GEORGIA STATE PANTHERS NOTES:
THE KICKOFF:
Georgia State looks to finish the 2023 season on a strong note as the Panthers face Utah State in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, Dec. 23 in Boise, Idaho.
Playing just its 14th season of football and 10th at the FBS level, Georgia State is playing in its sixth bowl game and fifth in seven seasons under head coach Shawn Elliott. GSU returns to a bowl game for the third time in the last four years.
The Panthers have won their last two bowl games, the 2021 TaxAct Camellia Bowl vs. Ball State and the 2020 LendingTree Bowl vs. WKU.
Head coach Shawn Elliott has led the Panthers to bowl games in five of his seven seasons. He coached the first three bowl victories in program history (2017, 2021 and 2022).
Darren Grainger, the MVP of the 2021 TaxAct Camellia Bowl, will be under center for his second bowl game. Grainger is Georgia State’s career leader in total offense, touchdown passes and touchdown responsibility while ranking second in passing yards and fourth in rushing yards.
This season, Grainger has passed for 2,364 yards and 17 touchdowns while rushing for 625 yards and eight scores.
Grainger is one of nine Panthers named to the All-Sun Belt Conference team: RB Marcus Carroll (1st), T Travis Glover (1st), CB Gavin Pringle (3rd), LB Jontrey Hunter (3rd), WR Robert Lewis (3rd), QB Darren Grainger (HM), WR Tailique Williams (HM), OLB Kevin Swint (HM), S Jeremiah Johnson (HM).
All-Sun Belt cornerback Gavin Pringle is tied for the conference lead with four interceptions.
Senior ILB Jordan Veneziale has moved into second place in GSU history with 277 career tackles. The GSU record is 381 by Joseph Peterson (2012-15).
Veneziale will play in game No. 59 of his career, just one behind the GSU record of 60 games played by Shamarious Gilmore.
Georgia State is playing on national television for the seventh times this season. This will be the Panthers’ second exposure on ESPN, along with four games on ESPN2 and one on ESPNU.
After starting 4-0 for the first time, Georgia State achieved another milestone on Sept. 24 by receiving a vote in the US LBM Coaches’ Poll, the Panthers’ first-ever in either national poll.
GO WEST:
Georgia State has played out West several times before in its brief history, including a previous trip to the state of Idaho for a 2016 game against Idaho, then a member of the Sun Belt.
In the regular season, Georgia State has also played at Washington (2014), New Mexico State (2015), Oregon (2015) and Air Force (2016).
In bowl play, the Panthers were in the NOVA Home Loans Arizona Bowl in 2019.
Head coach Shawn Elliott has witnessed the blue turf first-hand as a player at App State. The Mountaineers played at Boise State in the 1994 FCS playoffs but fell 17-14. Playing defensive end, Elliott had an interception in the game.
One of the top moments in Georgia State athletics history occurred in Boise, but on the hardwood rather than the blue turf. Playing in the 2001 NCAA Basketball Tournament in Boise, the GSU men’s basketball team earned its first NCAA Tournament win with a 50-49 upset of sixth-seeded Wisconsin in the first round. The Panthers, seeded 11th, trailed 49-44 with a minute to play but won on Shernard Long’s basket with 12 seconds left. Lefty Driesell’s Panthers fell to No. 3 seed Maryland in the second round.
GSU vs. USU:
Georgia State if facing Utah State for the first time, but the Panthers have faced Aggies quarterback Levi Williams. Williams was the starter for Wyoming in the 2019 NOVA Home Loans Arizona Bowl.
Georgia State has also faced Utah State head coach Blake Anderson, formerly at Sun Belt member Arkansas State.
UTAH STATE AGGIES NOTES:
KICKOFF COVERAGE
• Utah State (6-6, 4-4 MW) is playing in a bowl game for the 11th time in the last 13 seasons and for the 17th time in school history, as it faces Georgia State (6-6, 3-5 SBC) in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl on Saturday, Dec. 23, at 1:30 p.m. It will be the first meeting between the two programs. • Utah State will be playing in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl for the fifth time in the 27-year history of the event, which is the most appearances by any team. USU played in the inaugural Famous Idaho Potato Bowl (FIPB) in 1997, then played in back-to-back FIPBs in 2011 and 2012. USU’s last appearance in the FIPB was in 2015. • Utah State is 6-10 all-time in its previous 16 bowl games, including a 1-3 record in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. Since 2011, USU is 5-5 in its last 10 bowl games. • Utah State was a member of the Sun Belt Conference in 2003 and 2004 and went 5-9 (.357) in league play. Overall, USU is 9-13 (.409) against current members of the Sun Belt, including a 0-0 bowl record. • Utah State head coach Blake Anderson is 5-1 (.833) all-time against Georgia State and 38-19 (.667) alltime against current members of the Sun Belt Conference. • Utah State’s Blake Anderson is just the second head coach in school history, along with Matt Wells (2013-15), to lead the Aggies to bowl games in each of his first three seasons. Overall, Anderson is the third head coach in school history to coach in three or more bowl games, along with Gary Andersen (2011-12, 2019) and Wells (2013-15, ‘17). With a victory, Anderson can join Wells as the only head coaches in school history to win multiple bowl games. • Graduate junior QB Levi Williams is 2-0 as a starter in bowl games (at Wyoming) and was named the Most Valuable Player of the 2021 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl as he rushed for 200 yards and four touchdowns, while passing for 127 yards and another score in a 52-38 win against Kent State. Williams also led UW to a 38-17 win against Georgia State in the 2019 NOVA Home Loans Arizona Bowl. • Utah State has two quarterbacks on its roster (Levi Williams and Cooper Legas) that are a combined 3-1 all-time in bowl games. • Utah State and LSU are the only FBS teams that has two players with 10 or more touchdown catches on the season as junior WR Jalen Royals is tied for second in the nation with 14 and senior WR Terrell Vaughn is tied for 14th with 10. For the year, the duo has caught 149 passes for 1,870 yards and 24 touchdowns. • Graduate senior ILB MJ Tafisi Jr. ranks eighth in the nation with 131 tackles (10.9 pg). Tafisi has posted eight-straight double-digit tackle games, which ties the school record, and has nine this season, which is tied for the third-most in the country.
