The Good, Bad, and Ugly from JMU Over Villanova
The JMU Dukes went on the road and defeated a tough Villanova Wildcats squad 20-7 yesterday. The win moved JMU to 9-1 overall and a perfect 7-0 in the CAA. The Wildcats dropped to 7-3, 5-2. It was a hard fought victory, not only because Nova’s defense made JMU earn every yard, but because the Dukes lost QB Bryan Schor to injury in the second quarter. Coach Houston pulled the redshirt off of true freshman QB Cole Johnson, who came in relief. It was a less than ideal spot for the young player, but the entire team stepped up and made enough plays to secure the win. A win that clinched the 2016 CAA Championship for JMU.
Here’s the good, bad, and ugly from the win.
The Good
The Defense – Yes, the much maligned JMU Defense is the first up in the “Good” section this week. It’s hard to understate just how great a game the defense had. And it couldn’t have come at a better time. With Bryan Schor out, points were at a premium for the Dukes. The defense put the clamps down on the Wildcats and shut them out in the second half. The Dukes picked Nova QB Zach Bednarczyk 4 times and limited him to 71 yards passing. They also came up with a couple of huge 4th down stops inside their own 25. It was a spectacular effort all around.
Bryan Schor – He had limited impact, due to the fact that he left with what appeared to be a broken collarbone in the 2nd quarter. Up until that point however, he completed 10 of 11 passes for 108 yards and led the Dukes on a TD drive. All that was on the road against the CAA’s top statistical defense. Not to pour salt in the wounds, but it was more evidence of the elite level Schor has played at all year.
Rashard Davis’s Hit – Man, that was one heck of a play. Davis was back to return a punt when Nova decided to go for the fake. He recognized what was going on and came flying out of nowhere to absolutely crush the poor Nova kid trying to catch a pass, dislodging the ball, and saving JMU from trouble. Just a great, great combination of smarts and pure physicality.
Tyler Gray’s second half – Gray had a very rough first 30 minutes, missing 2 field goals in a 7-7 contest. With Schor out, those misses gave away 6 critical points. They were enough to crush a lot of players’ confidence. Gray bounced back in a big way hitting both his attempts and an XP after the break. Maybe I’m a softie, but I was pretty impressed and very proud of the kid.
Grinding – Everything was set up to go against JMU yesterday. The Dukes were playing on the road, against a top 10 team in the home finale for its legendary coach. And then their star QB went down and a true freshman was thrown into action. Yet, they won. Sure, it wasn’t the typical high scoring excitement. It was the exact opposite really. Khalid Abdullah and the offensive line had to scrape and claw for every single yard on the ground. But it was the first time all season that JMU has had to win a game by doing something other than lighting up the scoreboard. Not very pretty, but extremely satisfying.
The Bad
277 – That’s the number of yards of total offense JMU had. That’s so far below the Dukes typical output that it’s almost hard to comprehend. Although, it might be more a case of Nova’s defense deserving a spot in the “Good” section above. Once Schor went out, Nova keyed in on the run and basically dared JMU to pass. Had Schor not gotten hurt, things would have been far different and it’s definitely nitpicking to even mention the offense here given his absence. It’s a completely different unit without him though. Cole Johnson has a tremendous amount of talent, so we expect the coaches to make adjustments going forward to simplify things for him next week. Yesterday showed that it’s just not the same with Bryan out.
The Ugly
Schor’s Injury – Did anyone even read the preceding paragraphs or did everyone jump straight down here to see if we had updates on Bryan’s status? Schor going down is so big that it’s practically all most fans can think about. Yes, it was a tremendous win and clinching the CAA Title is great. Schor going down was the story though. And it’s not a story that any JMU fan likes.
There still hasn’t been any official report from JMU on the injury. He was in a sling after returning from the locker room. We’ve heard many unofficial reports, each with varying levels of detail, and each with differing recovery times. Rumor has it that he broke his collarbone. We’ll see. The team got a great win yesterday against a tough Nova squad. Cole Johnson looked every bit like the true freshman he is however. He’s got the talent to develop into a great JMU QB. He’s not there yet though and the offense just isn’t the same with him under center. The coaches will adjust and change things up to account for his lack of experience. A home game against a bad Elon team could be just what he needs to gain some confidence. There’s no doubt however, that the team’s championship aspirations take a huge hit if Schor is done for the year. Don’t put the season on ice just yet though. There doesn’t seem to be much quit in this JMU team.
Re Schor:
I was at the game and recall a broken play where Schor hit the turf under two defenders. Was this the play where the injury occurred? Or, how did the injury occur?
Also, did anyone notice that loud obnoxious gong sound that the NOVA HS stadium played well into JMU’s third down plays? Someone must have complained because they finally stopped the lame attempt at disrupting JMU. (ceased by the second quarter}.
Heard from reliable sources that Schor has a fractured collarbone and could be available in 2 or 3 weeks. Having said that it will be good to get Johnson a game against Elon and a week off to prepare for the playoffs. He is no Schor but can get us through this. Hopefully the defense can play as great as they did Saturday.
