This Saturday the Cougars will be playing against the Sun Belt’s 9-1 James Madison University. The matchup will not be featured on College Football Gameday as previously thought.
James Madison University is not currently ranked in CFP polls, but they are still able to get the automatic bid as the No. 12 seed in the tournament if they can win the Sun Belt. The Dukes are ranked No. 21 in the AP Top 25, still looking to be a tough matchup for WSU.
At the moment, the Cougars are heavy underdogs projected to lose by more than two touchdowns. ESPN Bets has JMU at -14.5 and a 84.6% chance to win.
WSU this season has proven to be an underdog in each game they have played. Although they did lose to Ole Miss and Virginia, they put up a great fight in each of those games against high ranked opponents.
Cougars defense is riding a high being dominant for the past couple weeks in their last game. They only gave up three points. A bright spot for the offense is that they got it back into gear scoring 28 against Louisiana Tech.
The offense is a much needed turn around, after a very disappointing trip to Corvallis for part one of their battle this season. After Zevi Eckhaus and the crew only mustered up seven points against the Beavers, they got a blowout win with four touchdowns last week.
The Cougars defense has been nothing short of dominant with a couple mistakes on certain drives in games, but a bend don’t break mentality has kept WSU in games all season long.
WSU’s defense has only given up 6.7 points per game in the last three matchups. On the other hand, JMU’s offense has 37.1 points per game on the entire season, with last week being a testament to their firepower scoring 58 against Appalachian State.
A big difference between the two squads is their season schedules. WSU has played some tough matchups this season with multiple ranked opponents. In comparison, JMU has had one matchup against the ACC’s Louisville which was their only loss of the season ending 28-14.
The nation predicts that this will be an easy win for the Dukes, but Cougars have fought with intensity each Saturday.
The game is set to kickoff at 10 a.m. in Harrisburg, Virginia.
