HARRISONBURG – East Tennessee State coach Carl Torbush left Bridgeforth Stadium impressed.
“There’s a reason they’re No. 1 in the county right now,” Torbush said after his team’s 52-10 loss to top-ranked James Madison. “And it’s because they deserve it.”
The Dukes are the reigning FCS national champion and have now won their first two games in 2017 by a combined score of 86-24. JMU knocked off FBS East Carolina last week.
“If they played East Carolina 10 times, from what I saw, they’d beat them 10 times,” Torbush said.
Torbush added he thought JMU looked like an FBS team.
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- JMU is now 35-11 all-time in home openers and have won 25 of its last 26 home openers.
- The Dukes also improved to 7-3 all-time against East Tennessee State.
- For JMU, the victory extended its Division I nation's longest winning streak to 14 games.
- JMU quarterback Bryan Schor threw for five touchdowns in the Dukes’ win. Schor has 42 touchdown passes for his career, which puts him fourth in school history.
- The five touchdown tosses went to three different wide receivers – senior Ishmael Hyman, junior David Eldridge and sophomore Riley Stapleton. Hyman and Stapleton each had two touchdown receptions. Stapleton hauled in the first of his college career and Eldridge, who joined JMU after transferring from Virginia, recorded the first of his JMU career.
- Schor said East Tennessee State had loaded the box to stop the JMU’s rushing attack, so he had one-on-one opportunities to throw the ball to his pass-catchers in the win.
- JMU rushed for 422 yards last week at East Carolina. East Tennsee State limited the Dukes to only 122 rushing yards. The 122 rushing yards are the fewest the team has run for in its 17 games under coach Mike Houston.
- Houston said ETSU played eight or nine defenders in the box so the offensive game plan was to get the ball to receivers against single coverage.
- Torbush said he thought his defensive staff did a good job scheming to play against JMU’s rushing attack. He said ETSU has mature players on defense that understood slowing the running game was key for the Bucs’ unit, but inevitably gave up too many third-down conversions.
- JMU converted 10 of 15 third-down tries on offense.
- For a second consecutive week, JMU held its opponent under 100 yards rushing. ETSU had only 57 rushing yards and ECU had only 80 last Saturday. Houston said JMU defensive coordinator Bob Trott called the game aggressively and that combined with the players in their second season of defending within the 4-2-5 system, they understand it and can defend more efficiently.
- Defensive end Darrious Carter said the point of emphasis for JMU’s defense was to say strong at the point of contact in order to keep ETSU’s running game limited.
- John Miller provided a highlight on special teams with a 41-yard punt return touchdown. Houston said, “That’s more of what we’re used to” in regards to his special teams.
- JMU’s average starting field position was its own 37-yard line whereas ETSU started its drives at its own 16 on average.
