There’s no game this weekend for James Madison with the team on its well-earned bye.

But that doesn’t mean the Dukes won’t pay attention to the opening round of the FCS playoffs.

Second-seeded JMU hosts the Holy Cross-Monmouth winner in the second round on Dec. 7 at Bridgeforth Stadium in Harrisonburg. The Crusaders and Hawks play their first-round contest Saturday at noon at Kessler Stadium in West Long Branch, N.J.

“I’ll probably watch the game live,” Dukes senior defensive end Ron’Dell Carter said. “I want to see what I’ll be working against, and I don’t want my first eyes on them to be when we walk in on Monday for meetings. I don’t want that to be my first time looking at them, so I’ll look at them on Saturday when they play.”

Of course Carter, first-year JMU coach Curt Cignetti and the rest of the squad have already started studying up on both Monmouth (10-2), the Big South champion, and Holy Cross (7-5), the Patriot League winner.

Monmouth’s Kevin Callahan, who is in his 27th season at the helm of the Hawks as the only coach in the history of the program, was named Big South Coach of the Year earlier this week.

The Hawks’ regular season was highlighted by an overtime win over Albany in non-conference action and then a 45-21 thumping of Kennesaw State in league play when the Owls were ranked No. 5 in the STATS FCS Top 25.

“Monmouth has won eight in a row by a 41 to 17 margin,” Cignetti said. “They’re a senior team. Quarterback was the preseason player of the year in the conference. Their only two losses are to Western Michigan and Montana, so they’re a really good football team, as is Holy Cross.”

Hawks senior quarterback Kenji Bahar was tabbed as the Big South Offensive Player of the Year for his 3,454 yards of total offense and his 28 touchdown passes to only eight interceptions.

Monmouth also has the nation’s leading rusher, junior running back Pete Guerriero. He has 1,668 rushing yards and 14 rushing scores this season, and over the course of his career has 18 100-yard games — including three 200-yard performances earlier this fall.

“I obviously know about Monmouth,” said Carter, who is from Baltimore. “Me and the quarterback played for the same rec team.

“I know Kenji can throw the ball really, really well and he can get out of the pocket. Their running back is [1600-plus yards], so you get my point, you know what Monmouth is going to bring to the table. And Holy Cross, I don’t know their personnel too well, but I’ve seen ‘em on film and that says enough about how they play, so we got to expect either one of those teams because both of them would be a tough opponent.”

Second-year Holy Cross coach Bob Chesney earned Patriot League Coach of the Year honors after the Crusaders blanked Georgetown 24-0 to earn the conference crown this past Saturday in the regular-season finale.

Holy Cross’ best victory came in Week 2, knocking off New Hampshire 13-10.

Like Monmouth, Holy Cross has 1,000-yard rusher. Senior running back Domenic Cozier paces the offense, entering Saturday with 1,050 yards and seven rushing scores. Freshman linebacker Jacob Dobbs leads the defense with 82 total tackles, 11 tackles for loss, six sacks and three interceptions.

“We started to a watch a little bit of film on both of them and assess the things they do,” JMU senior quarterback Ben DiNucci said. “But I think the biggest thing is we’ll see how this plays out on Saturday.

“The coaches are doing their job in terms of cutting stuff up and they think we’re going to see somebody, so we’re kind of gearing it that way. But we understand when playoffs start that we’re going to get a good team each week, so we’ve got to be on our A game and focus on what we can focus on.”

JMU practiced Tuesday and Wednesday before Cignetti dismissed the team for Thanksgiving. The Dukes were off Thursday and are off through Sunday.