LeZotte-Rascati Dynamic Propelled JMU

“I told Matt in my office that he could tear the team apart,” said former James Madison coach Mickey Matthews, who led the school to its first national championship in 2004.

To classify LeZotte as liked by his teammates would be incorrect. The quarterback’s peers voted him a captain three seasons in a row — they loved him.

He’s still the only three-time team captain in Madison history, but the situation Matthews mentioned is where LeZotte’s legacy is cemented and also where the Dukes’ title hopes could’ve gone awry.

The then-fifth-year senior, LeZotte, lost the starting quarterback job that was his the previous three years and Matthews tasked then-sophomore Justin Rascati, a Louisville transfer, to take over on the heels of the two platooning at the position in training camp and through the first week of the season.

“I had visited a number of schools and had opportunities to probably be the starter from Day 1 elsewhere,” Rascati said. “But just the feeling I had when I went on campus with the players, coaching staff and then the community there, it felt like home. And even my dad through the process was like, ‘Are you sure you want to go here? There’s a guy coming back that’s started for three years and the only thing Coach Matthews is guaranteeing you is an opportunity [to compete].’ But that’s all I wanted.”

Rascati respected and got along with LeZotte. The pair played in JMU’s season-opening win over Lock Haven and each quarterback threw for more than 100 yards and at least a touchdown.

But after that it was Rascati’s job.

“I told many people in all of my years coaching as a head coach or an assistant that it was the toughest decision I ever made,” Matthews said. “Matt was probably a little better thrower than Justin, but it was like 50.1 [percent] to 49.9 that we decided to go with Justin.

“And I was the guy who made the call. I listened to what the coaches said, but I was going to make the decision. I thought Justin did more with his feet than Matt. He could get out of trouble. Justin was an all-state basketball player in Florida. He probably should’ve played college basketball, but he was 6-foot-3, could jump and run. So I called Matt in and Matt was furious.”

LeZotte, now the coach at Richmond Hill High School in Georgia, said he had his own opinion at the time about the choice Matthews made, but that his thoughts would never interfere with the team’s goals.

As much as LeZotte’s teammates adored him, he felt even more strongly about them.

“It was so much bigger than me,” LeZotte said. “I had a lot of guys in that locker room come up to me and ask, ‘Hey, do you want me to talk to Coach?’ And my answer every time was, ‘I’m a grown ass man, let me handle my business by myself.’

“But selfless love was it and I wasn’t the only one. I may have been the only one that wasn’t playing on the field at the time, but our team was filled with that unconditional love for one another and it allowed us to be successful. It was the role I needed to play and there were difficult conversations with Coach Matthews. He’s like a second father to me, and sitting in his office, he’s telling me how things we’re going to be. It helped me through that process.”

Rascati was part of win after win as momentum carried from one week to the next for the Dukes and he began to find comfort in his new role.

Now an offensive quality control coach for the Denver Broncos, Rasacti said JMU’s come-from-behind victory over Maine in mid-October of ‘04 is when he started to believe the Dukes had a shot to win the national championship. In the fourth quarter, Rascati ran for a touchdown and threw one to wide receiver D.D. Boxley with 48 seconds left to beat the Black Bears.

“They shared time in the beginning because the coaches really wanted to see who they wanted to start,” Boxley said. “But then once they made the decision, there was never a question about it.”

Said Matthews: “Matt handled it well. I’d see Matt talking to Justin on the sideline during the game and as the year went along Matt was terrific. He wanted to win. He knew hard decisions had to be made. Matt handled it well and that was big.”

LeZotte threw for 4,504 yards and 25 touchdowns in his career, but he said he embraced his evolving responsibility in his final season as a member of the Dukes.

“As soon as we got to the playoffs, I went out of player status and was almost like an assistant coach,” LeZotte said. “I tried to bridge the gap of communication between players and coaches, and I had on a headset and I would try to put what they were saying in layman’s terms for the players.

“So I never doubted. I looked Justin in the eye and said, ‘Go win the damn game for me’ and that matters. That mattered to me, that I had faith in him and he had faith in his ability, and those guys in front of him had faith that they were going to go do it.”

Rascati threw for three touchdowns in the Dukes’ national semifinal win at William & Mary and then rushed for two scores to help JMU secure the national title during its victory over Montana in Chattanooga, Tenn. He finished the year with 2,045 passing yards and 14 passing touchdowns to go along with 375 rushing yards and 10 rushing scores.

“LeZotte was a great quarterback and really good leader,” Rascati said. “And there was a reason he was our team captain that year. He got my vote for that and it shows the type of person he was.”