James Madison entered Thursday night as a 19.5-point favorite, up 21-7 at halftime with total control. Four quarters later, Troy walked out of Harrisonburg with a 24-21 overtime win, handing the Dukes their second straight loss and pushing their playoff hopes out of reach.
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Troy pulled off one of the night’s biggest upsets, rallying from a 14-point halftime deficit to stun James Madison 24-21 in overtime. The Dukes entered as 19.5- to 21-point favorites and looked firmly in control after scoring on their first three possessions. But their offense stalled after halftime while Troy found room to make big plays. Hayden Wolfe then delivered the final blow with a 27-yard field goal in overtime, completing the comeback on the road.
ESPN College Football put it this way on X: “TROY WALK-OFF FG TO COMPLETE THE UPSET AGAINST JMU ON THE ROAD. The Trojans were down 21-7 in the third quarter.”
JMU had been 7-0 and had won 13 straight Sun Belt games before App State beat the Dukes 34-31 in overtime last Thursday. This time, it started the same way. Camden Coleman hit Corey Scott for a 2-yard touchdown on fourth-and-goal, then found Braeden Wisloski from 31 yards out, and Seth Cromwell ran 14 yards from the third score.
After that, JMU had four three-and-outs and five turnovers over its next nine possessions. Without George Pettaway, the conference’s leading rusher at 824 yards, the offense never got going again. Troy’s defense stood strong, as safety Justin Powe returned an interception 37 yards for a touchdown two plays into the second half, then picked off a third pass to tie a school record from 1968.
Jaheim Marriweather’s 28-yard run off a JMU fumble tied it at 21 with 6:25 left in the third. JMU outgained Troy 408 to 349, but Troy gave up nothing on 13 straight drives after the Dukes’ first three.
The overtime was where the season’s momentum turned for good. Troy won the toss, and JMU went for it on fourth-and-1 at the 5, and linebacker Keno Jones stuffed Cromwell short. Wolfe, a junior-college transfer who had never made a field goal at Troy, hit the 27-yarder. A week earlier, JMU head coach Billy Napier framed the App State loss as a learning moment. But after back-to-back night losses, sports analysts and local media are already asking if the early momentum under Napier has hit a wall.
For Troy, that was the first road win of the season, the first win in Harrisonburg, and the first over JMU since 1999. It was also a turnaround from the 21-14 home loss to Louisiana-Monroe when it led 14-3 late and gave up 18 points in the last three minutes. Napier took over in December after Bob Chesney left for UCLA and had been 7-0 with the best scoring offense in the Sun Belt, with 41.4 points a game.
“What a moment for our football team, for Troy, and for all the people back home,” Troy head coach Gerad Parker said, according to Troy Trojans. “We’re still Troy; it just took us a half to get there. I’m just so happy for our staff, players, and for all of Trojan Nation.”
After the loss, the numbers around JMU have changed fast. Before Thursday, simulations and analysts gave the Dukes an 18% shot at the CFP and said they can’t afford a loss. At 7-2, they can’t finish 11-1 anymore, and App State and Georgia Southern each have one league loss in the East.
JMU also got criticism for kicking the extra point instead of going for two in regulation against App State, and the loss then went to overtime and a missed field goal. Two close losses in a row mean the margin for error is gone.
The Dukes still have a good team, the top run defense in the conference, and a quarterback with 14 touchdown passes. But a program that was 7-0 isn’t being talked about as a playoff team anymore.
What’s left for JMU and Troy
JMU needs to win out against Southern Miss and Coastal Carolina, while they also battle UConn in a non-con matchup. But that alone won’t be enough. They need to take care of business in the East Division and navigate conference tiebreakers.
Justin Powe, who finished with three interceptions, a touchdown, seven tackles, and two pass breakups, said, “I was really just playing off my teammates.”
JMU is at Southern Miss on November 5, while Troy hosts Louisiana Tech for Homecoming on November 7. The Trojans are 4-4 and 2-2 in league play, and they got a result that was hard to imagine a week ago.