UNC Pulls Away from JMU, but all systems go for a big Dukes’ year!
The Good
That first quarter – Wow! Now THAT was fun. We know the heat, the depth, a few Dukes’ mistakes, the inability to run with UNC-CH’s receiving corps or stop Hood eventually caught up with JMU, but as FBS games against P5 teams go, it’s hard to ask for much more than the excitement of a start like that. The utter shock of the home fans, the frustrated unsportsmanlike conduct fouls, and the chance to stand and cheer and throw streamers and run our mouths a bit made the whole day. Look, we’re not saying we didn’t want the Dukes to keep it up, but having a coach that finally goes for it all-out in these games made the whole endeavor so much fun.
Wheel route – How does every team not try this once a game every game? Does anyone ever stop this play when its set up right the way the Dukes’ had it on a platter for Schor-to-Johnson?
JMU’s offense – What can we even say? In the first half the Dukes scored three TD’s, missed a FG, and had some coaching brain farts deep in UNC territory before the half. But that’s basically five successful drives against an ACC team. And we will take that all day.
The outlook for this season! – Not to excuse the beatdown late but let’s be clear, JMU will not face a single player anything like the Heels’ backs and receivers the rest of the year. The Dukes made their own mistakes that let this get away, and we still have no idea whether the Defense has actually improved after facing three straight teams where there is nothing to trust about what we’re seeing based on the difference in level of competition, but we were pleasantly stunned with how toe-to-toe the Dukes were able to go athletically with UNC and that HAS to bode well for the rest of the season. To put it simply, despite the 56-28 final, we are absolutely more excited and confident about the season after this one than we were going on. JMU can really play this year.
Carson finally got his yesterday!
Dukes Fans – Great turnout! And having the MRD’s at the game made that explosive start so much more fun.
The Bad
The JMU pass rush – Through three games, there is no such thing. The secondary faced a tough enough task against a whole batch of potential pros yesterday, but when you have to cover for five or six seconds, it’s even more impossible. We’re still hoping the first two weeks were just vanilla from a schematic standpoint and that maybe yesterday the front seven was simply overmatched by a bigger, stronger O-Line, but we’re getting awfully skeptical that the Dukes’ defensive front isn’t the biggest concern on this squad.
Trip to Maine next week – Never sleep on a trip to Maine for a noon kick. As Rob said Saturday night, it’s not Maine that scares us, it’s the trip to Maine that always scares us. We’ve just seen this movie too many times through the years, but hopefully Coach H and co. will have them ready. And it’s on tv which is great for the rest of us!
The Ugly
The heat on the visitor’s side at Kenan Stadium is something that simply cannot be described. The place is a hole in the ground with zero breeze and it feels like an oven. For fans, and certainly for players, it’s atrocious. For players on teams with 22 less scholarships, it’s gotta be downright brutal. In fact, I’m gonna say the whole place is basically garbage as big stadiums go. Yes, it’s in the trees. Yes, the tailgate lots are tucked away. And yes, that shade of light blue makes for decent uniforms. But the place is a 1970’s leftover with horrendous video boards with substandard information for actually following the game, some its best seating placed – almost as an afterthought – in the end zone like a rich man’s ODU, concession bottlenecks, and worst of all, a bunch of sycophant fans who act like it’s a gift from above when it has to be one of the worst stadiums in all of the P5.
The Heels running a flea flicker against an FCS foe. The great, old-school UNC fan in front of us actually turned around and said, “we should apologize for that, but it’s pretty clear the coaches thing JMU is a big problem right now.”
The seating at UNC could have definitely been better, but I was pleasantly surprised how welcoming the UNC fans we encountered were. Everyone we encountered was extremely nice and inviting.
Can’t wait to find out what the Dukes really have when we FINALLY stack up against CAA teams.
Spot on with your comments about the stadium. It felt like a stadium from the early 1980’s that has had nothing but a few fresh coats of paint for the last 35 years. The end-zone/Ram Club looked pretty cool and modern but that’s it.
I felt the same way about that flea-flicker……really that is something you want to put on film for future opponents while playing an FCS school?
Not too mention that classless/bush-league fake fair catch punt return thing in the 4th quarter with a big lead playing an FCS school….stay classy UNC.
I feel really good about the offense going into CAA play. Against an FCS opponent JMU moved the ball up and down the field.
– @ 500 yards of total offense
– balanced attack with success both rushing and passing.
– OLINE looks FANTASTIC and Abdullah/Johnson are just beasts running behind them.
– WRs looked good — Domo dominated his guy.
– Schor looked great running the offense. Was good running and passing.
– Hard to get a read on the defense…..I think our DBs were surprised on how big of an arm the UNC QB had — that guy is legit and can really sling it. A couple of times we had really great coverage on the deep ball and the UNC WRs made great catches (we did get burnt badly a few times too — but we will NOT see offensive talent nowhere near that the remainder of the season).
– ACC refs did JMU no favors. If our DBs played tight and competed for balls got called for PI everytime. UNC DBs played through our guys all game, no flags.
– I like Coach Houston holding out Steele and Hyman for CAA play since they were not 100%.
– Best of all NO SIGNIFICANT INJURIES that I know of.
That flea flicker was ridiculous. First thing that came to mind was desperation, and how embarrassing it must be for UNC fans. Way too early in the game to be pulling out that garbage.
My son had a baseball game at that time so I missed the entire thing…
THEY DID A FLEAFLICKER?!?!?!!!
HAHAHAHA
UNC team attitude was poor. Penalties, trash talk, spinning throw down on one play, coach tyrants, etc. showed UNC as low class program. They’ll struggle with that beyond the Rape case.
Best 1st quarter in FBS opponent history was fun, fun, fun.
Our DBs need to learn to turn around on deep coverage or talk to each other or something. Pass rush???
