Each week, former player and coach Vince Lococo brings you inside the mind of a team prepping for its next opponent.
Welcome inside the lines for writeups that I will be posting weekly on Louisville Football. The purpose of these articles is to help you, the fan, gain a better understanding of the next opponent… and, also, to beat any and every allegation that fullbacks can’t read/write.
Week two of our college football season is here as the Cards get ready for James Madison University. The last time the Dukes came to Louisville was November 5th, 2022, when the Cards won 34-10. Pretty much everything has changed on both sides since their last meeting. With that being said, let’s dive into JMU.
First thing first, James Madison lost their Head Coach Curt Cignetti to Indiana (must have learned his lesson in 2022 since IU canceled the football game), replacing Cignetti is Bob Chesney (not related to Kenny).
Chesney was the head coach for Holy Cross University before making the change to JMU. Last season the Dukes posted a 9-4 record under Chesney’s tutelage, winning their bowl game vs WKU at the end of the season.
JMU on Defense
JMU looks to run a 4 down defense, meaning you will have a nose, defensive tackle, and two defensive ends.
Every defense in America runs variations of nickel, dime, prevent, etc so expect those to be in the game plan as well.
The linebackers for JMU love to shoot gaps and play on their toes. On almost all their blitzes, the linebackers were trying to time the blitz up with the snap count. What does that mean for Louisville? Hard count, hard count, hard count.
Against Weber State in week one, the Dukes created 3 turnovers in the passing game. Miller Moss will need to be very smart with the football this week. Would not be surprised if Jeff took advantage of their overly aggressive secondary running similar stuff that we hit Lacy on for a big play last week vs EKU.
JMU on Offense
Offensively, the Dukes actually played 3 quarterbacks in week one. Alonza Barnett III took the majority of the snaps against an outmanned squad. Barnett is entering his second year as a starter. Last season, he threw for 26 touchdowns, ran for 7 more, while racking up over 3,000 yards of total offense. Backup Matthew Sluka played a smaller role, and JMU’s 3rd QB had no notable stats.
Watching their offense it’s clear that Barnett loves having the ball in his hands. On the first drive alone, they ran two read option plays where he could have handed it off, but decided to keep it.
JMU is not afraid to run the ol Scott Satterfield QB blast up the middle while in the red zone. Barnett had 135 rushing attempts a season ago, which is comparable to the number of attempts from Malik Cunningham in 3 of his four years as a starter.
Unlike Cunningham, however, Barnett is more of a north/ south runner a la Puma Pass.
Against a solid defensive front four for Louisville, Barnett will use his legs early and often to evade pressure. The onus is placed upon the Louisville football front 7 to have disciplined eyes and keep Barnett in check.
I think Barnett throws very interceptable balls. He is well-built and can sling it, but doesn’t show consistent accuracy– He completed 60 percent of his passes a season ago.
Barnett’s main target vs Weber State was Michael “Mikey” Scott (no relation to the one in Scranton). Scott is on the smaller side, listed as 5’9 165lbs. He was a pretty highly thought of guy coming out of high school. Scott had offers from Penn State, Pitt, Kentucky, WVU, and Maryland, and was initially committed to Arizona State before flipping to the Dukes. JMU will try to use him in a similar way Louisville football does with Caullin Lacy and did with Tutu Atwell. He is extremely quick and elusive, and can easily sneak behind a defense. Like Atwell, Scott has the size to kind of hide behind the line on jet sweeps and pre-snap motions.
Rushing wise, running back George Pettaway runs hard but I don’t believe he is anything better than what the Cards see everyday with Isaac, Duke, and Keyjuan.
Some things to note with JMU. The offensive coordinator/head coach decided to run a reverse in week one. It did not work successfully, but it is now something the Louisville football defense has to prepare for.
My prediction is that they break out a pass based on the reverse run last week.
Secondly, they ran a fake punt. Which is now something Coach Mas and the return teams need to prep for. The Dukes also had a blocked punt and took a kickoff return for a touchdown that was called back due to holding.
It is going to take fast, physical, and disciplined football to beat the Dukes.
As always, hope you enjoy and Go Cards!!!
