Madison 56, Morehead St. 7 – The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
New Purples looked great with the old gold helmet!
So the Dukes beat a non-scholarship team by 49 points as expected to lift the curtain on the 2015 season in style. There’s really not all that much to be certain about coming off in a game like this, but it sure was fun to see the boys back in action and of course we’ve got some observations from what really amounted to a preseason game.
The Good
- Cardon Johnson – The starter at running back showed exactly the kind of dynamic style we all heard about after he got to JMU but could only dream about as he sat out injured all of last year. Abdullah was solid behind him too and we know there is depth at this spot, but wow, just from the eye test this guy looked like a true talent and difference-maker. Could be wrong, but it sure looked like his combination of size, power, shiftiness, and vision is something that will hold up against anyone.
- THE STUDENT SECTION – Absolutely outstanding! Best opening-day student section in years. Godwin side full BEFORE kickoff, entire section full soon thereafter. And the most surprising, and encouraging thing, about the students this week is they were LOUD and into the game. They even broke out into a very solid, and noticeable, “We Want Morehead!” chant after the Vad TD. (Wonder if they’ll all be banned by the P.C. Police after that?) It made for a fantastic atmosphere and they were certainly treated to plenty of first-half highlights. I know everyone wants them to stay, but you can’t blame anyone in this blowout. It gives us reason to hope that the seeds Withers and the entire program have been planting the last two years are starting to sprout. An undefeated September with a top 5 national ranking might help a bit when CAA play really gets going too.
- The kicking game – this one is subtle, but it’s nice to see a basically mistake-free day in the kicking game in Week 1. Ryan Maglio looked comfortable on extra points and it was good to see that the Dukes’ have added depth in the form of kickoff specialist and Freshman Tyler Gray. Out of Winchester’s Millbrook High, he showed the ability to get a touchback and the ability to place it directionally inside the 5 which Madison actually prefers in order to take their chances that the coverage pins opponents inside the 25.
- Vad Lee – What can we really say? The best player on the field and looked like he had very close to complete command. 297 yards and 3 TD’s passing to go with 105 yards and a highlight-reel 66 yard TD on the ground is a nice little way to kick off your Walter Payton Award candidacy. Though we have to admit, in true old-man fashion, all we could think on the long TD run was “take it easy on those hammies Superman.”
- Morehead State WR/RB/KR Jake Raymond (#4) – we don’t usually show love to an opponent, but this kid was a joy to watch compete amongst his overmatched fellows. No idea what his story is, but our secondary seemed to have no idea how to deal with him.
- Ryan Schorr seemed to do just fine in his one series with the second-team offense. He led the Dukes on a long, multiple penalty-overcoming scoring drive and gave us some hope that the wheels won’t come entirely off if Vad misses part of a game or even one whole game at some point.
- The uniforms. The new purple set looked outstanding and was a reminder of how great the gold helmet can still look when matched up right.
- These shirts, and more importantly the movement they represent, were a real highlight of my gameday. You can find out more and learn how to get involved with this incredible grass-roots effort that is fully alumni-led here.
Want FBS, but tired of the negativity? Join the cause and get involved!
The Bad
- Blocking, especially in the running game. Pass protection with the 1’s actually seemed alright, but not sure if that was more a reflection of the lack of any kind of sustained pressure from an overmatched opponent. In the ground game however, after the first series (presumably scripted and well-rehearsed), the O-line allowed a great deal of penetration to screw with the Dukes’ spread attack, so much so that at one point the normally cool and collected Vad Lee seemed to be issuing quite a bit of “polite encouragement” for a little something better. This has got to get better.
- Defense, particularly against the pass. Morehead only had a little over 200 total yards and it’s hard to get to upset, but had it not been for a red-zone fumble, the Eagles would have not only moved the ball with ease, primarily through the air, but also would have had two long TD drives in the first half. Receivers were wide open and JMU did not, or worse could not, generate consistent pressure. We’ve heard from those that know these things, and are willing to rematch the film, that the Dukes’ are using more variety (they’re being “multiple”) in their defensive packages this year and between that and the youth/inexperience on that side of the ball, we can only hope there is plenty of improvement coming.
