JMU Squeaks By Georgia State
Say it with me folks, “a win is a win”. I’ve been muttering that to myself repeatedly like some sort of freak show for about 18 hours. It hasn’t done much good though. Obviously, the important thing is that the Dukes notched another win and moved to 6-2 on the season. There is no column in the standings for style points, so that’s really all that matters, right? With that being said, let’s just jump right in and try to break down the good, bad, and ugly from JMU’s 28-21 win over Georgia State.
The Good
There’s not a whole lot to include here. Much like he did last week, Dae’Quan Scott managed to play well in an otherwise uninspiring performance by the JMU offense. He rushed for over 100 yards for the second straight week and eclipsed 2,000 yards rushing for his career. And he looked very good running between the tackles and going North-South. Which of course makes us wonder why the heck the coaches ever went away from that philosophy in favor of all the sideways crap.
And because I’m feeling generous, let’s put the fact that JMU managed 3 sacks in the “Good” category. The Dukes have sorely been lacking a pass rush all season. Even if Georgia State isn’t the world’s most powerful offense (gross understatement), it was nice to see JMU get to the QB a few times.
The Bad
We love Cameron Starke and he’s had an excellent year, but he had a rough day yesterday. He uncharacteristically missed 3 FG. We’re confident he’ll bounce back and that it was just one of those days. And truth be told, we would have preferred that he not even be put in the position to attempt a few of those kicks. If the JMU coaches have any faith at all in this team, they simply had to go for it on 4th and short in Georgia State territory. We were frustrated by many aspects of yesterday’s playcalling (see below), but the failure to get aggressive and go for it repeatedly frustrated us more than anything.
I couldn’t decide if the defense should be here or down in “Ugly” below. They don’t deserve to be beaten up too bad though, because they were pretty good for stretches when they got into a rhythm. Unfortunately, they also had stretches where they looked completely out of sync. The Georgia State offense has been virtually impotent for much of this season. Yet they marched down the field with ease several times yesterday. If not for the fact that they kept shooting themselves in the foot with mistakes, they might have pulled off the upset. Yes, the d-line is banged up. And yes, JMU’s defense has been very good statistically this year. Something about it just doesn’t seem right though. The bend but don’t break philosophy has been good for JMU for years. It just doesn’t seem appropriate to play that sort of D against teams like Georgia State that the Dukes clearly out match. Take it to the weaker teams and stop with the 10 yard cushions on receivers. And the poor tackling has become a real concern.
The Ugly
It’s hard to imagine what was the ugliest aspect of the Dukes’ offensive performance yesterday. The fact that 6 drives ended in 3 and outs? The 3 of 13 on 3rd down conversions? The playcalling? This might be harsh, but let’s just go ahead and say that yesterday was pretty ugly for the offense altogether. Anyone who really believed that JT was the one thing holding JMU back, might have had a bit of a wake up call yesterday. That’s not to say that Birdsong was terrible. He wasn’t. He was OK. And he’s a true freshman. It’s just that this team’s offense, perhaps due to coaching philosophy, has been sort of stagnant for weeks now. We remain convinced that there is talent on the offense, but the coaches don’t seem to be able to take advantage of it all the time. When they do, like when they call some North-South running plays on the second TD drive, the Dukes move the ball. When they don’t, like when they revert to that East-West nonsense, the offense sputters. In any case, the JMU was outgained offensively by a Georgia State team that has struggled to do much of anything all season.
The 6 Headed Monster Medusa Warts And All Hideously Ugly
“We’ll talk about it, we haven’t ruled it out.” That was Mickey’s response, as reported by Chase Kiddy of the Breeze, to questions about if he plans to stick with Birdsong or return to Thorpe at QB. Just stop it. Stop. It wasn’t Thorpe’s fault and it isn’t Birdsong’s fault either. JMU has been lost in a sea of pseudo QB-controversy since Rodney Landers graduated. Pick a guy and move on please.
