Harrisonburg, Va. — For the second consecutive year, the James Madison University football team is going bowling. After falling to Georgia Southern on October 19, the Dukes were still in search of their sixth win to make them bowl eligible when they hosted Southern Mississippi on October 26 in Harrisonburg. In front of a homecoming crowd, the Dukes defeated the Golden Eagles, 32-15, to earn the coveted sixth win, becoming bowl eligible for the second time in as many years.
“It’s a nice start to the rest of the season, but that’s just a start,” JMU head coach Bob Chesney said. “This is nowhere near where we [want to be], but it was great for the university to be at this level and to be bowl eligible at this moment.”
The Dukes became bowl eligible for the second time in their three seasons of FBS football. Last season, James Madison lost 31-21 to Air Force in the 2023 Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl. This year, they reached the six wins needed to play postseason football with four games left in their season.
To become bowl eligible, JMU got a massive performance by redshirt sophomore running back George Pettaway after he carried the ball 16 times for 119 yards and a touchdown—the first 100-yard rushing performance of his career.
“He’s patient,” Chesney said. “He takes the hand off and he waits for things to develop, and when he puts his foot on the ground to go, he can really go.”
On top of Pettaway’s performance, the Dukes’ defense buckled down in the second half, allowing just 80 yards through the air on 3 of 15 passing.
JMU’s defense started the game out strong on the first possession after a three-and-out gave the Dukes the ball back on their own 24-yard line.
The offense couldn’t capitalize on the great start by the defense, however, as JMU redshirt sophomore quarterback Alonza Barnett III was sacked on fourth down by Southern Miss graduate linebacker Jalil Clemons.
After a 15-yard pitch and catch from Southern Miss sophomore quarterback Ethan Crawford to graduate receiver Dannis Jackson—who caught five passes for 94 yards—the James Madison defense held strong, holding the Golden Eagles to a 44-yard field goal.
“They don’t score until they pass the goal line,” JMU senior cornerback Terrence Spence said. “Doesn’t matter what situation you’re in. You just have to stand ten toes down and just hope they don’t get into the end zone.”
After trading punts, JMU got possession back with just over four minutes left in the first quarter. Barnett found redshirt senior receiver Cam Ross for 13 yards, then he ran the ball himself for nine more to get into Southern Miss territory. On the next play, Barnett dropped back before being hit, throwing a wild pass into the air, where Southern Miss redshirt sophomore safety Elijah Sabbatini was under the ball for the interception.
After forcing a three-and-out, the Dukes got the ball back late in the first quarter, where redshirt sophomore running back Wayne Knight cut back into open space before being tracked down inside the Golden Eagles’ 10 yard line following a 59-yard run to close the first quarter.
A personal foul on JMU redshirt sophomore tight end Kyi Wright to open the second quarter moved the Dukes back, and eventually forced them to bring out redshirt sophomore kicker Cristiano Rosa, who made a 40-yard field goal to tie the game at 3-3.
On the ensuing possession, the JMU defense held strong, but the offense was stagnant for most of the quarter.
Needing a spark, Chesney and offensive coordinator Dean Kennedy reached into their play book and got creative. JMU redshirt junior receiver Taji Hudson got a screen pass, but instead of running up the field, he threw another pass to an open Knight for 23 yards. On the next play, Barnett found Pettaway for 23 more yards, before Pettaway finished off the drive with a 4-yard rushing touchdown, as JMU took a 10-3 lead.
“We just got to continue to move the ball down the field, take some chances, take some risks, put some exciting plays together,” Chesney said. “I thought Taji saw [the play]the whole way through, Wayne got bumped a little bit, but [Taji] was able to throw a very different ball than what we practiced all week.”
On the second play of the ensuing drive, Crawford dropped back for the Golden Eagles and overthrew his receiver as the ball ended up in the hands of JMU senior cornerback Terrence Spence—his fifth interception of the season.
“I think I’m just in the right place at the right time,” Spence said. “We’ve been practicing it all week. It’s a zone look, slot fade, I was over top of it in case the quarterback overthrew it, he overthrew it, and I was able to take advantage of it.”
The interception set up JMU on the 10, where on the next play, Barnett found senior tight end Taylor Thompson in the corner of the end zone for a 10-yard touchdown, increasing the Dukes’ lead to 17-3.
Southern Miss sophomore kicker Connor Gibbs drilled 54- and 46-yard field goals on the last two possessions of the second quarter to cut the Golden Eagles’ deficit to 17-9 heading into the half.
Leading by just one score coming out of the intermission, the Dukes knew they needed to add some additional cushion. It didn’t take long for JMU to increase their lead as Ross opened up the third quarter with a 94-yard kickoff return touchdown.
On the next Southern Miss possession, Crawford found Jackson for 34 yards before redshirt sophomore running back Kenyon Clay ran 15 yards into the end zone to cut the JMU lead to one-score at 23-15. However, that one-score lead quickly turned to two when JMU redshirt defensive lineman Darnold DeNgohe blocked the PAT, before redshirt senior safety Chris Shearin picked up the ball and ran it all the way back for the defensive two-point conversion.
“We tried to get as much penetration, because we knew the kicker kicks the ball really low,” DeNgohe said. “Get your hand up whenever you get a chance and try to get penetration. That’s something that we saw and took advantage of.”
After back-and-forth punts, James Madison got the ball back with seven minutes left in the third quarter. On first down, Barnett dropped back before being sacked by graduate linebacker Ja’Len Sims to start the drive. Later in the drive, the Dukes opted to go for it on 4th-and-1, but again, the Golden Eagles defense stepped up as they got to Pettaway in the backfield forcing a turnover on downs.
On the ensuing drive, the James Madison defense held strong once again as Shearin pounced on a fumble after a miscommunication on the handoff to give the Dukes the ball back with about two minutes left in the third quarter..
“From the beginning of the game, coaches told us it was a battle up front,” DeNgohe said. “We got to win the battle at the line of scrimmage. We’re trying to get some penetration and trying to keep the quarterback inside of the pocket a lot.”
On the resulting JMU drive, the Dukes were forced to punt but got saved as the Golden Eagles ran into redshirt senior punter Ryan Hanson, giving the Dukes a fresh set of downs.
The Dukes capitalized on that mistake by driving down the field on a 12-play, 94-yard drive that resulted in a 7-yard touchdown pass from Barnett to Ross to increase the JMU lead to 32-15, the score by which they’d hold on to win.
James Madison (2-2 Sun Belt East, 6-2) has a week off before turning their attention to Georgia State on November 9. Southern Miss (0-4 Sun Belt West, 1-7) also has a bye week before an away game against Marshall on the same date.
“There’s a lot of effort out there,” Chesney said. “We just got to get more in sync in certain areas, and I think we’ll do that in the much needed bye week coming up here. Excited to see the improvements we can make.”