The James Madison Dukes travel to North Carolina to take on this year's college football 'feel-good' story, the Appalachian State Mountaineers in a Sun Belt Conference matchup. James Madison comes into this matchup 2-0 with two-straight blowout wins to start the season. App State has had a whirlwind start to the season and sit at 2-1 following last week's thrilling last second Hail Mary touchdown win over Troy. Saturday's Sun Belt matchup is set to kickoff at 3:30pm EST.
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The James Madison Dukes are now 2-0 on the season heading into this showdown at Appalachian State. The Dukes improved to a perfect 2-0 with a 63-7 thumping of Norfolk State last Saturday. The Duke jumped out to a 35-0 lead by halftime and never looked back as they have now outscored their first two opponents, 107-14. The victory came with a heavy heart for JMU head coach Curt Cignetti, whose father, former West Virginia head coach Frank Cignetti Sr., passed on the morning of the game.
“Everyone just wanted to rally and play for [Curt and] play for his dad,” graduate running back and JMU captain Percy Agyei-Obese said, “and just get this win for both of them.”
JMU's offense, ranked 11th in the nation in scoring, more than doubled the output of Norfolk State. The Dukes had 462 yards of total offense compared with just 212 for Norfolk State. JMU played all three of t heir quarterbacks in the blowout win and the three QBs combined to go 19-of-25 for 227 yards and four touchdowns. Starting quarterback Todd Centeio was sharp, playing just the first half and going 12-of-17 with three touchdowns. The other story of the game for JMU was its ground attack. As a team they rushed for 235 yards and five touchdowns from four different backs. Percy Agyei-Obese led the way with 88 yards and two scores.
Defensively, the Dukes held Norfolk State to just 9 yards rushing in the game and just 2-of-10 on third down conversions. The defense also had a pair of takeaways and were led by James Carpenter who had eight tackles and 1.5 sacks in the win.
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JMU battles App State for the first time in 14 years, as the Dukes open #SunBeltFB play Saturday in Boone.
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While they have not played nearly the level of competition that App State has in their first two games, you can't deny the numbers that James Madison is producing thus far. They are ranked 11th in points per game, 5th in offensive touchdowns per game and 7th in rushing yards per game. Defensively, they are sixth in opponents points per game, first in opponents yards per game and first in opponents yards per play. The Dukes are +1 in turnover differential and are 3rd in the country in time of possession percentage.