JMU vs. Alcorn State Preview

Week one of the 2012 football season is in the books. On Saturday the Alcorn State Braves make the long trip up from Mississippi to face the Dukes in Bridgeforth Stadium. The Dukes will look to move to 2-0 on the season and carry some momentum into the big clash with West Virginia.

Just the Facts

Match up: #5 JMU (1-0) vs. Alcorn State (1-0) at Bridgeforth Stadium

Kickoff: 6:00 PM

Weather: 80’s with a 50% chance of thunderstorms (rushing the ball weather)

Viewing Options: Stream it for free on Madizone.

The Story

JMU opened the season last Saturday with a cakewalk of a game against St. Francis. In the 55-7 win (which wasn’t even as close as the score indicated), JMU pretty much did whatever it wanted. The Dukes racked up 38 first downs and 602 yards of total offense. Much was made about the aggressive use of the pass (relatively speaking), but JMU ran for nearly 400 yards on the ground. It was about as dominating an offense performance as JMU has had in years. St. Francis isn’t good at football however.

Alcorn State on the other hand, opened the season with a nail-biter against a conference rival. The Braves scored 13 points in the 4th quarter and came from behind to beat Grambling State 22-21 in the Port City Classic. It was a huge win for Alcorn not only because Grambling is the defending SWAC champion, but because it was the first win under first year head coach Jay Hopson. The big win got Alcorn off on the right foot and boosted their confidence heading into this weekend. Of course that confidence might disappear at some point during the marathon 16 hour bus ride the Braves are taking to the ‘burg.

Alcorn State’s Storied History

Alcorn State is the nation’s oldest public historically black land grand university. It has a number of prominent alums including former NFL QB Steve McNair, civil rights leader Medgar Evers (who actually played football for the Braves), author Alex Haley, and beloved actor Michael Clarke Duncan. And for a small school playing FCS football in rural Mississippi the school has produced a ridiculous number of NFL players. In a profile of Steve McNair from 1994, the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jay Searcy noted that Alcorn had “a gritty football team that has sent 68 players to the National Football League.” That’s nuts, especially since Alcorn is a HBCU and I’m pretty sure that in football vernacular the word gritty can only be used to describe white wide receivers.

How the Braves Can Win

Create turnovers. Plain and simple Alcorn is an underdog and needs to catch a few breaks in order to win. Last week against Grambling State, the Braves were able to capitalize on turnovers and sneak out of Shreveport with a win. Grambling fumbled 2 punts inside their own 15 yard line and Alcorn turned them into 9 points. They’ll need to create JMU turnovers and capitalize on them in order to pull off the upset.

How JMU Can Win

Establish the running game. I know. We all loved seeing the Dukes throw it 32 times last weekend and Mickey said they’ll be airing it out more this weekend. Against St. Francis JMU demonstrated that it has a versatile and deep set of running threats though. Six players ran for at least 40 yards. And Alcorn can’t stop the run. At all. Grambling averaged over 10 yards a carry last weekend against the Alcorn defense. Yes, 10 yards a carry and over 360 yards total. JMU needs to exploit that early and take control of the game. Then the new pass happy Mickey can start flinging it around.

Beer of the Week

Hmm, 6:00 kickoff with temps in the low 80’s and a chance of thunderstorms. And we’re all still working our way back into tailgating/football-watching shape. Something with a little less alcohol probably fits the bill. Let’s go with 21st Ammendment Brewery Bitter American. Despite the name, it’s actually fairly balanced and not overly hoppy or bitter. And at only 4.4% ABV, you can drink them for the extended pregame without getting too loopy. Plus it comes in cans with pictures of monkeys in spacesuits, which is obviously AWESOME.

JMUSB Prediction

Alcorn got the season started off right with a nice conference win, but the SWAC doesn’t compare to the CAA. There is a danger of this being a trap game for the Dukes with the big FBS game next weekend. I don’t think Mickey lets them lose focus at home though. Thorpe leads a balance attack and Jordan Anderson gets in the endzone early to put Alcorn on its heals. The Dukes roll from there. 38-10 good guys.