Clay Helton & Georgia Southern Prepared For Showdown At James Madison

In a tightly contested Sun Belt East, 4-1 Georgia Southern have spent the last two weeks preparing for one of their biggest challenges of the season: the undefeated James Madison Dukes.

Last season, Georgia Southern were in a similar position when they hosted a 5-0 JMU team. The Eagles ended up winning that contest 48-35. However, the Georgia Southern staff realize that another closely contested battle with Curt Cignetti and company is likely in Harrisonburg this week.

Eagles' head coach Clay Helton acknowledged the problem that JMU's defense presents, particularly in the run game.

"You can see the experience all over the field with their team," Helton said during this week's Sun Belt Coaches media availability. "They are a mature bunch. They are ultra assignment sound. You don't see guys getting out of gaps, you don't see guys making mistakes. They're great tacklers. There's a reason that they are the number one rush defense in the country right now."

Mikail Kamara and Jalen Green of JMU have both posted double-digit tackles for loss through five games. Seeing that the Dukes are allowing just 38.6 yards per game may come as a surprise to some, but not to Helton. 

"That's the mark of a Coach Cignetti team. They're extremely well coached, extremely disciplined, and each man does their job with elite experience at each position."

James Madison are 50-3 at home over the last seven years. Helton has stated many times over the course of the last week his admiration of that stat. 

With a 3.5-point spread, the Eagles may end up on one end of a one-score game, something that has not happened to them yet this season. JMU has won four consecutive one-score games,

"We've been very fortunate in the fact of getting up two, three, four, five scores," Helton said on his Georgia Southern Athletic's weekly livestream this week. "That comes from our defense. [Our defense] is better this year. It's getting off the field with third downs. It's producing more turnovers...This league is just going to get harder and harder as we go through this season...We're going to have to do a great job of playing late in games. These games will get closer."

Kickoff between the Eagles and Dukes is set for Noon ET on ESPN2 this Saturday.