Countdown to Kickoff - James Madison
August 31, 2019 07:54 AM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia lifts the lid on its 128thseason of football later today at Milan Puskar Stadium against the James Madison Dukes of the Colonial Athletic Conference.
James Madison, ranked No. 2 in the FCS preseason poll, is making its first appearance in Morgantown since 2004 when WVU pulled away for a 45-10 victory. That year, James Madison won the I-AA national championship.
The two schools also met at FedExField in Landover, Maryland, on Sept. 15, 2012, a 42-12 Mountaineer victory.
James Madison is coached by WVU alum Curt Cignetti, who spent the last two seasons at Elon after a highly successful six-year run at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Curt, the son of former Mountaineer coach Frank Cignetti, last coached at Milan Puskar Stadium when he was a member of Walt Harris' Pitt staff in 1999.
West Virginia also has a new coach working the sidelines in Neal Brown, a Danville, Kentucky, native who spent the last four seasons at Troy where he posted an impressive 35-16 record there, including a 31-8 mark during his last three seasons.
Brown admits he will have some butterflies beforehand.
"I think if you don't have butterflies – and not just because it's my first game as head coach here – but really you have some butterflies in every game you play," he said. "If you don't maybe you've lost your edge a little bit."
Brown is coaching a young and inexperienced West Virginia team that has just three players with extensive starting experience returning on offense (LT Colton McKivitz, C Josh Sills and RB Kennedy McKoy) and five on defense (DT Reese Donahue, MLB Dylan Tonkery, SLB JoVanni Stewart, LCB Hakeem Bailey and FS Josh Norwood).
He's unsure how his guys will perform on Saturday or where the overall talent level is following Dana Holgorsen's eight-year run in Morgantown.
"I will be able to tell you after the game," he said. "I don't know if you will find any coach that says they are happy with their talent level or they want to hold steady. We're always trying to get better and that's the name of recruiting."
James Madison, meanwhile, boasts one of the most experienced football teams at any level of college football with 19 of 22 starters returning from last year's team that won nine games and lost in the FCS playoffs round of 16.
The Dukes are quarterbacked by Pitt transfer Ben DiNucci, one of seven FBS transfers on JMU's roster this year.
"He's a winner," Brown said. "He's done a good job of running the offense they had there last year. I know Coach Cignetti has brought a different system in, but he's really an accurate passer, and I think he's a better than average runner."
The Dukes have six victories in 27 meetings against FBS programs, their last coming in 2017 when they knocked off East Carolina 34-14 in Greenville, North Carolina. James Madison's biggest victory in program history came on Sept. 11, 2010, when it upset 13th-ranked Virginia Tech 21-16 in Blacksburg.
"I'm very familiar with their program," Brown said. "I played and coached in the old A-10, which is now the CAA. I have a high level of respect for that league. I think it's the best FCS conference in college football, and I think James Madison does an incredible job."
A Nod to the Miners– Neal Brown will be wearing a gray West Virginia coaching shirt on the sidelines for games this year as a way of recognizing the coal mining industry in West Virginia. The team will also continue the turnover helmet tradition that started last season.
This year West Virginia will be using a new helmet from Arch Coal's Leer Mining Complex in Grafton, West Virginia, where the team visited earlier this month.
"I wanted them to understand who they represent," Brown said of the team visit. "I think coal mining is part of the fabric of West Virginia. The number of miners is probably not as high as it once was in our state, but it's still very much a part of who we are as West Virginians and I wanted our players to understand that."
Also part of that education process is the Mantrip that takes place when the team arrives at the stadium for each home game.
"We go on a Mantrip as we enter the stadium, and we touch a piece of coal. I want them to understand why we did that so we went and visited the coal miners and it was a great experience," Brown explained. "For me, it was a very humbling to see how much pride those men have in West Virginia football.
"Part of the reason we took this job was because (West Virginia football) is important here. You want to coach football at a place where it's important and with 1.8 million people and not professional teams or no other Power 5 programs it's important," Brown added. "That trip there and spending the afternoon with those men reinforce how important and what it means to the people of our state."
And now, here is today's Countdown to Kickoff:
10 – West Virginia returns just eight players with at least TEN career starts. They are Colton McKivitz (35), Reese Donahue (24), Josh Sills (22), Dylan Tonkery (14), JoVanni Stewart and Kennedy McKoy (12), and Hakeem Bailey and Josh Norwood (10).
9 – Junior place kicker Evan Staley successfully converted NINE out of his 11 field goal attempts between 40 and 49 yards last season. He was 16-of-20 overall.
