ASU defensive lineman Jabari Fletcher drags down a N.C. Central rusher during the Homecoming game. Fletcher and the defense are allowing 179.2 rushing yards per game, which is seventh out of nine Southern Conference teams. Photo by Keith Cline/ASU athletics

Play didn’t end during defensive drills on Monday afternoon until all 11 defenders were around the ball.

Ball-hawking. Swarming the football. Getting after the carrier.

Whatever you want to call it, the Mountaineers are trying to be more aggressive on defense as they prepare for the Black Saturday game against Georgia Southern.
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The ASU Mountaineer football team returns to friendly territory this Saturday, September 27, following a stinging loss to the James Madison Dukes in Harrisonburg, Va. The Mountaineers host the Presbyterian College Blue Hose at Kidd Brewer Stadium for a rare nighttime kickoff at 7:00 p.m.

In case you’re wondering, Blue Hose is a moniker for a fierce Scotch-Irish warrior. Some say that the Presbyterian Scotch-Irish wore blue stockings during the Puritan era of the United States. Another story has it that a band of Scotch-Irish named the Hose painted their entire bodies blue before going to battle. Presbyterian College Athletic Director Walter Johnson changed the uniform colors to blue around 1915, with blue stockings and jerseys. A sports writer started referring to the college’s teams as the Blue Stockings, and it stuck. Later, the nickname changed to the Hose, and the name was officially adopted sometime in the 1950s.

Presbyterian has an enrollment of 1,200. The school is in its second year of transition from NCAA Division II to Division I and is in its first season as a member of the Big South Conference. The last time the two teams met was November 8, 1969, when the Blue Hose defeated the Mountaineers 27-25 in Boone. ASU and Presbyterian played each other 16 times between 1946 and 1969, and Presbyterian leads the series 9-7. The Blue Hose are 1-3 this season.

The Mountaineers had a solid start to their game in Harrisonburg, putting up 21 unanswered points in the first half. But as soon as the opening kick of the second half, JMU began chipping away at ASU’s lead. The Dukes captured the lead with 10 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, and although more points were scored, ASU never caught back up. The final score was 35-32.

The loss to JMU dropped ASU to a 1-2 overall record and to No. 3 in The Sports Network national media poll and No. 4 in the national Coaches Poll. Richmond now holds the top spot in the media poll, followed by JMU. The Dukes were ranked No. 1 by the coaches this week.

The game also resulted in injuries to two players—running back Devon Moore with an ankle injury and defensive end Tony Robertson with an injury to his foot. Both are expected to miss about six weeks of the season. Sophomore running back Robert Welton will make his first career start in Moore’s place this Saturday, and sophomore Jabari Fletcher and freshman Lanston Tanyi will see more playing time as Robertson recovers.

Saturday is Open House and Family Day at Appalachian. As a result of those activities, parking and tailgating for the game will not begin until 2:00 p.m. on Saturday. Saturday is also Hall of Fame Day, and ASU will honor four inductees at halftime—former ASU football stars Wayne Byrd and Dexter Coakley, men’s golfer Andrew Pitts and longtime field hockey coach Dr. Jan Watson. Dr. Judy Clarke will also receive a Special Service Award.

All tickets, including reserved seats and general admission grass seats, are sold out for Saturday’s game vs. Presbyterian.

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.