Christian Veilleux hit Ted Hurst with a 25-yard touchdown pass with 15 seconds left, helping Georgia State to a 36-32 upset of Vanderbilt in Atlanta on Saturday night.
Veilleux threw for 269 yards and three touchdowns and added a rushing score.
The Panthers’ Kevin Swint had eight tackles, including two sacks and a forced fumble.
Vanderbilt’s Diego Pavia threw for 248 yards and two touchdowns.
The Commodores made several key mistakes, including nine penalties for 85 yards. Safety CJ Taylor was ejected in the fourth quarter for targeting.
Liam Rickman’s 45-yard field goal at the 10:22 mark of the third quarter gave the Panthers a 15-10 lead.
After the Commodores punted on their first possession of the second half, Veilleux fired a touchdown to a diving Rykem Laney to extend the lead to 22-10.
After a Georgia State punt, Bryan Longwell picked Veilleux and returned it to the Panthers 37, setting up an 18-yard Pavia-to-Eli Stowers touchdown pass with 14:07 remaining.
But the Panthers answered with Veilleux’s 18-yard touchdown run with 11:42 left.
Vanderbilt drove to the Panthers 25 but Swint broke up a fourth-down pass at the 20.
Vanderbilt scored touchdowns with 2:29 and 1:14 left on short runs by AJ Newberry and Sedrick Alexander but couldn’t hold the Panthers on the ensuing drive.
Georgia State led 12-10 at the half thanks to two huge Vanderbilt mistakes.
The first came on the game’s third play. Swint hit Pavia from the back side, forcing a fumble that Izaiah Guy recovered to give the Panthers possession at the Commodores 20.
Seven plays later, Rickman gave Georgia State a 3-0 lead with a 24-yard field goal.
Vanderbilt’s Brock Taylor hit a 28-yard field goal with 12:28 left in the second quarter.
Veilleux hit an open Ted Hurst for a 33-yard touchdown on Georgia State’s next possession.
The second mistake came when Vanderbilt’s Steven Sannienola gave the Panthers a safety. He fumbled a kickoff in the end zone, pulled it back across the goal line and knelt on it in the end zone for two uncontested points.
Pavia struck back just before half, hitting Newberry on a wheel route for 53 yards to the GSU 8. Pavia then found an open Junior Sherrill to cut the deficit to two with 46 seconds left.
–Field Level Media