James Madison settled into its bye week with a win at New Hampshire last Saturday. The Dukes are 6-1 overall and 4-0 in the Colonial Athletic Association with the stretch run approaching. JMU returns to action Saturday with its homecoming game against Rhode Island.
Remember, you can submit your questions via Twitter using #JMUTalk or send an email to me at gmadia&dnronline.com. Let's get started with this week's questions.
Good question, Scotty. To be honest, this is partly because JMU has typically held large leads in the fourth quarter. When an opponent falls behind, its more willing to take chances down the field. A good example of that is what happened in the New Hampshire game. UNH fell behind by 30 points, went to its backup quarterback and attacked JMU’s secondary. Now of course, JMU probably will need to make more plays on the ball and intercept passes when the opportunity presents itself, but if the Dukes are ahead by a few scores late, naturally teams will try to get back in the game by airing out their offense.
I’ve looked into this a bit, but was told nothing was said on either side about Ankrah’s hit on Knight.
EMAIL FROM Eric M.
Hi Greg – I’d like to hear more about any potential shift in the culture around JMU football related to the change from Withers to Houston. The differences on the field are fairly obvious. However, I’m more interested in hearing about what’s different when they’re not playing a game: at practices, in the locker room, weight room, class room, etc. Additionally how the players have adapted to these changes.
Eric, you’re right – changes on the field are fairly obvious especially when you look at the way JMU has run the football. The offense has totally adopted Mike Houston’s philosophy of downhill, physical rushing. Off the field, there are some noticeable changes too, at least according to some players on the roster. I talked with senior cornerback Taylor Reynolds about this last week and he told me the one thing about this staff that he and his teammates appreciate is how accessible the coaching staff is. Reynolds said Houston put together a great mix of older and younger coaches and that all of them have a great feel for relating to players. Reynolds added him or any of his teammates can go to any coach at any time to talk or ask questions if they need to. Houston is building a “family culture,” according to Reynolds.
EMAIL FROM Jay F.
Can you talk about recruiting? Looks as they haven't missed a beat while switching staffs, which has been somewhat surprising to me. Maybe outline the difference in recruiting philosophy between Houston and previous staffs (Withers, Mathews).
Jay, I'm glad you’ve brought up recruiting. With the bye week, JMU coaches were out on the road recruiting everywhere from as far north as New Jersey to as far south as Atlanta. The staff has done a good job of handling the transition. Houston has made it priority to make the state of Virginia the primary focus and then branch out from there to areas where assistant coaches have ties or the program has had previous success. The biggest difference in philosophy distinguishing Houston from Withers is how much of an emphasis Houston has put on building relationships with high schools in the state. Collectively, the entire coaching staff visited every high school in the state of Virginia during the spring, regardless of whether the school had prospects or not. Running backs coach De’Rail Sims told me Houston wants the program to be viewed as the third-best option in the state behind Virginia Tech and Virginia and in some cases compete with the Hokies and Cavaliers for prospects.
