Twitter: @ROBERTSON_9TWO
Former National Football League defensive lineman Travian Robertson is in his third season as Georgia State’s defensive line coach.
In his first two seasons at GSU, the Panthers have collected 56 sacks (2.4 per game), including a school-record 35 sacks last fall for a No. 7 ranking in FBS.
In 2020, Robertson also helped the GSU defense rank No. 8 in FBS with 21 turnovers forced while allowing a program-record 3.86 yards per rush. The Panthers’ average of 136.6 rushing yards allowed per game was the second-best mark in school history, including four of the program’s top 11 single-game performances against the run.
The Panthers have earned back-to-back bowl berths in his two seasons, and under Robertson’s tutelage, defensive linemen Dontae Wilson and Hardrick Willis have earned All-Sun Belt Conference honors, and Willis has become the Panthers’ career sack leader.
A former graduate assistant on the Georgia State staff, Robertson returned to Atlanta in June 2019 after one season as the defensive line coach at Albany State. He helped the Rams to a 7-4 record, including the SIAC East title, in 2018.
Robertson originally served on head coach Shawn Elliott's staff in 2017 as a graduate assistant working with the defensive line as the Panthers posted a 7-5 record, capped by the program's first bowl victory over Western Kentucky in the 2017 AutoNation Cure Bowl. The GSU defense set school records that year for fewest points allowed per game, fewest rushing yards allowed per game (136.4) and fewest yards per rushing attempt (4.13) as well as most sacks in a game (seven) and season (24.0).
Robertson was an outstanding defensive lineman himself, lettering four years at South Carolina, where he earned Southeastern Conference All-Academic honors and served as team captain in 2011.
He was drafted by the Atlanta Falcons in the seventh round of the 2012 NFL Draft and played for the Falcons as well as the Seattle Seahawks and Washington Redskins over four seasons.
Robertson is a native of Laurinburg, N.C. He and his wife Kettiany have three sons: Travian, Jr., Trenton and Tristan.