Your Mileage May Vary
I’m sure lots of people think I’m reacting too negatively to yesterday’s game. Todd for instance, has a much more positive outlook on things. The truth is that I’m not really frustrated by yesterday’s game. Georgia State is terrible. Really terrible. But I honestly didn’t expect JMU to blow them out. As you might recall, I said that JT was getting a raw deal and didn’t deserve to shoulder the blame for the Dukes’ struggles. I stand by that. There are a number of issues this team has to work out and there is probably too much focus on the QB right now. I actually love the move to the Ginger Giant because I think it’s better for the long haul. My gut tells me that unless the coaches do something to fix the offensive game-planning and playcalling, this team probably has a 1 playoff win ceiling at best. And that’s regardless of who lines up behind center. I think Birdsong has real talent though and if they start to shift to a new offensive philosophy with him at QB, the sky is the limit before he graduates. So pick a QB and pick an offense that suits his strengths and go for it. All of this waffling about who starts is just distracting folks from the real issues at hand.
We are winning! We are ranked in the top 10!
I have seen fan bases get spoiled and ruin a program by chasing out coaches because of unreasonably high expectations. (Just look at how UVA has struggled again since they ran George Welsh out of town).
I know many will be unhappy, but I remain stout behind our program and continue to enjoy our Saturdays in the ‘burg and the occasional away game.
Go Dukes!
I didn’t say that I wasn’t enjoying things or that I don’t support this team. I just think there was way too much blame dumped on Thorpe’s shoulders and some excessively high expectations placed on Birdsong’s. This is a good team, but I don’t think they’ll be a great team unless some changes are made. I think if they stick with Birdsong and shape the offense to his strengths, then they can contend for championships down the road.
Nowhere have I said anything that even suggests any of the coaches should be fired. And I don’t think I have unreasonably high expectations. JMU way gets more support than most FCS programs and expecting them to win more than 1 playoff game every 4 or 5 years, doesn’t seem excessive to me.
Rob…I know you are not going overboard although sometimes the comments that I see from others can get carried away. I just don’t want to see us become such a rabid fan base that we lose touch with reality. Bottom line, we have one of the flagship FCS programs and have the best facilities in the country. I just want to make sure we keep some positive momentum going while we are winning. I enjoy the blog!
I think all of us are behind the program but realistically it would be very difficult to watch yesterdays performance and be confident about our chances for the remaining schedule. I for one am not advocating any sort of coaching change but coaches are not infallible and as patrons of the program we are allowed to critique.
I stated last week that the QB switch was a bad decision and that all the attention that it generated masked the real problem. I think that MM was OK with that and probably engineered it as a way to divert attention away from the real problem, and/or as a way to punish JT for his reaction against UR. I would not be surprised to see JT back as the starter, He may be limited as a true QB, but he gives us the best chance to win especially with the style of offense that we play.
Whoever our QB is we MUST play GREAT defense to win with our system (this has been the case since MM took over in 1999.) Their QB was not very good and missed a lot of wide open receivers, a better QB could have won that game for them. Our guys on offense looked off balance which is to be expected after the week that they have had.
Remember, truly great sports team are great consistently (NY Yankees, Alabama Football, Kentucky Basketball) because they have passionate fan bases that DEMAND excellence. I hope that we are building that same type of culture here and I hope to contribute to that. Here’s hoping that we turn things around, win out and make a deep run in the playoffs, but to do that I feel that we are going to have to play much better. GO DUKES !
Fair point Steve J. I don’t mean to come across as being down on this team. I’m not. I honestly think they have the talent to do some great things, but I don’t think they’ve played very well the past 4 weeks. I’m not a big “fire the coach” sort of guy to begin with, and I get frustrated when folks go that route. I do think Mickey and the staff need to do more to put the players in position to win though. And I agree with FormerDukeBlocker above when he says that Mickey might have pulled the switch to divert attention from the real problem. I’d rather he focus on and fix the real problem.
Georgia State’s mistakes (most as simple as QB missing throws) is ultimately what kept them from pulling off the upset. William and Mary was a catch on the final snap away from beating us a couple weeks ago. We needed a TD drive in the final minutes to beat Towson. I believe the talent is here to be the best team in the conference, and yeah we plan on winning close games, but we’re a handful of plays from being 3-5. Which would qualify as a disaster.
I want JT at QB as long as MM is calling the plays. Our playcalling is very predictable, so the dual threat QB is a must, I think. Birdsong looked pretty good scrambling, but his athleticism doesn’t compare to Thorpe. I have no idea what’s wrong with pass protection… some big sacks cost us against Richmond a week ago. JT has shown he can move the ball in big moments, and as much as I want a bigger arm at times, Birdsong’s not ready. He stared down primary targets and looked a little nervous in the pocket at times. He can become a great QB, but I don’t want to sacrifice the rest of this year to rebuild. Let the kid get through GCOM before he goes up against ODU.
