JMUSB Game #1 Preview – Morehead St. @ JMU

Rejoice rejoice rejoice! We have made it through the long, dry, freaking out, unsettling land that is the JMU offseason and it’s freakin’ gameday baby! Ok, one more sleep before gameday, but you get the picture. We cannot possibly tell you how happy we are to be writing about an actual game (such as it is). Of course, we’ll be a lot happier when the last scheduling dregs of the Mickey Matthews era have been wiped from the slate after next year, but in the meantime it’s a zero-stress opener a great way to spend your Labor Day weekend in the ‘Burg.

The Basics

Because you don’t know unless you’ve got family that went there, Morehead St. is actually located in Morehead, Kentucky, not Morehead City, NC. They’re colors are blue and gold and they are the Eagles, because when you might as well go as generic as possible on everything else when you’re going to have to answer to Morehead. It’s located next door to the Daniel Boone National Forest between Lexington, Kentucky and Huntington, West Virginia. Basically, it’s a mid-sized (10,500) public school somehow located where they filmed the Mothman Prophecies. They play in the non-scholarship Pioneer League and finished 4-8 last year. The Eagles have been an under-the-radar mid-major hoops power in recent years (Kenneth Faried) but again, no schollies. NPR’s Steve Inskeep went to Morehead St. as did Rob’s beloved Phil Simms.

What to Expect from Morehead St.

Look, they went 4-8 last year and Head Coach Rob Tenyer is looking to take the leap in his third year after a 7-17 start with the program, but they played three teams we’re familiar with all year with the following results. They opened the year at Richmond’s high school stadium with a 55-10 loss, then improved slightly two weeks later in a 55-13 loss to Eastern Kentucky. Then the finished the year with a closer-than-it-looked 52-14 loss to Charlotte. The wins were against Stetson, Valpo, Davidson, and something called Pikeville. Junior QB Austin Gahafer started every game last year so he has some experience and leading tackler senior LB Luke Keller will lead the D again, but let’s just say the guy who is likely to get the biggest workout this weekend is junior punter Pat DiSalvio.

Best Case, Worst Case, Reasonable Expectation

Cannot wait to see this guy (hopefully healthy and resting comfortably on the sideline by mid-3rd).

Gonna try something new for the Dukes this week as it’s seriously not worth going into specifics for the Dukes in Game 1 when they’re 38 point favorites and most reasonable wagers would still be on JMU. But the best case is the Dukes throw up 35 plus points in the first half, the three-headed monster of a running back rotation does most of the work, and best of all, in this scenario each of the non-redshirted backup QB’s play in the entire second half while Vad rests healthily on the sideline. Worst case is Vad has to play into the 4th quarter because the coaches are pissed at a sputtering offense and need to see more reps while the extremely young defense gives up 20 plus points in a game that holds nominal interest into the mid-3rd quarter. Seriously, you never want to take someone too lightly but barring a massive flu outbreak tonight, there’s just no way we can realistically see this one being all that close. The most reasonable expectation is probably that the game starts slow with a few penalties and maybe even a big play or two for Morehead State keeping them in it early before the Dukes methodically put distance between the two beginning around the middle of the 2nd quarter and ultimately just about hitting that spread.

Important Programming Note

As Coach Withers asked for yesterday, please try and get into the stadium early for the pregame tribute to Alison Parker. And don’t forget you can support the memorial fund her parents and JMU have set up right here.

Beer of the Week

You didn’t think we were abandoning our longest-running segment did you? Of course not, and now we’ve gotten our offseason note-taking on the topic down to a science. I was looking for a great warm-weather beer for these three early home games all spring and summer. And for what should be a humid night in the Valley, I can’t think of anything I’ve had better than the small Florida brewery Due South’s Category 3 IPA. Yes they make a Cat 5 Double, but even I thought that was over the top as a tailgate beer, while I loved the Cat 3’s drinkability during a steamy trip to this Boynton Beach hideout. They call it a “Florida-style IPA” and while I’m not exactly sure what that is, it is a bit easier on the hops than most big west-coast styles.

Official JMUSB Prediction

Dukes 48, Eagles 10 – push (FEPO).