'Every graphic I see reminds me of that:' How James Madison became college football's new cradle of coaches

A coach from a small private school in North Carolina walked into Bridgeforth Stadium eight years ago and beat James Madison on its own turf.

The Dukes were ranked No. 2 in the FCS and had won 19 straight at home. Elon, a program JMU had beaten 63-14 two years earlier, forced a fumble and won 27-24 on a 15-yard touchdown pass 77 seconds remaining. 

For JMU athletic director Jeff Bourne, the loss doubled as a job interview.

"I got to watch how well prepared they were. And it's like they knew what we were doing before we did," Bourne said.

Ten weeks later, Elon's coach was James Madison's coach. His name was Curt Cignetti.

Fast forward to today, the seventh full week of the 2026 season. Nine FBS teams remain unbeaten, the fewest through seven weeks since 2009, and three are led by men who have coached James Madison. 

Cignetti's Indiana is 6-0 and has won 22 straight games, including a national title in January. Chesney is the first UCLA coach to open 5-0 in his debut season. First-year JMU coach Billy Napier is 6-0 and hanging just outside the AP Top 25. Together, they are 17-0.

Coach	JMU tenure	Record at JMU	Signature achievement	Next head coaching job
Mickey Matthews	1999-2013	109-71	2004 Division I-AA championship	Fired; Coastal DC
Everett Withers	2014-15	18-8	First FCS playoffs berth since 2011	Texas State
Mike Houston	2016-18	37-6	2016 FCS national championship	East Carolina
Curt Cignetti	2019–23	52-9	2019 FCS runner-up; 19-4 across JMU's first two FBS seasons	Indiana
Bob Chesney	2024–25	21-6	2025 Sun Belt championship and CFP berth	UCLA
Billy Napier	2026–present	6-0	Unbeaten through first six games	Current JMU coach

Records through Oct. 15, 2026

"Every graphic I see reminds me of that," JMU athletic director Matt Roan said.

JMU's success and the continued success of their former coaches has the industry buzzing. How does the school produce so many great coaches?

Miami (Ohio) has owned the title Cradle of Coaches for generations. Woody Hayes, Ara Parseghian and Bo Schembechler all coached in Oxford, Ohio. A public university of about 22,000 students in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley is now making a modern claim to the name.

"Maybe the baton starts to be passed," Bourne said. "I think a lot of it speaks to the institution, its willingness and support for the coaches, and being able to give them what it takes to be successful. It takes that village. It really does."

It wasn't like this just a few years ago.

For two years, critics attempted to minimize Cignetti's achievements at Indiana, once the losingest program in FBS history. Those doubts quickly vanished when he secured a national title, while his JMU successor simultaneously steered the Dukes into the College Football Playoff last season. Chesney later left for UCLA, sparking a 5-0 start capped by the Bruins' first road win at Oregon in 22 years. 

Even after losing at least 92 players to the transfer portal since December 2023 -- including 24 who followed Cignetti and Chesney to Indiana and UCLA -- JMU reloaded again and again under new leadership and sustained its winning trajectory.

"I think you start on second base a little bit," Napier told The Daily News-Record in June. "We inherit momentum, we inherit historic success, we inherit national spotlight, and we're probably here at the most -- there's never been a better time to be at James Madison University or be a part of the football program relative to the momentum the place has."

JMU has transformed into a winning powerhouse, and the university has fully capitalized on that momentum. On Monday, JMU announced it will leave the Sun Belt for the American Conference by July 1, 2028. It will pay nearly $23 million to join its new league and a $5 million exit fee to leave its old one, an industry source told CBS Sports. It is JMU's second conference move this decade for a school that played FCS football as recently as 2021. It's also a wager that whatever produced three unbeaten coaches can survive the next climb.

The Dukes' blueprint starts with a rule for job candidates and relies heavily on relationships with students -- and their money.

JMU's first rule: Hire someone who's done it before

Bourne ran JMU athletics for 25 years before retiring in 2024. He cast a wide net in every coaching search, but once the Dukes started winning at a high level, he wanted consistency amid the turnover, so he sought coaches who had already run a program.

"Look for somebody that's won successfully where they are, that they have the right skill set, temperament and philosophy on culture that matches the institution and the program," Bourne said. "That worked well for us.

Roan, who succeeded Bourne in 2024, kept the rule when the school was tasked with hiring a second coach in three years last fall. "It really boils down to that head coaching box. Who has been a head coach before?" Roan said.

