HARRISONBURG — Mickey Matthews and Jimmye Laycock were regular rivals for more than a decade.

Matthews was the James Madison football coach with a defensive background and Laycock led William & Mary with an offensive-minded approach.

And in 2004, JMU suffered a 27-24 home loss to William & Mary in Harrisonburg only to avenge the defeat a month later when the two squared off in the postseason. Matthews’ Dukes beat Laycock’s Tribe 48-34 in Williamsburg en route to the first FCS national title in JMU history.

“In my 40 years of coaching, I’ve coached against three great play callers,” Matthews said by phone Monday. “One was Steve Spurrier at Florida when I was at Georgia. Another was David Cutcliffe when he was the offensive coordinator at Tennessee, and the third was Jimmye Laycock at William & Mary.”

On Sunday, Laycock announced he would retire at the end of the 2018 season.

Entering his 39th season at the helm of Tribe, he is the longest-active tenured coach in all of Division I. His 245 career wins are the most in William & Mary history and rank second among all active coaches at the top level.

Matthews retired after last season following two years as defensive coordinator at Coastal Carolina. He was the coach at JMU from 1999 through 2013.

Matthews said he and Laycock remain good friends.

“It’s kind of the end of an era,” Matthews said. “With Andy Talley gone from Villanova, Jack Cosgrove left Maine, I’ve been gone from JMU, so it’s totally different in the [Colonial Athletic Association].

“But William & Mary is going to miss him. He’s done a great job.”

Current JMU linebackers coach Warren Belin was on Laycock’s staff at William & Mary when Laycock won his 100th career game in 1995. Belin spent that season and 1996 with the Tribe.

In Belin’s second season in Williamsburg, William & Mary reached the FCS quarterfinals and finished the season ranked No. 5 nationally.

“He is very driven and he’s a competitor,” Belin said after the Dukes’ third preseason practice Monday. “He wants to win and the tradition when I came in is that they win every year. And I haven’t followed as much since, but now that I’m back, it hasn’t changed.

“When I was with him, we won again and I expect that this year he’s going to put together the best team that he can to continue to carry on his legacy.”

William & Mary finished 2-9 last season and was picked to finish 11th in the CAA preseason poll last month.

JMU will host Laycock and the Tribe on Sept. 22 to open its conference slate.

“I really, really hope he has a great year with the exception of one game,” Belin said. “But what a great man. He’s meant a lot to a lot of coaches and a lot of players over his decades and my hat is off to Coach Laycock for being a great man, a really good person and someone who has helped this game.”

Third-year JMU coach Mike Houston said the school will likely honor Laycock when he makes his final trip to Bridgeforth Stadium next month.

Houston and Laycock do share a common connection as each had a stop in their careers at The Citadel. Houston coached the Bulldogs for two seasons before taking the JMU job. Laycock’s first full-time coaching job was there under Bobby Ross and alongside Frank Beamer and Ralph Friedgen.

“Coach Laycock is a guy that I have tremendous respect for,” Houston said. “Number one for what he’s done not in just a short period of time, but over the span of many, many years staying at one institution. Number two, he’s been able to sustain a high level of performance. It just does not happen in our college game.”

Matthews said he and Laycock both frequently joked about the opportunities each had to leave their respective schools.

Laycock had the Boston College job if he wanted it in 1990, and Matthews almost left JMU in 2008 to start South Alabama’s football program.

“He was very loyal to William & Mary,” Matthews said. “He and I used to laugh about this, but he took [the Boston College] job for 24 hours and I took the South Alabama hours for six hours. He had me beat by 18 hours, I think.

“But it’s certainly rare, and every year that you’re a head coach somewhere and you lose a few games, administrations and fans have short memories and I’m sure he had detractors over there, but it never bothered him.”