs.)

Position: Wide Receiver

Recruiting Rankings: Rivals (Unrated) 247Sports (Unrated)

High School: Vance High School (Charlotte, N.C.)

Primary Recruiter: Quarterbacks Coach Luke Huard

Other Notable Offers: UConn, Kansas State

Jonathan Ifedi's biggest asset is his speed, which is saying something because his hands aren't terrible. He was easily a few steps ahead of any defense he played last season. While his hands are not terrible, they aren't great either. He is more of a body catcher, which will result in a few more drops at this level, but if he can get some stronger hands to go with his speed and size, he'll be a formidable wide receiver to pair with Penny Hart. His route running is also a little rough around the edges, but that's pretty easily taught.

Greyshirts

In addition to the two early enrollees that the Panthers are adding, they also have three players who were greyshirted last year. When a player gets greyshirted, that player's enrollment is postponed to the second semester of freshman year. So in other words, teams can get away with recruiting players that they might not be able to add because they don't have a scholarship and pretty much stow them away for the next year's recruiting class. Doing this, though, takes away from the number of players a team can sign for the next cycle since those scholarships are already in use.

Javonte Lain (6-foot-3, 230 lbs.)

Position: Weakside Defensive End

Recruiting Rankings: Rivals (2-star, 5.3) 247Sports (3-star, 0.8059)

High School: Sandy Creek High School (Tyrone, Ga.)

Primary Recruiter: Unlisted

Other Notable Offers: Memphis, Old Dominion

Javonte Lain has some good quickness and strength off the edge, which is good, because his first step is awful. It felt like every clip I saw, every other defensive lineman would move before Lain, yet somehow, Lain would still always be there to make the play. Those instincts on the first step will need to get better at the next level to make any kind of meaningful impact though. His tackling technique could use a little bit of work, but at least he doesn't just go out and hit everyone as hard as he can; he at least attempts to wrap up the ballcarriers.

Charlie Patrick (6-foot-1, 210 lbs.)

Position: Athlete

Recruiting Rankings: Rivals (2-star, 5.4) 247Sports (2-star, 0.7856)

High School: Mays High School (Atlanta, Ga.)

Primary Recruiter: Linebackers Coach P.J. Volker

Other Notable Offers: Appalachian State, Western Kentucky, Army

Charlie Patrick is a pretty reckless tackler. He goes out and hits the ballcarrier as hard as he can, which might have flown in high school, but that won't work at this level. Running backs and wide receivers will simply shake him off and keep running. Another part of that being reckless is that there were a couple of hits there that looked like they hurt his teammates. He needs to learn how to start wrapping people up. When he has the ball in his hands, he shows decent vision and speed, but probably won't be outrunning anyone. He's also got some good trucking abilities. We'll have to wait and see how that translates to the FBS though.

Matlin Marshall (5-foot-10, 175 lbs.)

Position: Athlete

Recruiting Rankings: Rivals (2-star, 5.2) 247Sports (2-star, 0.7583)

High School: Evans High School (Evans, Ga.)

Primary Recruiter: Defensive Coordinator Jesse Minter

Other Notable Offers: Appalachian State, Marshall

Probably my favorite of Georgia State's January enrollees, Matlin Marshall brings value as a passer and a rusher. As a rusher, Marshall isn't the fastest, but he brings good quickness and shiftiness. He also has a knack of finding a hole. As a passer, he showed pretty good touch on his deep passes. He's also got a decent arm, though it certainly isn't the best arm. If he doesn't stick at quarterback, I think he could also be a good running back or receiver. I wasn't a fan of him on defense, though. His tackling technique was pretty subpar.

Transfers

Closing out Georgia State's group of January enrollees is Utah transfer quarterback Conner Manning. After graduating in two-and-a-half years, Manning will come to Georgia State as a redshirt junior who is eligible immediately.

Conner Manning

Position: Quarterback

High School Recruiting Rankings: Rivals (3-star, 5.5) 247Sports (3-star, 0.8326)

Previous School: Utah

Stats at Previous School: 3-of-7 passing for 25 yards and an interception

It's tough to know where Conner Manning is at right now. His high school film won't show us much since that was a few years ago, and he hasn't had many meaningful snaps at Utah. What I do know is that Manning will come in and compete to replace Nick Arbuckle. There weren't a ton of quarterbacks on Utah's roster, and the top two on the depth chart are both graduating, so the starting position there was open to competition as well. My guess is that Manning was not positive he would be able to win the starting job, so since he had already graduated, he decided to transfer in order to have a better shot at starting. This is also complete speculation, so take that as such.