James Madison coach Mike Houston held his BYE week press conference Tuesday at O’Neill’s Grill in Harrisonburg. JMU quarterback Bryan Schor spoke after Houston and additional players and coaches were available following the team’s practice.

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- Houston began his presser speaking about the team’s 42-39 win over New Hampshire. It was JMU’s first win at UNH in over a decade. Houston said it’s a place where visiting teams don’t often come out on top. UNH had only lost six times in Durham since 2007, until Saturday.

- JMU opened up its passing game against the Wildcats. Schor threw four touchdowns. Now that JMU has shown its capable of airing the ball out, Houston said he wasn’t sure what defenses would do moving forward to slow the Dukes offense. Before Saturday, many of JMU’s opponents had stacked the box in order to stop running backs Khalid Abdullah and Cardon Johnson. Houston said he thinks the proven passing game could loosen up safeties to not crowd the box as much, but ultimately how the opponent elects to defend would depend on what the opposing coach or coordinator views as the more important element to stop – the run or pass.

- Schor said he was excited for Saturday’s game against New Hampshire because he knew JMU had prepped all week to throw the ball. He said he was really comfortable facing UNH’s scheme and that he thought it carried over to his teammates.

- Schor connected with wide receivers Brandon Ravenel and Terrence Alls two times each for touchdowns. The CAA Player of the Week, Schor said he’s extremely comfortable with both receivers. He said Ravenel and Alls are great at getting open and giving him large windows to throw the ball to.

- The BYE week is always an important time in the season for recruiting. Houston said some of the staff left Harrisonburg on Sunday night to recruit all day Monday. He said coaches would go out again on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Houston said coaches would be visiting prospects as far south as Atlanta and as far north as New Jersey.

- Houston said most coaches would be visiting committed prospects, but some would be visiting uncommitted prospects.

- Houston said the bulk of JMU’s committed prospects are “mid-major type players.” The first-year coach said most of commits have FBS offers from mid-major programs, in addition to their offer from JMU.

- Running back coach De’Rail Sims is one of the coaches went out on the road already this week. Sims said he was in the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina on Monday and that he’s headed to Atlanta this weekend. Atlanta and state of Georgia is an area loaded with prospects that always get overlooked, he said.

- Sims said he enjoys the BYE week because it’s the lone week in the entire season that isn’t the same. He said typically his day consists of going to the office at the football facility, staying all day and going home late at night. During the BYE week, he gets to be on the road driving, which he said helps him clear his head and then visit with high school coaches and prospects.

- The first-year running back coach added that as well as James Madison has played this season, so many high school coaches want to speak with him about the program. He said when he’s recruiting running back prospects, he shows the player both Abdullah’s and Johnson’s stats. Sims said JMU would likely only sign one running back in this class just because of the way the scholarship numbers work out.

- It's against NCAA rules for coaches to speak about specific prospects before the prospect signs a National Letter of Intent.

- JMU is off to a 6-1 start and senior cornerback Taylor Reynolds said he could feel something special building with the team and coaching staff. He said the staff has great experience and an even better mix of older coaches and younger coaches. The staff has allowed players to adapt to their style and systems, which has been critical, Reynolds added.

- Reynolds said what’s separates this coaching staff from others is that they’ve really done a great job of taking care of their players. He said any player could talk to any assistant coach at any time. He said the play-coach relationships are very strong especially considering Houston’s staff is only in year one.