Program's First Loss: Georgia State Football Falls To Lambuth 23-14 in Game Two

The Georgia State Panthers played their first football game in school history last week, looking surprisingly poised and effective in a 41-7 victory. On Saturday, Georgia State (1-1) looked more like the first year program they are in losing 23-14 in Atlanta to the Lambuth Eagles, an NAIA school.

GSU was unable to find a rhythm offensively against Lambuth, managing only 183 total yards and not scoring until the third quarter after piling on the points against another NAIA team, Shorter, in week one.

Lambuth took the ball to start the contest, and marched right down the field to score the game's first points. The drive was punctuated with a 23-yard rushing touchdown. The extra point was missed.

The Panthers took over on the next drive, and starting quarterback Drew Little, a redshirt-freshman, threw an interception on their second offensive play, which set the tone that the GSU offense would end up following for the rest of the game.

Lambuth tacked on a field goal in the second quarter, and Georgia State did not record a first down in the half as they went into the locker room down 9-0.

The third quarter began with another Little interception on GSU's first drive, but the Panthers were able to get some momentum going in their favor as reserve quarterback Kelton Hill took over to lead touchdown drives on the next two possessions.

A 53-yard run by Hill set up a two-yard touchdown run by backup running back Travis Evans, his first of the season. On Georgia State's next drive, running back Rosevelt Watson took a pitch and then pulled up to throw a 39-yard touchdown pass to Danny Williams to give GSU a 14-9 lead. This would be their first and only lead of the game.

Lambuth scored on another long touchdown drive in the fourth quarter, milking the clock and taking a 16-14 lead with two minutes remaining in the game. Hill threw an interception that was returned for a touchdown on the next play, and Little came back in to throw his third interception of the game for good measure to cement the Lambuth victory, 23-14.

Georgia State's offensive struggles obviously started at the quarterback position, where Little was 5-12 passing with no touchdowns while throwing his three interceptions. Hill, the change-of-pace quarterback used mainly as a running threat, completed two of five passes for 20 yards, but was GSU's leading rusher with 64 yards on five attempts.

Watson, GSU's starting running back, was actually their leader in passing yards for the game with his one 39-yard completion. No single Georgia State player had more than five rushing attempts, and Parris Lee, who had 62 yards and two touchdowns for the Panthers in their first game, received only two attempts which lost three yards.

Georgia State's defense limited Lambuth to two touchdowns, but it wasn't enough to overcome the offensive woes. Inside linebacker Olufemi Opanubi lead the unit with ten total tackles and a forced fumble. Outside linebacker Jake Muasau contributed six tackles and an interception.

The loss drops Georgia State to 1-1, and the Panthers clearly have offensive questions to answer in practice this week as they are done playing NAIA teams for the time being and will face Jacksonville State, an FCS team from the Ohio Valley Conference, next week.

Notable in the game was the continued absence of Alabama transfer quarterback Star Jackson, a former four-star recruit coming out of high school who was expected to earn the starting quarterback position at GSU this season. He has not yet appeared on field for a single down, and the fact that two quarterbacks were allowed to throw four interceptions against Lambuth without Jackson coming in is a bad sign. It's time to start wondering if Jackson is perhaps in Coach Bill Curry's doghouse for some reason.

The Panthers will continue their historic first season and look to get back on track September 18 against Jacksonville State in the Georgia Dome.