2017 James Madison Dukes football team

The 2017 James Madison Dukes football team represented James Madison University during the 2017 NCAA Division I FCS football season. They were led by second-year head coach Mike Houston and played their home games at Bridgeforth Stadium and Zane Showker Field. They are a member of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA). They finished the season 14–1 overall with an 8–0 mark in CAA play to win the conference title and also finished undefeated in the regular season for the second time in school history (the other being 1975, before the Dukes joined the NCAA). They received an automatic bid to the FCS playoffs, where they defeated Stony Brook, Weber State, and South Dakota State to advance to the National Championship Game for the second straight season, where they were defeated 17–13 by North Dakota State.

2017 James Madison Dukes football
CAA champion
FCS Championship Game, L 13–17 vs. North Dakota State
Conference	Colonial Athletic Association
Ranking
STATS	No. 2
FCS Coaches	No. 2
2017 record	14–1 (8–0 CAA)
Head coach	Mike Houston (2nd season)
Offensive coordinator	Donnie Kirkpatrick (2nd season)
Defensive coordinator	Bob Trott (2nd season)
Home stadium	Bridgeforth Stadium (Capacity: 24,877)

2017 Colonial Athletic Association football standings
	Conf							Overall
Team		W		L					W		L
No. 2 James Madison $^		8	–	0					14	–	1
No. 11 Stony Brook ^		7	–	1					10	–	3
No. 20 Elon ^		6	–	2					8	–	4
No. 12 New Hampshire ^		5	–	3					9	–	5
Delaware		5	–	3					7	–	4
Richmond		4	–	4					6	–	5
Towson		3	–	5					5	–	6
Villanova		3	–	5					5	–	6
Maine		3	–	5					4	–	6
Albany		2	–	6					4	–	7
Rhode Island		2	–	6					3	–	8
William & Mary		0	–	8					2	–	9
$ – Conference champion ^ – FCS playoff participant Rankings from STATS Poll

Previous season

In 2016, the Dukes finished the season with a 14–1 record, including an 8–0 mark in CAA play to win the conference title. They went undefeated in FCS play with their only loss coming to FBS North Carolina. They received an automatic bid to the FCS playoffs, where they defeated New Hampshire, Sam Houston State, and five-time defending champions North Dakota State to advance to the National Championship Game, where they defeated Youngstown State. This was their first national championship since 2004.

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
September 2	6:00 p.m.	at East Carolina*	No. 1	Dowdy–Ficklen Stadium Greenville, NC	ESPN3	W 34–14	40,169
September 9	6:00 p.m.	East Tennessee State*	No. 1	Bridgeforth Stadium Harrisonburg, VA	CSN MA+ MadiZone	W 52–10	24,722
September 16	3:30 p.m.	Norfolk State*	No. 1	Bridgeforth Stadium Harrisonburg, VA	MASN2 MadiZone	W 75–14	23,118
September 23	1:30 p.m.	Maine	No. 1	Bridgeforth Stadium Harrisonburg, VA	MASN MadiZone	W 28–10	25,330
September 30	3:30 p.m.	at Delaware	No. 1	Delaware Stadium Newark, DE (Rivalry)	CSN+ CSN-P	W 20–10	16,372
October 14	3:30 p.m.	No. 11 Villanova	No. 1	Bridgeforth Stadium Harrisonburg, VA (College GameDay)	CSL[1] MASN2	W 30–8	25,993
October 21	3:30 p.m.	at William & Mary	No. 1	Zable Stadium Williamsburg, VA (Rivalry)	Cox Yurview WHSV	W 46–14	13,125
October 28	3:30 p.m.	No. 17 New Hampshire	No. 1	Bridgeforth Stadium Harrisonburg, VA	MadiZone	W 21–0	25,298
November 4	Noon	at Rhode Island	No. 1	Meade Stadium Kingston, RI	CSL	W 38–3	3,227
November 11	3:30 p.m.	Richmond	No. 1	Bridgeforth Stadium Harrisonburg, VA	MASN2	W 20–13	24,586
November 18	Noon	at No. 11 Elon	No. 1	Rhodes Stadium Elon, NC	PAA	W 31–3	8,662
December 2	2:00 p.m.	No. 10 Stony Brook*	No. 1	Bridgeforth Stadium Harrisonburg, VA (FCS Playoffs Second Round)	ESPN3	W 26–7	16,449
December 8	7:00 p.m.	No. 11 Weber State*	No. 1	Bridgeforth Stadium Harrisonburg, VA (FCS Playoffs Quarterfinals)	ESPN2	W 31–28	13,497
December 16	4:30 p.m.	No. 6 South Dakota State*	No. 1	Bridgeforth Stadium Harrisonburg, VA (FCS Playoffs Semifinals)	ESPNU	W 51–16	16,528
January 6	12:00 p.m.	vs. No. 2 North Dakota State*	No. 1	Toyota Stadium Frisco, TX (FCS National Championship Game)	ESPN2	L 13–17	19,090
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from STATS FCS Poll released prior to game Poll released prior to the game All times are in Eastern time

