It has been an eventful couple of days at James Madison, and it may get more eventful sooner than later.
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The Daily News-Record in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia is reporting that current James Madison Athletic Director Jeff Bourne and a contingent of other JMU notables are — as of Monday morning — on a plane to Massachusetts, and JMU beat reporter Shane Mettlen has already written and Tweeted that a certain coaching candidate from that neck of the woods may be headed to Harrisonburg, Va. soon.
DNR STORY BY METTLEN: Read
Holy Cross head coach Bob Chesney (46), a proven top-flight FCS recruiter who has built the Crusaders into an FCS powerhouse in recent years, has been reported to be a key candidate for JMU's open head coaching position. Chesney has been a winner at each step of his career, and most recently was hired at Holy Cross in 2017 and has a 44-21 record since then, with four trips to the FCS playoffs, five straight years of at least tying for the Patriot League regular-season title, and being ranked in the FCS Top 25 in the last four seasons.
His teams also pushed Boston College this year in a three-point loss and beat FBS teams in 2021 and 2022 (UConn and Buffalo).
Last week, highly successful JMU head coach Curt Cignetti took the job at the Big Ten's Indiana. Then this weekend, JMU found out that it will indeed be in a bowl game after an entire fall of debate about whether the Dukes should be left out of the bowl picture in this, their second year in the FBS. JMU will play Air Force in the Armed Forces Bowl on Dec. 23.
If Chesney is hired, if would be a continuation of a pattern at James Madison. It has taken an FCS coach who has found major success at a program that hasn't necessarily had the same success as JMU, as opposed to hiring an FBS assistant or going some other route. In 2015, JMU hired Mike Houston (now at FBS East Carolina), and in 2018 the Dukes hired Cignetti from conference foe Elon.
