In advance of Friday’s playoff game between James Madison and North Dakota State, Dukes coach Mike Houston held his weekly press conference Tuesday at O’Neill’s Grill in Harrisonburg. JMU coordinators and players also talked with members of the media following the team’s practice.
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- Houston said when the playoff bracket was released at the end of the regular season, he said he didn’t think anyone in the program went without noticing JMU would have to take a path through North Dakota State in order reach the national championship game.
- Houston said North Dakota State, “is the standard for the FCS level.” He said North Dakota State has won its five consecutive national titles by running its program the way he believes a program should be run.
- North Dakota State had a 20-play drive that lasted nearly the entire third quarter of its quarterfinal win over South Dakota State. Houston said North Dakota State does a great job of motioning and shifting prior to the snap to get favorable numbers at the line of scrimmage. Houston said the numbers lead the Bison to always get positive yardage.
- The first-year Dukes coach said JMU’s defense must do a good job of communicating to match NDSU’s shifts and motions, so the Bison don’t get the big advantage at the line of scrimmage.
- Houston said the closest offense JMU has seen to North Dakota State’s offense is Maine’s offense. He said Maine used a fullback similarly to how North Dakota State uses its fullback Chase Morlock.
- Throughout the week, JMU has practiced with the speakers blasting at Bridgeforth Stadium to imitate the crowd noise of the FargoDome. Houston said the FargoDome would still be louder, but JMU had to do something to try to create a tough environment for its offense and defense to communicate through.
- Offensive coordinator Donnie Kirkpatrick said with the music blasting, he wanted to simulate what it was like for JMU quarterback Bryan Schor to check a play without his offensive line or the receivers being able to hear him.
- Kirkaptrick said when he put on the tape of NDSU’s defense, “it was hard to sleep and hard not to have a stomach ache.” He said opponents of NDSU struggle to score points against them. NDSU yields only 15.8 points per game. The Bison are third nationally in the category.
- Defensive coordinator Bob Trott coached in the FargoDome last season with Richmond when the Spiders reached the semifinals. Trott said he’s told the team that the FargoDome is a great place for a college football but that JMU would still have to be able to communicate through the noise in order to win.
- Trott’s thoughts on North Dakota State’s ball-control offense was similar to Houston’s thoughts. Trott said JMU has to win first and second down to prevent third-and-short situations. Trott said JMU’s defense has to be able to get off the field on third down.
- In its quarterfinal win over South Dakota State, NDSU actually gave up a few big plays to Jackrabbits tight end Jake Wieneke. Wineke had five catches for 75 yards. JMU tight end Jonathan Kloosterman has three touchdowns in the last two weeks. Houston said Kloosterman creates a tough matchup for smaller safeties or corners because he’s bigger than them and a tough matchup for linebackers because he’s faster than them. He also said Kloosterman has great chemistry with Schor.
- Schor won the Dudley Award yesterday, which is given to the top Division I player in the state of the Virginia. Houston said Schor represents everything that’s good about the student-athlete in college football.
- Schor also spoke at length about his season and winning the award.
- Running back Khalid Abdullah said North Dakota State’s discipline stands out to him more than anything else that the Bison do. Abdullah said the NDSU defensive players are never in the wrong spot.
- Abdullah said for JMU to win, it has to minimize its own mistakes because the Bison often capitalize off of their opponent’s miscues.
