WORCESTER, Mass. - Former Holy Cross football coach Bob Chesney, currently the head coach at JMU, along with a bunch of his former coaches from Holy Cross and a handful of former Crusaders, helped lead JMU to the Boca Raton Bowl, where the Dukes will play Western Kentucky on December 18. 

Coach Chesney is excited about going to the bowl game and about how well the Holy Cross guys did this year, with Pat McMurtrie, Terrence Spence and Jacob Dobbs all being named All-Sun Belt, and Tyler Purdy doing very well before he suffered a season ending injury. 

"Oh yeah, I mean this is the second bowl game for the program," said Chesney. "Here you have a chance in your first year of being bowl eligible to actually make it and this would be the first bowl win in the history of the school, so anytime you get a chance to do any firsts in life we understand the gravity of that."

And as for the success at JMU of his former Holy Cross players, Chesney said, "It just proves the football that we were playing up there, there's nothing to hang your head about. That was an elite football program and still is an elite football program. And I think it's important to understand that anyone can play almost anywhere as long as they have the commitment and drive. You're talking about the guys that came here are some of the most competitive, driven, capable players and they fit right in at this level, FBS level and did a heck of a job."