- MEET THE ENEMY—Anthony Eifler, president of the Student Duke Club at James Madison, shows off a JMU fan T-shirt designed specifically for this Saturday’s game against ASU.
No matter how much anyone tries to say that last year’s ASU football defeat of James Madison in the first round of the playoffs is in the past, it’s clearly not. The fact that ASU squeaked by with that victory—sealed by a JMU turnover—in the final minute of the game left a bad taste in the mouths of Dukes fans, and this Saturday, September 20, they host the Mountaineers in their territory.
Billed by one JMU website as “the biggest home game in JMU football history,” the game takes place at 7:00 p.m. at Bridgeforth Stadium in Harrisonburg, Va. With ASU ranked No. 1 in national Football Championship Subdivision (I-AA) polls and JMU close behind at No. 5, the game will be a true test of both teams’ talents and is bound to keep butts in the seats past halftime.
In their closest game of the 2007 postseason, the Mountaineers defeated the JMU Dukes in the first round of the playoffs with a score of 28-27. During the fourth quarter, ASU quarterback Armanti Edwards scored on a 5-yard run to give the Mountaineers a 1-point lead with 1:10 remaining. But JMU then executed a 62-yard to move the team well within field goal range. Instead of kicking on second down from the 9-yard line, JMU ran one more play. That’s when ASU’s Jacque Roman forced a JMU fumble and ASU linebacker Pierre Banks scooped up the ball with 22 seconds on the clock, ending the game.
Anthony Eifler, president of the Student Duke Club at JMU, agreed that this Saturday’s matchup is the most anticipated game to ever take place at James Madison.
“A lot of JMU fans feel that we should have and very well could have won that game,” Eifler said. “There’s a revenge factor—we’ve been looking forward to this game ever since. We want a shot at Appalachian State on our home field.”
JMU is 2-1 after losing to Duke University in Week 1 but defeating N.C. Central 56-7 and Colonial Athletic Association conference foe UMass 52-38. The defeat of UMass sent the Minutemen plummeting from No. 3 to No. 9 in the weekly Sports Network national poll. JMU quarterback Rodney Landers was named the FCS Offensive Player of the Week. The 6-foot-1, 220-pound senior ran for 206 yards and two touchdowns and passed for 85 yards and a touchdown in last week’s win over UMass.
ASU is 1-1 with a loss to LSU and a win over Jacksonville. The Mountaineers had a bye last week.
“This is going to be probably—except for LSU—our toughest battle out of the conference. It could be the toughest all year,” said Gerald Adams, director of the Yosef Club at ASU.
The Mountaineers have a 12-3 lead in the all-time series with the Dukes, including last year’s playoff game and a 21-10 triumph in the 2006 home opener at Kidd Brewer Stadium. ASU has won all of its last five visits to Harrisonburg.
“We’ve always had real good games with them,” Adams said. “I think it’s a real good match.”
As for the atmosphere up in Harrisonburg, “I think it’s going to be wild,” Adams said. “Their fans know what happened to them last year. I just think there’s going to be a lot of activity going on in the stands.
“Both [teams] are very highly ranked, and this game could have a lot of bearing on the season,” he added. James Madison is the last team to win the national championship before ASU won three straight titles. The Dukes defeated Montana for the national championship in 2004.
Mike Carpenter, athletic ticket manager for JMU, said there has been high demand for this game—it sold out in early August. Bridgeforth Stadium has seating for 15,500, and Carpenter estimated that about 1,000 to 1,200 ASU fans will be in attendance.
Tickets for the game are listed on Stub Hub ranging from $55 to $80 and are listed as high as $275 for a pair on eBay.
“This game’s been circled on the calendar since the playoff game last year,” Eifler said. “Everybody’s wearing purple this week. It’s all pretty much anybody can talk about right now.”
For those of you not lucky enough to get tickets, you’ll have to catch the big game on the radio or on the Web. The Colonial Athletic Association granted exclusive television rights to Saturday’s game to Philadelphia-based CN8, available only from Maine to Northern Virginia. CN8 is not available on DirecTV or Dish Network.
However, CN8 does offer live streaming video of its programming online at www.CN8.tv. Free audio of the game is available at www.GoASU.com, and High Country residents can hear the game on the radio at WKBC 97.3 FM, WATA 1450 AM or WXIT 1200 AM.