SCOUTING GEORGIA STATE
• Georgia State is 6-6 on the season and tied for fifth-place in the East Division of the Sun Belt Conference with a 3-5 record. The Panthers enter the bowl game on a five-game losing streak. The Panthers are led by senior QB Darren Grainger, who is 225-of-336 (.670) passing for 2,364 yards (197.0 ypg) with 17 touchdowns and seven interceptions. Senior RB Marcus Carroll leads the team in rushing with 1,350 yards on 274 carries (4.9 ypc/112.5 ypg) with 13 touchdowns, and junior WR Robert Lewis has 70 receptions for 877 yards (12.5 ypr/73.1 ypg) with seven touchdowns. Defensively, senior LB Jontrey Hunter has a team-best 96 tackles, which includes 7.0 tackles for loss, to go along with three forced fumbles. As a team, GSU is averaging 25.8 points and 372.5 yards of offense per game (200.9 passing, 171.6 rushing), and allowing 30.8 points and 431.9 yards of offense (287.1 passing, 144.8 rushing). Shawn Elliott is 40-44 in his seventh season at Georgia State and 41-49 in eighth seasons as a collegiate head coach. • This will be Georgia State’s sixth bowl game as it has a 3-2 record in its previous five bowl outings. In fact, this will be GSU’s sixth bowl game in the last nine years as the program has won each of its last two bowl games with a 39-21 victory against Western Kentucky in the 2020 Lending Tree Bowl and a 51-20 win against Ball State in the 2021 Camellia Bowl.
AGGIES AND PANTHERS SERIES HISTORY
• Utah State and Georgia State will be meeting for the first time.
UTAH STATE SPENT TWO YEARS AS A MEMBER OF THE SUN BELT CONFERENCE
• Utah State was a member of the Sun Belt Conference during the 2003-04 seasons and went 5-9 (.357) in league play. • If you are wondering how Utah State ended up in the Sun Belt Conference, here is what happened. The Big West Conference stopped sponsoring football following the 2000 season (USU was a member of the Big West from 1978-2000). USU then spent two seasons (2001- 02) as an Independent prior to joining the Sun Belt Conference. Utah State then joined the Western Athletic Conference prior to the 2005 season and later joined the Mountain West prior to the 2013 campaign.
UTAH STATE vs. THE SUN BELT CONFERENCE
• Utah State is 9-13 all-time against current members of the Sun Belt Conference with a 4-3 record against Arkansas State, a 1-4 record against Southern Mississippi, 1-2 records against Louisiana-Monroe and Troy, a 1-1 record against Louisiana, a 1-0 record against Texas State and an 0-1 record against James Madison • Utah State went 0-1 against teams from the Sun Belt Conference this year with a 45-38 home loss to James Madison on Sept. 23. • This will be Utah State’s first-ever bowl game against a Sun Belt opponent.
ANDERSON IN THE SUN BELT CONFERENCE
• Utah State head coach Blake Anderson spent seven seasons in the Sun Belt Conference as the head coach at Arkansas State, leading the Red Wolves to a 51-37 (.580) record, including a 38-18 (.679) league mark and a pair of conference titles in 2015 and 2016. Anderson also led ASU to six-straight winning seasons and six-straight bowl games from 2014-19, prior to the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign.
ANDERSON vs. THE SUN BELT CONFERENCE
• Utah State head coach Blake Anderson is 5-1 (.833) all-time against Georgia State and 38- 19 (.667) all-time against current members of the Sun Belt Conference. In his previous six meetings against the Panthers, Anderson’s teams scored at least 31 points in all six of those contests, including three games with at least 50 points and four with at least 48 points.