[2]

Game summaries

at East Carolina

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 1 Dukes	7	0	14	13	34
Pirates	0	0	7	7	14

East Tennessee State

	1	2	3	4	Total
Buccaneers	0	7	3	0	10
No. 1 Dukes	21	7	17	7	52

Norfolk State

	1	2	3	4	Total
Spartans	0	7	0	7	14
No. 1 Dukes	9	35	17	14	75

Maine

	1	2	3	4	Total
Black Bears	0	3	7	0	10
No. 1 Dukes	0	7	7	14	28

at Delaware

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 1 Dukes	7	10	0	3	20
Fightin' Blue Hens	3	7	0	0	10

Villanova

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 11 Wildcats	0	0	0	8	8
No. 1 Dukes	3	10	3	14	30

at William & Mary

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 1 Dukes	7	12	10	17	46
Tribe	0	0	0	14	14

New Hampshire

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 17 Wildcats	0	0	0	0	0
No. 1 Dukes	0	14	7	0	21

at Rhode Island

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 1 Dukes	0	7	17	14	38
Rams	0	3	0	0	3

Richmond

	1	2	3	4	Total
Spiders	0	7	3	3	13
No. 1 Dukes	0	10	0	10	20

at Elon

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 1 Dukes	3	14	7	7	31
No. 11 Phoenix	0	0	0	3	3

FCS Playoffs

Second Round–Stony Brook

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 10 Seawolves	0	0	0	7	7
No. 1 Dukes	6	13	0	7	26

Quarterfinals–Weber State

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 11 Wildcats	7	0	7	14	28
No. 1 Dukes	7	3	0	21	31

Semifinals–South Dakota State

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 6 Jackrabbits	0	10	0	6	16
No. 1 Dukes	7	14	30	0	51

National Championship–North Dakota State

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 2 Bison	7	10	0	0	17
No. 1 Dukes	3	3	7	0	13

