Appalachian State (4-4, 1-3 Sun Belt) vs Georgia Southern (3-5, 1-3 Sun Belt)

Thursday, November 6th, 2025 7:30pm EST

TV/Video: ESPN2

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)

Kidd Brewer Stadium

Capacity: 30,000

Surface: AstroTurf

Jeff Sagarin Ratings

App State: 59.11

Georgia Southern: 60.22

Home: 3.93

App State is favored by the Sagarin ratings by 2.82 points

VegasInsider Consensus: App State -6.5

Series: App State leads 21-17-1

Last Meeting: Georgia Southern 29 App State 20, November 30, 2024, Statesboro, GA

Conference scheduling has shifted this rivalry game around since both teams entered the conference in 2014. We are back to a Thursday night game for the first time since 2019 after being scheduled on Thanksgiving Saturday, or the last game of the season, for the previous five games in this series. Eventually the Sun Belt will get this game scheduled correctly, for a Saturday in October like it should be. During the “Saturday after Thanksgiving” era, App State leads the series 3-2. Both teams won three games in the Sun Belt Thursday Part I era. Since 2003, Georgia Southern has only won two games in a row against App State once, which was in 2018 and 2019. The Eagles will try to snap that slump this week. Also since 2003, Georgia Southern has only won twice in Boone, which just happened to be during App State’s two most successful seasons in school history, 2007 and 2019. Thursday will be the 40th all time meeting between the schools that love to hate each other more than anyone else.

This has been a trying year for Georgia Southern football. Clay Helton is in his fourth season, and has zero conference championships or bowl wins to his name. Last year has been quickly forgotten by Eagle fans as an 8-5 season in Statesboro is just good enough to keep people from getting too mad. The 3-5 start to the 2025 campaign has the natives restless again, especially with a defense that has not really gotten in anyone’s way. Southern’s best win is over a 5-3 Jacksonville State team that plays in Conference USA and is just a couple years removed from FCS. The other wins are Maine and Georgia State. Maine is still in FCS and Georgia State has one win, over a winless FCS Murray State. The optics are not great. However, this is the kind of game that could save Clay Helton’s job, for at least a short period of time. Bowl eligibility, and six wins, are not out of the picture at 3-5, as the Eagles have two home games and a trip to Marshall left on their schedule after this week. Thursday night might truly be Georgia Southern’s last real shot at any type of momentum remaining this season. It will be easy for them to get up for this one. But, if they return to Statesboro at 3-6, Paulson will be empty for those last two games.

When taking a peek at Southern’s offensive statistics, it’s easy to see which games they have won and lost. In the three wins, they ran for an average of 211 yards per game, and those numbers are not skewed by a super high rate of success. Those figures were 219 yards, 206 yards and 208 yards. Very consistent output in those three games. In the five losses, the Eagles ran for an average of 92.6 yards per game, while being held to under 100 yards in three of those games. Additionally, nine of the Eagles thirteen rushing touchdowns came in those three wins, with multiple rushing touchdowns in each game. One would think the key to slowing Georgia Southern to an extent is to limit their run game, but it isn’t really a huge part of their offense, it’s just what they feel like they need to do. OJ Arnold has 512 yards on the season, and runs well when he gets the chance. The Eagles have limited his carries most the season, averaging a hair over 11 carries a game, and his best performances of the year have come in those three wins. Quarterback JC French has 82 carries on the year, but has very deceiving statistics since yards lost on sacks go against his rushing total. However, the number of carries is important here, especially since he has gone over 12 rushing attempts in each of the last four games.

Where do we begin with this App State team? We have seen the same things week after week, and now those same miscues are migrating from one quarterback to the next. The Mountaineers found themselves in a hole against Old Dominion, and the plug was pulled too late on JJ Kohl, for AJ Swann to have enough time to mount a complete comeback. It resulted in another loss by a possession, and with four games left in the season, it feels like the Mountaineers are still at square one. We have had a long bye week leading into a Thursday game, which might give App State the time it needs to make some adjustments, and mainly get treatment for those who just need some time off to heal. But every team is doing that this time of the year, and when it comes down to playing Southern, there is no time to think about being hurt. Whichever quarterback gets the chance to start on Thursday will impact App State’s game plan. It will be a very important decision that is made prior to the game, and let’s hope the guy who starts gets to play the entire game.

It’s very clear, that between these two schools, they have won seven football games, but there isn’t a lot of meat on the bone of those seven wins. There will always be great moments in a season, but for these two fan bases, they are not hanging their hats on beating Georgia State, who represents two of those seven wins. These schools want to compete for conference championships and they want to beat each other. But for one week, all the outside noise is lost, because the focus is solely on the immediate task at hand. At this point of the year, we are looking at two teams with mediocre records, and there is not a significant advantage on either side. Yes, we can talk about how Georgia Southern’s defense is the fourth-worst in terms of yardage per game in the country. That sandwiches them behind Georgia State and barely in front of UNC-Charlotte. But is App State’s offense good enough to capitalize on those deficiencies. The Mountaineers are probably a better passing offense, but the Eagles have only allowed nine passing touchdowns this season. Part of that is because they have allowed 25 rushing touchdowns and 240 yards rushing per game. That’s an ugly figure no matter how you slice it. But will the Mountaineers commit to running the ball earlier in the game? That has been the big question. Among Sun Belt leaders, the Mountaineers have only ran the ball 263 times in 8 games. That figure ranks 13th of 14 Sun Belt teams. But, starting running back Rashod Dubinion leads the conference in rushing yards and has the second most rush attempts. It just doesn’t feel right. I realize there are a lot of factors that play into this season that has been fluky and frustrating at times. But it does seem like trying to take advantage of a situation that is in front of you would be beneficial. The Eagles are terrible defending third down and giving up first downs, so those opportunities need to be taken advantage of. When the Mountaineers can find themselves in the red zone, they need to finish with six points. There have been too many instances this season of turning the ball over and kicking field goals when getting deep in the opponents territory. With just a little bit of improvement, and some desire to take care of the football, this Mountaineer team has plenty of talent to knock off the Eagles. Any carelessness will bring Southern right back into the game.

The First Pick

Stink Creek 27

Mountaineers 35