8 – West Virginia has the EIGHTH-most graduates among Power 5 conference programs with 13. They are Hakeem Bailey, George Campbell, Josh Growden, Reuben Jones, Austin Kendall, Deamonte Lindsay, Colton McKivitz, Quondarius Qualls, T.J. Simmons, Rex Sunahara, Brenon Thrift, Keith Washington II and Kelby Wickline.
7 – The Mountaineers are 19-0 against FCS level competition and their closest victory margin was SEVEN points in a 24-17 victory over William & Mary to kick off the 2013 season.
6 – West Virginia coach Neal Brown is one of just SIX FBS coaches to win 10 or more games in each of the last three seasons.
5 – Tomorrow's game will be just West Virginia's FIFTH on Aug. 31, the last coming against Tennessee-Chattanooga in 2002.
4 – Over the last FOUR years, West Virginia's defense is tied for seventh nationally among FBS programs with 63 interceptions. That total ranks fifth among Power 5 programs.
3 – Saturday's game will be the THIRD meeting between West Virginia and James Madison and the second in Morgantown. WVU defeated JMU 45-10 in Morgantown in 2004 and topped the Dukes 42-12 at FedExField in Landover, Maryland, in 2012.
2 – James Madison is ranked SECOND in the preseason FCS poll released earlier this month.
1 – Since 2010, West Virginia has lost only ONE non-conference game at Milan Puskar Stadium. That came against second-ranked LSU on Sept. 24, 2011, a 47-21 Tiger victory.
A rare 2 p.m. kickoff has been assigned for the game, to be televised locally on AT&T Sportsnet (Rob King, Rasheed Marshall and Meg Bulger). In addition to airing locally, the game stream can be accessed on multiple platforms outside the AT&T Sportsnet footprint.
The stream will be available on WVUsports.com and the WVU Gameday App. Additionally, fans will be able to tune in live via Roku and Apple TV by searching for the "MountaineerTV" channel on each device.
For fans inside the viewing area, the AT&T SportsNet Channel Finder and Territory Map can be found on pittsburgh-attsn.att.com. The online stream will be blacked out inside the AT&T SportsNet viewing area.
The Mountaineer Sports Network from Learfield IMG College will have complete wrap-around radio coverage starting at 10:30 a.m. this morning with the Go-Mart Mountaineer Tailgate Show, featuring Dan Zangrilli, Dale Wolfley and Jed Drenning, leading into regular network coverage with Tony Caridi and Dwight Wallace beginning at 1 p.m.
Following the game, Dan, Wolf, Jed and postgame show contributor Allan Taylor from The Athletic will wrap things up.
Be sure to stop back afterward for complete postgame coverage.
James Madison, ranked No. 2 in the FCS preseason poll, is making its first appearance in Morgantown since 2004 when WVU pulled away for a 45-10 victory. That year, James Madison won the I-AA national championship.
The two schools also met at FedExField in Landover, Maryland, on Sept. 15, 2012, a 42-12 Mountaineer victory.
James Madison is coached by WVU alum Curt Cignetti, who spent the last two seasons at Elon after a highly successful six-year run at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Curt, the son of former Mountaineer coach Frank Cignetti, last coached at Milan Puskar Stadium when he was a member of Walt Harris' Pitt staff in 1999.
West Virginia also has a new coach working the sidelines in Neal Brown, a Danville, Kentucky, native who spent the last four seasons at Troy where he posted an impressive 35-16 record there, including a 31-8 mark during his last three seasons.
Brown admits he will have some butterflies beforehand.
"I think if you don't have butterflies – and not just because it's my first game as head coach here – but really you have some butterflies in every game you play," he said. "If you don't maybe you've lost your edge a little bit."
Brown is coaching a young and inexperienced West Virginia team that has just three players with extensive starting experience returning on offense (LT Colton McKivitz, C Josh Sills and RB Kennedy McKoy) and five on defense (DT Reese Donahue, MLB Dylan Tonkery, SLB JoVanni Stewart, LCB Hakeem Bailey and FS Josh Norwood).
He's unsure how his guys will perform on Saturday or where the overall talent level is following Dana Holgorsen's eight-year run in Morgantown.
"I will be able to tell you after the game," he said. "I don't know if you will find any coach that says they are happy with their talent level or they want to hold steady. We're always trying to get better and that's the name of recruiting."
James Madison, meanwhile, boasts one of the most experienced football teams at any level of college football with 19 of 22 starters returning from last year's team that won nine games and lost in the FCS playoffs round of 16.
The Dukes are quarterbacked by Pitt transfer Ben DiNucci, one of seven FBS transfers on JMU's roster this year.
"He's a winner," Brown said. "He's done a good job of running the offense they had there last year. I know Coach Cignetti has brought a different system in, but he's really an accurate passer, and I think he's a better than average runner."
