BOONE, N.C. — From a Saturday league opener to a Friday night road game on ESPN2, next up is a Thursday night home game on ESPNU for App State Football.
The Mountaineers (4-2, 1-1 Sun Belt) play host to James Madison (7-0, 4-0 Sun Belt) in a sold-out Kidd Brewer Stadium at 7 p.m.
App State bounced back from a disappointing, storm-heavy loss to Old Dominion in its Oct. 10 league opener by erasing a 24-14 halftime deficit in a 35-32 victory at Coastal Carolina on Friday night. A day later, JMU continued its unbeaten start to the season with a 49-22 home victory against Georgia State.
The Dukes, one of six remaining unbeaten teams at the FBS level, also have Sun Belt victories this season against ODU (46-20), Marshall (45-17) and Georgia Southern (27-24) in the first season under the direction of head coach Billy Napier, a familiar face in Boone given his time as a Furman quarterback and championship-winning coach at Louisiana.
With two quarterbacks again taking snaps in Conway, the Mountaineers threw for 263 yards and rushed for 253 against the Chanticleers, highlighted by the offensive line work that contributed to
Jaquari Lewis' four rushing touchdowns.
Listed as questionable on this week's initial Sun Belt availability report, App State quarterback
Malachi Singleton was a game-time decision last week. He started, then showed admiral toughness and leadership in completing 12 of 14 first-half passes (with one impactful drop) for 151 yards while splitting time with
Henry Hasselbeck. Hasselbeck played the entire second half, threw a key fourth-quarter touchdown pass to push the lead to 35-24 and finished with 125 rushing yards on 21 attempts.
The Dukes' defense presents a tough challenge, as JMU allows just 16.0 points per game while giving up just 114.3 rushing yards per game (or 3.3 yards per carry). The Dukes have forced 12 turnovers and recorded 18 sacks.
JMU's offense is led by running back George Pettaway, who spent two seasons at North Carolina and transferred before the 2024 season. In his third year with the Dukes, he rushed for nearly 1,000 yards in 2024 and is at a league-best 767 this season with four consecutive 100-yard games for an offense that averages 223.7 yards on the ground.
The Dukes lead the Sun Belt in scoring defense but also scoring offense, averaging 42.9 points per contest. JMU quarterback JC Evans started the 2026 opener but missed the next four games, and former Richmond standout Camden Coleman has started each of the last six games, even with Evans coming in to make significant contributions against both Georgia Southern (two touchdown passes) and Georgia State (two TD runs, plus a TD pass).
After giving up a half-ending field goal at Coastal, the Mountaineers held the Chanticleers scoreless for the next 26 minutes to turn a 10-point deficit into an 11-point lead.
Devin Henderson's second interception in league play provided a big momentum swing during that rally, and App State limited Coastal to 139 rushing yards on 30 attempts.
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