Robertson and Marlowe Selected to Preseason All America Team
The Sports Network’s 2013 Preseason All America team has been released and JMU’s Stephon Robertson and Dean Marlowe were selected. Robertson, a redshirt senior linebacker, earned a first team selection. Marlowe, a junior safety, made the second team. They were among a total of 14 CAA players who were honored.
Robertson is a past CAA Rookie of the Year, two-time All CAA first team selection, and the reigning CAA Defensive Player of the Year. He’s been a mainstay at linebacker for the Dukes and one of the keys to the JMU defense for years. Last season he led the team with 101 tackles. Don’t be surprised if he ends up on the short list for the Buck Buchanan award.
Marlowe joined Robertson on the All CAA first team last year after making the third team as a freshman. He was the only sophomore on last year’s first team, following a season in which he had 82 tackles on the year including 44 solos, 5.0 for loss, seven passes defended, team-high tying three interceptions, one forced fumble and one safety.
I’ve always hated the concept of “pre-season all-_____” teams.
How can you honor kids for superior play when they haven’t even stepped on the field yet?
Last year was last year. We had a “post-season” all-america team for that.
Totally agree with 2004 Duke on this one.
Basically who cares, let’s just go win some ball games.
Well, yeah they’re ultimately devoid of any real value. From a selfish perspective though, we thought they were useful to us as we attempt to shift the focus of the blog from off the field matters (ex. realignment) to the upcoming season. That’s all.
These things are definitely of interest (even if on no real value) so thanks for posting. Now if we can actually learn to defend against the pass we may have a DB realize the more meaningful post season accolades.
Amen and well stated Deacon.
Maybe the pass coverage/DB play is not that bad if JMU can actually generate a pass rush. If they cannot get it done with the DLine alone, please lets get creative and bring pressure/blitzes from every angle. JMU’s lack of QB pressure sets up the pass coverage to look a lot worse than it really is. They can cover for 3, maybe 4 seconds then after that it all breaks down and multiple receivers are always wide-open all over the field. I am sick and tired of bend, don’t break defense. Our style of defense makes crappy QB’s look like pre-season all-americans all the time. Wonder why our defense seems to never gets turnovers or score ‘cheap’ defensive TDs —- b/c we never take any chances and bring the heat. It looks like we play prevent defense from the opening kickoff. Our CBs always play 10 yards off and give the short pitch and catch all day long.
Robertson went to the same high school I did, so that’s pretty cool. They had only one excellent season while I was there, but it was still a bit of shock to come in and see the less than mediocre Dukes of the late 80’s and early 90’s.
The D finished near the top of the CAA in a number of statistical categories, but was actually mediocre in terms of efficiency against the pass (ranked 7th out of 11 teams). As Shady_P correctly points out, the lack of a pass rush was a problem. JMU only had 18 sacks. If they can generate more QB pressue, the D could be much better.
Also, there were WAY too many penalties last year. And they often seemed to be stupid ones (late hits for example) that extended drives.
I don’t even like to look at the stats for a team like JMU I see play in person A LOT as you can always interpret the numbers and report them in a way to make them say whatever you want.
I prefer to just stick to the ‘eyeball test’ And the defense has not looked good the last couple of years and yes undisciplined personal fouls on 3rd downs are a HUGE issue.
Interesting. There are plenty of people who show a preference for the “eyeball test” over the use of statistics, but not often when the very stats being presented would serve as evidence for their assertion.
What I am saying is that JMU’s pass defense was NOT EVEN mediocre……it flat out SUCKED! I am shocked that it was not 10th or 11th in the league. GaState one of the worst teams in I-AA passed the ball up and down the field on us running the same play over and over and over. W&M lit us up like a Christmas tree while their QBs were very pedestrian against everyone else. Lest we forget Jack Cosgrove coming to Harrisonburg 2 years ago and ripping us to shreds with a 295 pound TE who had caught like 10 passes all year. Just spit balling the stats but I think he caught about 14 balls for over 150 yards against the JMU secondary that day.
