Quick Thoughts on Meet the Dukes Day

I made the trip back to the ‘burg on Saturday for “Meet the Dukes Day”. It was a fun day and I was happy to get my first look at the Bridgeforth improvements and the 2010 Dukes. Here are some quick observations in no particular order.

Bridgeforth Stadium Looks Great

It’s clear that the stadium is simply done with phase one, there are steel girders and construction materials all over the place. However, it’s much improved from last season already and is clearly going to be amazing when the full upgrade is completed. Upon entering the stadium you immediately walk up 2 flights of stairs to the concourse lined with concessions and restrooms. There is even a team store to load up on JMU gear. The seating is better also and the extension of seating to close the gap in the corner of the endzone is great. In short, it’s already much more of a “real” stadium experience than the old Bridgeforth.

The Dukes Have Weapons

I didn’t get to see as much of the scrimmage as I would have liked, because my 2 year old decided pretty soon after we arrived that it was time to go find Duke Dog. I was encouraged by what I saw though. The offense seems to have some playmakers. Scott Noble broke 2 big runs in a span of about 5 plays and lots of plays seemed designed to get guys in position to make big plays. Finally, I don’t want to hype a guy too much after watching him one day, but Dae’Quan Scott looks legit. Some guys get the ball and you can just tell that they’ve got a burst and ability to see holes that other guys don’t. Scott appears to be one of those guys.

Uncle Kracker is Playing the Shenandoah County Fair

Obviously this has nothing to do with the Dukes, but I saw the sign advertising it on my drive down. Not sure if that’s worse for the people of Shenandoah County or for Uncle Kracker. Not good all around though.

Pretty Impressive Fan Support

I blog about the Dukes, so the fact that I wanted to attend the event should be taken in context. I really thought it was a great though and had a blast attending with the wife and kids. Hundreds of other people were there though and all seemed to be thrilled to be there. Consistent sell-outs at Bridgeforth have obviously been great for the Dukes. Drawing crowds to watch the team practice though starts to take things to a whole different level.