The two offenses are very similar and if Fancher starts the rest of this year and all of next year, I'm estimating he's going to look a lot like Panther QB Darren Grainger. Georgia State does a good job of spreading teams out and hitting seam plays both with the pass and the run, using Grainger's athleticism to stress the defense. In fact, it's not Marshall or App State that leads the Sun Belt in rushing, it's Georgia State with the #11 rushing offense in the country. Their leading rusher? QB Darren Grainger. WR Jamari Thrash is their shot-play guy at receiver averaging nearly 19 yards per reception and has 300 yards receiving in the past 2 games. So far they've been better in the Red Zone and that's why they're averaging about a touchdown more per game this season. They don't have a back anywhere close to Laborn or Ali's talent, however, they do have a really really good offensive line that may give us our biggest challenge since the Notre Dame game. They have 4 starters back from last year and coming into the season returned 143 career starts along the offensive line (3rd most in the country). By comparison, we returned 36 starts (118th in the country).
Defensively, Georgia State is similar to Georgia Southern. From a rankings perspective, they're 10-15 spots higher than Georgia Southern was in most categories when I did the comparison last week. However, it's still a bad unit that will give up consistent yardage on the ground and through the air. If you watched their second half against JMU, you know what I'm talking about.
| Marshall (7-4) | |
| PPG | 23.8 (95th) | 30.6 (52nd) |
| Points Allowed | 15.55 (7th) | 31.45 (111th) |
| Total Offense | 398.5 (60th) | 421.8 (42nd) |
| Rush Offense | 199.0 (26th) | 227.3 (11th) |
| Pass Offense | 199.5 (104th) | 194.5 (107th) |
| Offensive Pass Effic | 126.72 (93rd) | 138.69 (58th) |
| 3rd Down Offense | 37% (88th) | 40% (54th) |
| Total Defense | 286.2 (10th) | 391.5 (82nd) |
| Rush Defense | 91.2 (6th) | 160.7 (81st) |
| Pass Defense | 195.0 (26th) | 230.7 (76th) |
| Defensive Pass Effic | 102.33 (3rd) | 136.2 (91st) |
| 3rd Down Defense | 21% (1st) | 41% (92nd) |
| Turnover Margin Per Game | +0.73 (14th) | +0.45 (31st) |
| Penalty Yards Per Game | 62.45 (107th) | 65.55 (117th) |
