Guest Blogger: Just Not in the Cards this (Post) Season

First of all, I want to send my condolences to the families and friends of those who passed away in the recent tragedies involving fellow Dukes. I haven’t followed the JMU-related news a lot but I read that a freshman was killed in to a bus crash and a vice provost died of a heart attack this week alone. I believe the Breeze said it was the 5th Duke to pass away this month. In this time of sadness it’s nice to see the JMU Community reach out and come together at recent memorials etc.

Since no segue is even appropriate, I guess I will just jump right into my guest blog. To be completely honest, the reason I won the prediction contest this week was because I pulled a “Price is Right” moment early Saturday afternoon. I was the 4th bettor who got to see all the other bids and was able to tell Bob Barker, “$1001” when the next highest bid was $1000 and the gold watch on display had a retail value of $1699. I believe there were something like 11 guesses before I read Todd and Rob’s prediction post and instead of picking a score (for JMU) that I actually believed in, I ended up going with something that was in my mind an outrageous score thinking that it was the only way I was going to win because nobody else had anything close. Yeah, I know kind of lame. But I did win the gold watch on my way to play Plinko on stage.

The telling part of that decision making process is that I really didn’t have faith in Dukes’ offense to put that many points on the board or the defense to hold them to that few points. (The 13 points were essentially garbage time in the 4th Q so it was practically a shutout). I really had 23-20 in my mind because that is the type of games we play. I have just become accustomed to this style and that kind of result. The point to this is that when the selection committee huddles up on Sunday they are going to validate what we all know – we just didn’t pull out one of those tough, closely fought games against the teams ahead of us in our conference – and pass us by for some weak 9-2 team from another lesser conference. Of course it’s not fair that the CAA is the SEC of FCS and JMU has to play tough teams EVERY single week of the conference schedule. The committee doesn’t want to put 5 teams from 1 conference in a field of 20 even though I believe that even at 7-4 (knock on wood) JMU is far superior to some of the other teams in weak conferences with better records. Really, I didn’t just jinx the Dukes. Did I?

The Dukes have no one to blame but themselves because there were 3 opportunities to get to get to at least 8-3 in our losses to 3 of the 4 teams ahead of us in the standings. I don’t really plan on pointing fingers because I only have 10…..But seriously even with the bad decisions, bad execution, or just plain bad luck, I still maintain that it comes down to quality of competition and how it is so concentrated in the CAA. If you are still a Top 20 team with a record of 6-4 as the Dukes are, the selection committee has to seriously look at why the votes still keep coming our way. Maybe with the talk of expanding the field to 24 the CAA will be able to get 5 teams. However, in the meantime, specifically in terms of this season JMU Nation has to be content with a decent year (assuming a strong finish against UMass) plagued by quarterback issues, untimely injuries (are they ever timely??) and a coach that continues to drive the hardcore fans nuts. Just without playoffs at the end to look forward to. Come Sunday, if by some miracle the selection committee feels the schizophrenic play-calling of M2, or really-bend-and-almost-break defense is what is needed in the field of 20 then I guess it will be as much as a surprise to me as  when I won this guest blog contest. But realistically I just don’t think it’s in the cards. Now if I successfully predict the UMass game do I get to play in the Showcase Showdown??