Royalty in Harrisonburg!! Mike Houston, Curt Cignetti, Bob Chesney Who’s Next??? (12-2-2025)

By: Joe Dillard Jr.

Headline Photo Credit: Getty Images

In a span of 26 years, James Madison has hired 5 coaches, with two tales from that span.  The first 15 years Mickey Matthews held down the fort only having two losing seasons early in his stint only to turn around two years later and win a National Championship for the Dukes.  Essentially that gave him a ten-year deal which he used every bit of that time providing a great team every three or four years making a deep run in the playoffs.  This was a hell of a run and a great coaching career but that was just the tip of the iceberg of what was to come out of Harrisonburg, Virginia.  

For the last 12 years including this season, the Dukes will have a chance to be 100 wins over losses as they have gone 127-28 up to this point where they will look to win the SunBelt Title and be 128-28 over the 12 years.  Everett Withers was first as he only stayed two seasons and won the CAA in his second season while making the playoffs in both years.  In comes Mike Houston and in his first season he wins the program’s second National Championship and goes 37-6 in three seasons.  You just can’t top that when you have this line of successful coaches coming to a school that has to have a set culture to have this continued success.  Batting cleanup as the fourth coach in this span is Curt Cignetti who in five seasons went 52-8 in five seasons with one of them in a short pandemic season going 7-1. Five straight conference championships and now has Indiana ranked number 2 in the nation.  

Bob Chesney comes in and goes 9-4 and the alarm bells were grabbed but not sounded off as they finished with a bowl win.  In this current season, they are 11-1 and apparently Chesney has been poached by UCLA which speaks volumes for what has been going on in Harrisonburg.  The JMU culture, alumni, and fan base have sustained excellence no matter who the coach has been.  The question is who they will pick, and it seems like this will be one of those positions where they will have many fine candidates for the job and will get to hand-pick who they want.  One thing is for sure, whoever comes in will need to wear the purple cloak and put the crown on to continue what has become the norm in Harrisonburg and that is bring championships home.  

At this point, I feel like they should just hire the best high school football coach in the state, and the story would remain the same.  

Keep everything in state and let them stay for maybe 5 years and then get promoted however when you come in you will need to fill the roster as I’m sure at least 10-20 Dukes will be applying to attend school in Pasadena, California.  With the winning culture at this institution, I find it hard for a coach to come in and not be able to recruit.  Since the Dukes have developed a tree of successful coaches, it’s looking like Bryant Haines, the defensive coordinator of Indiana is the top candidate while Mike Shanahan the offensive coordinator is another one.  The other four are Will Stein OC at Oregon, Kennesaw State head coach Jerry Mack, Missouri State head coach Ryan Beard, and SMU OC Casey Woods.  We will see when the dust clears who will be wearing the purple cloak and crown.