Georgia State football prepares for Appalachian State

Release from Georgia State Athletics:

ATLANTA — Georgia State faces a prolific but extremely balanced attack as the Panthers travel to Sun Belt Conference foe Appalachian State Saturday for a 3:30 p.m. game at Kidd Brewer Stadium.

While Georgia State (1-7, 0-5 Sun Belt) relies heavily on the Sun Belt Conference’s top passing game, the Mountaineers (2-5, 1-2 Sun Belt) average nearly identical yardage through the air and on the ground.

“They’re a very balanced offense,” GSU head coach Trent Miles said at his weekly press conference. “They run it for 227 a game and throw it for 227 a game, or somewhere around there. And they’ve got a very good offensive line.”

Appalachian State is led by redshirt freshman quarterback Taylor Lamb, who averages 191.7 yards passing with nine touchdowns while rushing for 48.0 yards per game with two scores.

Sophomore running back Marcus Cox has gained 569 yards (81.3 per game) with nine touchdowns. Freshman Terrence Upshaw adds 430 yards (61.4 per game) and two touchdowns. The Mountaineers were off last Saturday, but in their last game, a 53-14 victory at Troy, they rushed for 441 yards.

“This is a really good football team,” Miles said. “Don’t look at their record. They have good players, they have good coaches, and they have a tradition of winning with great facilities and fan support.”

Georgia State counters with the arm on Nick Arbuckle, who leads the Sun Belt in passing yards (309.0 per game, 12th in the NCAA), touchdown passes (16) and total offense (314.2 per game). He needs just 102 yards passing to break the GSU season record of 2,573 yards.

Arbuckle’s top target is Donovan Harden, who was named today to the Watch List for the Biletnikoff AWard as the nation’s top receiver. After catching 11 passes for a school-record 186 yards and four touchdowns against Georgia Southern, Harden leads the Panthers with 45 receptions for 707 yards and seven touchdowns.

The Panther receiving corps also feature Robert Davis (38-534-1), tight end Joel Ruiz (34-445-3), LynQuez Blair (30-387-3) and Avery Sweeting (15-219-1).

Miles complimented Georgia State’s offensive line, which did not allow a sack even though the line has been juggled due to injuries, most notably to starting left tackle Michael Ivory.

“Well, you throw it 38 times and not give up a sack, that’s really good,” Miles said. Obviously we didn’t make as big of an effort to run the ball because got behind so big that we had to throw the ball to make something happen.”