Houston: JMU Is "A Special Place"
Second-Year Coach Committed To Program
HARRISONBURG – Mike Houston isn’t going anywhere. At least not right now.
“My thing is this, I am fortunate to be the head football coach at James Madison University,” Houston said Sunday after finishing practice in preparation for the top-seeded Dukes’ second-round FCS playoff contest against Stony Brook.
“It is a special place and I am committed to these coaches, these kids, our institution and our alumni,” he said. “And we’ve got a goal in front of us that we have not reached yet for the 2017 season. And we’re all committed to do whatever we can together to go and achieve that goal.”
Houston is 25-1 with a national championship and two outright Colonial Athletic Association titles at JMU. He has also has led his team to a Division I-best 23 straight wins. He has yet to lose a home game at Bridgeforth Stadium.
JMU enters postseason play an unbeaten 11-0 with its sight set on defending its title.
On Saturday, USA Today and Football Scoop reported Houston was a candidate for the head-coaching position at Georgia Southern. The second-year JMU coach has also been linked to other open vacancies at the FBS level.
This past offseason, JMU extended Houston’s contract. His current contract gave him an upgraded annual salary to $375,000 and takes him through the 2021 season.
His initial contract, signed in 2016, was for $300,000 annually to run through 2020.
Houston said he owes it to his players to remain focused on the goals the team set at the start of the year.
When Houston arrived in Harrisonburg, he was the team’s third coach in four years. This year’s senior class was recruited by former coach Mickey Matthews and played for ex-coach Everett Withers before Houston’s arrival.
“People don’t realize, number one, just how special of a group of kids this is,” Houston said. “I mean we had a great practice tonight. They do everything we ask them to do and there is a big loyalty thing between [the coaching staff] and these kids and people don’t realize just what a special place JMU is.”
Houston said he hasn’t had to address rumors about his job status at the school with the players.
“They know that I’m going to be honest with them,” he said. “If I need to tell them something, I’ll tell them. That’s just the way it is and I think that trust and that relationship we built over the last couple of years is what we lean on in times like this.
“But we can’t do anything about the stuff outside of our control, so we focus on the things we need to focus on and that’s getting ready for Stony Brook.”