ANDERSON IN BOWL GAMES
• Utah State head coach Blake Anderson is 3-5 all-time in bowl games, which includes a 1-1 record at Utah State and a 2-4 record at Arkansas State. At USU, Anderson led the Aggies to a 24-13 win against Oregon State in the 2021 LA Bowl and a 38-10 loss against Memphis in the 2022 SERVPRO First Responder Bowl. At ASU, the Red Wolves posted a 63-44 loss to Toledo in the 2014 GoDaddy Bowl, a 47-28 loss to Louisiana Tech in the 2015 R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl, a 31-13 win against UCF in the 2016 Cure Bowl, a 35-30 loss to Middle Tennessee in the 2017 Raycom Media Camellia Bowl, a 16-13 overtime loss to Nevada in the 2018 Arizona Bowl, and a 34-26 win against FIU in the 2019 Camellia Bowl.
THE MOUNTAIN WEST vs. THE SUN BELT CONFERENCE
• The Mountain West is 35-18 (.660) all-time against current members of the Sun Belt Conference. In bowl games, the MW is 5-4 against current members of the Sun Belt Conference, including a 2-0 record against Georgia State. In the 2019 NOVA Home Loans Arizona Bowl, Wyoming defeated Georgia State 38-17. And in the 2015 Cure Bowl, San José State defeated Georgia State 27-16.
FAMOUS IDAHO POTATO BOWL FACTS
UTAH STATE MAKING FIFTH APPEARANCE IN FAMOUS IDAHO POTATO BOWL\
• Utah State will be playing in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl for the fifth time in the 27-year history of the event, which is the most appearances by any team. USU played in the inaugural Famous Idaho Potato Bowl in 1997, which was then called the Humanitarian Bowl, as it lost to Cincinnati, 35-19. USU then played in back-to-back Famous Idaho Potato Bowls in 2011 and 2012 as it lost to Ohio, 24-23, and defeated Toledo, 41-15, respectively. USU’s last appearance in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl was in 2015 when it lost to Akron, 23-21. • There are nine teams that have made multiple appearances in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl in Boise State (4), Nevada (4), Fresno State (3), Idaho (3), Georgia Tech (2), Ohio (2), Western Michigan (2), Wyoming (2) and USU, while 26 teams have appeared in the bowl game once.
TEAM NOTABLES
UTAH STATE FACES GEORGIA STATE IN FAMOUS IDAHO POTATO BOWL
• Utah State (6-6, 4-4 MW) will play Georgia State (6-6, 3-5 SBC) in the 2023 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl on Saturday, Dec. 23, at 1:30 p.m. The game will be nationally televised on ESPN (Xfinity Ch. 35/668HD, DISH Ch. 140, DirecTV Ch. 206) with Chris Cotter (play-by-play), Mark Herzlich (analyst) and Morgan Uber (reporter) on the call. The game can also be heard nationally on ESPN Radio with Clay Matvick (play-by-play) and Dave Steckel (analyst).
UTAH STATE NOTABLES HEADING INTO THE BOWL GAME
• Utah State is playing a 13th game for the 11th time in the past 13 seasons after not playing in more than 12 games prior to its current run. The school record for games played in a season is 14 set in 2013, and tied in 2014 and 2021. • Utah State is 18-20 (.474) all-time in games played during the month of December, including a 2-1 record under current head coach Blake Anderson, and 0-0 all-time on Dec. 23.
A LOOK AT UTAH STATE
• Utah State is 6-6 on the season and finished tied for sixth place in the Mountain West with a 4-4 league record following its 44-41 double overtime win at New Mexico in its regular season finale. Offensively, USU is led by graduate senior QB Cooper Legas, who is 138-of-213 (.648) passing for 1,815 yards (201.7 ypg) with 19 touchdowns and eight interceptions. Junior RB Davon Booth leads the team in rushing with 734 yards on 116 carries (6.3 ypc/66.7 ypg) with five touchdowns, and junior WR Jalen Royals has 68 receptions for 1,023 yards (15.0 ypr/85.3 ypg) and 14 touchdowns. Defensively, graduate senior ILB MJ Tafisi Jr. leads the team with131 tackles, which includes 7.5 tackles for loss, while sophomore S Ike Larsen has 91 tackles, to go along with six pass breakups and four interceptions. As a team, USU is averaging 34.1 points and 446.3 yards of total offense (259.8 passing, 186.6 rushing), and allowing 33.8 points and 415.6 yards (216.5 passing, 199.1 rushing).
UTAH STATE WINS SIX GAMES FOR 40TH TIME IN SCHOOL HISTORY
• Utah State has won at least six games 40 times in school history and 11 times in the past 13 years. With a victory in its bowl game, USU would finish with seven or more wins for the eighth time in the past 12 years, joining the 2011 (7 wins), 2012 (11 wins), 2013 (9 wins), 2014 (10 wins), 2018 (11 wins), 2019 (7 wins) and 2021 (11 wins) teams, and for the 28th time in school history.
