— By Bill Cornwell
If the Sun Belt Conference has a realistic chance of having a College Football Playoff-qualifying team, it most will likely would have to be James Madison.
The Dukes are 7-1 and 5-0 in SBC play, with their lone blemish a two-touchdown loss to Louisville in Week 2.
JMU’s wins this season have come against Weber State and Liberty in non-conference play and over Georgia Southern, Georgia State, Louisiana, Old Dominion and Texas State in league play.
The Dukes, receiving votes in both top 25 polls this week, go for a seventh straight win Saturday at noon in Huntington when they face Marshall in an ESPN2-televised contest.
Bob Chesney is in his second season as head coach at JMU and has a 16-5 record, though one of the five setbacks came against the Herd last season with a Sun Belt East Division title up for grabs.
Chesney, previously was head coach at Holy Cross, replaced Curt Cignetti, now the head coach at second-ranked Indiana.
Chesney and JMU will have had more than a week-and-a-half to prepare for the Herd following a 52-20 win at Texas State last Tuesday.
“You tell the kids that if you are in that conversation, you’ve probably done a lot of things right along the way,” Chesney said. “We need to keep handling our business the same way. The only thing we can control is our day to day process and I think our guys are locked in on that and I think they know that there are a ton of things we have to improve on.”
The Dukes’ success this season has largely been based on rolling up impressive offensive numbers and complimenting it with solid defensive play.
James Madison averages 442 yards and nearly 35 points while surrendering 16.
The Dukes average north of 244 rushing yards and redshirt junior quarterback Alonza Barnett III throws for nearly 200 yards per game.
Besides Barnett, key players for JMU are running back Wayne Knight, wide receiver Landon Ellis, linebacker Trent Hendrick and safety Tyler Brown.
Ellis is a standout who is effective as a runner, receiver and returner. He averages nearly 138 all-purpose yards per game and is third nationally in that category.
JMU possesses the ball often and ranks second in FBS in time of possession at more than 38 minutes.
The Dukes are hard to run on, as the team gives up only 80.3 yards on the ground. The pass defense has also been strong, allowing 171 yards on average.
Marshall has won four of five previous meetings with the Dukes. JMU’s lone victory in the series came in 2023 in Huntington.
