Troy Drops Sun Belt Opener to James Madison

Saturday, September 16

Troy, Ala.

6 p.m.

Troy University

1-2 , 0-1

James Madison

3-0 , 1-0

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

James Madison

Troy

Troy Drops Sun Belt Opener to James Madison

9/16/2023 11:34:00 PM | Football

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By: Troy Athletics Communications

TROY, Ala. – James Madison took advantage of a shortened field and held off a Troy rally as the Dukes snapped the Trojans' eight-game home winning streak with a 16-14 victory at Veterans Memorial Stadium in the Sun Belt opener for both teams.

James Madison (3-0, 1-0 SBC) scored 13 of its 16 points on drives of 14 yards, 41 yards and 52 yards, all in the first half, to knock off Troy (1-2, 0-1) in a battle of the two preseason favorites in the league.

Troy pulled within the final two-point margin on a 24-yard touchdown pass from Gunnar Watson to Jabre Barber with 13:49 to play in the game but fell short of the comeback as a 49-yard field goal missed left and an intentional grounding penalty thwarted another opportunity at a game-winning field goal with less than a minute remaining in the game.

Neither team found an offensive rhythm, with JMU totaling just 290 yards of total offense and 90 yards on the ground after averaging more than 186 yards a year ago. Troy musted 333 yards in the game but was held to -12 yards rushing, its fourth fewest in a game since 1996.

The Dukes jumped out to a 6-0 lead after a pair of Camden Wise field goals before Watson put the Trojans in the lead, 7-6, on a 14-yard touchdown pass to Devonte Ross with 11:10 to play in the half.

Troy's opponent scored right before the half for some critical points for the second straight week. Saturday, it was Jordan McCloud throwing a 9-yard touchdown pass to Elijah Sarratt with 2:24 before the break to put JMU up 13-7.

Wise extended the JMU lead to 16-7 with his third field goal of the game, a 32-yarder, with 9:32 to play in the game.

Watson finished the game 25-of-46 for 333 yards through the air for his 10^th career 300-yard game, while Barber caught six passes for 89 yards, and Chris Lewis finished with four catches for 93 yards. Kimani Vidal was limited to 27 yards on just 11 carries in the game.

McCloud was 18-of-26 for 200 yards for JMU, while Kaelon Black rushed for 78 yards on 13 carries. The Dukes were pressuring Watson throughout the game and recorded six sacks and 10 tackles for loss.

The nation's active leader in career sacks, Richard Jibunor, added one more for the Trojans in addition to recording a pair of stops behind the line. Jayden McDonald had a game-high eight tackles to pace Troy and added two tackles for loss.

Troy remains home next Saturday for another nationally televised game from The Vet as Western Kentucky makes a visit for a non-conference matchup.

Quotable – Troy Head Coach Jon Sumrall
"I've seen flashes from the defense. I think tonight was the first time where you felt more of a total effort of playing that way. The frustrating thing is that we were still not as detailed as we needed to be.

"I don't know if we played well enough at the line of scrimmage to really run the ball right at them. Kimani Vidal is one of our best players, and we have to make sure we find ways to get him his touches, but at the line of scrimmage, JMU was really good. Going into the game, they statistically were leading the country in yards per carry allowed, and they probably left the game that way. We didn't do anything to change that on our end.

"We did feel that coming into the gameplan, we had a chance to push the ball down the field if we could hold up in protection. We felt like there were some things for the taking down the field. We had 333 yards passing on 46 attempts. I think we probably missed some."

Notable
• Troy lost the coin toss and received the opening kickoff; the Trojans are 0-3 on coin tosses this season and 5-12 under head coach Jon Sumrall.

• Attendance for the game was announced at 26,634, which ranks as the ninth-largest in Veterans Memorial Stadium history and the second-largest conference home opener behind Southern Miss in 2019.

• Troy falls to 11-2 under head coach Jon Sumrall when allowing 400 yards or less of total offense and 25-3 since joining the Sun Belt when allowing 300 yards or less of total offense ... Troy also suffered its first loss under Sumrall, 8-1, and fell to 58-6 since joining the Sun Belt when holding opponents to less than 100 rushing yards.

• The loss snapped both Troy's eight-game home winning streak and eight-game conference winning streak; the conference winning streak was the third longest in the country, and the home winning streak was the seventh longest.

• Gunnar Watson threw two touchdown passes to bring his career total to 45. He is four touchdown passes shy from moving into fourth place in Troy history.

• Gunnar Watson threw for 333 yards to mark his 10th career 300-plus yard game and first 300-plus yard game since throwing for 321 yards against Marshall in 2022.

• The Trojans had four 50-plus yard receiving games - Chris Lewis (94), Jabre Barber (89), Devonte Ross (69) and Deshon Stoudemire (52). It marked the first time since Arkansas State in 2020 that the Trojans had four receivers record over 50 receiving yards.

• Richard Jubinor recorded a sack after he entered the weekend as the nation's active FBS career sacks leader. His 21 sacks as a Trojan rank as the 10th most in Sun Belt history.

• Troy recorded three sacks tonight; it marked Troy's first multi-sack game of the season.

• Troy held James Madison to 90 rushing yards, the fewest rushing yards by the Dukes since North Dakota State (95) in 2021.

• Robert Cole recorded a 60-yard punt in the third quarter, marking Troy's first 60-yarder since Luke Magliozzi's 65-yard punt against Coastal Carolina in 2021.