Before the blind-homers jump all over me for realistic analysis, let me say this:
GREAT JOB DEFENSE. IDK where they performance came from, but it was outstanding. Loved watching them bring the wood and play old school gritty defense. They saved the day, and stepped up at the most critical point in our season so far. That was a clutch performance.
Very proud of these kids this week. They played as a team and overcame adversity. Most people have no idea how hard that is to do….awesome game!
Does anyone know why/how long Mitch and Etheridge are out? As I said before, I have faith that Cole has the ability to develop into an elite QB. The reality, however, is that he was playing high school ball a year ago. He didn’t even walk into a college weight room until 3 months ago. It shows…big time. I’m all for building his experience and all that stuff…. in the spring game, or against Morehead State. I cannot stress enough how important a redshirt year is to the physical and mental development of a college football player. To burn his redshirt this late in the season is not good for the team, and is also not good for Cole Johnson unless you think he is your ticket to Frisco, TX. If you don’t think he can go out there and beat Richmond, North Dakota State, Eastern Washington or Sam Houston State, don’t screw him and the team over by burning a redshirt for nothing. In my opinion, we cannot compete with any of those teams with him at QB right now. Maybe next year…maybe 2 years from now….heck, he may end up in the NFL one day, but right now, it isn’t going to happen. I would really, really like to hear what the story is….we have 6 QB’s on the roster, and he is the only one with a redshirt right now.
2004Duke. I am definitely a Homer, but can’t disagree with what you have said. I don’t know the rules on redshirting, but hasn’t that ship already sailed? Based on what they said after the game, using Cole was a conscious decision made before the game if they were to have an injury to Bryan with the game still on the line and not a snap decision in the heat of the moment.
While unfortunate, this coaching staff has not given me any reason to question their decision making process.
I am choosing to be a Homer on this and look through my purple colored glasses and give the coaching staff the benefit of the doubt on this one.
Go Dukes!
Let me start by saying how much I’ve enjoyed this team this year. They really don’t quit at all. I have watched all of Coach Houston’s shows each week. This guy really does seem to know his football. I do question why so many times when we had a huge lead that they didn’t take out Schor and put in someone else to gain experience. I was worried about him getting hurt the same as Vad Lee last year. Schor gained some experience last year that made him the Quarterback he is this year. I believe we would have won the National Championship last year with Vad Lee. But I also believe this is a better team than last year, especially with Schor. We might win a game or two with Cole, but he’s not ready for the big time yet. Hopefully the coach can get him ready or use Conner or Schor can heal. I believe this team has the potential to be national champs, it just depends on who is giving that confidence as a QB.
Haha hey 2004Duke – sorry if it came across as blind-homerism or targeted to you in my last post – your analysis in this post is very good and I’d love to hear answers to those questions as well.
My frustration in my last post was the blind negativism of several posts during the game. Yes, the situation was tough, but my biggest point is for the first time in a long time I have a lot of confidence in this coaching staff and team to make the right decisions when we need them to. So if taking off Johnson’s redshirt over whatever other options we have was what they thought was best, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt here. Obviously, despite a rough performance,it worked. I would love to hear the explanation though, just like you said above, but until I do, I trust them. They have earned that trust, in my opinion.
So I guess I’m just saying lets try not to call the game a lost in the first quarter, or throw insults at our coach or players unless its warranted by demonstrations of bad decisions leading to terrible outcomes.
Anyway, great post today, I really really hope we hear something soon about the Schor situation, and hopefully its good news!
Mitch was very disappointing in the early season games (granted with a lot of the backups around him). Etheridge was only slightly better in the limited action I saw him in. I would like to give Johnson a full week of practice at #1 (and a less talented defense) before I pass judgement. The coaches see him every day in practice. I’m willing to give the coaches the benefit of the doubt for now.
Bottom line is the coaches want to win as much as we do. I have faith in what they decide is best for the team. I hope Schor can come back but if not they will work hard to get Cole ready. If the defense can keep up the good work from this past week we can move along in the playoffs. Not sure how far but I know our coaches want the national title.
I was at the game and yes Schor was injured on a long 2nd and long run the first or second play of the second quarter. He handed the ball off on third down we got stopped and he headed to the bench. They evaluated him for 5 minutes before he headed to the locker room and came back right before half in a sling.
There was a little confusion on the sideline as to who was going in once we got the ball back. Both quarterbacks were tossing to each other and it was unclear who was getting the nod. In fact it was Etheridge with the helmet on and it looked like he was going in. Then when we got the ball that changed and he was back to toting the clipboard.
Etheridge is still healthy, so he’ll be the backup now
Concerns about men’s basketball. Really poor job of planning to have one capable scholarship point guard and 10 forwards. That’s how you get 25 turnovers in a game. McLean will be worn out before CAA games even arrive.
Just for the record- I’m not saying the coaches made a bad decision. I’m saying that their decision doesn’t make sense at first glance and I would like to know what facts led to that decision.