Roster

2017 James Madison Dukes football team roster
Players			Coaches
Offense Pos. # Name Class RB 1 Trai Sharp Jr WR 5 Jamir Hudson Fr ATH 6 Noah Beckley Fr WR 7 Terrence Alls  Sr WR 8 John Miller Sr RB 10 Jack Brigham Fr WR 10 Riley Stapleton  So QB 12 Cole Johnson So WR 13 Ishmael Hyman  Sr WR 14 Braxton Westfield  Fr QB 15 Gage Moloney Fr QB 16 Jesse Layne Fr QB 17 Bryan Schor Sr WR 18 Hunter Etheridge  Jr WR 19 Daniel Adu Fr WR 19 David Eldridge Jr RB 20 Taylor Woods Sr RB 22 Eric Kirlew  Fr RB 25 Cardon Johnson  Sr RB 29 Marcus Marshall Jr RB 31 Percy Agyei-Obese Fr WR 34 Devin Floyd Fr TE 37 Clayton Cheatham Fr OL 53 Joe Fishpaw  Fr OL 55 Nick Edwards  Sr OL 58 Gerren Butler  So OL 60 Jahee Jackson  So OL 61 A.J. Bolden  Sr OL 62 Cam Kilgour Fr OL 63 J.T. Timming  Fr OL 67 Zaire Bethea  Fr OL 68 Tyree Chavious  So OL 69 Truvell Wilson So OL 70 Aaron Stinne  Sr OL 71 E.J. Donahue  So OL 72 Will Clevinger Fr OL 73 Mac Patrick So OL 74 Pika Leota  Fr OL 75 Michael Faulkner  Fr OL 76 Jake Glavin Fr OL 77 Liam Fornadel Fr OL 79 Raymond Gillespie  Fr OL 81 Nick Carlton So TE/LB 82 Joe Hunt Fr TE 82 Zach Polglase  Fr WR/S 83 Kyndel Dean Fr WR 83 Josh Sims Fr WR 84 Jonathan Newman Fr WR 85 Ezrah Archie Fr TE 86 Mack Cullen  So TE 88 Jonathan Kloosterman Sr WR 89 Jake Brown  Fr	Defense Pos. # Name Class LB 2 Dimitri Holloway Jr LB 3 Gus Little  So S 5 Raven Greene  Sr CB 6 Jimmy Moreland  Jr LB 9 Kyre Hawkins  Sr LB 11 Bryce Maginley So LB 12 Trey Wilson  Fr CB 14 LJ Taylor Fr DL 15 Ron'Dell Carter  So LB 16 John Kinney  Fr LB 18 Tabb Patrick  Fr S 21 Adam Smith So CB 22 Rashad Robison Jr CB 23 Charles Tutt Jr S 24 D'Angelo Amos  Fr CB 24 Sidney Wellons So CB 26 Curtis Oliver Jr LB 27 Pat Kagel Sr S 28 Grant Westbrook Jr CB 30 Wesley McCormick Fr LB 31 Keshuan Moore Fr S 32 MJ Hampton Fr S 33 Sam Kidd Fr CB 34 Justin Bethea Sr CB 35 Taurus Carroll Fr CB 36 Robert Carter Jr  Jr S 38 Mike Cobbs  So LB 40 Diamonte Tucker-Dorsey Fr LB 41 Brett Seigel  Sr S 42 Michael Johnson Fr LB 42 Cade Leonard Fr LB 43 Julian Freeze Fr DL 43 Garrett Groulx Fr S 44 Jordan Brown  Sr DL 46 David Ezeagwu Sr DL 47 Darrious Carter  Jr S 48 Reggie Collins  Fr LB 49 Brandon Hereford Sr LB 49 Trey Vossler Fr LB 51 Devin Medley  Fr LB 52 Landan Word So LB 54 Kevin Azanama  Fr LB/LS 59 Daniel Caraciolo  Fr DL 64 Mike Greene Fr DL 74 Simeyon Robinson  Sr DL 90 Rondre Knowles-Tener  Fr DL 91 Semaj Sorhaindo Fr DL 93 Andrew Ankrah  Sr DL 94 Cornell Urquhart Sr DL 95 Adeeb Atariwa  Fr DL 96 Ryan Etheridge  Jr LB 99 Isaac Ukwu Fr	Special teams Pos. # Name Class LS 41 Brett Seigel  Sr K 45 Tyler Gray Jr LS 56 Matt Wolcott Sr P/K 57 Jeremiah McBride  Fr P 78 Nik Nunez Fr K 91 Ethan Ratke Fr P 98 Harry O'Kelly Fr	Head coach Mike Houston Coordinators/assistant coaches Donnie Kirkpatrick (Offensive Coordinator / Quarterbacks) Bob Trott (Defensive Coordinator / Safeties) Bryan Stinespring (Offensive Line / Run-Game Coordinator) Roy Tesh (Outside Linebacker / Special Teams Coordinator) Byron Thweatt (Inside Linebackers) Jeff Hanson (Defensive Line) Tripp Weaver (Cornerbacks / Recruiting Coordinator) De'Rail Sims (Running Backs) Drew Dudzik (Outside Receivers) Fontel Mines (Inside Receivers) Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible Injured Redshirt [www.jmusports.com/roster.aspx?path=football Roster] Last update: December 15, 2017

Ranking movements

Ranking movements
Legend: ██ Increase in ranking. ██ Decrease in ranking.
NR = Not ranked. RV = Received votes. т = Tied with team above or below. ( ) = First place votes.

	Week
Poll	Pre	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Final
STATS FCS	1 (134)	1 (152)	1 (148)	1 (156)	1 (154)	1 (157)	1 (160)	1 (160)	1 (157)	1 (156)	1 (162)	1 (163)	1 (153)	2
Coaches	1 (20)	1 (25)	1 (24)	1 (25)	1 (25)	1 (25)	1 (25)	1 (26)	1 (26)	1 (26)	1 (26)	1 (26)	1 (26)	2 (1)

References

1. Washburn, Rob (August 18, 2017). "CAA PARTNERS WITH CBS SPORTS DIGITAL". Colonial Athletic Association. Retrieved August 22, 2017.
2. "2017 James Madison Dukes Football Schedule". James Madison University Department of Athletics. Retrieved August 2, 2017.