JMU Just Dominated the All CAA Teams & Postseason Awards
Purple and gold might as well be the official colors of the 2016 All-CAA Football Teams. The league announced it’s postseason awards yesterday and boy did the Dukes represent. A ridiculous 14 JMU players earned all league honors, including a program record 10 on the first team. The haul continued with Bryan Schor winning Offensive Player of the Year, Rashard Davis winning Special Teams Player of the Year, and Mike Houston taking home Coach of the Year.
JMU All-CAA First Team Selections
QB Bryan Schor
RB Khalid Abdullah
WR Brandon Ravenel
TE Jonathan Kloosterman
OL Mitchell Kirsch
OL Aaron Stinnie
PR Rashard Davis
DL Andrew Ankrah
CB Taylor Reynolds
S Raven Greene
JMU All-CAA Second Team Selections
OL Matt Frank
LB Gage Steele
P Gunnar Kane
JMU All-CAA Third Team Selections
WR Terrence Alls
The selections were well deserved after JMU ran the table in CAA play and won the league championship in Coach Houston’s first year. The Dukes were picked to finish third behind RU and William & Mary in the preseason. Only Ravenel, Kirsch, Greene, Ankrah, and Reynolds were honored on the All-CAA preseason teams. Safe to say, the Dukes exceeded most people’s expectations.
No matter how this year ends, I’m just happy we have one more year of Schor with another QB behind him with a bright future. If LSU has taught us anything, it’s that a QB can make or break a team.
Not football related, but I took the family to the MBB game vs GMU last night. A few thoughts…
– Sloppy. Both the players and the coaches. There were a TON of mental mistakes by the players, but they still played a tough game. This was probably more of a testament to how bad Mason is.
– I’m more thankful than ever to me a JMU alum. I can’t imagine opposing fans having a negative experience bringing their families to a game in the ‘burg. The last time I went to a JMU-GMU tilt in Fairfax, I was a senior in college, circa 2003. Two idiot fans were taken out of that game by security after trying to jump the Duke Dog (a buddy of mine, and prior enlisted Marine) and multiple groups of Mason fans tried picking fights in the parking lot. Fast forward to 2016… we were no more than three minutes into the game when I had to go have a come to Jesus talk with Mason fans. The obnoxious, but not offensive things they yelled included, “Why are we playing a CAA team?” and “You’re beneath us JMU.” You’re 21 and probably live in your mom’s basement, so please feel free to be obnoxious. It was time to put a stop to it when they started with “Eat a c*ck Madison fans!” Stay classy mason.
– Doc Nix and the Green Machine. Of course I’m biased to thinking the MRD are the best thing to listen to at games, but man, you have to give it up to Doc Nix. He and his band were kicking on all cylinders last night, and put on a great show.
All in all, the men’s team has a LOT of work to do if they’re going to hit double digit wins this year, but I liked the heart they showed out there, and hope they make the JMU/GMU rivalry an annual thing again. Go Dukes!
Yeah, I watched a lot of the hoops game and had many of the same thoughts. JMU had it tough with 3 guys fouling out, but still had chances to win. It was ridiculous that they couldn’t get a decent shot off with the ball and 6.1 seconds on the clock. All of the coaches and players should have expected GMU to deny McLean the ball and known exactly what to do if one of the bigs got it off the inbound. Instead, Lukic got it, nobody seemed interested in taking it from him, he panicked, and JMU got a 35 foot heave instead of a good look. It looked like one giant mental mistake from everyone.
“Picked to finish 3rd”
…let us not forget that Notre Dame (4-8) was picked as the #9 team in the nation in the preseason Coaches poll, meanwhile Washington was not even in the top-25.