Young rivalry continues for Georgia Southern, Georgia State

There are a lot of factors that go into making a rivalry: the passion of the fans, the proximity of the teams to one another, familiarity that breeds a certain degree of contempt, memorable games and longevity of the series.

Georgia Southern and Georgia State will play for only the third time ever at 2 p.m. on Saturday at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, but there’s no question this is a game the two teams have circled on their calendar.

The Panthers started playing football in 2010, and with the exception of last year when they went 6-7 and earned a Cure Bowl appearance, they have struggled. The Panthers and Eagles met for the first time two years ago at the Georgia Dome, and the Eagles exploded for a 69-31 win.

Things changed dramatically last year when the Panthers played at Paulson Stadium for the first time and dominated in posting a 34-7 win. It was Georgia Southern’s worst loss at Paulson Stadium, and thus a rivalry was born after only two meetings.

The Eagles (4-6, 3-3 Sun Belt Conference) have lost five of their past six games this season and need to beat the Panthers and Troy on Dec. 3 to become bowl eligible. The Panthers (2-8, 1-5) have lost three straight and are playing only for pride after head coach Trent Miles was fired and replaced for the rest of this season by quarterbacks/receivers coach Tim Lapparo.

Georgia Southern had only 52 yards rushing in last week’s 33-26 loss to Louisiana-Lafayette as it played without quarterbacks Kevin Ellison, who was a late scratch due to injury, and Favian Upshaw who missed his seventh straight game. Freshman Seth Shuman got his first career start and completed 21-of-36 passes for 228 yards and a touchdown.

“We’re a run-based offense,” said head coach Tyson Summers, who expects Ellison and Upshaw to be available Saturday. “And we’re a quarterback-driven offense, so not having Kevin made a difference. I thought Seth had a great effort, and I thought he threw the ball effectively. He played well enough for us to win, but we have to be able to run the ball effectively, and we didn’t.”

Despite their troubles on the ground the Eagles lead the conference in rushing at 223 yards per game while ranking seventh in total offense at 380.2 yards per game.

Summers said with only two games remaining in the season he does not anticipate seeing any significant changes in what the Panthers will attempt to do, and Lapparo echoed those thoughts in the conference’s weekly teleconference.

This story was originally published November 18, 2016 at 4:09 PM with the headline "Young rivalry continues for Georgia Southern, Georgia State."