William and Mary focuses on task at hand

The crowd gathered at the top of the Colonial Athletic Association football standings could be in for a cruel game of musical chairs.

When the season ends, postseason-caliber CAA teams probably will outnumber available seats for the 16-team Football Championship Subdivision playoffs.

FCS' most powerful conference has six ranked teams: No.1 Richmond (6-0), No.4 Villanova (6-1), No.5 William and Mary (5-1), No.9 New Hampshire (5-1), No.14 Massachusetts (4-2) and No. 19 Delaware (5-2).

Standing out will become imperative for each team. William and Mary can continue to move in that direction by beating James Madison today in Williamsburg.

"I'm not smart enough to figure that out," said William and Mary coach Jimmye Laycock, when asked how teams can separate themselves.

"All we want to do is get ready and play the best we can each week. That's what we're doing this week. We'll see what happens at the end of the year about all that stuff."

JMU (0-3 CAA, 2-4) won the national championship in 2004 and has been to the playoffs the past three years. But Madison has fallen out of the rankings after scoring just 34 points in its past three games.

Still, the Dukes' playoff tradition makes them a signature victory for opponents. There's also this incentive for William and Mary: The Tribe has lost five consecutive games to the Dukes.

"This is only my second year playing," said sophomore linebacker Jake Trantin. "But we hear about the older guys having never beaten JMU. It would be big for the seniors to . . . get a win for them."

Madison comes in a wounded animal. The Dukes, 49-15 the past five seasons, have lost three consecutive conference games for the first time since 2005. Laycock knows the Tribe is facing a dangerous team.

"I see them as a very good football team that has had a couple of tough games," Laycock said. "Last week [in a 27-0 loss to Villanova] they ran into a team that just executed very, very well.

"I know the talent level JMU level has. It's excellent talent, they're very well coached, and it's a good team."

The Dukes have struggled with their bread-and-butter running game in losses to Hofstra (24-17), Richmond (21-17) and 'Nova. They lost one of their platooning quarterbacks, junior Drew Dudzik, to a broken foot against Richmond, which accelerated the timetable of redshirt freshman quarterback Justin Thorpe (Varina).

"It wasn't the best two weeks to break in a young quarterback," JMU coach Mickey Matthews said. "Unfortunately, we've go to play another defense this week [of the] same caliber.

"In the 11 years I've been here, this is the best team [William and Mary has] had. They're certainly better on defense than they've ever been."