Derrick Davis | The Valdosta Daily TimesValdosta State quarterback Rogan Wells carries the ball against Florida Tech on Saturday at Bazemore-Hyder Stadium.

VALDOSTA — It took Valdosta State about a month into the season to get up to speed.

Now it looks like the Blazers don’t have any intention on slowing down.

VSU won its third straight game against a Gulf South Conference foe Saturday 42-14 against Florida Tech to improve to 4-3 overall and 4-2 in the conference after a 1-3, 1-2 start to the season.

The Blazers and the Panthers entered the contest as part of a five-way tie for third place in the GSC, but with the win, Valdosta State has pulled into a three-way tie with West Georgia and North Alabama for second place behind conference leaders West Alabama.

Throughout the season, VSU head coach Kerwin Bell maintained his belief that the Blazers are a high-quality football team, and following Saturday’s victory, he credited the development of some of the programs’ young talent — redshirt freshman quarterback Rogan Wells in particular — for the turnaround.

“Sometimes you go into a season and you’ve got established stars and some leaders, we didn’t have that on offense,” Bell said. “We had a lot of young kids. A lot of true freshmen at receiver, our quarterback, who we thought was the future of this program, was a redshirt freshman, so it took a while.

“I think just (Wells’) emergence, and the way he’s starting to play after that injury… Since he’s starting to get healthier and healthier, he’s starting to show that he can lead this football team.”

Junior Adam Robles took most of the reps as the first-team quarterback throughout the spring and into fall camp, but by time the season was to begin, Bell had become enamored with Wells’ ability and potential.

The quarterbacks split snaps in VSU’s opener against Albany State, and although neither had a noteworthy game, Wells found some success late, prompting Bell to name him the starter ahead of the next game.

But Wells went down with an injury in a loss against North Alabama, forcing Robles back in the starting role the next week. He responded by completing 55 percent of his passes for 189 yards and a score in a victory against West Florida.

Though Valdosta State earned its first win of the season with Robles at the helm, Bell went back to Wells the next game, in which he only completed 46 percent of his passes for 190 yards in a 42-13 loss against West Georgia.

Bell stuck by his young quarterback, though. In the three games since West Georgia, Wells has completed 58 percent of his passes for 629 yards and six touchdowns to one interception while rushing for 151 yards and six more scores for an offense averaging 43.6 points per game.

VSU’s defense has experienced a similar renaissance over the past three weeks.

The Black Swarm has forced seven fumbles the past three games, recording four to go along with six interceptions.

“It’s all of us coming together as one,” senior linebacker Malik Slater said Saturday. “Each and every week, we preach unity. We preach having each other’s back.

“Early on in the season, we was facing some tough times, and we had some people kind of wavering in their faith, but the main thing is, we just came together. We had some team meetings. We just stayed together, had each other’s back, and every week we come out focused on executing as one team.”

Derrick Davis is the sports editor at the Valdosta Daily Times.