This weekend, UNC will take on a dangerous non-conference foe, one which hails from the Sun Belt Conference. This program also recently made a transition from FCS to FBS football after winning multiple national titles in the lower subdivision. When this team comes down from its relatively secluded mountain town, the Tar Heels need to be on high alert to avoid an upset.
Oh, you thought I was talking about App State? No, Mack Brown will avoid them like the plague if he can help it. This is about James Madison, which bears striking resemblances to the Mountaineers. Aside from the previously listed reasons, JMU boasts a robust fanbase which travels well, one which no doubt aided in selling out Kenan Stadium for Saturday’s game. Brown acknowledged as much earlier this week.
“James Madison’s got great fans,” said Brown. “They bought all their tickets. And they’ll be very, very excited about coming down.”
One needs only to ask Virginia about the JMU fans, who practically took over Charlottesville when the Dukes upset the Cavaliers last season. It was part of a 10-0 start for JMU, which hosted College GameDay on campus and even broke into the national rankings.
All of these things speak to a healthy football culture in JMU’s home base of Harrisonburg, Virginia, nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains just west of Shenandoah National Park. Catie Harper is a JMU alumna and covers the Dukes for the city’s Daily News-Record, and told Chapelboro the local love for the team extends well past those affiliated with the university.
“Fans live and die by JMU football. And it’s not even just the alumni of the school that love this program,” said Harper. “It’s so big across Harrisonburg as a city. [On] Saturdays, the stadium’s gonna fill up, and it may not even be filled with people who went to the school — it’s just people from the surrounding town. Because it’s a mountain city; there’s not much around once you get out of the city limits.”
When looking at the bigger picture, the state of Virginia has no professional sports teams. For Harrisonburg residents, the big cities of Washington, D.C. and Baltimore are a two-hour drive away. So when the townspeople latch on to what has been – by far – Virginia’s most successful college football program of the 21st century, Harper said the Dukes naturally take on a mythical persona.
“A lot of these football players for JMU, if you walk by a little kid, to them, that is a pro athlete in their eyes,” she said. “They’re larger than life around here.”
Winning certainly helps. James Madison won FCS national titles in 2004 and 2016 and hasn’t posted a losing season since 2002. The university itself is experiencing growth, too, with an undergraduate population which rivals UNC’s and a vast alumni network which stretches far beyond the school’s geographic footprint.
JMU head coach Bob Chesney has also emphasized the importance of community service, regularly having his players engage with fans in and around the city. As if the Dukes weren’t already popular enough, Harper said this has only made the fandom more passionate.
“There are players that people like to follow because they’re fun to watch on the field, or they’re nice away from the game and people get to know them,” said Harper. “It’s just a bunch of different things that I think have stacked up and been a perfect storm for this program to grow and take the community and this state by storm.”
And speaking of that alumni network, the Triangle is only a three-and-a-half hour drive away from Harrisonburg. In other words, it’s easy work for the traveling JMU brigade.
“A lot of these fans and alumni would probably travel hours upon hours just to go watch the football team play,” said Harper. “And especially play a team that’s at UNC’s level.”
The message is clear: the Dukes fear no program, no matter how big or small. They certainly don’t fear a Carolina team still searching for stability at quarterback. Tar Heel coaches have said they’ll need to play their best game of the season to turn 3-0 into 4-0. Otherwise, they risk finding out what others already know all too well: James Madison is one of the founding fathers of the college football upset.
Featured image via James Madison Athletics
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