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GEORGIA STATE (7-4, 4-3) at GEORGIA SOUTHERN (6-5, 4-3)
Saturday, Nov. 30 | 6 p.m. | Paulson Stadium

TV: ESPN+. Announcers are Greg Talbott, Danny Waugh and Amy Zimmer.

RADIO: Georgia State Radio Network coverage will air on WAOK-AM 1380. Dave Cohen is in his 37th season as the play-by-play voice of Panther athletics. Harper LeBel joins him from the booth with Sam Crenshaw on the sideline. 

2019 RECORDS:
Georgia State: 7-4, 4-3 Sun Belt
Georgia Southern: 6-5, 4-3 Sun Belt 

SERIES: Georgia State leads 3-2

LAST MEETING: Georgia Southern 35, Georgia State 14, Nov. 24, 2018 at Georgia State Stadium

GSU HEAD COACH SHAWN ELLIOTT
Record at GSU:    16-19 (3rd year) / Career Record: 17-24 (4th year)

THE KICKOFF: 
It's #StateNotSouthern Week as Georgia State concludes the regular season Saturday at Georgia Southern in a 6 p.m. kickoff at Paulson Stadium.

> The Panthers earned their seventh victory—the first time the program has reached seven wins during the regular season-—with a 28-15 victory over South Alabama on Senior Day. The win also gave GSU a program-best 5-1 mark at home.

> Quarterback Dan Ellington completed 21 of 27 passes for 208 yards and two touchdowns, and Tra Barnett rushed for 128 yards and a touchdown in the win. The GSU defense held South Alabama to three points until the Jaguars managed two late scores.

> Georgia State's offense ranks among the FBS leaders:
No. 11 Rushing (257.8 ypg)
No. 19 Total Offense (461.2 ypg)
No. 26 Scoring (34.5 ppg)
No. 12 3rd Down Conversions (48.8 percent)
No. 15 First Downs (271)

> Senior Tra Barnett leads the Sun Belt and ranks No. 6 in FBS with 121.5 yards rushing per game. His 1,208 yards and 11 touchdowns are GSU records, and he is the Panthers' first 1,000-yard rusher.

> With a school-record 242 yards rushing and two touchdowns vs. Troy, Barnett broke the Georgia State records for rushing yards in a game, season and career in the same game. 

> Barnett is Georgia State's career leader in rushing yards (2,039)—the first Panther to top 2,000 career yards—and rushing touchdowns (18).

> A two-time Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Week and a member of the Watch List for the Manning Award, QB Dan Ellington averages 249.7 yards of total offense per game (2,109 passing/608 rushing) and has accounted for 26 touchdowns (21 passing/5 rushing). His 21 TD passes are second in the Sun Belt.

> The Panthers' top receivers are sophomore Cornelius McCoy (58 receptions, 590 yards, 4 TD) and redshirt freshman Sam Pinckney (36 receptions, 460 yards, 5 TD). 

> Tight end Aubry Payne has caught six touchdowns in nine games.

> The Panthers have rushed for 340-plus yards four times in the last seven games, including 340 yards vs. Arkansas State, 350 vs. Coastal Carolina, 390 yards vs. Troy and a school-record 414 yards at ULM.

> Georgia State, which began playing football in 2010 and moved to FBS in 2014, is bowl eligible for the third time in five seasons. The Panthers played in their first bowl game in 2015 in the AutoNation Cure Bowl and then made a return trip to the Orlando, Fla., bowl in 2017, when GSU knocked off Western Kentucky for the first bowl win in school history.

> Georgia State has already broken several of its season records:
Points (379)
Touchdowns (50)
Rushing Yards (2,834)
Rushing TDs (28)

> Four different Panthers have recorded 100-yard games: RB Tra Barnett (7), RB Seth Paige (2), RB Destin Coates (1) and QB Dan Ellington (1).

SERIES VS. GEORGIA SOUTHERN: Georgia State holds a 3-2 lead in the series, which began in 2014, and a 2-0 advantage in Statesboro. Georgia Southern won last year's game at Georgia State Stadium, 35-14, but that followed a three-game winning streak by the Panthers:

> In 2017 in Statesboro, Penny Hart caught a 9-yard touchdown pass from Conner Manning with 2:31 to play to give the Panthers a 21-17 come-from-behind win. The Hart touchdown complete a six-play, 31-yard drive that started when OLB James Traylor recovered Wesley Fields' fumble with five minutes to play. Hart finished with eight catches for a school-record 191 yards.

> In 2016, in its last game at the Georgia Dome, Georgia State won its second straight in the series with a 30-24 win. Conner Manning passed for 318 yards and accounted for three touchdowns, and Glenn Smith scored touchdowns rushing and receiving. Manning hit eight of his first 10 passes to lead touchdown drives on the Panthers' first three possessions for a 20-0 lead.

> In 2015, Georgia State recorded a record-setting and bowl-clinching 34-7 victory in Statesboro. The Panthers handed Georgia Southern their worst home loss ever as the GSU defense limited the Eagles to 135 yards rushing and a school-record 203 yards of total offense. After a 7-7 first half, the Panthers scored touchdowns on their first four possessions of the second half.

> GSU head coach Shawn Elliott is very familiar with Georgia Southern head coach Chad Lunsford. Lunsford spent two seasons (2001-02) as the tight ends coach at Appalachian State while Elliott was the offensive line coach.