Louisiana's got a Sun Belt West contender by December standards. Georgia State's just trying to make it to December.
Bush’s Picks
ULGAST
ULGAST
OverUnder
Best BetLouisiana
Louisiana's the far more complete team walking in — a Sun Belt West favorite against a squad that won one game all of last season. Georgia State's brand-new coordinators need time to show up in results, and there's no reason to expect that turnaround happens against a team with legitimate conference title aspirations. This is about as close to a lock as the Sun Belt schedule offers.
Louisiana
+Winfield emerged as dual-threat spark late in 2025
+Picked 2nd in Sun Belt West for 2026
+Returning playmakers in Sampson, Gordon
−Finished just 6-7 and lost the bowl game
−Coach calls the roster still young, inconsistent
Georgia State
+Full coordinator overhaul after brutal 2025
+Home game gives some late-season crowd boost
−Finished 1-11, winless in Sun Belt play
−Defense allowed nearly 38 points a game
−Lost final nine games of last season
This one's less a matchup than a checkpoint. Louisiana enters the 2026 season picked to finish 2nd in the Sun Belt West, a big jump for a program that stumbled to 6-7 last year and dropped the 68 Ventures Bowl to Delaware. Georgia State enters it just trying to find a pulse after a 1-11 season that ended with 9 straight losses.
The whole storyline in Lafayette runs through QB Lunch Winfield. He started 2025 as the third-string option and ended it as the offense's engine, throwing for 1,555 yards and 11 touchdowns while adding 667 yards and a team-best 9 scores on the ground. His breakout game against South Alabama, a 14-of-15 passing night, was the single-game school record for completion percentage. Head coach Michael Desormeaux has called this group young but talented, which is coach-speak for 'wait and see' — except by late November, waiting is over.
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UL Louisiana
GAST Georgia State
Georgia State's problem wasn't one unit, it was both. The offense scored under 20 points a game (119th nationally) and the defense gave up nearly 38 (133rd out of 136 teams) in Dell McGee's second season. The response was a full staff overhaul this offseason, new coordinators included, which is the kind of shake-up programs make when the alternative is a third straight losing season with no signs of life.
Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns
Nov 20?vs Coastal Carolina—
Nov 12?@ UL Monroe—
Nov 6?vs South Alabama—
Oct 16?vs Troy—
Oct 9?@ Louisiana Tech—
Oct 2?vs Arkansas State—
Sep 25?@ Charlotte—
Sep 19?vs UAB—
Sep 12?@ USC—
Sep 5?vs Lamar—
Georgia State Panthers
Nov 20?@ Marshall—
Nov 13?vs Georgia Southern—
Nov 6?@ App State—
Oct 30?vs Coastal Carolina—
Oct 16?@ James Madison—
Oct 2?vs Old Dominion—
Sep 25?vs Northern Illinois—
Sep 19?@ UCF—
Sep 12?@ Kennesaw State—
Sep 4?vs North Carolina A&T—
Recent form.
None of that guarantees anything changes by the time these two meet on Friday, November 27. If the new staff hasn't fixed the tackling or found a pass rush, Louisiana's skill talent — receiver Shelton Sampson and a defense anchored by corner Brent Gordon — should be able to just outlast whatever Georgia State throws at it.
Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns
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Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Georgia State Panthers
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Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Injury report — info via ESPN.
For Louisiana, a game like this is exactly the kind of spot that can wreck a good season if you're not careful — flat energy against an overmatched Sun Belt bottom-feeder late in the year is how bowl eligibility gets complicated. For Georgia State, it's just another Friday trying to find anything worth building on before the offseason really begins.