This team is destined for good things. Here we come CAA.
I endured Kenan Memorial Sauna-dum and thoroughly enjoyed the first 15 minutes of play. Very proud of the team and very impressed that the Marching Royals were in full uniform. Hoping Kirsch is okay. Saw him hobble off the field a couple of times after his brief, accidental stint as a receiver.
First quarter was ridiculously awesome and didn’t care about the heat during that but what an ugly, old stadium. Couldn’t figure out what yard line anyone was on, no stats. We were cheering for the clouds after awhile. Impressed with 500 offensive yards against the Heels – more than UGA or Illinois. D needs to find a pass rush and as Joe the Toe said, backs need to communicate and turn around. A bunch of crap calls by officials but still proud of our Dukes. Ready for CAA play.
Nice work on this game review. The first time we’d played UNC in a big-time game since we wuz robbed in the 1983 dance.
I was additionally nervous about some Mickey-like play calling at times. Let me state that the punt at the end of the half was a capitulation-level call. I have no idea what the secondary is doing; most of the time we were simply out of position in the defensive backfield, and I am concerned that the lack of competitiveness shown last year is being repeated.
On the other hand, I love our o-line and backs; they really did the job out there against some hard competition. Schor did really well. The kid from South Carolina didn’t impress, I wonder if something’s in his head at this point in his career.
And the MRDs are always a competitive advantage.
Hard to cover for more than 6 seconds.. I dont care if you’re Jimmy Moreland or Champ Bailey, corner is difficult. That said, we did have some slumps against elite receivers but watching the game again, the lack of any resemblance of a pass rush did us in.
If we were able to make Mitch think about getting hit or pushing him outside of the pocket would’ve increased our chances tremendously. I give our secondary and defense in general props for the way they hustled and competed. Unlike Withers’ schemes, the defense didnt break down (rewatch the Colgate game on Madizone), we weren’t “gashed” per say and quite frankly, they knew the offense they were playing against since it’s EXACTLY what we do.
Lack of pass rush coupled with WRs that run a 4.3 and an ACC OL… equals what we saw.
Super proud of this team and we are going to win A LOT of games… keep rooting!
I was actually astounded at how little leg room there was. I wanted a drink half way through the 3rd but hesitated as getting out of my mid-row seats was nearly impossible. That drives *down* concession sales (and they didn’t have anyone selling stuff in the stands either). This was a home-ish game for me as I live about 20 miles from UNC-CH. But other than the drive, I’ll take Bridgeforth every day and twice on Saturday.
But I am absolutely in love with our O-Line. Room to run and time for Schore against an ACC defense. Can’t ask more from a line than that…oh and a reception that resulted in a first down (after a penalty, but still).
UNC will not have a winning record this season. Not when they let JMU run that easily on them.
Yes, I recognize I contradicted myself in that last post. Don’t care.
In spite of some referee home cookin’, some cheap shots, and some trick plays, our boys kept composure and played well. Really proud of these guys. GO DUKES!
The fans were just as obnoxious as I remember them… but I was prepared for that before I made the trip.
Pleased with the game. Their receivers were just more athletic than our DB’s. In a foot race they win every time. Definitely won’t see any talent like that for the rest of the year, so the 56 pts doesn’t bother me too much.
Although I was fairly pleased overall, let’s remember this before we get all beer-and-buttercups- North Dakota State played a Power-5 team too. One ranked higher than UNC…..and they beat them. If we want to return to the promised land, the Bison have set the bar for the past few years. It’s pretty clear what level we need to be on if we want to compete for the Championship Belt.
2004- I agree on the NDSU comparison, but it is important to remember that even as strong a squad as Iowa is, they’re built to play low-scoring, defensive, anti-fun struggles every week, which sets them up for potential stumbles. I’m not saying that JMU necessarily would’ve done as well as the Bison, but just that the Dukes likely would’ve been in a close game with the Hawkeyes as well just based on the way Iowa plays. Conversely, even though I’d take Iowa all day to stuff UNC, I am left to wonder if a UNC-type team (elite speed and tempo offense) would be actually be a tougher matchup for NDSU than the cornfed, boring midwestern FBS teams they beat every year.
In any case, all of just keep rootin’ and if the boys play the way they did Saturday, they’ll get a shot at the Bison sooner or later!
I was at the game too with my 4 year old twins and despite being on the wrong side of a 56-28 score, it was a great day to be a Duke. I couldn’t believe it when I turned around in my seat and saw the MRDs filling their section in the upper deck. Awesome.
I was not the least bit surprised at the first 20 minutes of the game. UNC’s rush D can’t stop a Pop Warner team and running the ball is of course our strength. Hats off to UNC for making adjustments they did. If there’s anyone else in Raleigh who happened to catch Steve Logan’s radio show on Saturday morning, he pretty much predicted what happened as soon as he heard Mike Houston was our coach.
Speaking of coach Houston, did anyone else catch his press conference? Man, is that dude super-intense and competitive, and in a good way. Gave proper credit to the other team and our guys for playing hard, but it was obvious that he expects to win. I’m sold on the guy.
The previous comments about Kenan Stadium are spot on and like everyone else, I don’t get the reverence for it. It’s difficult to see the field from the first 15 or so rows of the lower deck, the seats, aisles and concourses are cramped, video boards are worthless, etc. Not to mention the fact that bumping with Petey Pablo’s “Raise Up” every time UNC does something is…interesting. Respect that the dude is from NC and gives shouts-out to every city and town during the song, but come on UNC – it’s 2016 now.
For what it’s worth, the Smith Center is every bit the dump that Kenan is and held in even higher reverence by UNC folks. But there is good news – both Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh and Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium in Greenville are better facilities IMO and Dukes fans coming the next two years should be pleased.