The Ugly
- We’re not gonna nit-pick with anything in the ugly from a 56-7 win and we’re thrilled that we don’t seem to have any major injuries to write about in the section like some season openers. But there is one item for this section that didn’t even come from our game. Anyone watch the first half of Baylor/SMU Friday night? The Mustangs were trading punches nose-to-nose with the high-octane and 4th ranked Bears and it sure looks like Chad Morris (ex of Clemson’s offense) is going to have them pretty close to full throttle by the time the Dukes arrive in a few weeks. This game is still winnable, especially after SMU gets taken to the slaughter-house again by TCU before our matchup, but it’s certainly not the “FCS Team should be favored” type game we were hoping for.
Good insight here! I do agree the O-Line can get off the ball more aggressively in the run game but I’ll give Morehead St. credit – they blitzed the 2 A gaps on practically every 1st down assuming the HB dive which is good prep on their part. Stinne looked the bill besides the first play of the 2nd half when he gave up the weakside strip sack.
I thought the defensive gameplan and offensive gameplan was very vanilla which makes sense playing a team like this. First drive, we were practically in trips right formation and ran the dive/QB run/bubble screen option until we scored – It was like I was watching CFB on PS3 on tv haha. Defensively, I think we will see much more pressure than we did on Saturday, the D-line only did one form of stunt the whole game, I saw a few MLB blitzes and saw Jordan Brown come off the corner a few times on the short side but not anything too exotic, Morehead’s D had more blitz variety than we did which is fine.
There’s my 2 cents and on to Lehigh!
From my perspective in the 400 seats #4 jumped off the field. I was shocked everytime Morehead pulled him out for a series. It had me nervous about what a legit team could do to that defense.
Speaking of that defense…let’s be honest…it looks bad. If Morehead could catch the ball in space they maintain a few more of their drives and put some more points up. Our DB’s were 3-5 yards away on a few of those drops/overthrows. And let’s not forget the poor tackling as we grabbed air when their RB/QB raced past us. Of course the DB’s were in great position a few times to pick ff an errant pass…the only trouble with being in perfect position for an INT is that you actually have to catch the pass thrown to you. Which we struggled with on at least 3 occasions.
I thought both QB’s for JMU looked good. Vad had one overthrow that I noticed and the INT could have been higher and to the corner of the endzone but other than that he looked good and Bryan (not Ryan) Schoor looked good as well. If you weren’t paying attention his first drive in the game could have easily been confused as a Vad Lee run for 30+ yards.
I also was impressed that we seemed to have a kicking game which has been embarrassing in years past. A few of those kickoffs were deep i the endzone too.
In the “grumpy old man” department, 9 penalties for 100 yards just wasn’t good. And that d.
Nice solid effort for the opening game. It was nice to see JMU handle an over-matched opponent as they did with a very simple/vanilla gameplan on offense and defense.
I thought the tacking was good for an opening game….sure there were a few missed tackles but also quite a few open field one on one tackles. I think the defense will be able to generate more pressure with stunt and blitz packages. We played a lot of zone and forced there QB to drop the ball between two defenders much of the night. The middle was wide-open the first 2 possessions but then they adjusted and took that away for the most part the remainder of the game.
The offense looked very good and smooth from the opening snap. Did not punt until the 3rd string unit was in the game.
Kicking game looks very solid. Maglio looked good on the PATs and Gray looks to have a big leg (as a true freshman) that can put the ball consistently 3-5 yards into the endzone on kickoffs.
And last but not least —– GREAT CROWD. I have been very critical of student attendance in the past but the students were AWESOME on Saturday night. They got there early, filled up the place, and stayed into the 3rd quarter. It put a smile on my face to see Vad have to wave his arms to get that section to tone it down when going into the endzone. KEEP IT UP!!!!
Oh one other thing —– great to see no freaking BS targeting penalties.
Cant wait to see Lehigh this weekend because I am sure we will open it more. To your point, Rob (not that one), the good thing about our coverage is that EW admitted that some of play was soft and he’ll make sure to change that. We will see that on Saturday versus tougher competition.
As for some of the unknowns on the team, I think Jordan Brown will be a good contributor because that guy is aggressive. Unfortunately, he needs to learn how to catch and break down but he isn’t scared to get his nose in there. And I am glad that people go to see Bryan Schor, I have always been a fan of him since day 1 but I know people have been losing their mind wondering who will replace Vad if he got hurt. Bryan Schor can get the job done and he’s athletic enough to pull the ball on the option for good gains.
Great opening week.
Would like to see gold pants again w/ the purple jerseys and gold helmets.
New radio p-b-p guy/ team…well…oh, never mind.