That was another UGLY game to sit thru. I too have told myself numerous times, well a win is a win, and lets move on. But against teams like GSU we have to put them away early and put a fork in them. Just like we have done way too much we tend to get a lead (even a small one) and then go into a shell offensively and play too hold the lead and not lose instead of doing what got you there and playing to win. That is just not fair to the defense, which has to tackle better and stop trying to strip the ball while running/dancing with the ball carrier 10+ yards down the field.
I like sticking with Birdsong at QB. Once you make that decision to swap QBs I don’t think you can go back and forth. Since, Steve_J likes to reference UVA, can you tell me who the QB is at UVA or has been for the last 2 years. Nope you cannot and that is a problem. You have to have a QB1. If you decide to make the switch you have to stick with it and see it through for a few games. You cannot start rotating QBs then those guys are looking over there shoulder with every play and that is a recipe for disaster.
My #1 concern is the play-calling on offense. Whoever is calling the plays Durden or MM they need to take a hard look at what they are doing. The offense is horribly predictable and if that is the case to me, what do you think other coaches at quality programs see when they game plan their defense. I am sure they are NEVER caught by surprise. Until this is addressed which I think is the #1 problem I don’t think it really matter who the QB is. Birdsong brings a different set of skills and as such the offense needs to be modified….I am sure there are more than 6 plays in the playbook.
All of that being said GO DUKES and whip Jack Consgrove’s Maine squad next weekend.
The play calling has been bad for several seasons now, basically since Landers graduated. And the play calling was not great even with Landers, it was just that Landers was able to improvise and made things happen. So it doesn’t matter whether Birdsong or JT is QB1 the offense will continue to struggle until we get more creative and unpredictable on offense. Hell I don’t think Colin Klein would be successful with our play calling. What is making things worse this year is how poor the defense is playing, which had covered up the offensive woes the past few seasons. We clearly have the talent on defense but for whatever reason they are not playing as a group. It seems to me that each guy is more interested in show boating and making a highlight reel than playing as a group and doing the little things (like tackling).
I think there is more than enough talent on this team to make a deep playoff run. The question is can the coaches ge things right in time to do so. Based on the past four weeks, I think that is a big question mark.
UVA is 2-6. What I am saying is that the skying is not falling for JMU. We are 6-2 and ranked in the top 10 in the country. The 2 losses were to a FBS power and away at UR in which we had 2 shots at the end zone to end the game.
I just don’t want to see our passion for the Dukes devour what many other schools would kill to have.
Well, I’ll say it- I don’t have a lot of faith in this team. I feel like we win by accident, and I don’t think we are a top 10 team. Watching us blunder our way to a win each week is like chinese water torture- it doesn’t kill you, but it makes you very, very cranky.
1) Thorpe needs to stay on the bench. I can say from personal experience that it is almost impossible to play well when you are living in fear of losing your job. Just pick a guy (Birdsong, aka “the future”) and go play football.
2) MM needs to bring back 5am fun runs, or force the kids (yes, Kids, because that’s how they play) to go get in some barfights at Highlawn (or whatever the kids call it these days), because they play like they have no balls. One classic “Mickeyism” was “I want a team of gold-nutted STUDS”. Well, MM better go recruit at the local UFC gym or something because for the last few years it looks like a team of golden boys with no nuts. To win, we need to be the most aggressive, physical team in the conference. P-H-Y-S-I-C-A-L.
3) T G C G T TE
QB
FB /\
RB (take handoff, run / \ )
/___\
II
II
In my despair this morning, I put down my whiskey and popped in the JMU-W&M playoff game tape from 2004 just to see what we looked like when we were “good” (or successful). Big mistake. Between the cheap Russell-athletic uniforms and the +300 yd 48 point offensive performance, you would think that was from 50 years and 5 coaching changes ago.
I’m obviously rooting for us to beat ODU so badly that they decide to drop their football program, however after the nonsense I’ve had to endure for the last few weeks, I think I’d going to ditch my tickets, stay home and watch it on TV so when I pop a blood vessel yelling at _______ (playcalling, OL, pass coverage, more playcalling, refs, etc), I can just turn the TV off and pour the strong stuff rather than endure a pissed-off 3 hour car ride home.
