OGL Roundup

Well, we’re back with our first Old Guys Leave Roundup of news and notes for the new 2015-2016 year in JMU Athletics. All kinds of good stuff in here today.

First, JMU’s own Charles Haley is being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame tomorrow night in Canton, Ohio. Needless to say, JMU having someone in the HOF is just really ‘effin cool. The ceremony starts at 7 and the speechifying shortly afterwards. Given what appears from the outside to be Haley’s renewed interaction with JMU over the last couple years, we might even get a Dukes shoutout or two, a Buckhantz sighting, and some purple in the crowd. Or at least one of those! The official JMU Sports has been doing a great job with a three-part series on Haley’s career this week and you should check it out here.

Next, it was announced this week that JMU has added a home-and-home (meaning each team plays one game at home) series with Norfolk State in 2017 and 2018. Some people want to bitch about anything, and I’m certainly not immune from this nefarious syndrome, but we’re really pretty pleased with this news. We’d much rather be playing an in-state foe for JMU’s gimme games early in the season than the no-name NEC and OVC teams JMU’s wasting our time on this year. Plus it’s a cheap trip, it’s cool for Tidewater area Dukes, and we need these games regardless. So-called “guarantee games,” whether JMU is the presumed heavy or the designated patsy (cough, 21-16, cough), should exclusively be against local teams anyways unless there’s something cool about the trip (like SMU this year). Not to mention there’s nothing wrong with doing a solid and helping out at the gate for a fellow Virginia public that’s reallllllly struggling lately.

Finally, the news that really matters. New uniforms are back! Though JMU may never be able to replicate the insanity of that first black jersey/purple chrome helmet game last year, remember why it matters even if some of you old farts (oh wait, that’s us) don’t like all this newfangled nonsense. I for one actually really like a few of the elements on what we’ve seen this year and I of course want the purple helmets forever!

Oh, one more thing. 29 days till kickoff.