HARRISONBURG — On a short week with an unfamiliar opponent coming to town, Mike Houston and his staff have reached out to anyone they know that might know something about Weber State.

The second-year James Madison coach and his top-seeded Dukes host the Wildcats, a Big Sky co-champion, on Friday at 7 p.m. at Bridgeforth Stadium in the quarterfinals of the FCS playoffs.

“I don’t see any connections really when it comes to us and them when it comes to recruiting or coaching staffs,” Houston said. “They played Cal earlier this year and [Cal quarterback] Ross Bowers is the son of one of our former coaches [John Bowers] and we got a strength coach [Markus James], who was with us last year who is on the Cal staff. So we’ve talked to them just a little bit about their matchup with [Weber State] earlier in the season.”

John Bowers, JMU’s specials teams coordinator and outside linebackers coach last season, left Harrisonburg in June to live with his wife in California and be near Ross. John said he was able to see Ross, a first-year starting signal-caller, play each week this season.

Ross’ second game as Cal’s starter, and John’s second as a spectator after a lifetime of coaching college football, came against the same Weber State team JMU will see on Friday.

“A couple of the guys have talked back and forth a good bit,” Houston said. “We kind of joked today about watching Ross on film and we were critiquing him.

“But they played Cal very, very close and it was a tie ballgame there in the fourth quarter and Cal goes up 27-20 and Weber State had a chance to tie it back up, but they missed a throw.

“It says something about going toe-to-toe with a Pac-12 team.”

Houston’s old assistant, Bowers, witnessed it in person.

“After I saw them play, I said, ‘Hey, this team is a playoff team,’” Bowers said. “And I had no idea how many games Weber State won last year, but you could tell they were a good team. Offense, defense, kicking, they were a solid team.

“It was a back-and-forth game.”

Bowers said he walked away impressed with Weber State senior quarterback Stefan Cantwell, who threw for 431 yards, rushed for 61 yards and scored two touchdowns against the Golden Bears.

Cantwell has thrown for 2,740 yards and 23 touchdowns and rushed for 550 yards and seven touchdowns this season.

“He is really a good player,” Bowers said. “He made plays and you could tell he’s a competitive kid and I think you’re going to see two really competitive quarterbacks going against each other.

“But I just remember he threw the long ball nice, and he was impressive to watch as far as the offense and play-action pass and stuff that they do to keep you off balance. I thought he was a good football player.”

Bowers said JMU should be aware of Weber State’s strong special teams, too.

Weber State kicker Trey Tuttle and returner Rashid Shaheed were All-Big Sky first-team choices and as a team the Wildcats are in the top 20 nationally for kick returns (25.03 yards per return), kick-return defense (17.63 yards allowed per return), punt returns (12.03 yards per return) and punt-return defense (4.67 yards allowed per return).

“The other thing I remember from the game is how good of special teams they had,” Bowers said. “They tried a couple of fakes. I think they tried a fake punt. They tried a fake field goal. And I don’t remember if those worked, but I remember saying it was the perfect time and perfect opportunity.

“To beat and upset a Pac-12 team, you got to do some of those things and they had a good game plan.”

Against an FBS opponent, Weber State didn’t have anything to lose by trying to be creative, which is something Houston noticed as he and the staff studied the Wildcats.

“They’ve faked two field goals. They’ve faked three punts,” Houston said. “Cantwell has caught a pass and the pass that would have tied the game against Cal was a quarterback throwback. They’ve done a variety of things all throughout.

“They’re going to muddle huddle on the field goal unit and it’s one of those things where it’s like New Hampshire plus some as far as seeing everything in the book with the kicking game and offensively with different things and unusual plays.

“We’ve seen a variety of them already, but it’ll force you to be sound and disciplined, but as long as you’re sound and disciplined you should be OK against that stuff.”

As for Bowers, he said he’ll be watching the quarterfinal contest and rooting for the Dukes on Saturday. He has a good relationship with Houston, the assistant coaches and played a large role in recruiting and coaching many of the current JMU players.

Bowers and former JMU offensive line coach Jamal Powell, who is now at Lamar University, were the only two coaches to transition from ex-coach Everett Withers’ staff to Houston’s.

“Mike told me, and he didn’t have to put me on the field, he could have kept me off the field in a recruiting role, but when he first started, he said, ‘You’re starting fresh, there’s nothing that matters from before and he was a man to his word,’” Bowers said. “He was a great.

“It was a fabulous 14, 15 months with him and I learned a lot. I saw how to take a good group of players and make them great.”