HARRISONBURG — James Madison’s offense has a tall task today and it starts with containing one of the Colonial Athletic Association’s top defensive players — 6-foot-7, 290-pound Villanova defensive end Tanoh Kpassagnon.

He leads the league with 7.5 sacks, providing the Wildcats with an excellent pass rush.

“He’s a special player,” said JMU senior right tackle Mitchell Kircsh, who will share the responsibility of blocking Kpassagnon with junior left tackle Aaron Stinnie, depending on which side of the front Kpassagnon lines up.

“His size definitely helps him,” Kirsch said. “He’s the type of guy where you have to make sure you don’t give him too much space because, if he gets his arms extended, he’s got an arsenal of pass-rush moves. You want to limit what he can do with that pass-rush ability, but I think the coaches have great confidence in Stinnie and I, and the tight ends, to get the job done.”

Kpassagnon is also considered a top NFL prospect.

“All the scouts that have come through have said that he’s an early-round draft pick next spring,” JMU coach Mike Houston said.

Kirsch, who has aspirations of playing at the next level, too, said he knows he’ll have a chance to impress those evaluators if he performs well against Kpassagnon, but ultimately is more worried about his team winning.

No. 4 JMU (8-1, 6-0) puts its unblemished CAA record on the line again at 1 p.m., inside Villanova Stadium in Philadelphia. The Wildcats (7-2, 5-1) are only one game behind the Dukes in the CAA standings.

“I don’t think people realize how unique and rare it is for a team to go undefeated in the CAA, and we have still that opportunity right now, so I’m just worried about getting a win,” Kirsch said.

Since the league went from a two-division format to one in 2010, only New Hampshire, in 2014, was able to finish a season unbeaten in league play.

In order for Madison to keep its goal obtainable, its statistically great offense will have to be better than Villanova’s statistically great defense.

JMU’s offense ranks No. 2 nationally in scoring offense (49.1 points per game), No. 3 nationally in total offense (529.6 yards per game) and fourth in rushing offense (308.9 yards per game).

Nationally, Villanova sits No. 3 in scoring defense (14.9 points per game), third in total defense (268 yards per game) and No. 11 in rushing defense (96.3 yards per game).

“No one has scored more than 28 on them, and that was Pittsburgh in the first game of the year,” JMU offensive coordinator Donnie Kirkpatrick said. “Richmond is a really good offense and they only got 23. Villanova is very impressive. They’re coached well and they’re playing really hard.”

Under coach Andy Talley and defensive coordinator Billy Crocker, Villanova uses a 3-3-5 stack defense — a system JMU hasn’t seen much of this season.

“It is different than most the teams that we’ve played,” Kirkpatrick said. “The biggest thing that makes it difficult is that our scout team doesn’t know the defense as well. We played Richmond last week and they had almost the same defense as us. You could get the scout team lined up, get them good work and get our offense good reps. They don’t understand Villanova’s defense, so we don’t get the good looks on offense. That’s what makes it tough.”

Kirkpatrick said JMU would continue to use the approach it has used all year — running the ball when it can and opening the passing game when it needs to.

JMU quarterback junior Bryan Schor has accumulated 1,249 passing yards, 356 rushing yards, 18 touchdowns and four CAA Player of the Week honors since the start of October. Senior running back Khalid Abdullah eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark last week at Richmond.

Talley said the key for his defense is to keep Schor and Abdullah as limited as possible.

“At times we do bend, but we haven’t broken that much,” Talley said. “We haven’t given up a lot of big plays and I think that’s the big thing if people are going to score on us. They’ll have to drive 65 or 75 yards. At least, that’s the way it’s been.

“Now, with JMU, Abdullah can rip one off in a heartbeat and Schor can throw an 80-yard touchdown in a heartbeat, so we have to make sure that whatever they get against us, they have to earn it.”

Today marks Talley’s last regular-season home game at the school after 32 years as the head coach at Villanova.