JMU football has its own ?blueprint,? even as it readies to face the FCS gold standard
While the ear might ache at the tired college football word "culture," the word having gone from fresh to common to overused, the ear ought to try to forgive. The word has the backing of truth. The culture within a program does seem paramount, time upon time.
So, then: Two towering cultures will collide here Saturday near the top of the Dallas sprawl. When James Madison (14-1) finds itself at last opposite North *Dakota State (15-0) in the Football Championship Subdivision national championship game, the Dukes will find an opponent with a culture long worth emulating while boasting a culture doing a pretty damned good job of emulation.
?This is a team where everyone wants to see everyone do well,? said Brandon Polk, a wide receiver previously at Briar Woods High in Northern Virginia as well as Penn State. ?There?s no resentment.? Player upon player reports an exhilarating absence of cliques.
Harrisonburg is home to a living, thriving ? oh, no! ? culture. It?s culture sturdy enough that it can come up against these Bison, with their seven national championships and 127-8 record over the past nine seasons, and make the matchup seem enticing in the run-up. The Dukes? culture, after all, reaches the Frisco firmament ? this title game?s annual site ? for a third time in the past four seasons, with a title in 2016-17, and a 51-7 record across those four years. It belongs on the field with a North Dakota State program that has made its fans a part of the tapestry (including the bar tapestry) around here.
[JMU?s record-setting pass rusher could win it all after nearly walking away]
The James Madison culture steadied easily through coaching change, last offseason, from Mike Houston to Curt Cignetti, whose path had coursed through staffs at Rice, Temple, Pittsburgh, N.C. State and that well-known outfit from Tuscaloosa, Saban-ama (2007-10), before Cignetti eventually did wonders as the head coach at Elon.
First, as quarterback Ben *DiNucci told it, there came one of those players-only meetings that apparently should occur more often in life. ?Some of the senior guys and captains had stepped up and kind of said, ?Hey, guys, we?re all we?ve got now,? ? DiNucci said. ? ?There?s a hundred of us, and we could let this go two ways: We could let this build us stronger and propel us next year, or we could let this split us apart.? ?
So even though Cignetti had the effrontery to occasionally bring up to his new charges Elon?s 27-24 win in Harrisonburg in 2018, he said Thursday: ?It?s really been an easy team to coach, to be quite honest with you. Really haven?t had any problems of any kind, significant issues. They?ve kept their eyes on the bull?s eye. They know what they want.?
In sum: ?They understand the principles and values of the program, the standards and expectations.?
That?s what has happened by now at James Madison: Culture, once established, has strengthened to entrenched. The experience has gone beyond football and toward something human, somewhere in the range of successful human organizations. The habits ricochet across the seasons.
Consensus first-team all-American defensive end Ron?Dell Carter (Long Reach High) described learning a ?blueprint? from former Dukes such as *Andrew Ankrah, who?s now on an XFL team?s roster; from Bryan Schor, who won a national title as the Dukes? quarterback; and from Simeyon Robinson, the exemplary former Dukes defensive tackle. In turn: ?Once we leave here, we have young guys that are going to be able to take after what Dimitri [Holloway, linebacker] and Rashad [Robinson, cornerback] and Riley *[Stapleton, wide receiver] and Mac [Patrick, offensive lineman] and me have laid that foundation on,? Carter said.
So, for a sweeping truth: ?Coaching matters, obviously, but you know, it?s the seniors that always make up a team, I believe, you know what I mean? And I think a lot of coaches would probably say the same thing: The senior leadership is pretty much going to dictate a team, because those are the guys that are going to make sure the stuff that the coaches don?t see, doesn?t happen, you know what I mean? Off-the-field issues, and good things like that.?
If anything, Carter might be an ideal gauge, as might be Polk or DiNucci. All transferred in. All knew that uncertainty of heading into frontier and wondering whether pockets of resentment might lurk. Carter played at *Rutgers, *DiNucci at Pittsburgh.
Polk arrived just last summer, after even Cignetti.
?That was from Day One, since I got here. They kind of brought me in: ?Look, this is how things are going to be done? ? things like that,? said Polk, who has contributed 73 catches for 1,173 yards, 11 touchdowns and the chronic capture of the defense?s attention that, of course, can free up others. ?So I mean that definitely helps coming in, knowing that the group of guys you have around are like that. Sometimes you can get the teams where it?s not like that, where they don?t really care; they don?t want to help you get to that next step that you may need to go to.?
The blurry-fast senior found it striking: ?Sometimes, a lot of people, especially with transfers, they?ll come in, and even in the receivers room, they just don?t want to potentially, maybe, help, because, ?Hey, he might take my job,? or, ?I don?t like him because of that.? When I got here, it was pretty much, ?Right; get to it.? They were there helping me with the offense. Everyone kind of helped together, me, and then you know, as soon as I started learning, and everything else, then I?m helping everyone else, and that?s kind of how the team really works.?
Help begets help begets help, and soon, with just one narrow loss at West Virginia to open the season, everybody and their new coach are back in Frisco.
?When you win,? Cignetti said, ?a lot of things maybe that would irritate you if you lost, maybe don?t come out. And when you win a lot of games, you should have a good locker room, and you should have a great culture. . . . You?ve got a reason for doing what you do. They understand why you?re doing what you do.?
