College Football Playoff Notebook: Dukes Prepare for Autzen Environment, Lift Off for Eugene

EUGENE, Ore. – At times during practice this week, James Madison head coach Bob Chesney couldn't hear his assistants, even if they were standing right next to him. That was by design.

The Dukes were simulating the environment they'll be playing in at Oregon on Saturday night by pumping in music and crowd noise to their practices at Bridgeforth Stadium.

"It's deafening. You can't hear from a foot away from each other," Chesney said. "I think it's pretty cool to watch coaches communicate, watch players communicate. Now it's pretty much second nature. There's very little that's getting missed."

When the Dukes meet the Ducks in the first round of the College Football Playoff, JMU will take the field in front of its largest crowd of the year. Autzen holds 54,000 fans and the school is expecting a capacity crowd.

"We have all their songs. All the things they do," Chesney said. "Their band. Their music. Everything we could gather is what we're putting on display out there for our guys so that it's something they've heard before."

Last week, there were limitations to what JMU could do on the noise front, with the whole campus in the middle of final exams. But this week, Chesney had the staff crank up the volume to the max.

"Just make sure it's as loud as it can be," he said. "Try to make this where we can't even hear each other on both sides of the ball."

Still, even with that thorough level of preparation, the Dukes know they'll need to be ready to adjust on the fly when the game starts Saturday night.

"We have multiple plans," quarterback Alonza Barnett III said. "We have a plan going into the game, but it's not until you're in that environment that you know what's best for the team. We'll make the necessary adjustments."

That includes having multiple sets of signals to make sure they don't become predictable.

The biggest crowd the Dukes have played in front of this year came at Louisville, the team's only power conference game of the regular season.

JMU fell 28-14 in front of 48717 on Sept. 5, a game that was tied 14-14 through three quarters.

Autzen figures to be more imposing, both in terms of crowd size and quality of opponent.

The Ducks are 6-1 at home this season – with their one loss coming to top-seeded Indiana. Oregon is 20-1 at home the past three years.

Go west: This trip to Oregon is the farthest west JMU has ever traveled for a football game, and the Dukes' first appearance in the Pacific time zone. They previously played on Mountain time at Weber
State (2021) and Utah State (2023).

Thursday, the Dukes left Harrisonburg around 11 a.m., a sendoff that included fans gathering at the Plecker Athletic Performance Center and an assembling of local first responders near exit 245 on Interstate 81.

The team took a charter flight from Richmond to Eugene, a flight of over five hours, taking off around 4:30 Eastern time and landing just before 8 p.m. local time in Oregon.

The trip from Harrisonburg to Eugene is just over 2,800 miles, making it the longest road trip of any of the first round CFP games.

Miami has the second longest haul, though its trip of over 1,200 miles to College Station, Texas to take on Texas A&M, isn't even half as far as the Dukes traveled.

The shortest distance any team is going in the first round? There are only about 356 miles between New Orleans, La. – home of Tulane – and Oxford, Miss., where the Green Wave will take on Ole Miss on Saturday.

Go Big (Ten): Saturday's game against Oregon will be JMU's second all-time against a Big Ten opponent.

The Dukes played at Maryland in 2014, the Terrapins first season in the Big Ten. JMU, still an FCS program at that point, lost 52-7 in College Park, Md.

Oregon joined the Big Ten last year, part of expansion that also included Southern Cal, UCLA and Washington.

A statistical look: Oregon has the nation's No. 9 scoring defense, allowing just 14.8 points per game. The Dukes are No. 10 at 15.9 ppg. JMU and the Ducks are also tied in the national rankings with three defensive touchdowns each, tying them both – with 18 other teams for 10th.

Those are statistical similarities.

But numbers also spotlight one of the most intriguing and key matchups in Saturday's contest.

JMU's defense ranks third in the nation in fewest yards per rush allowed, at 2.48. The Ducks gain 5.8 yards per carry offensively, the fifth best mark in the country.

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