Georgia Southern football at Georgia State on Saturday: Kickoff, how to watch and more
Both teams are looking for their first Sun Belt Conference victory when the Georgia Southern Eagles (3-2, 0-1 SBC) visit the Georgia State Panthers (1-4, 0-1) on Saturday in Atlanta. The Eagles stay in their home state while hitting the road for the fourth time in their first six games under first-year head coach Clay Helton. Here's how to watch and listen to the game, and more.
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What time do the Georgia Southern Eagles play the Georgia State Panthers?
Kickoff: 2 p.m. ET, Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022.
Location: Center Parc Stadium (capacity 25,000), Atlanta
How to watch Georgia Southern at Georgia State on TV
Matt Stewart (play-by-play) and Sam Crenshaw (analyst) will have the call on the ESPN3 digital network, available on the ESPN app and the https://www.espn.com/watch website.
Radio for Georgia Southern at Georgia State
Danny Reed (play-by-play), Terry Harvin (analyst), Russ Brown (analyst) and Frank Sulkowski (sidelines) have the call on the Georgia Southern Sports Network. The pregame, in-game and postgame shows can be heard in Savannah on WIXV 95.5 FM and on the network's flagship station WPMX 94.9 FM in Statesboro.
Betting: Over/under & point spread
As of Saturday afternoon, Georgia State was a 2.5-point favorite, according to the Tipico Sportsbook. The over/under was 66.5 points and the money line was +115 on Georgia Southern and -140 on Georgia State.
Series history
Dating back to their first matchup in 2014 won by the Eagles 69-31 in Atlanta, Georgia State leads the series 5-3. The Panthers have taken the last two meetings, 30-24 in Atlanta in 2020 and 21-14 in Statesboro in 2021. The teams are tied 2-2 in Atlanta and the Panthers have a 3-1 edge in Statesboro.
Game notes
Georgia State's redshirt senior quarterback Darren Grainger leads the Sun Belt and ranks No. 4 in FBS with 15.34 yards per completion. ...
In the 31-14 win last week at Army, Tucker Gregg (126) and Jamyest Williams (106) each rushed for 100 yards, while Grainger passed for 157 yards on just eight completions and accounted for two touchdowns. ...
Super senior running back Tucker Gregg scored his 20th career rushing touchdown at Army on a 56-yard run with a minute left. That gave Gregg, a former walk-on, sole possession of the GSU career record for rushing touchdowns, passing Tra Barnett. He also broke Barnett’s record for rushing attempts with 389. With 1,909 yards, Gregg ranks second to Barnett (2,156 yards, 2016-19) on the Panthers’ career rushing list. ...
Sophomore wide receiver Robert Lewis is No. 2 in the Sun Belt and No. 13 FBS with five TD receptions this season. Junior wide receiver Jamari Thrash leads the Panthers with 25 catches for 428 yards. He is No. 2 in the Sun Belt in receiving yards. ...
The Panthers have rushed for 200-plus yards in 11 of the last 13 games. ...
Ten players, including three true freshmen, have made their first start at Georgia Southern this season. ...
Eagles junior running back Jalen White has scored a career-high seven touchdowns on the ground this season in just five games. The Eagles have six different players with a touchdown catch, led by Derwin Burgess Jr. with three. ...
Eagles QB Kyle Vantrease has thrown a TD pass in five straight games, tying the school record set by Chaz Williams in 2004 and equaled by Antonio Henton in 2008 and Jaybo Shaw in 2011. ...
Vantrease is ninth in the country (FBS) in total offense, averaging 323.4 yards per contest. He's tied for fourth in completions per game (28.40; 142 total in five games), seventh in passing yards (1,574) and eighth in passing yards per game (314.80) ...
The Eagles' redshirt junior kicker Alex Raynor is 7 of 7 on field-goal attempts this season, including a season-long 45-yarder at Coastal Carolina last week.
Redshirt senior punter Anthony Beck II, a South Effingham High graduate, has most career punts (198) in Georgia Southern history. He is averaging a program-best 43.28 yards per punt for his career. This season, he has 15 punts for a 44.25 average, including four of 50-plus yards.
The Georgia State roster includes Savannians Ronald Cooper, a sophomore cornerback out of Jenkins High School; redshirt freshman nose guard Fuches Lewis II of Calvary Day; and true freshman kicker Liam Rickman of South Effingham High.
Now in his third season on the Georgia State staff, Cory Peoples is secondary coach and defensive passing game coordinator. Peoples was the cornerbacks coach at Georgia Southern in 2018.
They said it
Georgia Southern head coach Clay Helton on this week's opponent Georgia State:
"We've got a lot of respect for what Shawn (Elliott) does and what Georgia State does. This is a team that people were telling me this is the best 0-4 team that's out there. You look at them on tape, and they went to Army, and Army got a taste of that last week (losing to Georgia State 31-14). You see how well they played against North Carolina. You see how well they played against Coastal in a game they turned it over four times, which probably was the separation. This is a really quality opponent. Shawn does a terrific job with them both offensively and defensively. They're very aggressive."
Georgia State head coach Shawn Elliott on his team, 1-4 in 2022, learning from its 1-4 start in 2021. That team finished 8-5 overall, 6-2 in the Sun Belt, and beat Ball State 51-20 in TaxAct Camellia Bowl:
"I think we have a very mature football team that can look back and say, 'keep your heads on straight and continue to improve.' We've got an opportunity to go make some noise, and we still have that opportunity. Nothing has changed with our, if you want to call it, poor start. We've got a good mindset. We're still pushing forward. We've got a lot of conference schedule left ahead of us. A lot of things can happen.
"If your team can't stay focused at this point in time and get ready to play a great conference schedule coming up, then you've got a bad football team. But our guys are locked, they've got good focus, they've got a good mentality. They practice well, and we've got great leadership. So I'm not really concerned about the 1-4 start. We've got our first win, and that does lift the spirits up a little bit."
Twitter follows
Follow Georgia Southern beat writer Nathan Dominitz of the Savannah Morning News/savannahnow.com @NathanDominitz for Eagles updates and Georgia State beat writer Stan Awtrey of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution @Stan Awtrey for Panthers updates.
You can follow the teams' official Twitter accounts at @GSAthletics_FB and @GeorgiaStateFB
Podcast
Listen to the new and previous episodes of the "Georgia Southern Extra" podcast at https://omny.fm/shows/georgia-southern-extra/playlists/podcast
Nathan Dominitz is the Sports Content Editor of the Savannah Morning News and savannahnow.com. Email him at ndominitz@savannahnow.com. Twitter: @NathanDominitz
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: How to watch Georgia Southern Eagles football vs. Georgia State Panthers
