Not that there are any scheduling soft spots in major college football, but Troy’s game Saturday is looking tougher these days than it did a few weeks ago.

The Trojans (3-2, 1-1 Sun Belt Conference) welcome West Division rival Arkansas State (3-2, 1-0) to Veterans Memorial Stadium on Saturday afternoon. The Red Wolves have won three straight games and have been rolling offensively since putting true freshman quarterback Jaylen Raynor into the lineup midway through the third quarter of a Sept. 16 win over Stony Brook.

“Arkansas State is a very improved football team,” Troy coach Jon Sumrall said. “… The first two games didn’t go the way they wanted them to, but they’ve sort of flipped the script. They’ve inserted Jalen Rayner at quarterback, who’s an athletic, dynamic athlete that throws the deep ball very efficiently and effectively.”

Arkansas State lost by a combined 110-3 in its first two games vs. Oklahoma and Memphis, and led Stony Brook just 17-0 when Raynor entered the game. Butch Jones’ Red Wolves went on to win that game 31-7, and since then has beaten Southern Miss 44-37 and UMass 52-28.

Raynor, a Kernersville, N.C., native, is the reigning Sun Belt Conference Offensive Player of the Week based on his performance vs. UMass. He completed 20 of 25 passes for 383 yards and six touchdowns, joining Oklahoma’s Caleb Williams (2021), Oregon’s Justin Herbert (2016) and Texas Tech’s Patrick Mahomes (2014) as the only true freshmen in the last 10 years to a have a six-touchdown game.

Troy is coming off an impressive win of its own, a 28-7 road victory over previously unbeaten Georgia State. Though the Trojans gave up a number of big plays, they held the Panthers scoreless in the second half and forced two turnovers inside the 10-yard line.

Troy also largely held in-check a dynamic quarterback in Georgia State’s Darren Grainger, who was intercepted twice and held without a touchdown pass for the first time all year. Trojans defensive tackle Buddha Jones made arguably the biggest play of the game in the fourth quarter, forcing Grainger to fumble on an option pitch near the goal line when the Panthers had been threatening to get within one score.

“I felt like that play really sealed the game, because they were so close to scoring another touchdown,” Jones said. “Our offense would have been in a rough situation. I think getting that ball back was a really big key.”

Offensively, Troy outgained Georgia State 410 yards to 296, with Gunnar Watson passing for 256 yards and a touchdown. The Trojans ran for 154 yards, 76 of that by Kimani Vidal.

Vidal, who also scored two touchdowns in the game, again figured into an interesting statistical trend for the Trojans. In games in which Vidal has rushed for at least 50 yards, Troy is 19-3.

“I thought our line of scrimmage play on both sides won the game,” Sumrall said. “In particular, I thought we improved offensively at the line of scrimmage like we need to; I’ve made a big emphasis around in our building. And we gave up zero sacks and allowed three tackles for loss which against that team is a pretty good day.

“If we can continue that trend, which we need to, I think we can stay on schedule offensively to become a good offensive football team. … That was a huge area of growth that we made and we’ve got to continue to make.”

Kickoff Saturday for Troy-Arkansas State is set for 3 p.m. at Veterans Memorial Stadium. The game will stream live via ESPN+.