…and yes, I do have high expectations for our program. When you regularly bring in the top recruiting classes in the nation and have some of the best facilities (paid for by us) in the nation, I DO expect you do be pretty damn good. I don’t expect JMU to win the nc every year, but I think being in the final 4 teams each year would be a good season. Making it past the first round of the playoffs would be acceptable. Not making the playoffs, or losing the first round to some creampuff from the SOCON (burn) is totally unacceptable.
Sometimes it’s not the result that’s important but that process that gets you there. That’s kind of how I reconcile frustration with a team that’s 6-1 in FCS play this year.
There are some things out of our control. You cant help the depletions on D-line, the team just has to find ways to work around them. Traditionally, a tough run defense and a decent pass rush have been hallmarks of JMU, but it doesn’t look like that will be a real strength this year, at least during the regular season. (Perhaps if we make the playoffs and receive a first round bye, we’ll have time to get healthy.)
Playcalling though? Absolutely could be better. Mickey pointed out that Saturday specifically, there was some intentionally conservative play calling on third and long because they didn’t want Birdsong trying to force anything on what they perceived as a likely unsuccessful possession. Rather than being bolder or executing better on third down, Mickey pointed to a terrible game on first down plays, noting that they werent getting enough yardage to set the offense up for managable second and third down situations. Hard to argue with that– it’s completely true– but I still think you have to unleash Birdsong more. When you opt to go with a freshman quarterback, you’ve opted to accept the inevitable mistakes he’s going to make. Don’t hamstring your own offense even more than it already is by closing off 80% of the play book and running draws up the middle every other play.
Oh, and one more thing. JMU ran so many draws because, for some UNFATHOMABLE reason, georgia state played a lot of cover 2 with deep safeties, so they opted to run the ball since GSU wouldn’t stack the box. Still think we need less running and more passing in general. That might have been the case Saturday, but it’s not like that’s been the case every weekend since Towson.
It is possible to do a poll on this blog? Could we do a Birdsong vs. Thorpe poll? I would be interested in the results. Though (no matter what the results) I agree with Shadey_P that swapping QBs once is bad, doing it more than once is a disastrous.
As White Hall said, the reason the playcalling has been so bad is because Landers found a way to win even with the same plays being run over and over and over again. It worked for him, so the coaches have stuck with it. I think the playcalling has been bad since Justin Riscotti graduated. Birdsong reminds me of Riscotti in many ways (including how goofy he looks running while gaining big chunks of yards…absolutely love it) which is why I am firmly on the Birdsong bandwagon.
And thankyou SunChase for mentioning the injuries to the DL. That factor above all others is the reason for the poor defensive performance so far this season. Good teams can overcome injuries, but injuries will always result in a drop-off in performance (unless you had the wrong guy starting in the first place).
And the Cover-2 from GSU caught us off guard I think. I sure hadn’t seen a defense like that played against us all season.
Justin and Rodney checked their own plays at the line of scrimmage to put the offense in the best situation possible. Nobody has called an audible at JMU in 4 years.
2004 Duke, your “Gold Nutted Studs” quote reminds me why I do Love MM despite getting mad at him almost every Fall. Great stuff, that most coaches do not have the nuts to say anymore. I also agree that we should have never abandoned the offense that we ran in 2004. We could be the Alabama of FCS right now (ball control offense that wears people down, Huge O-Line, game manager QB) Not many teams can run that offense in college football right now because you need to be truly dominant on D to do it. We could though and it would be fun to watch and in my humble opinion hugely successful.
Not sure why after winning a national championship you feel the need to fix something that ain’t broken. I would be fine with that offense or a true spread offense. But the absolute worst is that freakin pistol offense that JMU has not looked in sync running for 6 years.
That has to be the worst offense in the history of college football. Everytime we line up in that formation it is so predictable and rarely anything positive happens. Scrap that entire formation PLEASE!!!!!
FD Blocker- I know what you mean. When I was playing, I spent about 75% of my time cursing at him in my head, even though I know he’s a good coach.
Shady- Dude… I could write an entire book on why the Pistol is a horrible offensive formation. It has to do with teams getting away from pulling guards and trapping in favor of straight up zone running. What they don’t seem to understand is that the best zone running team in history (Mike Shanahan’s Denver Broncos) ran the zone with a fullback in the backfield as a lead blocker. All this read-option crap would probably work if we have a decent passing threat. If I was coaching against JMU, I’d run Cover-1 all day long and send 9 guys into the backfield on every play, since we know that even if you double-dog dare us to throw the rock, it ain’t gonna happen. I think they started to change the offense in 2006 to take advantage of Rodney Landers’ athletic ability (which made sense), but you gotta know when to stop and back away from the bar. Feel me?
