This fall, James Madison will make its FBS debut in the Sun Belt Conference. With the right timing, the right coach and an instilled culture of excellence, the Dukes do it knowing they can be one of the bigger FCS-to-FBS success stories of the modern era.
Located in western Virginia in the Shenandoah Valley, the Harrisonburg-based campus and its athletic department have experienced rapid growth in the 21st century. The Dukes won the FCS (then Division I-AA) National Championship in 2004 under head coach Mickey Matthews, and that success helped spark an investment in football that paid off with seven more conference championships, three more FCS National Championship appearances ( 2016 , 2017, 2019) and another state title in 2016.
The success on the field and the school’s location have made JMU an oft-mentioned FBS expansion candidate in years past. There were even potential opportunities to move to FBS about “10 or 11 years ago,” according to head coach Curt Cignetti, but the school decided to hold off and continue the building process, both in football and in other sports.
The cancellation of the 2020 fall season due to the COVID-19 pandemic sparked renewed debate about where the Dukes stood in the Division I landscape, and a massive turnaround in the Sun Belt provided an opportunity for JMU to find a strong landing spot at the FBS level. . By entering the Sun Belt, JMU aligns with old FCS foes Appalachian State and Georgia Southern, while also establishing new regional rivalries with fellow Sun Belt newcomers Old Dominion and Marshall, who both join the league from Conference USA.
While the move provides some familiarity, JMU is moving to the FBS in an unprecedented manner. What has been a two-year transfer window until now will be attempted in just one season. While other programs used that year to flip their schedule to FBS-level competition, the Dukes will play a full eight-game Sun Belt schedule plus a non-conference schedule that includes a trip to Louisville on Nov. 5. Welcoming the challenge of a tighter schedule while program transitions are just the first part of what has already become an aggressive scheduling philosophy, with the Dukes fielding multiple Power Five foes in 2023 (Virginia), 2024 (North Carolina) and 2025 (Virginia Tech).
The right coach at the right time
While the FBS game — or even this kind of transition — can seem daunting, there’s little in college football that will come as a surprise to Cignetti. The 61-year-old son of College Football Hall of Fame head coach Frank Cignetti Sr. is approaching 40 years of college coaching experience at all levels of the game. Read also : US health insurers raise rates to match usage – Austin Daily Herald. From spending four years as Nick Saban’s wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator at Alabama to a seven-year stint with NC State as running backs coach (Cignetti helped Philip Rivers and the Wolfpack set the school record for single-season wins), Dukes the coach was on the sidelines at the highest level of college football. On the other end of the spectrum, Cignetti has experience at smaller schools from his time as an assistant at Davidson, Rice and Temple in the late ’80s and early ’90s.
Cignetti’s final 11 seasons, all as a head coach, prepared him to lead a proud JMU program into its FBS era. He started at IUP, where his father was the head coach from 1986 to 2005, and compiled a 53-17 record while leading the Crimson Hawks to three Division II playoff appearances and a conference title in 2012. He then took Elon’s program won a combined seven games over the previous three seasons, leading Phoenix to back-to-back FCS playoff appearances and a top 25 finish. That success paved the way for his recruitment to JMU, where he supported standard of national championship contention and now faces the challenge of raising the bar again for the program with a step up in competition.
“There’s no doubt that this is a very unique challenge. All the places I’ve been, I’ve been blessed. It’s prepared me for this moment,” Cignetti told CBS Sports. “I feel like every day we come in we have a plan.”
That plan helped Cignetti lead JMU to a 33-5 record in his three seasons with the Dukes, reaching the national semifinals each season and finishing as the national runner-up in his first year with the program. JMU was one of the few places in the country where the sales pitch included joining a program that competes for a national championship every year. Now, that ingrained culture of success will be key to helping the Dukes stay focused on excellence as the competition and expectations change with this move.
