Ranking the Top 131 College Football Programs of the Last 40 Years: 119. Georgia State
No, not Georgia Southern
Help, a mid team has infiltrated the top 120! Chill, figurative person. Georgia State may not have the same top 5 seasons as UTEP or UNLV, but they haven’t been bad nearly as often in their time in Division 1-A, achieving bowl eligibility in 5 of their 10 seasons. And they’ve certainly been better than a team like Charlotte.
Best Seasons and Highlights
+------+---------------+------+--------------+--------+
| rank | team | year | resume score | record |
+------+---------------+------+--------------+--------+
| 53 | Georgia State | 2020 | -1.918 | 6-4 |
| 59 | Georgia State | 2021 | -4.375 | 8-5 |
| 81 | Georgia State | 2017 | -15.731 | 7-5 |
| 81 | Georgia State | 2019 | -16.175 | 7-6 |
| 83 | Georgia State | 2015 | -21.457 | 6-7 |
| 107 | Georgia State | 2022 | -28.612 | 4-8 |
| 112 | Georgia State | 2016 | -40.123 | 3-9 |
| 123 | Georgia State | 2018 | -52.752 | 2-10 |
| 128 | Georgia State | 2014 | -66.94 | 1-11 |
| 124 | Georgia State | 2013 | -73.561 | 0-12 |
+------+---------------+------+--------------+--------+
Overall Score: -3645.00007 (119th)44-77 record
0 conference titles
3-2 bowl record
0 consensus All-Americans
2 NFL players drafted
Georgia State has only been a program since 2010, and if you remove their first 2 FBS seasons (2013-14), they’re a very respectable 43-54, reaching bowl games in 5 of 8 years. They haven’t been a true title contender in the Sun Belt, but they haven’t been a bottomfeeder either. All in all, Georgia State seems like they’ve been a good addition to the Sun Belt, 2013-14 aside. 2013 was the 12th worst season by any FBS team since 1983, so we’ll put the magnifying glass to it and see what made them so stinky.
Top 5 Seasons
Worst Season: 2013 (0-12 overall, 0-7 Sun Belt)
Georgia State’s transition to FBS didn’t come without some struggles. This was the 12th worst season by any FBS team since 1983, as Georgia State went 0-3 against three FCS teams. Still, they weren’t as bad as the algorithm suggests. They lost three Sun Belt games by one possession and the losses to FCS teams aren’t that bad because Georgia State themselves were an FCS team just a year prior. They were 115th in the nation in PPG but still had future NFL starter Albert Wilson dominating on the offensive side of the ball, accounting for 251 rushing yards, 1177 receiving yards, 730 kick return yards, and 125 punt return yards for a total of 2283 all-purpose yards and 9 TD, earning 1st team All-Sun Belt. They even had a player selected in the 2014 NFL Draft, in OT Ulrick John, who won a Super Bowl with the New England Patriots.
5. 2015 (6-7 overall, 5-3 Sun Belt)
Georgia State showed steady improvement in their first 3 years in Division 1-A, going from 0-12 to 1-11 to 6-7. QB Nick Arbuckle put together a 1st team all-Sun Belt season with 4368 passing yards 28 TD 12 INT, averaging an impressive 9.0 yards per pass attempt. WRs Penny Hart and Robert Davis were both 1st team all-conference as well, and DB Tarris Batiste joined them with 100 tackles, 4 INT, and 6.5 TFL on the year. Georgia State also raked in the 2015 Sun Belt Awards with Arbuckle winning Student-Athlete of the Year, Hart winning Freshman of the Year, and coach Trent Miles winning Coach of the Year. After starting 2-6, they’d run through the rest of their schedule, finishing off with a 34-7 destruction of rival Georgia Southern, who came into the game with an 8-3 record. Georgia State lost their bowl game to San Jose State, but enjoyed their first bowl appearance in program history.
4. 2019 (7-6 overall, 4-4 Sun Belt)
By 2019, Tim Curry was long gone, replaced with Shawn Elliott who opted for more of a ground attack. This is probably the most memorable Georgia State team, beating Jeremy Pruitt’s Tennessee team 38-23 in Knoxville to open the year. RB Tra Barnett would rush for 1453 yards and 12 TD, while backup Destin Coates added 546 and 7 TD. QB Dan Ellington added 668 and 6 TD while throwing for 2447 yards 22 TD 8 INT. State ranked 12th in the nation in rushing with 241.6 YPG. Barnett and OL Hunter Atkinson were both 1st team all-conference. Ellington and TE Aubry Payne were 2nd team, and WR Cornelius McCoy and OL Shamarious Gilmore were 3rd team. After starting 6-2, Georgia State lost 4 of their last 5 to finish 7-6 on the year.
3. 2017 (7-5 overall, 5-3 Sun Belt)
Georgia State opened up their new 22,000 seat stadium with a 17-10 home loss to FCS team Tennessee State, and lost 56-0 to Penn State the next week. Not ideal. They’d quickly bounce back, dispatching Charlotte, Coastal Carolina, and UL Monroe to go to 3-2. After a close loss to Troy, Georgia State rattled off 3 straight wins with just a 5 point average margin of victory, and clinched a bowl bid. They’d get blown out by App State, and lose to Idaho in the Vandals’ final FBS game before moving to the FCS’s Big Sky. In the Cure Bowl, they’d top Western Kentucky 27-17 for the first bowl win in school history. WR Penny Hart would be 1st team all-conference with 74 catches for 1121 yards and 8 TD.
2. 2021 (8-5 overall, 6-2 Sun Belt)
Georgia State was picked to finish 3rd (out of 5 teams) in the Sun Belt East, and ultimately would finish 2nd to a 10-4 Appalachian State team. Things were rough for State starting out, going just 1-4 with blowout losses to Army and App State. It was time for a QB change, as Darren Grainger took over as the full time starter. The next week he’d throw 4 TD to 0 INT against UL Monroe in a 55-21 win. Georgia State scored a late TD to seal a 28-16 win over Texas State, and scored a TD with 26 seconds left to beat rival Georgia Southern 21-14. State would nearly beat #24 8-1 UL Lafayette, who needed a late TD themselves to beat the Panthers. 4-5 Georgia State then headed to #22 Coastal Carolina, where they were up 42-34 with just 2:30 left. Coastal Carolina would drive down the field and score, but the 2 point conversion…was stuffed! Georgia State ran down the clock for the upset win. The last 2 games were easy in comparison, and Georgia State finished the regular season 7-5. They’d dismantle Ball State 51-20 in the bowl to end their season winning 7 of their last 8.
1. 2020 (6-4 overall, 4-4 Sun Belt)
And then we have the covid year. While they didn’t end the year as hot as the 2021 team, this was an impressive squad with really close losses to some very good teams. One of their losses came 31-34 in OT against eventual 10-1 UL Lafayette, and another was 13-17 to eventual 9-3 Appalachian State. Wins included East Carolina, 8-5 Georgia Southern, and 39-21 in the bowl against Western Kentucky. LB Jordan Strachan led the team with 9.5 sacks (remember, in just a 10 game season), and RB Destin Coates was 4th in the Sun Belt with 769 rushing yards. OL Shamarious Gilmore and K Noel Ruiz made 1st team all-Sun Belt, and 7 other players made 2nd/3rd team. They might’ve had more players make the 1st team if Coastal Carolina didn’t hog all the spots.
5th Quarter
Outside of a 4-8 record in 2022, Georgia State seems pretty stable under coach Shawn Elliott. What does the future look like, and will Georgia State surpass Georgia Southern as the better program at some point?
Ranking the Top 131 College Football Programs of the Last 40 Years - Main Hub
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