2004 Duke – I hear ya just don’t see why the coaching staff is so stubborn about it. It like, hey it was our idea so its gonna work no matter how long it takes.
Has anyone else noticed that of our 6 wins, none have been against teams with a winning record do date (closest being Towson at .500)? Fortunately for us, Maine is only 3-5. Unfortunately for us VU is 6-3 and ODU is 7-1. I think we’ll close out 1-2 in the last 3 games and (hopefully) sneak into the playoffs again at 7-4 like last year, although I’m sure the selection committee will notice our lack of wins against half decent teams. Bottom line, we probably need to beat at least 1 decent team to get in this year.
our offense is a joke. we have tons of talent. hunter was a 4 star athlete out of hs. dejor simmons’ highlight tape on you tube…he looks like warrick dunn playing against some of the best hs talent in the country…757. and these are just two guys that we don’t incorporate into the game plan. birdsong and jt are both legit qbs at the I-AA level. barlow is a beast. scott is money. where is the break down? the scheme. it doesn’t work. hasn’t worked in years. someone in the big offices at jmu has to notice this. i don’t think mm needs to be tied up on the quad yet but something has got to change. we are a “better offensive scheme” away from a few national championships the last several years (minus 2010 when our roster was depleted due to injuries). nothing more obvious than last year. our defense was the reason we made as far as we did. how can we encourage change? what does it take? we don’t have huge boosters like the ACC or SEC. what will it take for it to happen?
our defense has played well enough for us to win games this year too. we still need to play more physical and tackle better. injuries kill us year in and year out on defense but that is an issue for all I-AA programs. depth.
if we don’t get our shit together soon…and mark my words (maybe i can guest blog/vent for this prediction later but hopefully not because it’s wrong) ODU is going to blow us out at home by at least 3 TDs. their offense is wide the f&*k open with tons of pace on the edges. heinke will pick us apart if we don’t get in his face and bust his shit up. i live in the 757 so i hear all about ODU (it’s almost as bad as Tech now) so a loss (especially an ass whooping) will ruin my 3 hour trip back to the burg for the first time since wofford was in the burg for the play-offs.
i’m getting too hyped up writing this. i’m too old for this shit. thanks for the blog. i read it all the time. it’s nice to see other people as passionate…yet as frustrated as me about jmu football. go dukes.
I know that when you read this you may start laughing, but seriously would it be worthwhile to actually write to MM (or JB) or anyone else at JMU Athletics? I mean, maybe someone from high up in the Duke Club (i.e. big time donors) could write an open letter to them and post it in the HDNR or something like that. It sounds crazy yes, I know. But really why not? Who knows, maybe the big donors / boosters are already or “discussing” their concerns with Jeff or Mickey himself. I just feel like we need something to motivate them more and $$$ talks.
Seems to me like there were way too many tipped passes at the line on Saturday. Unusual for a QB of Birdsong’s size. Anyone else notice that?
Yes, and that was by design. GSU players at the post-game presser talked about how the coaching staff emphasized getting hands up and knocking down passes in practice last week.
I didn’t see GS game but read the play by play and we are hurting but momentum helps any team. Going away for two weeks against the two teams that give us trouble away, will be a big test. Hopefully JMU gains some momentum in both games because right now they aren’t fun to watch, its like your holding on, from the opening kick off, to luck out and win! I’ve been watching UVA, Rocco led them last year and at least stuck his head in every play while Phillip Sims would rather slide or run out of bounds before picking up a first down, I couldn’t play with that type. Rocco would be my starter for them and I would restart JT in both of these away games but pull him if the team doesn’t go anywhere after 3 series. Whats wrong with a QB looking over his shoulder every position should have a guy looking over his shoulder thats what makes you good. If you can’t handle pressure by college you shouldn’t be playing college ball…2004 was JMU best team and they had guys that step in when injuries occured…where is that great recruiting class they should be filling holes now?
The boosters can come in handy but if you get dependent on them and start buying them, you could
end up spending a lot of money on them. A color bomb plus a wrapped candy creates
multiple explosions that can get rid of a chocolate block.
While that might sounds great, if you have wrapped, striped or cluster bombs on
the board there is a chance that those could end up
detonating.