Won the Race: GSU Gets 1st Win of 2025

By: Mac Brown, @SSN_GSU

If you’ve ever gone out to the driveway or the local Y and put up some shots, you know how it can feel to miss the first few. Not the end of the world, but certainly not the way you would’ve liked to start. You keep shooting though and eventually you make your first shot. It doesn’t crack the net with a swish but rather bounces around the rim a couple of times before falling in. You don’t really care though, you made your first shot of the day, and it feels good. Now imagine that being amplified to the level of Division 1 FBS football and wins. You’ve fallen into a bit of hole after dropping the first couple of games but finally get your first dub in a game that bounced around the rim a little bit. But just like making that first shot, it still should feel good to get one. Georgia State got their first win of the 2025 campaign on Saturday against the Racers of Murray State. The final point differential likely could’ve (and should’ve) been higher for the Panthers, but they’ll take the check in the win column, nonetheless. Cameran Brown had another stellar game (9 for 11 for 101 yards and 3 TDs) and continues to raise the question of who should be the main guy. The Panthers may have answered a few questions on Saturday but still have plenty of questions to answer before they head up to the Music City this weekend.

Tone Setters

After the Panthers went three and out to start the game, they were luckily able to get the Racers off the field after a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty. They then used six plays to go 65 yards with 47 of them coming off of a Branson Robinson burst to get GSU down to the opposing 7-yard line. First and goal was an incompletion to Ted Hurst, second and goal Rashad Amos bulldozed to the 1-yard line, and then third and goal he got stuffed. The Panthers were now looking at fourth and goal from the one with potential to come away scoreless from their first two possessions against an FCS team. One man couldn’t let that happen and that man was Ted Hurst. Hurst mentioned in the postgame press conference that TJ Finley told him it was coming his way on that fourth down and that he knows that “the guys are looking at him to make those kinds of plays”. Hurst set the tone for the night by hauling in that touchdown grab to put the Panthers up 7-0 and for good. Hurst would finish with 10 catches for 172 yards and two touchdowns. When you’re in a hole, your best players need to pull you out of it. And that’s exactly what Hurst did this last Saturday.

The tone wasn’t just set by Mr. Hurst alone though. The defense had a few things to say as well. After admittedly getting a little lucky on their first defensive drive, the defense hunkered down on their second. They forced the Racers to go three and out after only gaining three yards on a quick pass. This was the first three and out GSU had forced since the 4th quarter of the Ole Miss game when the Rebels had their backups in. And was only the second forced three and out by the Panthers in 2025. That was fifteen possessions in a row where the opposing team moved the chains against the Panthers at least once. To say it felt good to force the Racers off the field after three plays is an understatement. That stop certainly set the tone for the rest of the night too as the Panthers, excluding a garbage time touchdown and two-point conversion, held the Racers to only 13 points (21 in actuality). The Panthers held Murray State to 282 total yards on offense. That’s the lowest total in the Dell McGee era and the lowest since GSU beat Southern Miss on November 5^th, 2022. The secondary held a top 20 FCS passer in Jim Ogle to only 138 yards. The final score may not look as pretty as the Panther Family would like, but the defense showed up to play on Saturday. The challenge will now to be able to continue to do that against non-FCS opponents.

Aisle Three Still Needs a Little Cleanup

The Panthers finished the night with 13 penalties for 132 yards. The Racers had 2 for 25. This wasn’t some sloppy game where the officials were trigger happy with their little yellow handkerchiefs. This was a poor cerebral performance by the clearly better team in a fashion that seemed like they simply could because of the opponent. Just because you’re playing a lesser team doesn’t mean you can play mindlessly and at times poorly. When you give up 100+ yards of penalties, that’s a touchdown. Sure, it may not matter as much against Murray State when the margins for error aren’t as slim. But if you’re having those kinds of mental errors come October and November when you’re in conference play, you can kiss any hope of going bowling this year goodbye. The Panthers simply cannot afford to give up a “free” seven points to an App State or the directional school down south with the funny accents. Those games should be much closer than Saturday’s contest and if so, the penalties could be a very real reason the Panthers fall short. Clean it up now in practice or it could be another long year in Atlanta.

A Win is a Win

Sure, there’s still a lot that needs to be addressed this week and in the coming weeks, but getting a win will never not feel good. In recent years, wins haven’t come as often as anyone would have hoped and because of that, enjoy them when they do. There’s still reason to believe that it will be different in the future under this helm but for now, wins will be welcomed with open arms. The real question will be to see if the Panthers can build on this win at all. Last year they beat FCS Chattanooga in a close one in the home opener with 24-21 victory. After getting destroyed in Week 1 by the Yellow Jackets and then barely beating the lower-level Mocs, no one in their right mind thought the Panthers could beat an SEC team the following week. Well, that’s exactly what they did. Point being, Saturday may not have looked as prolific as the Panther faithful would have liked, but it certainly was a more convincing win that 24-21. What really needed to be seen on Saturday was improvement from Weeks 1 and 2 of 2025 and improvement from the 2024 season in a whole. Going off the result seen in first couple of weeks of this season and going off the result of the FCS matchup from 2024, there was an unquestioned improvement made by the Panthers. The rest of the season will tell us how large of an improvement it is.

The Panthers head up to Nashville next weekend to try and shock the world again, and in even larger fashion this time. Vanderbilt is no longer the “feel good” story of college football. They’re legitimate national championship contenders. A win for the Panthers on Saturday would not only be the biggest win in program history, it would be considerably bigger than any other win before. There wasn’t much reason to think the Panthers would pull it off last September, but we all know what happened. Buckle up and get ready for what should be a highly emotional battle between two teams that could very well be heading in polar opposite directions.

You’ve been shooting in the driveway for a few minutes now and have hit a handful of shots in row. Now you’re going for the half court (full length of your driveway) shot in hopes you can stay hot. Georgia State will be going for their halfcourt heave this weekend.