The Georgia State Panthers had won just one game since moving up to FBS play three years ago. They defied the odds and made it to their first bowl game.
Georgia State football was just a dream six seasons ago.
Legendary coach Bill Curry helped establish the program with a year of work trying to recruit players to this new thing. The program started in FCS, but the date was quickly coming for the relatively large school (second overall enrollment) to jump to FBS after three season at FCS.
The school was ambitious, getting a big guarantee game at Alabama that first year, capping off a 6-5 year.
The program’s father was gone within two years, with just one more season before the jump to the Sun Belt and FBS. And its heart certainly was ripped out in many way.
The Panthers were 1-10 that final year in FCS in the Colonial Athletic Association. Then went 0-12 in their first year in FBS followed by 1-11 last year.
If you flipped through the Phil Steele College Football Magazine, Georgia State was projected to finish last. . . in the worst conference. It is fair to say Georgia State was projected to be the worst team in FBS entering the season.
The fact the Panthers are in a bowl game is even more amazing when you dig into their roster.
Star quarterback Nick Arbuckle was never supposed to throw for more than 4,000 yards in a season. He was a tight end in high school but has developed into one of the best passers in the country. The 4,000-yard season from the senior transfer was no fluke — he passed for 3,283 yards on 60 percent completion with 23 touchdowns and 17 interceptions last year.
Arbuckle completed 64.1 percent of his passes, averaging 346.7 yards per game with 26 touchdowns against 11 interceptions. On his shoulders, Georgia State has mounted the 42nd best passing offense in the country, according to Football Outsiders’ S&P+ measure.
That hardly seems like a team that would finish last in the Sun Belt.
Almost all of Georgia State’s key receivers — Penny Hart (1,085 yards receiving and eight touchdowns), Robert Davis (979 yards receiving and six touchdowns) and Donovan Harden (limited to nine games, but still with 672 receiving yards) — only had offers from Georgia State. Hart is a true freshman who took the Sun Belt by storm to become the Sun Belt’s Freshman of the Year.
As if to drive the point home that this is a team that should not exist, Georgia State has five transfers from UAB, the program that folded after the 2014 season, allowing all players to transfer without sitting out a year.
Many of those players were major contributors for the team this year, particularly on defnese, a unit that has had its struggles for the Panthers this year.
Junior linebacker Alonzo McGee led the team with 2.5 sacks and 12.0 tackles for a loss. Senior safety Bobby Baker had 66 tackles, three interceptions and five pass breakups.
This is a team of second chances. And, if to drive that point home, it was the team stepping up in its last chance to get into the bowl game.
Georgia State was a 20-point underdog on the road at Georgia Southern in the final week of the season. The team needed a win to get to bowl eligibility (otherwise it would be 5-7 San Jose State playing 5-7 Illinois this weekend).
The Panthers trounced the Eagles 24-7 with Arbuckle throwing for 346 yards, finding Hart for six receptions, 119 yards and a touchdown. The defense held Georgia Southern’s option offense to 143 total yards.
Everything came together for Georgia State. The team that has been all about guys getting their second or only chance had turned things around and come together in a perfect storm.
The Panthers have become the bowl team no one ever could have expected.
Facing another underdog situation — as a three-point underdog against one of the three five-win teams in a bowl game — Georgia State has the chance to do more unexpected in the Cure Bowl on Saturday.
