HARRISONBURG — As football fans finish Thanksgiving leftovers and take in rivalry Saturday from the couch, James Madison football coaches will be back to work.
The No. 4-seeded Dukes earned a first-round bye for the FCS Playoffs, so both coaches and players were given Thursday and today off for the holiday. Players return Sunday, but coach Mike Houston and his staff wait anxiously for Saturday afternoon.
In a first-round contest, Lehigh and New Hampshire meet at 2 p.m. The winner moves on, earning a trip to play at JMU next week.
JMU coaches will watch the Lehigh-New Hampshire game from the football offices at Bridgeforth Stadium.
“The thing that I like about it is that there are things that you can see on the TV copy of a ball game that you don’t see on film,” Houston said. “When you watch coaches film, the only thing you see is from the snap to the end of the play. You don’t see things between the play and you don’t get a feel for the flow of the game or how a coach calls the game.
“You can get a lot of that from the TV copy, so I think it does give us an advantage being able to watch that Saturday.”
Before leaving Harrisonburg for Thanksgiving, JMU practiced Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday — installing base game plans for both the Mountain Hawks and Wildcats.
Lehigh won the Patriot League, finished 9-2 overall and at No. 18 in the STATS FCS Poll. New Hampshire beat Maine in its Colonial Athletic Association finale, ending the year tied for second in the league. UNH had a 7-4 overall record and was ranked No. 22 in the STATS FCS Poll.
“We introduced schemes to our players, which is good because Lehigh and New Hampshire run two completely different defenses,” Houston said. “And with the quarterback that Lehigh has, there are different dynamics with the offenses, too.”
JMU beat New Hampshire 42-39 in October. The Dukes hosted Lehigh early in the 2014 and 2015 regular seasons. JMU won 31-28 in 2014 and won 55-17 in 2015.
The early consensus from JMU players is that Lehigh has improved since the two teams met last fall.
“They’ve gotten a lot better since last year and you can see it on tape,” JMU senior wide receiver Brandon Ravenel said. “You can see it by the way they’ve handled themselves this year. If they come out of the first round, we’ll have to be ready.”
Lehigh ranks No. 7 nationally in total offense, No. 6 in scoring and No. 6 in passing. Senior quarterback Nick Shafinsky was named the Offensive Player of the Year in the Patriot League. Shafinsky threw for 2,448 yards and 20 touchdowns and ran for 302 yards and scored 10 touchdowns during the regular season.
“I played against the quarterback at Lehigh when I was in high school,” JMU junior quarterback Bryan Schor said. “He was a really good player in high school and we saw him here last year and two years ago, so I know he’s a good player. I know they’d bring a good team in here if they come.”
Shafinsky’s top target is junior wide receiver Troy Pelletier, a three-time All-Patriot league choice. The two connected 88 times for 1,140 yards and 11 touchdowns.
If Lehigh doesn’t win, JMU knows exactly what its task is against New Hampshire.
In their regular-season CAA game, New Hampshire trailed JMU 42-12 with only 10 minutes to play in the fourth quarter. To the Wildcats never folded.
New Hampshire scored four unanswered touchdowns to cut the JMU lead to three points.
JMU would hold onto win after senior wide receiver Domo Taylor managed to cover an onside kick attempt 1:15 to play.
“That’s a really good team that we played and it was a tough game,” junior defensive end Andrew Ankrah said. “We had a good start against them but didn’t finish strong.”
New Hampshire holds the nation’s longest consecutive playoff appearance streak, making the postseason 13 straight seasons under coach Sean McDonnell.
Once the Lehigh-New Hampshire game ends, Houston’s staff will finalize JMU’s game plan for the winner.
“We’ll know the winner fairly early in the day, so Saturday night and all day Sunday we’ll spend a lot of time detailing what we’ll do with our game plan,” Houston said.
