Saturday we play James Madison in what should be the top game in FCS/I-AA football.
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JMU game notes here (html) and here (.pdf). James Madison message board here .
UMass' game notes here (html) and here (pdf)
The game will the televised live on CN8. Live CN8 internet video feed here (requires windows Media Player).
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Some UMass-JMU game articles:
- Harrison Daily News "JMU expects Air Raid"
- WHSV has an article here .
- The CAA has a long article with a preview of the game here .
- Over on the Appalachian State Blog, they're already ranking on the Dukes.
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James Madison is 1-1 for the season.
- They lost to Duke 7-31
- The Dukes beat North Carolina Central 56-7.
The Dukes QB is Rodney Landers. For the season he is 17-26-1 133.8 efficiency 65% 215 yards and 1 TD. He was 4-9 for 51 yards and 1 INT against Duke.
JMU's top receivers are TE Mike Caussin and Kerby Long they have a combined total of 8 catches for 99 yards.
JMU does not care about passing. Their strength and passion is their running game. The Dukes have a stable of outstanding running backs. JMU returns 8 of 11 starters on offense this year.
- Eugene Holloman 5-11 185. He has 27 carries for 144 yards 5.3 yards/carry. He has a bruised thigh and may not play.
- Griff Yancey 5-10 195. Yancey has 9 carries for 83 yards 9.2 yards/carry and 2 TD's. Anybody named Griff has got to be a good player. He was the second leading rusher for the Dukes in 2007 with 665 yards.
- Corwin Acker 5-10 200. Acker has 11 carries for 69 yards 6.3 yards/carry 1 TD.
- QB Rodney Landers 6-1 220 can run. He had 16 carries for almost 100 yards (including a 47 yard TD run) against Duke.
- Marcus Haywood FS 6-0 109. He has 14.5 tackles (leading the Dukes) and 2 INTs
- Evan McCollough CB 5-11 195. Has 8 tackles
- D.J. Brandon LB 6-1 230. Second in total tackles with 15
Tough to get a read on the Dukes so far. Everybody (including this Blogger) expected them to do better well against Duke. They ended up having only 13 first downs and 239 yards of total offense. One game against a FBS team and one game against an outmatched opponent will not present an accurate picture of the Duke's capabilities.
They blew out North Carolina Central as they should have. Keepers has NCCU ranked 112 of 125 FCS teams.
JMU stadium holds 15,500 and it should be sold out for the game. Crowd factor should be heavily in the Dukes favor.
UMass will have to stop their running game. I highly doubt that they can beat us passing. UMass played well against Albany's run oriented attack (in the second half). If we can get some three-and-outs, we should do well on offense.
We will need to cover better on kickoffs. The Dukes KR Scotty McGee CB 5-9 180 has 5 returns for 157 yards and a 31.4 average.
Go UMass!