So I would say our mediocre pass defense as you call it does not accurately reflect the fact that our pass defense SUCKS.
A couple of the most obvious ‘eyeball tests’ that I have seen recently was the backup QB that Richmond trotted out against JMU last year who the JMU Defense made look like All-World Conference.
And another, and maybe not fair to go back to the previous year, when Jack Cosgrove’s Black Bears came into Bridgeforth Stadium and started a fat, slow backup tightend who I believe caught more passes against us that day (double digit + 2 TDs) than he had up to that point in his college career. My blood pressure still goes up just thinking about that day’s defensive debacle.
I think we may be stuck in what I will label as the “VT Special Teams” Syndrome in that JMU, for the past several years, is still living off the years when they actually did have a very good defensive team. When in actuality, the last couple of years the JMU Defensive unit has just not been that good. Generally a few shining moments in each game but very seldom in the last couple of years have they shown up for an entire half much less an entire game. You do not have to look at the stats to know this.
If it is the Admin’s desire to stay in the ‘kiddie pool’ then I want to be witness to beat downs of epic proportions and not just against the likes of St. Franks and CCSU.
Let’s Go Dukes!
I agree that the D wasn’t dominant, despite what many folks say. However, in 8 conference games, they held their opponents below their scoring and total yards average 4 times. To me that’s pretty mediocre to average, not terrible.
The pass rush was solid. At least, it started that way. The dirty secret that nobody talked about was how many injuries JMU suffered up front, and by the middle of the season (October and beyond) JMU couldn’t pressure the qb at all. They had to start sending more linebackers, which meant not dropping as many into coverage, and except for Marlowe, our secondary was pretty bad. It all fell apart at the end, which is why you saw the collapse against ODU, the near-embarrassment against GSU, and tight ends looking like they were in 7 on 7 drills.
Once everyone’s healed up this fall though, the pass rush should be good again. A lot of the younger guys redshirted, but with a month of real game practice, and Robertson in the middle, I think we might get back to having a bigtime defense this year. My concerns are on the other side of the ball- I’m wondering how far Birdsong can really take us in his first full year, how the offense will perform without a go-to guy like Brian Barlow, and how much latitude Mickey gives the new OC.
Rob- I wasn’t taking a shot at your post, just so we’re clear. I’m glad to see these guys honored, and thanks for highlighting it.
I was just speaking in general terms. I have a bunch of pre-season all-whatever awards stuffed in a drawer. They were silly.
I love reading the commentary above. This is why i get my JMU news here rather than suffer the trolls (or worse- the message board aristocracy) over on the CAA board.
It’s no secret that I’ve been shredding us since 2009. I can’t tell if we are slower, or if everyone else is faster. The team’s overall athleticism, in my opinion, has been steadily dropping off the face of the earth for the last few years. Not sure if it is due to recruiting (ODU?) or due to some changes to the offseason program (i.e. Jim Durning left).
As far as the defense goes… and I can’t believe I’m saying this…. it’s partially the offense’s fault. Our offense has sucked so bad recently that the defense has to play almost the whole game. There is ZERO chance you can make your defense go out on the field the entire game (with 4 plays off every so-often) and get any pass rush or even cover the pass.
I didn’t think you were taking a shot at the post 2004_Duke. I tend to agree with you and Shady_P, that this awards don’t mean much compared to wins on the field. It’s nice to see guys recognized and another reason to start talking football, which is something I’ve been anxious to do for months.
Quin, I saw your posting dated July 2nd and I have to disagree with you about Edison High School not having a good record. I am not sure why you make such a statement which is why I posted a link to a Washington Post article which provides Coach Vaughn Lewis’ record as a coach for Edison HS before Stephon Robertson arrived and during the time Stephon played. Are you sure you attended Edison HS?
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/prepspost-virginia/2010/01/edison_jefferson_name_football.html