“That’s what I learned from Nick [Saban] at Alabama,” Cignetti said, referring to JMU’s “process-oriented” culture. “Who we play does not change that result. Every Saturday the players will expect to win.”
Building out an FBS roster
“Since our [2021] season ended, we’ve been operating as an FBS school,” Cignetti explained. See the article : Heiting named in 2022 Capital District Sportswoman of the Year category.
Thanks to an extra year granted by the NCAA because of the pandemic, JMU’s scholarship numbers were already in the 70s, but getting up to the FBS standard of 85 scholarships has been challenging. The transfer portal made things more complex; Namely, JMU faces many of the same challenges that all Group of Five programs face in terms of losing top guys to other programs. The Dukes also lost the advantage of being a preferred destination when NCAA rules required a player to demote to avoid sitting out a season when transferring from an FBS program.
“Like a lot of Group of Five schools in the country, your top two or three guys are going to be poached,” Cignetti said.
Understanding and adapting to the new recruiting and roster management environment didn’t surprise Cignetti or his staff. Part of working as an FBS school is developing a new way to structure recruiting — helped initially by coaches who have seen that transition up close. Corey Hetherman, now Rutgers’ linebackers coach, was the AFCA FCS Assistant Coach of the Year as JMU’s defensive coordinator in 2021 and had previous experience as an ODU assistant as the Monarchs transitioned from the FCS to the FBS in the early 2010s. The examples set by Appalachian State and ODU may provide some guidance for navigating that roster management transition, but JMU is entering a transfer and recruiting environment that is as unprecedented as the one-year transition itself.
Ultimately, Cignetti knows some of the struggles he and his staff have faced will disappear as the program further cements itself into the fabric of the FBS landscape.
“I think this program is only going to get better and better every year,” Cignetti said, noting that the Dukes were “killed” on the recruiting trail by not being bowl eligible or conference championship eligible this season. “The next class [2023 cycle], they can’t be affected by that.”
What to expect on the field in 2022
The Sun Belt media projected JMU to finish sixth, or next to last, in the East Division at a media conference a few days earlier this week. Cignetti said Elon was also projected to finish near the bottom of the Colonial Athletic Association during his first year with Phoenix, only for that team to win eight games and earn an FCS playoff bid. To see also : Crop health all summer long. However, there is absolute recognition that the move to an FBS schedule has changed the margin for error when it comes to wins and losses.
“Now, every week you have to play your A-game,” Cignetti said. “Before, you might have been able to play your C-plus game and get a result. That’s not the case”
It’s possible voters in the Sun Belt preseason poll believe there will be a toll postseason ineligibility will take on the program when it comes to navigating the entire Sun Belt schedule. But while the Dukes may not be bowl eligible, that hasn’t changed their focus. Much of that is due to the culture that has been built.
“I don’t see our team having a problem with motivation this year because motivation is always going to win week in and week out,” JMU star linebacker Isaac Ukwu said at Sun Belt Media Days. “Whether we can win a conference championship or win a bowl game, once the whistle blows and we get between the lines, it’s going to be competitive no matter what’s on the line.”
Running back Percy Agyei-Obese put it even more succinctly. “The standard is excellence at JMU,” he added. “When the whistle blows, it’s game time.”
There will be challenges if players accustomed to winning more than eight times out of 10 start to see their winning percentages drop in 2022, but the expectation is that the team and culture are good enough to be competitive with anyone on the schedule. The defensive line is a position of strength, and while the quarterback battle has not yet been resolved in fall camp, Cignetti is confident he has three guys (Colorado State transfer Todd Centeio, Billy Atkins and freshman Alonza Barnett) who can all get the job done.
With additional recruiting classes and continued investment in football, this is a program that should only get better each year. However, you don’t have to postpone all the celebrations for success until further down the road. While the Dukes may not be eligible for a conference championship in 2022, it’s not crazy to think this team will be closer to contending for a conference championship than the Sun Belt preseason poll suggests.
