HARRISONBURG — Mike Houston isn’t a fan of James Madison’s 2016 conference schedule.
The first-year coach admitted his team is at a disadvantage entering Saturday’s contest at Maine.
The Black Bears will have two weeks to rest and prepare for the Colonial Athletic Association opener, while JMU has only six days.
Over the weekend, the Dukes played in Chapel Hill against FBS North Carolina in a game that featured 84 total points, 1,130 combined yards and 151 total snaps — stats directly correlating with a fatigued football team.
“They’re coming off a bye week and we have to go to them, but that’s the schedule we have,” Houston said Tuesday during his weekly press conference.
Saturday’s game marks the first of three this fall where Madison will meet a league opponent coming off a bye week when the Dukes aren’t.
This week Delaware is off. The Blue Hens play in Harrisonburg on Oct. 1. On Nov. 5, JMU heads to Richmond as the rival Spiders come off their bye week.
“I didn’t make the schedule. I inherited it. I don’t know if someone pissed off the CAA years ago,” Houston said. “We have a lot of teams that we will play this year coming off of bye weeks.”
To combat any discrepancy in energy between his players and a fresh version of the Black Bears roster, Houston said he’s emphasized with his team the importance of getting the proper rest to be ready for Saturday’s noon kick off.
By Saturday, JMU will have traveled more than 440 miles by bus to and from Chapel Hill and will have spent two hours on a plane north to Orono, Maine, over the past eight days.
“They have to start getting sleep,” Houston said. “We’ve talked about hydrating early in the week. We’ve even started talking to them about Saturday morning. A 12 o’clock kickoff means we’re going to get up, eat a pregame meal and do what we have to do.”
Houston said he even plans to cut down Friday’s walkthrough and meetings by an hour to get his players extra sleep for Saturday.
Fifth-year senior offensive tackle Mitchell Kirsch said despite the disadvantage JMU is up against, the staff has done a good job of motivating players to look past it.
“That’s just the way it works,” Kirsch said. “We can’t do anything about the schedule. We come off a loss to an FBS school, but we’re ready to move forward to get a win.”
On top of the challenges of readying to meet a more rested and more prepared opponent is the quality of the opponent, Houston said of Maine.
Maine’s first two non-conference games were against FBS competition. The Black Bears nearly upset Connecticut before losing on a last-second field goal. Maine also lost at Toledo 45-3.
“Maine led a lot of that game and played UConn very tough,” Houston said. “Then the Toledo game was a one-score or two-score game in the third quarter. That game was very close until the end when Toledo blocked a punt and got some momentum late in the game that made it look a lot worse than what it was.”
Houston called Maine a “battle-tested” football team.
“They have an experienced, veteran roster that is very aggressive and will play physical, hard-nosed football,” Houston said. “It will be a very tough game for our team. We’re going to have to play very well to have a chance to win.”
