On the Sun Belt Conference teleconference call earlier this week, James Madison coach Curt Cignetti looked as if he had just bitten into a lemon when he was asked if he thought his team should be ranked.
“I guess part of being successful is dealing with this kind of stuff,” Cignetti said. “The more successful you are the more this kind of stuff is going to come up.
“One of the big keys to us staying successful is staying focused on what’s important and what’s important is our preparation for Georgia Southern and going in there Saturday with the right mindset, totally prepared, ready to play with great energy and execution.”
For the second straight year James Madison (5-0, 2-0 Sun Belt Conference) is unbeaten going into its game with Georgia Southern (4-1, 1-0) and Cignetti is looking to reverse what happened last year when the Eagles prevailed 45-38.
The Dukes entered that game with a 5-0 record and, in their first year in FBS, were ranked No. 25 in the nation. It was a wild finish as the two teams combined to score 24 points in the final seven minutes with two lead changes in the last three minutes.
Kyle Vantrease hit Derwin Burgess Jr., on a touchdown pass with 1:10 to play and Anthony Wilson grabbed an interception at the Eagle 19 with 18 seconds left to seal it.
That started a three-game losing streak for James Madison which rebounded to win its final three. The Dukes’ current eight-game winning streak is the sixth longest in FBS, trailing Georgia (23), Washington (12), Florida State (11), Air Force (10 and Penn State (10).
Kickoff is set for noon and the game will be televised nationally on ESPN2. Georgia Southern leads the series, 8-1, having lost the first meeting. This will be the Eagles’ first game at JMU since 1991.
James Madison, incidentally, is not bowl eligible. Teams transitioning from FCS to FBS must wait two years before going to a bowl. Last spring the NCAA denied the Dukes’ waiver request to be bowl eligible this season. They could, however, possibly get a waiver if there were not bowl enough eligible teams.
“We’re really excited to play against a really good Georgia Southern team that beat us last year,” said Cignetti who is 46-8 in his fifth season at JMU. “They deserved to win, they outplayed us and it’s a game that didn’t sit well with me.
“We didn’t play our best game and I thought Georgia Southern played well once the game got going,” Cignetti said. “They’re improved over last year and its going to be quite a challenge. I think they’ve improved in all three phases, but defense in particular.”
Cignetti, a member of Nick Saban’s original staff at Alabama where he spent four years, is 113-34 overall in 12 years and while his teams have always been strong offensively this year’s team has one of the best defenses in FBS.
JMU leads the NCAA in fewest yards allowed rushing at 36.8 per game, one of four categories in which they rank first. The others are tackles for loss (10.2 per game), sacks (4.6 per game) and yards per carry allowed (1.35)
In its two Sun Belt games James Madison has held Troy to minus 12 yards rushing on 19 carries and South Alabama to 27.
Defensive end Jalen Green leads the NCAA in tackles for loss, is third in sacks and running mates Mikail Kamara and Jamree Kromah rank third and fifth in both categories. The Dukes have held opponents to less than 50 percent on third down conversions in 39 straight games.
Offensively JMU has been doing just enough to win. Other than a 38-3 win over Bucknell in its opener, its other wins have been one-score games. It beat Virginia, 36-35, Troy, 16-14, Utah State, 45-38, and South Alabama, 31-23.
“The program philosophy is to run the ball and stop the run,” Cignetti said. “We’ve always been good against the run since I’ve been here.”
Quarterback Jordan McCloud, a graduate student transfer from Arizona who started his career at South Florida, has thrown for 1,160 yards and 11 touchdowns. Kaelon Black has 365 yards rushing while Elijah Sarratt has 19 catches for 280 yards and Reggie Brown has hauled in 16 for 373.
