Welcome Back, Is JMU Playoff Bound or What?
Well hello there. How have you been? It’s damn good to see you again. Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back. After a long and relatively uneventful summer, we’re finally on the cusp of starting the 2014 JMU football season. It’s game week. It really is.
Again, welcome back to those of you who (justly) took a break from reading our blog in the offseason. And a hearty thank you to those of you who were kind enough to use some of your precious goofing off and procrastinating time at work this summer perusing our blog. We don’t understand you (we can hardly even read this thing between the end of hoops and beginning of football, let alone produce any decent content) but we really do appreciate it. Sincerely. And if you’re a newbie, like all of you bright young faces from the Class of 2018 (dear God), this might be the beginning of a beautiful and meaningful friendship. But probably not. We’ll try to have some fun though.
Where was I? Oh yeah, it’s game week. Our beloved JMU Dukes open the 2014 season this Saturday against the Maryland Terrapins of the Big 10. The Dukes are turning the page and starting a new era. There’s new head coach Everett Withers and his staff of hungry young assistants. QB Vad Lee and a number of talented FBS transfers. A new, fast paced offense. You know all this. And if you don’t, go look it up because we’ve been through it already. It’s not time rehash. It’s time to start wearing purple and play some football.
Here is how things are going to work this week, and most other game weeks. You regulars should know by now, but we’ll explain it for the newbies. In the middle of the week, we’ll give you all a chance to make your picks for Saturday’s game. The person who comes closest to nailing it (winner & score) will get to write a guest post next week. Don’t be scared. Dozens of people have done it so far and nobody has embarrassed themselves yet (that’s our job). We’ll also have a Friday preview, complete with our Beer of the Week, and a healthy dose of mocking of the opponent (all in good fun). Since this is the opening week, we’re also going to try to sneak in our season preview. And if any other news breaks or we feel extra motivated, we’ll write a few more posts.
There is one new idea we’d like to try out this year. It’s pretty simple. We’d like to take the pulse of the JMU fan base throughout the season. To do that, we’re going to post a very simple poll with one question, “Do you think JMU is playoff bound?” each week, or every few weeks. We’ll leave the poll open until Friday night. Then we’ll track the results throughout the season and see how things change from week to week.
At least that’s what we hope to do. If none of you actually vote in the poll, we’ll probably just bag it. But let’s be confident and assume that this will be a rousing success and the one true measure of JMU fans’ confidence. So without further ado, let us know if you think the Dukes will be back in the playoffs or not.
[polldaddy poll=8264894]
I’ve been crawling through JMU sports-hell ever since basketball season started. To quote the great one: “FINALLY….SPORTS….HAS COME BACK……TO THE JMU NATION.”
1. With our uber weak-ass schedule plus the expanded playoff field, we’d better make the playoffs. There is no excuse. At all.
2. If Everett Withers wants to make believers out of us, he needs to go open up a can of whoopass on the University of Underarmour this weekend. They have always been a sub-par team, even in the ACC. I would even go so far as to say that the turtles haven’t really earned the right to play in a BCS conference at any point in the past 30 years. If we pull another one of these 45-10 take-our-check-and-go-home performances that MM was famous for, there should be a ban on all “move to FBS” conversation for the forseeable future.
3. I have my tix and will be making my incursion into the north-DC ghetto this weekend to root fer dukes. See everyone there!
I’m thinking they will have a winning season, but just miss the cutoff for the expanded playoffs. Granted I am a notorious pessimist, so you should take that with a grain of salt (the fact that I am predicting a winning season is kinda weird).
I like the multi-select feature of this particular poll….for those of us that have no idea what to expect.
Given the expanded playoffs there is ZERO rationale for JMU ever missing the FCS playoffs. How they do once they get there is always a roll of the dice — But JMU should be there every year.
Is there a designated tailgate parking lot for JMU at U MD ?
Last time the open parking behind the Ragenta Dr parking garage was a good location. (Not in the garage and it’s cash parking)
I’ll say JMU will go 8-4, win one playoff game and then go out in the 2nd round when we get hosed and have to travel to a #1 or #2 seeded home team because the powers that be forgot that Mickey is gone and will still want to punish us for his on field antics with officials.
Did I read the DNR correctly today when Witehrs said he will not use situational football plays? He does not have goal line or 3rd down plays? They will just go 100mph every time. That is a little worrisome for me. I have to assume he was not being factual there because if he thinks a 2nd and 20 is the same play call as a 3rd and inches we may have some interesting situations this year.
*Withers
Rob he did ay that in the DNR. I think what he meant to say was he wasn’t going to treat the end zone differently then any where else on the field. I guess we will get to see what he means on Saturday! I take it a fellow Burg resident. I just moved here in June.
say
Rob-
If Withers treats 3 & 35 the same as 3rd & 1 inch, it really wouldn’t be any different than the past 10 years of JMU football, would it?
Yeah that would be the status quo and I don’t think that will be the case b/c there has been nothing status quo with regards to the football team for December to today.
All welcome and long-overdue changes.
@Dukes4 I don’t think there is an official JMU lot for the game this weekend. Info can be found here: http://jmudukeclub.com/news/2014/7/25/DCE_0725145817.aspx?path=duke_club_events