AUSTIN (KXAN) — Texas State’s Sun Belt Conference bye tour has hit a rough patch over the past three weeks, and things aren’t getting any easier as James Madison heads to San Marcos on Tuesday.
The Bobcats have lost their last two games in overtime, 48-41 to Troy on Oct. 11 and 40-37 to Marshall on Oct. 18, and they also dropped their Sun Belt opener 31-30 on Oct. 4 against Arkansas State on a last-second touchdown.
Now, the scheduling feature of running the game on ESPN2 has given them some extra time to figure things out. It will be 10 days since they last took the field when they meet the Dukes at UFCU Stadium, and they will have to try to put things right against the best team in the SBC.
“It’s going to take a near-perfect game to beat a team like JMU,” Bobcats coach JJ Keane said. “We do everything we can as coaches and players to put ourselves in situations to win a football game, and we were there in all three games, but we were doing it, we could have, we should have done it. At the end of the day, we just weren’t getting it done, so we dug deep to find out what it was.”
Scoring wasn’t the issue for the Bobcats. The other team has been kept out of the end zone. Texas State is tied with Texas A&M for 27th in scoring, averaging 36.1 points per game, but the Bobcats are allowing 31.29 points per game. This is 115 in the country. They have allowed at least 40 points in back-to-back games, and with the Dukes’ offense lighting up Old Dominion for 63 points on Oct. 18, Keane said everything JMU does “puts pressure on you.”
“They played complementary football, so we have to make sure we do the same,” Keane said. “We did it well at times, but we have to get more turnovers and then score goals.”
Quarterback Brad Jackson is coming off the most productive game of his career from a passing standpoint, with 444 yards against the Thundering Herd. He’ll have to set up another big game for the Bobcats to right the ship against the Dukes, who rank fourth in the FBS in total defense, allowing 237 yards per game.
Jackson has had a great season so far, ranking No. 16 in the FBS with a passer efficiency rating of 163.15.
Running back Lincoln Barry is No. 29 in the FBS with 609 yards, but is coming off his worst outing of the season with 27 yards on 14 carries against Marshall. He doesn’t let that, or the harsh schedule stretch, get him down.
“If your team is together, you have a chance,” Barry said. “Everyone stays positive, and you can tell what kind of leader you have when you’re on a line like that.”
A win over the Dukes would be huge for the Bobcats on multiple fronts. They will get their first SBC win, put this tough stretch behind them and reset focus to become tournament eligible for the third year in a row. Barry has been at SBC for six seasons since starting his career at Arkansas State, and he has seen some wild things happen.
“You have to know that every time you play a game in the Sun Belt, you’re going to have a war,” he said. “Anyone can beat anyone, and anything can happen in the Sun Belt.”
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m