Guest Post: I Want to Party Like It’s 1999!

Jonathan K. won our prediction contest last week and earned the right to guest post. Here’s his look back at JMU football through the years.

In the fall of 1999, I walked onto the campus of James Madison University with bright eyes and big dreams. JMU’s football program was also pretty young under new head coach Mickey Matthews. Back then Bridgeforth Stadium had an AstroTurf playing surface (think your living room carpet, only thinner) and two grandstands. Imagine the current student section side of Bridgeforth but on both sides.

I lived in the Lakeside part of campus so on evenings when my dorm buddies and I wanted to play a game of two-hand touch football, we could walk right in to Bridgeforth and play in the stadium- the very same stadium that greats like Gary Clark (Pro Bowl Washington Redskins wide receiver) would catch ridiculous amounts of TDs and Charley Haley (Cowbows/49ers Hall of Famer) would destroy ridiculous amounts of QBs.

In 1999 the Dukes had a pretty good running back by the name of Curtis Keaton, who was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals in the 4th Round of the 2001 draft. JMU ran the ball with Keaton… a lot.  In fact, Mickey Matthews liked to run the ball so much that we referred to the wide receivers as “wide blockers”. 1999 was also the start of a mini football dynasty. JMU has not had a losing season in over 13 years and in that span we have competed for Division 1 National Championships several times (and won one in 2004). If you were to put a list of top FCS (I-AA) programs since 2000, JMU would be in the top 10, easily. I remember watching Keaton and the Dukes beat (more like dominate) UConn and University of South Florida at Bridgeforth Stadium. Those were legendary days. College football has changed a lot in the past few decades. We are still on that streak of not having a  losing season but we have lost something pretty significant… our old rivals who have moved to FBS (I-A) conferences.

Here is a list of schools that have played JMU in Harrisonburg but probably won’t be making a trip back until we “just move up” (jmu) to FBS:

• UCONN
• University of South Florida
• UMASS
• Florida Atlantic  U
• Appalachian State
• Coastal Carolina (transitioning  to FBS)
• ODU
• Georgia State
• Charlotte

At first glance, most casual college football fans forget that these are even FBS programs but some have already seen success at the FBS level and there is little doubt that JMU would also compete pretty quickly if placed in a non Power-5 conference like the American, CUSA, Sunbelt, or MAC. In fact, JMU is consistently ranked (Sagarin) higher than a lot of the programs in those conferences.

“So moving up is a no brainer, right?” Well, it isn’t that simple.  Back when JMU first publicly commented on the opportunity to move up, it seemed like it was right around the corner… like “18-24 months” around-the corner. JMU Sports Blog and all of JMU nation got more than a little excited when we commissioned Carr Sports Consulting  to do a feasibility study on the move to FBS.

There are probably factors we will never understand why we haven’t made the move to FBS yet BUT to JMU Nation I write this, in the words of the late Tupac Shakur, “keep ya head up”. The main reason I personally want to move to FBS is to reconnect with some of our old foes and stop playing the Lesshead States and Central Lincoln Techs of the world and get back to playing our true peers while still occasionally beating Hokies and Cavaliers like we have done before.

Until that day, let’s root for our team to win a few more National Championships because that beautiful campus I remember from 1999 is still the most wonderful place on earth and deserves that we FIGHT FOR GLORY.  Alumni, will you fight? Students, will you fight? President Alger, will you fight?! WELL, COME ON THEN! LET”S GET OFF OUR COLLECTIVE ASSES AND ROOT! 25K STRONG! *drops the mic*

And now for your JMU Football hyping pleasure, I bring to you the smooth stylings (or video editing) of one Zach Lantz:

JMU Breed IV from Zach Lantz on Vimeo.