No. 25 James Madison (5-0 SU, 5-0 ATS) meets Georgia Southern (3-3 SU, 4-2 ATS) on Saturday afternoon from Statesboro at 4pmET.
The Dukes are 3-0 in the East Division of the Sun Belt, which ties them with Coastal Carolina. Georgia Southern is 0-2 in the East.
JMU is not eligible for postseason play due to the fact that NCAA rules require a two-year transition period for new FBS schools. James Madison would like to shorten that period at least a year considering how easy their transition has been.
“I’d want them to know that I was fighting really hard with the NCAA to try to get that changed which I will,” said JMU Director of Athletics Jeff Bourne to WHSV.com “It doesn’t seem right to go through an entire season and play at the level that they are playing and not have that opportunity.”
James Madison passed their first tough test and that was upsetting Appalachian State 32-28 on Sept. 24. Since then, they showed no signs of a letdown as they beat up on Texas State (40-13) on Oct. 1 and crushed Arkansas State on the road last week by 22 (42-20) as an 11.5-point favorite. The key to the Dukes' early FBS success on offense has been the play of QB Todd Centeio, who threw for 394 yards and four TDs against Arkansas State. He now has 15 TD passes on the season and just one pick.
Got the job done tonight!
Cue those highlights ??#GoDukes | @nflnetwork pic.twitter.com/OF74knvcM6
— JMU Football (@JMUFootball) October 9, 2022
The game was actually a close one until the Dukes pulled away in the fourth quarter on a 31-yard run from Percy Agyei-Obese and a 28-yard pass from Centeio to Drew Painter. JMU amassed 33 first downs and over 500 yards of offense compared to just 267 yards for the Red Wolves. The Dukes held ASU to just 20 yards rushing on 27 carries.
JMU's defense has been phenomenal as they allowed just 41 yards rushing per game to rank first in the nation and they allowed just 227.4 yards per game overall (2nd). Offensively, they are very balanced as they average 489.2 yards per game overall (16th), 215.4 rushing yards (17th) and 273.8 passing yards (33rd).
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