James Madison: The Dukes have yet to announce what they're wearing, but they have a number of clean away looks that should contrast nicely with our full-colored get up. Series History: The Mountaineers have cruised in both previous meetings, including a win at FedEx Field in The Dukes had a mostly up and occasionally down campaign. The high point was arguably a hard-fought season opening loss against NC State in Raleigh, while the low point was a confusing defeat at the hands of New Hampshire.
Head Coach: Curt Cignetti. Cignetti makes his JMU debut against his alma mater after spending his previous two years at Elon. He's spent 36 years coaching at the college level after graduating from WVU, including a four year stint on Nick Saban's first staff at Alabama from Offensive Coordinator: Shane Montgomery.
Montgomery is in his first year at JMU but sports over 25 years of experience coaching at the college level. He spent last year at Charlotte, but was previously part of Youngstown State's national championship run in Defensive Coordinator: Corey Hetherman.
Hetherman is also in his first year in Harrisonburg but has produced very good defenses at his previous stops. Most recently his Maine Black Bears led all of FCS by allowing just 79 yards rushing per game while ranking 2nd nationally with 47 sacks.
As usual, this section will be built out more starting next week. Some numbers of note in the meantime:. Their experience means they likely won't panic, but I still think it would be huge boost for us if we can jump out to an early lead and get them out of their comfort zone. James Madison's defense is without question the strength of a strong all-around football team. The Dukes return almost all of their starters and key rotation guys from a unit that was one of the best in the FCS last year based on most traditional metrics.
They ranked Top 10 nationally in both scoring and total defense and were Top 25 in 11 statistical categories overall, and now they add a defensive coordinator in Corey Hetherman who engineered the best defense in the FCS at creating negative plays last year.
An important note here is these three backers only combined for 3. James Madison Dukes vs. The Mountaineers are just a 7 point favorite over the Dukes in their home opener. Oklahoma State Cowboys vs. Oklahoma State enters without a starting quarterback named, but are still 14 point favorites over the Pac12 basement dwelling Beavers.
Northern Iowa Panthers vs. The Cyclones are Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks vs. The Bears are favored by 38 points, but since has being a heavy underdog stopped a Stephen F. Austin team? Nicholls Colonels vs. The Wildcats start the Chris Klieman era as Auburn is favored by 4 points over the Ducks.
Without Leddie Brown available, WVU might have been limited in its ability to go with that expected grouping more often. Surprisingly, even with Jovani Haskins out for the first half, presumably due to suspension, and TJ Banks not playing, the Mountaineers still had 20 plays with a tight end on the field, and four with two in the set.
These are the types of plays that WVU must execute efficiently if it is to have offensive success. The concept here is pretty basic — receivers from the left side of the formation clear out space with downfield routes, while the backside receiver, in this case Sam James, runs a cross.
Everything works well here. There are also some counters to work off it if the defense jumps the crossing route — keep an eye open for those as the season progresses. The result of this play is in contrast to the previous one, and shows just how small the margin for error is on these sorts of plays and throws. The pass from quarterback Austin Kendall is just a bit behind Sinkfield, forcing him to reach back, which results in an incompletion. Both WVU defenders in the middle of the field chase hard after the running back, leaving the middle of the field glaringly empty.
The good news here is that the mistakes are pretty simple to fix. In order to keep punts from hitting the ground and buying more yardage, WVU deployed both Simmons and Sinkfield on the punt return unit. Speaking of which Josh Growden executed one such punt, only to see it bounce right at Exree Loe, who reflexively caught it. That prevented a probable roll of another ten yards or so. The thing that makes this play break big, though, is the downfield blocking. Simmons 1 gets a hindering block on one defender, and Sinkfield hustles downfield to clean up another defender.
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