While the ear might ache at the tired college football word "culture," the word having gone from fresh to common to overused, the ear ought to try to forgive. The word has the backing of truth. The culture within a program does seem paramount, time upon time.
So, then: Two towering cultures will collide here Saturday near the top of the Dallas sprawl. When James Madison (14-1) finds itself at last opposite North *Dakota State (15-0) in the Football Championship Subdivision national championship game, the Dukes will find an opponent with a culture long worth emulating while boasting a culture doing a pretty damned good job of emulation.
?This is a team where everyone wants to see everyone do well,? said Brandon Polk, a wide receiver previously at Briar Woods High in Northern Virginia as well as Penn State. ?There?s no resentment.? Player upon player reports an exhilarating absence of cliques.
Harrisonburg is home to a living, thriving ? oh, no! ? culture. It?s culture sturdy enough that it can come up against these Bison, with their seven national championships and 127-8 record over the past nine seasons, and make the matchup seem enticing in the run-up. The Dukes? culture, after all, reaches the Frisco firmament ? this title game?s annual site ? for a third time in the past four seasons, with a title in 2016-17, and a 51-7 record across those four years. It belongs on the field with a North Dakota State program that has made its fans a part of the tapestry (including the bar tapestry) around here.
[JMU?s record-setting pass rusher could win it all after nearly walking away]
The James Madison culture steadied easily through coaching change, last offseason, from Mike Houston to Curt Cignetti, whose path had coursed through staffs at Rice, Temple, Pittsburgh, N.C. State and that well-known outfit from Tuscaloosa, Saban-ama (2007-10), before Cignetti eventually did wonders as the head coach at Elon.
First, as quarterback Ben *DiNucci told it, there came one of those players-only meetings that apparently should occur more often in life. ?Some of the senior guys and captains had stepped up and kind of said, ?Hey, guys, we?re all we?ve got now,? ? DiNucci said. ? ?There?s a hundred of us, and we could let this go two ways: We could let this build us stronger and propel us next year, or we could let this split us apart.? ?
So even though Cignetti had the effrontery to occasionally bring up to his new charges Elon?s 27-24 win in Harrisonburg in 2018, he said Thursday: ?It?s really been an easy team to coach, to be quite honest with you. Really haven?t had any problems of any kind, significant issues. They?ve kept their eyes on the bull?s eye. They know what they want.?
In sum: ?They understand the principles and values of the program, the standards and expectations.?
That?s what has happened by now at James Madison: Culture, once established, has strengthened to entrenched. The experience has gone beyond football and toward something human, somewhere in the range of successful human organizations. The habits ricochet across the seasons.
Consensus first-team all-American defensive end Ron?Dell Carter (Long Reach High) described learning a ?blueprint? from former Dukes such as *Andrew Ankrah, who?s now on an XFL team?s roster; from Bryan Schor, who won a national title as the Dukes? quarterback; and from Simeyon Robinson, the exemplary former Dukes defensive tackle. In turn: ?Once we leave here, we have young guys that are going to be able to take after what Dimitri [Holloway, linebacker] and Rashad [Robinson, cornerback] and Riley *[Stapleton, wide receiver] and Mac [Patrick, offensive lineman] and me have laid that foundation on,? Carter said.
So, for a sweeping truth: ?Coaching matters, obviously, but you know, it?s the seniors that always make up a team, I believe, you know what I mean? And I think a lot of coaches would probably say the same thing: The senior leadership is pretty much going to dictate a team, because those are the guys that are going to make sure the stuff that the coaches don?t see, doesn?t happen, you know what I mean? Off-the-field issues, and good things like that.?
If anything, Carter might be an ideal gauge, as might be Polk or DiNucci. All transferred in. All knew that uncertainty of heading into frontier and wondering whether pockets of resentment might lurk. Carter played at *Rutgers, *DiNucci at Pittsburgh.
Polk arrived just last summer, after even Cignetti.
?That was from Day One, since I got here. They kind of brought me in: ?Look, this is how things are going to be done? ? things like that,? said Polk, who has contributed 73 catches for 1,173 yards, 11 touchdowns and the chronic capture of the defense?s attention that, of course, can free up others. ?So I mean that definitely helps coming in, knowing that the group of guys you have around are like that. Sometimes you can get the teams where it?s not like that, where they don?t really care; they don?t want to help you get to that next step that you may need to go to.?
The blurry-fast senior found it striking: ?Sometimes, a lot of people, especially with transfers, they?ll come in, and even in the receivers room, they just don?t want to potentially, maybe, help, because, ?Hey, he might take my job,? or, ?I don?t like him because of that.? When I got here, it was pretty much, ?Right; get to it.? They were there helping me with the offense. Everyone kind of helped together, me, and then you know, as soon as I started learning, and everything else, then I?m helping everyone else, and that?s kind of how the team really works.?
Help begets help begets help, and soon, with just one narrow loss at West Virginia to open the season, everybody and their new coach are back in Frisco.
?When you win,? Cignetti said, ?a lot of things maybe that would irritate you if you lost, maybe don?t come out. And when you win a lot of games, you should have a good locker room, and you should have a great culture. . . . You?ve got a reason for doing what you do. They understand why you?re doing what you do.?
