Putting a Bow on the Season
Before we move on to a promising start to hoops and tomorrow night’s big home game against a very strong Kent St. team (see their drubbing of WVU last week), here’s our season wrapup on the gridiron.
The NDSU Game
Rob said it very well postgame, but it’s worth reiterating. While a 2nd round exit didn’t meet my expectations coming into the season, it felt about right given everything that’s happened since the 2010 season ended. In the end, the Dukes just got beat by a better team on Saturday. Two big botches on the kickoffs out of bounds gave NDSU opportunities and they made two huge plays (a 53 yard FG and the beast McNorton run that was probably aided by the Pat Williams and Tavieon Cuffee injuries earlier in the game). That was really the difference. In some ways it felt refreshing to walk away from a frustrating Dukes “result” without actually being particularly frustrated at anything specifically self-inflicted. The playcalling and coaching were aggressive, pass-happy, and clearly showed the staff understood what they were up against. Thorpe missed one throw in the 2nd half horribly, but depsite message-board ranting about his play, I didn’t find any way to put this one on JT. He even made some mature decisions to get rid of the ball a few times in a defensive struggle that was closer than the final score and idiot ESPN commentator Jay Harris made it out to be throughout. Defense held them in as usual and played their hearts out, but as has been the case all season, the Dukes could never find the huge turnover or special teams play to change the game. Again, the kickoffs were killer, but tough to heap too much blame on Cam Starke, who only one two games for the the Dukes this year.
The Season
The truth is this 2nd round loss started a long, long time ago. Yes, these are excuses but we need to acknowledge them so as to not lose sight of the actual accomplishments of the group in pads when the whistle blew Saturday. This loss really started with Jon Williams and the Rose brothers offseason shenanigans last summer. In the end, the biggest blow to the Dukes season was probably losing Emmons and O’Neill at the two defensive tackle spots early in the season. This turned the defense from dominant to very good, reduced QB pressure against the pass and dominance against the run and put huge pressure on the back seven. Wonder if all those short passes we all hated giving up might’ve been a different story with those two in the lineup more often? Moving on, we can obviously thank our QB for missing five games of which the Dukes lost two very tight ones he might’ve contributed in. One more win, and certainly two, and the Dukes definitely wouldn’t have beent playing the seeded Bison Saturday. And finally, a big shoutout to our AD and co. for putting us on long road trips the last three straight weeks. The DLine injuries can’t be accounted for and it always takes some breaks to go deep, but many of those others are preventable and let’s all hope JMU can avoid the same fate in 2012.
Having said all that, it’s really hard not to be proud of the effort the team turned in the last five weeks and the way they hung in there through all of that the last year. HUGE credit to the seniors on this team too for their leadership throughout, particularly Vidal Nelson, Pat Williams, and Roane Babington. Oh yeah, and of course we’re gonna miss JMUSB favorite DJ Bryant even if he couldn’t depart the field without one last personal foul.
The biggest thing to remember about the 2011 season is that the Dukes accomplished their two most important goals, if not their most audacious. JMU averaged 25,000 fans at Bridgeforth and the Dukes made the playoffs (where they even won a game). Those were the most important things to ensuring long-term success and no matter your position on offensive creativity (or lack thereof), the need for an OC, stale coaching jobs, or weed-smoking QB’s, you cannot deny those two accomplishments and what they mean to next year and beyond.
Next Season
Can’t remember exactly when it was, but much-maligned AD Jeff Bourne once said his expectation was that JMU is in contention for the playoffs every year and that they make a DEEP run at least once every four years. If two 6-5 seasons and a second-round 8-5 playoff team are the in between, with 25k and a VT win thrown in for good measure, those of us whining may need to reexamine our priorities. Next year is 2012 and I don’t need to remind you how the Dukes performed in ’04 and ’08.
If we’ve learned anything during our “rebuilding” the last couple of years, it’s that you can’t project the future roster (Corwin Acker, Jon Williams, Nick Emmons where are you??). But one thing’s for sure, next year’s team “should” be even better if they can find some true leaders in the locker room. The offense ONLY loses Long and Babington and this O-Line/TE/RB group could be special next season. Of course a transfer D-Linemen or playmaker (WR/KR type) sure wouldn’t hurt either. Personally, I think this team can win with Thorpe, but we’ve got eight months for that debate.
And last but not least, Mickey has two years left on his deal, so barring fisticuffs between he and President Alger during their initial meeting or his taking driving lessons from a Richmond coach, you can go ahead and set the over/under on the first visor toss for about six minutes into the season opener next season. Needless to say, however, next year will be determinative on the future of this staff.
Oh yeah, and we get to rent the Keg Bus for a trip to FedEx to play the real Mountaineers! (and don’t tell us about the Big 12/WVU might cancel stuff unless it actually happens – the buyout they’d owe Danny Snyder makes it much more likely poor cross-state “rival” Marshall will be the one left out in the cold if necessary).
Now, let’s all turn our attention the Humpty Dance!
Did you mean “idiot ESPN commentator Jay Walker”?
He went to Howard. He wouldn’t know anything about the playoffs and good football if it hit him in the face.
No he meant Jay Harris of ODU production
Yeah, I’ve been as frustrated as anyone with the Dukes last few seasons, but it’s certainly better than having the drop off that Nova or UR had. I still think the offense needs some tweaking, if not an overhaul, but I think there is enough talent coming back next year for JMU to make a deep playoff run.
According to Mike Barber, Jeff Bourne is leaving any and ALL staffing changes up to Mickey Matthews for next year. This might be an even bigger mistake from Bourne than giving up our home field advantage in the first round because he didn’t pass math class in high school. I would survive if MM was still the head coach next year, but we need an OC to make the calls. We have a beast QB that has verbally committed to us next year, Ian Fisher, who looks awesome passing. With Ian Fisher, JT with the option and pass, Scott, Anderson, and some good receivers, our offense looks very promising next year. I am upset with the loss at NDSU and I place the blame purely on MM. His playcalling and the “kick it out of bounds at the 40” strategy shows that he has no confidence in his team. If you noticed every time MM called a gutsy play, our players made the plays. I’m not the least bit dissapointed with our players and I cannot wait until next year.
All I want is for the QB position to be an open competition this offseason. Nothing against JT, he’s won more than he’s lost for us, but it is becoming clear we need someone we can rely on consistently to make throws. JT can still contribute big time and we can get the ball in his hands, and we need to do so, he is extremely athletic. However, if somebody else shows that they can give us a more consistent passing game we can count on then MM has to adapt the offense and go that route. With Anderson and Scott we don’t need to rely on an option QB to move the ball on the ground. This team has a big o-line, a massive TE with hands, and two great running backs. Add a balanced passing attack that isn’t “flip a coin” if the pass is going to be on target, and welcome back to the top of FCS football!
you make an interesting point about wvu’s potential scheduling problems… as a hybrid lifelong wvu fan/jmu student, its gonna be an interesting game for me. they wont cut the marshall game because, as pathetic as that not-even-a-real rivalry is, wvu gets funding from the state legislature to play marshall. i still think the jmu game is safe though, as luck is all about dc exposure and that’s a big part of his game plan. they might cut the maryland game since theyre playing in fedex anyway.