Appalachian State (3-2, 0-1 Sun Belt) @ Georgia State (1-4, 0-1 Sun Belt)
Saturday, October 11th, 2025 3:30pm EST
TV/Video: ESPN+
Radio: FLAGSHIP 97.3 FM (North Wilkesboro), 730 AM & 97.5 FM (Charlotte), 950 AM & 92.7 FM (Greensboro), 980 AM & 96.7 FM (Winston-Salem), 107.7 FM & 1450 AM (Hendersonville), 97.3 FM & 790 AM (Johnson City, TN) 87.7 FM (In-Stadium)
Center Parc Stadium
Capacity: 25,000
Surface: FieldTurf
Jeff Sagarin Ratings
App State: 58.09
Georgia State: 53.05
Home: 4.99
App State is favored by the Sagarin ratings by .05 points
VegasInsider Consensus: App State -1.5
Series: App State leads 11-0
Last Meeting: App State 33 Georgia State 26, October 26, 2024, Boone NC
After many opportunities of getting the chance to beat a “power” team at home, not many of us would have imagined that Oregon State would be that team. We hardly dreamed of anyone west of the Mississippi even daring to visit Boone. That first win at home should have been Wake Forest. That would have been a real full circle moment. Wake dodged their bullet. It could have been North Carolina. Those guys dodged one too. But it was Oregon State who became the answer to a future trivia question. But last week is over. It was a thrilling finish that will be remembered for some time, but the time is now to move on. The non-conference slate is finally over, and App will begin a string of six straight games against Sun Belt East opponents in a stretch that will decide the division. As we all know, the Georgia State Panthers have not beaten the Mountaineers in eleven attempts. Every game played in Atlanta has been a blowout in favor of App State, but this version of the Mountaineers has not shown up in a game on the road yet.
Much like Oregon State from last week, Georgia State has also played a pretty brutal schedule. Outside of their game against FCS Murray State, the Panthers have played two SEC schools and two G5 contenders in Memphis and James Madison. Those four FBS schools have a combined record of 20-2. Those two losses were by James Madison, to 4-1 Louisville, and Vanderbilt to 4-1 Alabama. So its difficult to put a lot of stock into Georgia State’s record by simply saying, “That’s not a 1-4 football team”. Their win over Murray State was by a score of 37-21, a game which the Panthers never trailed, but did lose the turnover battle by two and were flagged for thirteen penalties. That game probably should have been worse than it was. The Racers have been stuck in the mud all year, still looking for their first win of the season, and they actually played Georgia State closer than a lot of their other opponents. The bad part of those four losses, is that the Panthers were uncompetitive in three of them. They were only down by 1 to Memphis at halftime, but let the Tigers score three second half touchdowns while failing to score in the second half. Ole Miss put up 63 points on Georgia State, that including a 38-0 tally in the second half. Vanderbilt scored 70 points on the Panthers in a game that was 42-9 at halftime. Even against James Madison, the Panthers led 7-0 in the third quarter, but could not hold on before falling 14-7.
The Georgia State quarterback room has been a fun ride to be on this season. Christian Veilluex started the first game of the season against Ole Miss. He played a handful of series, and has not been seen since. Cameran Brown alternated with Veilluex in the first half against Ole Miss, and then finished the game off as it got out hand. That game was played on August 30th. On September 1st, Georgia State added former LSU-Auburn-Texas State-Western Kentucky quarterback TJ Finley to their roster. Finley is in his sixth season, as he played the 2020 season at LSU. Finley has essentially been the starter the last four games, but Cameran Brown continues to get some run, as he has played in every game this season. Brown usually gets a couple series a game, but last week only played one series against James Madison. That possession was riddled by penalties, which never gave him the chance to take off. Brown is the team’s third leading rusher in spot duty with 58 yards on the season while Finley is a pro-style pocket passer that can use his legs, but sparingly.
We’ll continue to track the big three negatives that plagued the Mountaineers for the first few games. For one, there were zero turnovers for the Mountaineers, while forcing three against Oregon State. The defense corralled two interceptions and fell on a Beaver kickoff return that was fumbled. Give the defense another huge attaboy for the fourth down stop at the goal line. It does not count, but it should. The Mountaineers had a season low for penalties (6) and penalty yardage (49). Lastly, App State scored twice in the red zone on two attempts. Great improvements. Once again, kudos are in order. Now it’s only been one game, but is it possible that the offense took a slight step backwards. The Mountaineers carved up a lot of yards in the first three games, and after being shut down at Boise, they bounced back some, but not to the tune of 470+ yards like the beginning of the season. Better game management might be the reasoning here, and there is nothing to complain about the result. Yards don’t score points. Plays do.
It took a few games, but this App State team has evolved from what we saw in the first few games of the season. The addition of Davion Dozier provided a much needed lift to the offense. It gave the Mountaineers an additional deep threat to compliment Dalton Stroman. Dozier might have stolen some balls from Stroman over the course of the day, but for the team, it is a positive. It might be one of the more memorable debuts from a wide receiver in some time. Dozier’s four catches for 140 yards was the highlight of the passing game. Let’s not forget that JJ Kohl started at quarterback in relief of an injured AJ Swann. Or, is that in spite of AJ Swann who had the interception bug the last few weeks. Personally, it would be a difficult call to take the ball out of Kohl’s hands until he loses that opportunity. On the other hand, it seems that Coach Loggains is playing coy, and wants to keep his opponent guessing. The back and forth game is a dangerous roll of the dice. One part of the Mountaineer offense that did not change was Rashod Dubinion. He fell a couple yards short of 100 against Oregon State, but was his same reliable self. He’s now quickly up to 611 yards on the season and is about to face a Georgia State defense that has not done a great job of stopping the run. The Panthers are 129th in the country in run defense, and no team has allowed more rushing touchdowns (20), so far this season than Georgia State. In all, they Panthers give up 6.58 yards per play, which works out to 459 yards per game allowed. With all that, you would think they would be dominated in time of possession, but they are not. They are pretty average in that department, which means they have been giving up a lot of big plays. Memphis only had the ball ten times against the Panthers, but over half their drives lasted for either 51 or more yards or 9 or more plays. Vanderbilt never punted. They had the ball 11 times on offense, scored nine offensive touchdowns and seven of those drives took less than 3:07 off the clock. It appears this Georgia State defense is not that good. The good Panther teams from that past have usually been buoyed by decent defensive play, with semi-competent offense. With a non-existent run game, and no defense, it’s no wonder why Ted Hurst has caught as many balls as he has for Georgia State. Hurst had a decent game last year against App State, with three catches for 57 yards and a touchdown, but Georgia State had more success running the ball last year than they have in 2025. I have a hard time thinking that this Panther group can keep it within a touchdown if App State plays clean.
The First Pick
Bus Lot 23
Mountaineers 30