Dukes Down South: A Trip to the National Championship Day 1
The FCS title game came to Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas this year. Thanks to a tremendous playoff run that saw the nation’s number one offense, Sam Houston St., and five-time reigning champions North Dakota St. both fall, the Dukes of James Madison found themselves there in coach Mike Houston’s first season.
This was the second incredible experience JMU football gave us in just two years, last year being College GameDay for homecoming against Richmond. And like last year when I took full advantage and met the whole GameDay crew, this time I found myself sleeping, on the floor, in a house, in Frisco. It was a five day whirlwind experience, with upwards of 20 guys packed in a house together and a national championship on the line.
There was lots of football, food, friends, and alcohol, and Jamie asked me to document the weekend for you all day-by-day. Go Dukes!
Day 1
Thursday, Jan 5th
I’d be remiss to start describing the trip without mentioning the fact that I woke up in Durham on the day of flight out of D.C. What was I doing in Durham you ask? On Wednesday I went down to visit a friend of mine who’s a grad student at Duke to take in their game against Georgia Tech. Now, I HATE Duke. I feel like that’s an important disclaimer. But there I was Wednesday evening sitting standing for three hours (that’s in the contract Cameron Crazies sign) in the second row of the student section. As a Maryland fan, all the blue and white pained me but it was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. It also happened to be the game Grayson Allen returned from his suspension (not because of the Virginia Tech loss, right? Right??)
I couldn’t help myself.
While there, I got a tour of the campus and their iconic Chapel. I got the feeling checking out the Quad that I was at Hogwarts, and should be pronouncing all their dorms that had names like Mirecourt and Windsor with a British accent. I was almost surprised to not see owls flying around. At the game I also had the pleasure of hearing Coach K cuss out his players for every little defensive miscue in the midst of a 50 blowout. I took all of this in while unfortunately wearing a JJ Redick jersey, but at least I feel like I got the full experience in the short time I was there.
So now I headed back home Thursday morning and took a detour through rural North Carolina which was really sad, because all of the little mom-and-pop general stores along the route were all broken down, closed and rusting. I didn’t just randomly take this route though, the drive took me through Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina which is where a lot of my family comes from and a town that I had not been to since I was too young to remember. The most defining feature of the town is the paper mill; you can smell it the second you cross the town line. There really aren’t many attractions, but water-sports on nearby Lake Gaston does provide some entertainment. It was really neat to be in a place where I have so much personal history, but quickly it was time to get moving again.
I got home, randomly threw some clothes and a book in my bag, said goodbye to my golden retriever who wouldn’t look me in the eye like she does every time I leave, and headed to the airport where I ran into ALL OF JMU on my flight to Dallas. That made the whole flight so much more enjoyable. It was so awesome to see our school showing out. If you hadn’t heard, both JMU and Youngstown State were allotted 4,000 tickets and because of an inability to sell theirs, JMU ended up with 7,000 of the 8,000 student and alumni tickets. We all got on the plane and heard the crew saying “Virgin America would like to welcome James Madison to Dallas!” which I like to think kicked off the four day non-stop celebration. In the past when I’ve flown at night it’s pretty quiet: people are watching a movie, reading, or trying to get some sleep. Not so this time. There was a pretty constant buzz of excited chatter throughout the three hours, and a lot of that came from people recognizing each other that had no idea they were going to be taking the same flight.
When we finally landed, I headed over through the snow (what the hell, Texas!) to my friend’s house to find the boys all watching Family Feud and geeking out to Steve Harvey making fun of the one oddball that every family seems to have. I picked a spot on the floor, set up shop and called it a night. The real fun would begin on Friday.
Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4
Article by: Jackson Campbell