HARRISONBURG — Another football season is rapidly approaching.

James Madison opens its training camp next week, and late next month the Dukes will kick off the 2019 campaign and begin the Curt Cignetti era on Aug. 31 when they play at West Virginia.

The Colonial Athletic Association’s annual media day is already in the books and this past Tuesday, during the event at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, for the second straight year the Daily News-Record asked a mix of coaches and players — with anonymity — the same set of poll questions regarding the state of the league. The only rule was those players and coaches were not allowed to answer with themselves, their own school, any of their teammates or players.

Listed below are the most frequent answers and others that were heard more than once:

Team To Beat: James Madison

Others Receiving Multiple Votes: Maine, Towson

Just like the league’s preseason poll released Tuesday, James Madison was viewed as the team to beat in the conference by coaches and players participating in this poll. The only difference between the CAA’s preseason ballot and the DN-R’s blind poll was the Dukes didn’t take this by as wide of a margin as they did the preseason poll.

JMU earned 83 percent of first-place votes for the preseason poll the conference put together, but just 53 percent of votes for the blind poll.

As one player said: “Maine won the conference last year, so you’ve got to knock off the defending champion.”

Best Offensive Player: Tom Flacco (QB, Towson)

Others Receiving Multiple Votes: Aaron Parker (WR, Rhode Island)

Serving as the leader of the league’s top offense gave Towson quarterback Tom Flacco the nod for the best offensive player in the conference, and it wasn’t close.

Flacco earned more than two-thirds of the vote.

He threw for 3,251 yards, rushed for 742 yards and combined for 32 total touchdowns last season.

Best Defensive Player: Maurice Jackson (DE, Richmond)

Others Receiving Multiple Votes: Manny Patterson (CB, Maine), Sam Kamara (DE, Stony Brook)

What might be most fascinating about this year’s blind poll is it revealed how many outstanding defensive players the league has.

Richmond defensive end Maurice Jackson took this honor by just one vote over Maine cornerback Manny Patterson and while those two were the most popular choices, seven others — Stony Brook defensive end Sam Kamara, Albany linebacker Eli Mencer, JMU linebacker Dimitri Holloway, JMU cornerback Rashad Robinson, Towson linebacker Robert Heyward, Villanova cornerback Christian Benford and William & Mary defensive tackle Bill Murray — received at least one vote.

Toughest Player To Prepare For: Flacco (QB, Towson)

Others Receiving Multiple Votes: Parker (WR, Rhode Island) Ben DiNucci (QB, James Madison), Earnest Edwards (WR, Maine)

For many of the same reasons Flacco was voted best offensive player, he also was tabbed the toughest player to prepare to play against.

“It’s not every day in our league that you get to see somebody that can run and throw like he does,” one player said. “Some of the things he does are like Johnny Manziel.”

“No matter what you do when you prepare for that kind of mobility, it ends up hurting you anyway,” one coach said of Flacco. “And James Madison has the same thing with DiNucci, so those mobile quarterbacks are the toughest to prepare for.”

Outside of the two dual-threat signal-callers, Rhode Island wide receiver Aaron Parker and Maine wide receiver Earnest Edwards were mentioned for similar reasons.

“Edwards is a [expletive] to prepare for,” another coach said. “That kid can play, man. You can’t leave too many guys on an island to cover him because you just have watched not only the big plays he made last year, but over the last three years.”

Toughest Coach To Prepare For: Sean McDonnell (New Hampshire)

Others Receiving Votes: Curt Cignetti (James Madison), Chuck Priore (Stony Brook), Danny Rocco (Delaware)

The longest tenured coach in the CAA, New Hampshire’s Sean McDonnell, is thought of as the toughest coach to prepare for.

McDonnell, who has led UNH to the FCS postseason 14 times in the last 15 years, has a track record and is “always one step ahead,” according to another coach in the conference. The Wildcats additionally have an offense that features pre-snap shifts and motions in order to get skill players in space, and opponents don’t like prepping for that. The offensive system there goes back to UCLA coach Chip Kelly, who used to work at UNH for McDonnell.

The Player Coaches Would Want To Coach: Shane Simpson (RB, Towson)

Others Receiving Multiple Votes: Davis Cheek (QB, Elon)

Do-it-all Towson running back Shane Simpson can carry the ball, catch it and return it, which is why coaches said they’d enjoy having him on their teams.

Simpson finished second in all of FCS with 171.5 all-purpose yards per game last season and was on almost every All-American team as the all-purpose selection.

Best Road Venue To Visit: Bridgeforth Stadium (James Madison)

Others Receiving Multiple Votes: Delaware Stadium (Delaware)

For the second straight year, Bridgeforth Stadium is considered the best place to play by league coaches and players.

“JMU’s stadium is crazy,” one player said. “And if I had to pick a place to play, it’d be JMU.”

One coach said: “It’s just got to either be JMU or Delaware based on the environment.”

Worst Road Venue To Visit: Meade Stadium (Rhode Island)

Others Receiving Multiple Votes: Alfond Stadium (Maine)

Rhode Island’s Meade Stadium received more than 70 percent of the vote for the worst place to play in the CAA.

“Did Rhode Island at least get turf yet?” one player asked after responding with the Rams’ stadium.

CAA Teams In The 2019 Postseason: Six

The majority of players believe the CAA will repeat what it did last year — putting six teams into the postseason. But that certainly wasn’t the consensus among coaches.

Players make up the more of the voting group for this blind poll, so while players were optimistic, coaches said it’s more likely the league will put four or five into the playoffs this year.

“I’d say at least four,” one coach said. “But I don’t think the NCAA will take six again.”

CAA Teams Capable Of Winning National Title: Three

Last year, Maine’s run to the FCS semifinal was the deepest of any CAA program, but JMU played in national championships games in the two season before that. The Dukes won it all in 2016.

Heading into this year, the belief from players and coaches is the league has three teams — JMU, Towson and Maine — with a shot to hoist the championship trophy in Frisco, Texas.