NCAAF: Dukes are Rollin'

The James Madison Dukes football team is rolling once again. The team is off to an 8-1 start this season, with their only loss being to now 20th-ranked Louisville by only two touchdowns.

James Madison is coming off a road win last week against Marshall, 35-23, for their 7th win in a row, leading to their first ranking of the season coming in at No. 24 in the AP Poll.

The leader of the squad is head coach Bob Chesney.

The 48-year-old from Kulpmont, Pennsylvania, is in his second season with the Dukes. Last year, he led the team to a 9-4 record, along with their first FBS Bowl win in program history. A 27-17 triumph over Western Kentucky in the Boca Raton Bowl.

This year, the sights are bigger for the Dukes.

According to BetMGM, James Madison is the favorite to win the Sun Belt championship. JMU is currently 6-0 in conference play, with only two league games left to play.

One of those is this week versus Appalachian State, which is 1-4 in the Sun Belt this season. The other is the last game of the year at Coastal Carolina, which is second behind the Dukes in the East Division of the SBC.

According to ESPN, the road for JMU to get to the College Football Playoff would be tough, but not impossible.

Right now, the favorite to win the Group of Five bid is South Florida, which is ranked No. 24 in the CFP poll and is the favorite to win the American Conference.

ESPN notices that the Dukes have been rolling, but their lack of a resume is what is dragging the team down.

However, ESPN still has them as having the second-best chance of making the playoffs, at 35.8%.

James Madison has been very, very good this season statistically. They have the 23rd-ranked scoring offense and the 12th-ranked scoring defense in the country.

On Offense, the leader is quarterback Alonza Barnett III.

The redshirt junior signal-caller has thrown for 1,786 yards, 16 touchdowns and only four interceptions this season. He’s also added 396 yards on the ground and 10 rushing TDs.

Linebacker Trent Hendrick leads the defense this season. The senior backer has tallied 70 tackles so far, 5.5 tackles for loss, three sacks, a forced fumble and a pass breakup.

Chesney has done a magnificent job so far at James Madison, so much so, his name has been thrown into the ring for some big-time college football jobs.

Because of his ties to the area, Chesney has come up as a potential candidate for the vacant Virginia Tech job, and also for the job at Penn State.

While those rumors will swirl for a while, for now its safe to say that he has done a fine job with James Madison, and the Dukes still have a lot in front of them to play for.

Evan Pochas is a third-year student studying broadcast journalism. To contact him, email ejp5753@psu.edu.