Appalachian State (5-3, 2-2 Sun Belt) @ Georgia State(4-4, 1-3 Sun Belt)

Saturday, November 7th, 2026

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), 93.7 FM & 790 AM (Johnson City, TN) 87.7 FM (In-Stadium)

Kidd Brewer Stadium

Capacity: 30,000

Surface: Astroturf

Jeff Sagarin Ratings

App State: 59.14

GaSt: 57.64

Home: 2.74

App State is favored by the Sagarin ratings by 4.24 points

VegasInsider Consensus: App State -6.5

Series: App State leads 12-0

Last Meeting: App State 41, Georgia State 20, October 11, 2025, Atlanta, GA

It was a really hard watch last Saturday night. It was pretty evident that this game means more to Georgia Southern than it did to Appalachian. The Eagles had that play through the whistle energy and it looked like their offense was playing against air between the 20 yard lines. At least the Mountaineer defense held Southern to just one touchdown and four field goals. Allowing five scoring drives does not sound great. Holding any team to less than 20 points should keep you in contention for a win. Scoring three points will not. The offense has disappeared way too often this season for long spells. Twice its happened for entire games. If App State wants to contend for a division title they’ll have to become more consistent in the last month of the season. Every single game remaining on the schedule is very winnable but you have to get past Georgia State first. They look a lot different in the last couple weeks than they did earlier in the season. Here is to hoping that the Mountaineers looks different than they did last week as well.

The Georgia State Panthers had potential. That seems to be the key word most seasons for their football program. Their potential hit a snag after their bye week. Back when everyone thought Old Dominion was a contender the Panthers derailed the Monarchs 42-10 and briefly put themselves into East Division contender status. Since then, the Panthers have come down to earth with three straight losses that put them squarely on the bowl line bubble with four weeks left to play. James Madison beat the Panthers 49-22 and the loss at Arkansas State was probably the toughest blow. Quarterback Cameran Brown was injured and Ayden Pereira filled in and threw two interceptions. Pereira played the entire game against Coastal Carolina the following week but Coastal jumped out to a 31-6 lead and held on to win 31-20. Brown remains out this week against App State which presumably means we see more Pereira, who is a fifth year transfer from Merrimack. Pereira is a running quarterback, and struggled to complete 54% of his passes against a Coastal defense that’s ranked 122nd in efficiency defense in the country.

The Panthers have additional playmakers on both sides of the ball. Their run game has been traditionally pretty strong and this year is no exception. They started the season with three straight 200-yard games as a team and added eleven rushing touchdowns in the first four games. But in the last four games, the Panthers have only eclipsed 200 yards once and had their second lowest total of the season last week with 160 yards against Coastal. They have also managed just three rushing touchdowns in four conference games. However I am very intrigued with Quantavius Wiggins who is a change-of-pace style back with home run potential. He’s had an up and down season, but when he is on, he can be special. He’s had 80 or more yards in three of his last four games, with James Madison being the team that held him in check. He leads the team in net yards despite being outcarried on the team by Lanear McCrary Jr by 20 attempts. Wiggins also has thirteen catches on the year for 127 yards. The Mountaineers shall also be on the lookout for Xavier Esqillion who leads the team in tackles for loss and sacks. Most of his numbers happened in the first five games of the season before opposing offenses started to key on him.

We have officially removed the asterisk from the Old Dominion game. It was excused party due to poor weather and partly to an inability to adjust to said weather. But essentially the same type of game unfolded. App State threw the ball with disregard to some breezy conditions and abandoned the run while the game remained in the balance. The offense looked the best while it was mixing it up but became unnecessarily one-dimensional and managed to just score a scant three points. These occasional no-shows and odd questions and answers from Coach Dowell Loggains have led many to question who is in charge of calling plays during the game. Malachi Singleton is doing just about all he can while playing through a leg injury, yet he has been asked to do more each week while still being less than 100%. Singleton has just two touchdowns passes in the last four games, has thrown three interceptions in the same time frame and his yards lost on sacks have kept his rushing total in the negative for the past three weeks. Singleton was considered at dual-threat or mobile quarterback and his season stats have him at -3 rushing yards in eight games.

Last week in this segment, we discussed how big last week was for Georgia Southern, James Madison and of course Appalachian State. The day after this was posted, James Madison went and lost to Troy at home in another game where the Dukes took a lead and then crumbled before losing in overtime by a field goal. That helped make the App-Southern game even more important and the Mountaineers laid an egg at the worst time. Somehow the conference standings have gotten wackier, and I believe its a good time to review them again. Eight teams in both divisions have conference records of 2-2. Somehow, Marshall is still alive and could use some help from multiple teams but its not out of the question considering how this season has gone. James Madison remains the clubhouse leader with four conference wins and everyone will be chasing whatever number they post over the course of November. Luckily the Mountaineers catch a Georgia State team that is searching and is limited offensively that plays into a Mountaineer defense that should make things easy for the offense. That said, the Mountaineer offense has to find a way to get points on the board. The Mountaineers do have five overall wins and are looking to clinch bowl eligibility this week. However, those two games where the offense could only manage three points will be in the back of everyone’s mind if they start slow. Georgia State has also had some slow starting first quarters in the last three weeks. They have carded a first quarter touchdown against James Madison, a zero against Arkansas State and managed a field goal against Coastal Carolina. That leads into why some of their rushing yardage is down over the last three games. They have been playing from behind. And if we see a Georgia State offense the resembles anything from last week, they are going to be inefficient playing from behind as it flips the Panthers preferred game script. And that is why it so important for the Mountaineers to get out to a quick start and then finish the game with a clock-burning offense. I worry however that the box scores will show that Georgia State has been thrown on easily in the last two games, with both Trey Owens of Arkansas State and Deuce Bailey of Coastal Carolina carving up the Panther secondary for over 300 yards in their last two outings.

The First Pick

Orange Sweaters 17

Mountaineers 28