Rhode Island Preview

Football practice was very animated today, as JMU offensive coordinator Jeff Durden was cheering for the defensive unit during drills. It seems unusual to me that an offensive coach would cheer for the defense.

James Madison relied on its defense to clinch a victory last week at Northeastern, when senior strong safety Nick Adams caught his second interception of the season with 36 seconds left in the game to halt a Northeastern drive into Madison territory. However, the Dukes were disappointed with their performance. Northeastern accumulated 207 rushing yards in the game, the highest total allowed by Madison's defense all season. The previous high was against VMI on Sept. 15, when JMU allowed 151 yards rushing.

Madison's defensive unit must step up Saturday against the wishbone attack that the University of Rhode Island employs. URI's wishbone is well suited for quarterback option plays and resembles the offensive scheme VMI runs.

“The fact that we have some practice time against it I think helps,” JMU coach Mickey Matthews said. “But it’s a double-edged sword, because [Rhode Island] has seen how we line up against it."

Expect Rhode Island to be more effective than the Keydets were with their rushing attack. In URI's last game on Sept. 29, junior quarterback Derek Cassidy led the team with 22 rushes for 119 yards, and the Rams also had two running backs with over 100 yards rushing. JMU has the fourth-ranked rushing defense in the Colonial Athletic Association through six games — we'll see where they stand after Saturday.

JMU senior defensive tackle John Baranowsky assessed last week's performance and said, "We just didn't fly to the ball as much — people were doing their jobs, it's just you need all 11 guys running. There was a little bit of lackluster effort there, and that's gonna get cleared up real fast."

If Madison can contain Rhode Island's multi-faceted rushing attack, the Dukes will certainly put themselves in a position to win. URI has the 11th-ranked pass offense in the CAA, and without a successful running game the Rams should struggle to put up points.