CAA Coaches Pick Dukes to Finish Second
Stephon Robertson was picked for the All CAA Defense
CAA Football Media Day took place today at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland. The William & Mary Tribe were picked by CAA coaches and media relations folks to win the conference this year. Our beloved JMU Dukes received 4 first place votes and were picked to finish as runner-up to the Tribe. It’s no surprise that W&M is the odds on favorite to win the CAA. They took home a share of the conference title last season and are a popular pick to win the whole damn thing this year. Count me as a little bit surprised to see the Dukes picked to finish right behind them though. Delaware, New Hampshire, UMass and Rhode Island (don’t believe the hype) also received first place votes.
I guess you could view this as a sign of respect for the outstanding JMU defense. On the other hand, you could take it as a sign of how little respect the CAA coaches and media had for Drew Dudzik’s QB play last year. Last year’s defense gave up only 14.7 points a game and many people, including Coach Matthews, expect this year’s version to be even better. Last year’s offense however, had some weak spots, primarily passing, sustaining drives, and scoring points. (Other than that though they were prolific.) In fact they only scored more than 17 points in one single game after the big Tech win. And in that 30-24 upset win over W&M, they only attempted 1 pass and WR Dae’Quan Scott played QB. Dudzik quarterbacked the team to the biggest win in program history, but the fact is that his play was very disappointing for the remainder of the season. It might sound harsh, but it sure seems like the CAA coaches are just making the assumption that whoever replaces him at QB, will at least make the offense adequate. Or maybe they think the D will pitch a shut-out every week.
The All-CAA preseasons teams were also announced and four Dukes were honored. Senior OL Roane Babington was selected to the First Team offense, while sophomore LB Stephon Robertson and senior safety Vidal Nelson ended up on the First Team defense. Dukes’ junior punter, David Skahn was also selected as an All CAA special teamer. This might be one of the best, if not the best, defense JMU has ever had and only 2 players are expected to be all conference. I think this is a sign of respect for the defense as a collective unit, but I’d be surprised if the final All CAA defense wasn’t loaded up with Dukes. And God help the poor QB’s in the league if DJ Bryant feels slighted and plays like he’s got something to prove this year.
I like seeing the chaos and turmoil that is happening in Chapel Hill as well – having a new coach with a little over a month to play may bode well for our Dukes!
True, but I’m not getting my hopes up too much. I’d love to see a win down in Chapel Hill, but not as much as I’d like to see the Dukes return to the playoffs.
I’ll take a win over W&M and UR and take a loss to UNC every year. Now, how does Bryant not make pre-season all-conference. I went to 5 games last year, and all i see is him in the backfield every play. Does he have some issues i don’t know about?
Realistically I know that UNC will do whatever it takes to not let what happened to VT, happen to them. I think WVU in 2012 is going to be ugly for the Dukes so I figure let’s get a win this year against a FBS team. Of course I would prefer the FCS title over a win over a FBS team any day. But it would probably give a little more attention to JMU if we beat UNC which in turn actually helps us with recruiting etc in the future. It can’t hurt.
Don’t get me wrong Jason, it definitely can’t hurt and it would be awesome. I just don’t think it would top the VA Tech win and I’d gladly trade a loss to UNC for a CAA title.
Re: Byrant being missing on the All-CAA teams, I’m sure K.C. Keeler would probably never vote for Bryant after the hit he put on Devlin out last year, but the other coaches probably just overlooked him for some other lineman. I think the guy is a beast and am expecting a huge season from him.
If he (Bryant) has any competive bones in his body, he should be pissed. A pissed off Bryant is not what the other coaches want. I sure do want it though.