Every JMU hire since 2016 has checked it. Mike Houston came from The Citadel and won the 2016 FCS national championship. Cignetti came from Elon. Chesney came from Holy Cross. Napier came from Florida, where he was fired last season, after going 40-12 at Louisiana in the Sun Belt, the Dukes' current home conference.

"I think that flattens that learning curve," Roan said. "And then when they get here with great experience, they have resources, they have alignment. It rolls. People support them and invest in them, and then they carry the things that they learn from here to that next place, whether that's Indiana or UCLA. We love it when it actually takes place here.

Cignetti nearly arrived at JMU five years earlier. He interviewed with Bourne in late 2013, when the job went to Ohio State assistant Everett Withers instead. Bourne remembers a candidate who "was quieter, a little more reserved. Very direct to the point when he answered questions."

"Some (other candidates) we felt like were just in a better place at the time," Bourne said.

Withers left for Texas State after two seasons. Houston went 37-6 and left for East Carolina in December 2018. By then, Bourne had seen Cignetti's work from across the field and his process sped up. He still made his calls in the industry, including one to Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson, a trusted confidant. Clawson gushed about Cignetti.

Bourne also spoke with academic advisors, strength coaches, and staff members who worked with and under Cignetti. "You learn a lot. You really do if you take the time to dig that far."

Cignetti, who had interviewed in the last two JMU searches, was finally hired Dec. 14, 2018. He went 52-9 in five seasons, reached the 2019 FCS national championship game, and led JMU to the FBS with a 19-4 record in 2022 and 2023. 

"I think one thing about Curt is that he was just incredibly careful about what he asked for," Bourne said.

Cignetti didn't upset the apple cart when it came to requesting big ticket items. He worked with what he was given by an athletics department that ranks among the richest in the Group of Six. Bourne remembers turning down one request: a costly software program his staff wanted in the middle of a budget cycle.

"We told him, you know, that's not something that can happen right now. If you want to do it in a year from now, we can look at it and plan for it," Bourne said.

Cignetti took the answer and moved on.

"He had his job he wanted to do. He was a no-nonsense type of coach. He just got it done," Bourne said.

In 2023, Bourne traveled to Troy for a rain-soaked night game against the team that would win the Sun Belt. He did not expect to leave with a win. JMU was prepared for the opponent and the elements, though, and won 16-14. It was Troy's only conference loss that season, and the Dukes started 10-0.

Indiana hired Cignetti on Nov. 30, 2023. Six assistants and 13 former JMU players followed him to Bloomington. Cignetti is an incredible 33-2 in two-plus seasons that include a Big Ten title and national title, along with a Heisman Trophy winner in former quarterback Fernando Mendoza. 

Different personalities, the same winning formula

Bourne had already announced his retirement when he went looking again. One morning, he flew to Massachusetts with Cliff Wood, then a key figure in JMU's fundraising arm, an academic adviser and a football player from the previous season. They went to Chesney's home. His wife had prepared food. Chesney, then the coach at Holy Cross, presented his vision for JMU and then walked through the Dukes' entire roster and spoke about their strengths and weaknesses.

"It made that a pretty, pretty easy hire in the end," Bourne said.

Bourne described Chesney as "very, very charismatic."

"Curt, more reserved, quiet, direct. But once you get beyond that, the skill sets are very similar," Bourne said.

Chesney went 21-6 in two seasons. In 2025, the Dukes went 8-0 in Sun Belt play, beat Troy 31-14 for the program's first league title and became the first Sun Belt team to reach the College Football Playoff. Oregon ended the run, 51-34, in Eugene on Dec. 20.

By then, UCLA had already hired Chesney. Seven of his assistants went west with him, along with a wave of Dukes, including running back Wayne Knight, receiver Landon Ellis, defensive lineman Sahir West and cornerback DJ Barksdale.

Last Saturday, Chesney went back to Autzen Stadium and beat then-No. 13 Oregon, 17-15.

Roan had something of a head start in his search for Chesney's replacement last December. Chesney's name was first tied to the UCLA job as early as Week 4, and he credited the coach for being "very, very transparent with the opportunities that were being presented to him last fall." When Florida fired Napier in late October after a 3-4 start, Roan moved him to the top of his list.

JMU hired him Dec. 6, 2025, the same day UCLA announced Chesney.

