James Madison head coach Bob Chesney knows what awaits his Dukes on Friday night. And he isn’t sugarcoating it.
“Our guys played really hard. That was the number one thing. Play hard, play clean, nothing cheap, nothing late,” Chesney said following the Dukes’ opening win. “A lot of different people touched the ball and we played a tough physical brand of football, which is what we needed to be able to do and what we must do as we go into this week.”
With only a few days to prepare, Chesney has reset his team’s routine. “We just bump it all back a day. Today was Tuesday, tomorrow will be Wednesday, Thursday will be our Thursday. And then we’re traveling on that Friday, which is technically Thursday. We just eliminate the off day on the front end and pick it up on the back end.”
Clash with the Cards on deck 👀 pic.twitter.com/JDXGVmQXlf
— JMU Football (@JMUFootball) September 1, 2025
The opponent, though, is unlike most James Madison has faced. “You just don’t want to view yourself as the underdog,” Chesney said. “You want to look schematically and personnel-wise, where is there an advantage? Where can you create an advantage? It’s got to be that mentality. We can’t show up there and just hope to play a nice football game. We got to go out there and it’s going to be extremely physical.”
Louisville brings a loaded roster and a relentless style of play. “Will they blitz? Yeah, they’ll blitz,” Chesney said. “At the same point in time, their four without the blitz are pretty dangerous. They are a very good defensive line. Their secondary is very good. Their linebackers are very good. That, I mean, you’re talking about a $20 million or whatever it might be roster.”
“There is no weakness on this team,” Chesney added. “So it has got to come from us playing our best football period.”
James Madison (1–0) and Louisville (1–0) kick off Friday, September 5, at 7:00 p.m. ET on ESPN2.
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