San Diego State\u2019s first four games this season are against teams with new head coaches.<\/p>\n
Included among them is one coach (Bob Chesney) who joined last week\u2019s opponent (UCLA) after leaving this week\u2019s opponent (James Madison).<\/p>\n
The opportunity came after Chesney guided the Dukes to last year\u2019s College Football Playoff.<\/p>\n
The coaching carousel began in SDSU\u2019s opener against Portland State, which hired Chris Fisk from Central Washington. The new James Madison coach is Billy Napier, who was dismissed last year at Florida. Next week, the Aztecs play at Toledo, which hired Mercer coach Mike Jacobs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been going down the rabbit hole with \u2018Alice in Wonderland\u2019 the whole offseason,\u201d SDSU coach Sean Lewis said. \u201cI mean, you go from watching the Central Washington film because you\u2019re preparing for Portland State.<\/p>\n
\u201cWatching JMU film because of the scheme and the people who came from JMU to UCLA. And then we\u2019re going to turn the page and you\u2019re going to be preparing for JMU and you\u2019re watching the new JMU tape, but you\u2019re referencing the old JMU because of some people who are (still) there.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you throw in some Gator tape in the mix as well. And Week 4, we\u2019ll be watching Toledo Rocket tape with Mercer tape. Welcome to college football 2026. What an awesome sport to be a part of.\u201d<\/p>\n
SDSU (1-1) is a 1 1\/2-point favorite against James Madison (2-0) for Saturday\u2019s game. Kickoff is 7 p.m. (The CW) at Snapdragon Stadium.<\/p>\n
About the Dukes<\/p>\n
James Madison\u2019s rapid rise in the college football ranks culminated with a College Football Playoff berth in just its third season at the FBS level.<\/p>\n
The Dukes were an FCS power for nearly two decades before moving to FBS in 2023.<\/p>\n
Guiding them into the new era was head coach Curt Cignetti, who coached the team from 2019 to 2023 before moving to Indiana and leading the Hoosiers to last season\u2019s national championship.<\/p>\n
Chesney replaced Cignetti as JMU coach in 2024, going 9-4 that first season. The Dukes went 12-1 last season to earn the Group of Six berth in the playoff. Chesney left to coach UCLA after JMU\u2019s 51-34 playoff loss to Oregon.<\/p>\n
Chesney took 11 JMU players with him to UCLA, including seven players now starting for the Bruins, leaving the Dukes with five returning starters (one on offense). Napier brought in 61 new players to JMU, including 39 transfers.<\/p>\n
JMU (2-0) opened the season with a 20-13 win over Liberty. This is the Dukes\u2019 first meeting with SDSU.<\/p>\n
Last time out<\/p>\n
James Madison set a school scoring record in Saturday\u2019s 87-3 win over Wagner. The Dukes scored at least 21 points each quarter, totaling 12 touchdowns, while piling up 588 yards in total offense. JMU rushed for 291 yards and six touchdowns, returned two punts for touchdowns and returned a blocked punt for a TD.<\/p>\n
Key players<\/p>\n
QB Camden Coleman: He completed 11 of 17 passes for 170 yards and one touchdown against Wagner before being relieved.<\/p>\n
It was Coleman\u2019s first start in place of starter JC Evans, who suffered a lower-body injury in the season opener against Liberty. Coleman is the expected starter against the Aztecs.<\/p>\n
WR\/PR\/KR Michael Scott: Scott had 76- and 69-yard punt returns for touchdowns against Wagner. He also had a 92-yard kickoff return while finishing with 303 all-purpose yards.<\/p>\n
RB Nick Herman: Herman rushed nine times for 133 yards and two touchdowns against Wagner.<\/p>\n
RB George Pettaway: Pettaway rushed nine times for 52 yards and three touchdowns against Wagner.<\/p>\n
CB Ken Willis: The Cincinnati transfer had a team-high seven tackles, a sack and a fumble recovery against Wagner.<\/p>\n
LB Gannon Weathersby: The returning starter had five tackles against Wagner.<\/p>\n
![\"James](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/SUT-L-azfoot-0916-04.jpg\")
James Madison head coach Billy Napier signals to his kicking team as they line up for an extra point during the second half of an NCAA college football game against Wagner in Harrisonburg, Va., Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026. (Daniel Lin \/Daily News-Record via AP)
\nCoachspeak<\/p>\n
When asked after the 84-point win over Wagner if that could lead to overconfidence against the Aztecs, Napier said: \u201cWe won\u2019t have that problem. As soon as we turn this tape on (of the Aztecs), these guys will be dialed in. \u2026 We\u2019ve got work to do. I still think that this team has a ton of room for growth and improvement.\u201d<\/p>\n
After getting three special teams TDs, Napier said: \u201cI promise you there will be a lot of special teams coordinators losing sleep over what they experienced today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Did you know?<\/p>\n
JMU was originally called State Normal and Industrial School for Women when it opened in 1908. It was renamed Madison College 30 years later in honor of the country\u2019s fourth president (1809 to 1817).<\/p>\n
The Harrisonburg, Va., school became James Madison University in 1977 following a vote of the Virginia General Assembly.<\/p>\n
Had he been a football player, Madison likely would have been a kicker. He stood 5-foot-4 and weighed 100 pounds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Diego State\u2019s first four games this season are against teams with new head coaches. Included among them…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[1327,181,74,76,75,305,127,1696],"class_list":["post-465063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-college-sports","tag-latest-headlines","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-sdsu-aztecs","tag-sports","tag-top-stories-sdut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}