The Dukes have six victories in 27 meetings against FBS programs, their last coming in 2017 when they knocked off East Carolina 34-14 in Greenville, North Carolina. James Madison's biggest victory in program history came on Sept. 11, 2010, when it upset 13th-ranked Virginia Tech 21-16 in Blacksburg.
"I'm very familiar with their program," Brown said. "I played and coached in the old A-10, which is now the CAA. I have a high level of respect for that league. I think it's the best FCS conference in college football, and I think James Madison does an incredible job."
A Nod to the Miners– Neal Brown will be wearing a gray West Virginia coaching shirt on the sidelines for games this year as a way of recognizing the coal mining industry in West Virginia. The team will also continue the turnover helmet tradition that started last season.
This year West Virginia will be using a new helmet from Arch Coal's Leer Mining Complex in Grafton, West Virginia, where the team visited earlier this month.
"I wanted them to understand who they represent," Brown said of the team visit. "I think coal mining is part of the fabric of West Virginia. The number of miners is probably not as high as it once was in our state, but it's still very much a part of who we are as West Virginians and I wanted our players to understand that."
Also part of that education process is the Mantrip that takes place when the team arrives at the stadium for each home game.
"We go on a Mantrip as we enter the stadium, and we touch a piece of coal. I want them to understand why we did that so we went and visited the coal miners and it was a great experience," Brown explained. "For me, it was a very humbling to see how much pride those men have in West Virginia football.
"Part of the reason we took this job was because (West Virginia football) is important here. You want to coach football at a place where it's important and with 1.8 million people and not professional teams or no other Power 5 programs it's important," Brown added. "That trip there and spending the afternoon with those men reinforce how important and what it means to the people of our state."
And now, here is today's Countdown to Kickoff:
10 – West Virginia returns just eight players with at least TEN career starts. They are Colton McKivitz (35), Reese Donahue (24), Josh Sills (22), Dylan Tonkery (14), JoVanni Stewart and Kennedy McKoy (12), and Hakeem Bailey and Josh Norwood (10).
9 – Junior place kicker Evan Staley successfully converted NINE out of his 11 field goal attempts between 40 and 49 yards last season. He was 16-of-20 overall.
8 – West Virginia has the EIGHTH-most graduates among Power 5 conference programs with 13. They are Hakeem Bailey, George Campbell, Josh Growden, Reuben Jones, Austin Kendall, Deamonte Lindsay, Colton McKivitz, Quondarius Qualls, T.J. Simmons, Rex Sunahara, Brenon Thrift, Keith Washington II and Kelby Wickline.
7 – The Mountaineers are 19-0 against FCS level competition and their closest victory margin was SEVEN points in a 24-17 victory over William & Mary to kick off the 2013 season.
6 – West Virginia coach Neal Brown is one of just SIX FBS coaches to win 10 or more games in each of the last three seasons.
5 – Tomorrow's game will be just West Virginia's FIFTH on Aug. 31, the last coming against Tennessee-Chattanooga in 2002.
4 – Over the last FOUR years, West Virginia's defense is tied for seventh nationally among FBS programs with 63 interceptions. That total ranks fifth among Power 5 programs.
3 – Saturday's game will be the THIRD meeting between West Virginia and James Madison and the second in Morgantown. WVU defeated JMU 45-10 in Morgantown in 2004 and topped the Dukes 42-12 at FedExField in Landover, Maryland, in 2012.
2 – James Madison is ranked SECOND in the preseason FCS poll released earlier this month.
1 – Since 2010, West Virginia has lost only ONE non-conference game at Milan Puskar Stadium. That came against second-ranked LSU on Sept. 24, 2011, a 47-21 Tiger victory.
A rare 2 p.m. kickoff has been assigned for the game, to be televised locally on AT&T Sportsnet (Rob King, Rasheed Marshall and Meg Bulger). In addition to airing locally, the game stream can be accessed on multiple platforms outside the AT&T Sportsnet footprint.
The stream will be available on WVUsports.com and the WVU Gameday App. Additionally, fans will be able to tune in live via Roku and Apple TV by searching for the "MountaineerTV" channel on each device.
For fans inside the viewing area, the AT&T SportsNet Channel Finder and Territory Map can be found on pittsburgh-attsn.att.com. The online stream will be blacked out inside the AT&T SportsNet viewing area.
The Mountaineer Sports Network from Learfield IMG College will have complete wrap-around radio coverage starting at 10:30 a.m. this morning with the Go-Mart Mountaineer Tailgate Show, featuring Dan Zangrilli, Dale Wolfley and Jed Drenning, leading into regular network coverage with Tony Caridi and Dwight Wallace beginning at 1 p.m.
Following the game, Dan, Wolf, Jed and postgame show contributor Allan Taylor from The Athletic will wrap things up.
Be sure to stop back afterward for complete postgame coverage.
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