The lengthiest season in James Madison football history never prevented Curt Cignetti and Brian Phillips from leading to curtail one of the largest potential hindrances of that campaign.

To play 16 games, the roster must largely stay intact for 16 games.

“It’s sort of a comprehensive philosophy,” Cignetti, the Dukes coach, said. “And everybody is on the same page. And it’s not only injury prevention, but it’s performance improvement, too.”

Those two ideas aren’t separate and do overlap, so Cignetti works closely with his strength and conditioning coach, Phillips, who trains the team all year long and exclusively during the crucial summer months leading into training camp, to ensure players are prepared for each work out, practice and game.

This past season, JMU finished 14-2, won the Colonial Athletic Association outright and reached the FCS national championship game, which, according to Cignetti, requires as much good health as it does exceptional talent, creative schemes and consistent execution.

“Not only do you have to develop guys, so they can be successful,” Cignetti said, “but you’ve got to keep ‘em on the field.”

While CAA foes dealt with campaign-crippling setbacks this past fall – to all-league caliber players like Towson running back Shane Simpson (knee), Maine linebacker Deshawn Stevens (Achilles), Maine cornerback Manny Patterson (knee) and New Hampshire safety Pop Lacey (foot) just to name a few – the Dukes slashed their major-injury rate from the year before.

Cignetti said throughout the 2019 season only 15 surgeries were required across the entire JMU roster compared to the 2018 season when JMU had double the amount of surgeries, 30, across the team.

“Working with Coach Cignetti, I think he definitely understands player management at a good level,” Phillips said.

To reduce the number of injuries, Phillips said there is one key factor above all else.

“We know that the number one predictor of injuries is previous injuries,” he said.

And the second-year strength coach added when he arrived along with Cignetti and the rest of Cignetti’s staff in December of 2018, it was evident to them that one particular injury had occurred more frequently than others for the Dukes.

“We had a double-digit number of shoulder surgeries the year before,” Phillips said, so he crafted JMU’s first set of workouts in preparation for this past season to alleviate shoulder issues.

He said players did not bench press for the first four months he trained them.

“People would be like, ‘What? You’re not bench pressing,’” Phillips said. “But I didn’t feel like we needed that because we know that the bench press can put guys in a provocative shoulder position. So we found other methods to keep their punch and keep that position strong, but we didn’t barbell bench whereas other [programs] where the shoulders are good, want to barbell bench. And that’s a great movement, but it’s not a great movement if it causes pain.”

That thought applies to both short-term situations and long-term situations.

Phillips said by the conclusion of the 2019 season, JMU had minimized its number of shoulder surgeries by 73 percent by going from double digits in 2018 to three for 2019.

“I think there was more of an emphasis on [injury prevention] with this coaching staff,” senior offensive tackle Liam Fornadel said. “Practices were a lot shorter and a lot smarter, too, and I think [Phillips] has done a good job with lifting, stretching and incorporating different things we can use.”

Phillips said it’s why he believes in more eccentric and isometric strength training as opposed to concentric lifting. Concentric is typically associated, according to Phillips, with the end-result number of weight when finishing a bench press or a squat rep.

“We want to think about how much we can absorb,” Phillips said, “because the more we can absorb, I think, the better we can decrease injury. Anytime you have change of direction, that’s eccentric. You have to turn the breaks on before, and that’s where injuries happen, during deceleration.”

Cignetti said: “So we’re not a 1970’s weight room philosophy where you load the bar up with a lot of weight, because that’ll lead to problems. But it goes hand-in-hand with the total program philosophy that, sometimes, less is more and it’s just like the way we practice.”

As Fornadel pointed out, the shortened practices aided the Dukes in their pursuit of reaching the FCS national championship game.

All the way back during preseason camp this past August, Cignetti acknowledged he preferred quick, but intense practices. The idea being that the more efficiently the team executed drills and plays, the more they could accomplish in a lesser amount of time in order to avoid unnecessary taxing on the bodies of players.

Last week, the second-year coach said it was all by design to extend the life of his team.

“That’s a big part of injury prevention, too,” Cignetti said. “You build a foundation and the reps accumulate, but you need rest and recovery. Young people need sleep and they also need time off their feet, and you’ve got to have smart workloads. You build that foundation in the spring and fall camp, so guys know how to hit and you don’t need to practice hitting for hitting sake in practice once the season starts.

“… And so, I think when we start August camp, like last year, you start out with a 16-game season in mind. Maybe those practices that first week are two hours and 10 minutes to 2:15 and by the second week they’re down to two hours to 2:10 and then by Week 3, you’re around or under two [hours]. Then, in-season you’re at like 1:38 to 1:45 and then by the second half of the season you’re 1:20 to 1:35, and then come playoff time you’re 1:10 to 1:25. It all goes hand in hand.”

Even within JMU practices and games, workloads are being monitored, too, thanks to the GPS trackers Cignetti and Phillips introduced when they arrived.

“It’s kind of like a sports bra looking thing that we put on our back,” JMU senior defensive tackle Mike Greene explained, “and it’ll track us.

“It definitely helps. It let’s you know when to take a break and when to go harder, and stuff like that.”

Phillips said the GPS that players wear monitor six different metrics – distance, maximum speed, total accelerations, total decelerations, high-speed distance and player load. Player load is a cumulative number calculated by the first five metrics.

Each day, Phillips distributes those numbers to Cignetti and the rest of the coaching staff when they meet.

Offensive coordinator Shane Montgomery and position coaches on offense see the numbers for offensive players while defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman and defensive position coaches have access to the numbers for defensive players.

“I think that was a huge factor for us in being able to keep these guys healthy,” Phillips said. “We had a guy like [former wide receiver] Brandon Polk come in, who traditionally had been injured his entire career, and he didn’t miss a snap for us. He didn’t miss a practice. He didn’t miss a snap, and he was top three-ranked workload guy every single day. So what the GPS tells us is, maybe this guy worked hard, but maybe he can handle that.”

Polk, who joined JMU after transferring from Penn State, finished his lone season as a member of the Dukes with 1,179 receiving yards to go along with 11 touchdowns.

“I’d see that position coach right after that meeting and we’d develop a plan for that day,” Phillips said. “So maybe Polk had a super high workload the day before and it’s a Wednesday practice. It’s like look, ‘During 7-on-7, let’s take him out of all the go-routes and let him run the shorter routes.’ It could be a simple fix like that where they player is still in and we’re not taking him out of a drill, but we’re fitting them to what their preparedness and readiness is for that day.”

The staff kept an eye on week-to-week progression, too, so that metrics taken in Week 1 during the Dukes’ loss at West Virginia matched the numbers players were putting up the next game and the game after that, to midway through the season in their October contest against Villanova and eventually the playoffs and the championship game against North Dakota State.

Cignetti said it takes regular communication and cohesion across the coaching staff to keep players healthy.

“And [Phillips] does a good job of checking in and keeping me updated on how guys are doing,” Cignetti said. “And this year will be our third together, and philosophically we’re on the same page.”