"He's a winner," Roan said of Napier, who was 22-23 at Florida. "I firmly believe he's a winner. I think there are reasons for his success at Louisiana. There are lessons learned at Florida and I think what you're seeing here is we're getting the best version of him."

The coaches leave, but the winning stays

Napier inherited a roster stripped for parts. Roan counts more than 60 new players and 30 to 40 new staff members. The Dukes are still 6-0. JMU keeps refilling a roster that keeps getting raided. Roan credits resources first, then the stadium.

"They know what game day is like here and they know it's always going to be sold out. And they know when you play against JMU, it's going to be really hard. And when you play for JMU, it's going to be really fun," Roan said.

Bourne's explanation is simpler and harder to copy. He never hired with an eye on how long a coach would stay.

"And you never want to go into it with a standpoint of, well, they'll only be here a few years," Bourne said.

The introduction of revenue-sharing and the transfer portal in recent years did not change his checklist.

"Money's money," he said. "It's important. You have to have it, but you have people on your staff and at the university that help manage that. Your job is managing student-athletes and assistant coaches and being able to identify talent and develop talent. To me, those are the real difference makers."

The students bankrolling JMU's rise

JMU has spent plenty of money, too, thanks primarily to student fees. Again, that's why coaches and players rely heavily on building relationships with students and faculty. The department reported $78.6 million in operating revenue for fiscal 2025, about 29% higher than the No. 2 school in the Sun Belt. Of that, $58.1 million, or 74%, came from mandatory student fees (charged directly to students as part of their tuition), according to the Knight-Newhouse College Athletics Database. It's the highest student-fee supplement in the FBS. In 2010, student fees made up 84% of department revenue.

It's what it takes for JMU to not only be competitive, but rise as quickly as it has from the FCS to a CFP contender.

JMU began a formal FBS study in 2012, but wanted a new basketball arena and upgraded facilities before making the jump. The roughly $140 million Atlantic Union Bank Center opened in 2020. The Dukes joined the Sun Belt two years later.

"We weren't interested in getting in the league and then being at the bottom," Bourne said.

Another move up, another bet on the blueprint

Four years later, JMU has the most wins of any Sun Belt team since 2022, and is set to leave for a richer conference again. Discussions with the American Conference grew serious a month ago, Roan said, and the process sped up with the pending threat of the Sun Belt raising exit fees from $5 million to as high as $25 million.

The Sun Belt was expected to vote this week on raising its exit fees, but pressure within the conference is expected to lower that number from the previous high of $25 million, sources said.  

 When JMU joins the American Conference, the Dukes are expected to have the league's second-richest budget, behind USF.

JMU said private donors will cover the Sun Belt exit fee and corporate partners are committed to offset the entry fee into the American. Those partners will also have a corporate relationship with the American, an industry source said. JMU's revenue share will follow a schedule in line with the American's most recent additions rather than a full legacy share on Day 1, the source said. JMU's media rights distribution will start at roughly $3 million, but commercial revenue, including partnerships JMU brings to Rise Ventures, the American's commercial entity, could push its total annual take to $7 million to $8 million, an industry source said. JMU received $2.8 million from the Sun Belt in fiscal 2025.

The school's own explanation for the move is blunter. "Currently, the key definition of success is access to the College Football Playoff," JMU wrote in its realignment FAQ.

This season's playoff format guarantees one spot for a Group of Six team. At 6-0, JMU leads the race.

It's possible JMU joins the American as early as the 2027-28 academic year, but that is not set in stone.  "If they would decide it's more advantageous for them to maybe speed that up, I think that is a conversation that our institution and certainly our president would be open to having," Roan said.

Bourne, now retired near Lake Norman outside Charlotte, holds no grudge against the move. In his view, conferences are no different from coaches.

"I think movement, just like coaches leaving and going somewhere else, it's just how the industry works," Bourne said.

This Saturday, all three branches of the JMU coaching tree will try to remain strong. No. 5 Indiana hosts No. 4 Ohio State. No. 11 UCLA hosts Wisconsin. JMU hosts Georgia State on homecoming.

If Napier keeps winning, the phone will probably ring again.

"When our coaches and student-athletes leave us, it's because we've been incredibly successful," Roan said. "We're going to wear that with a badge of honor. I would gladly do a search every two years if it means that we are going to the CFP and we are winning championships and we are one of the top 25 teams in the country."