Dukes Roll New Hampshire, Sam Houston St. on ESPN2 Friday Night Up Next
Need to restock after that one!
With Saturday recovery and holiday commitments, we’re a little later than usual with this wrap-up. And it’s been so long since we could really get into a playoff run that we forget how easy it is to only look forward (is it Friday yet?!), but we did want to to give you a few quick thoughts on the win over UNH Good/Bad/Ugly style.
The Good
Over the hump – JMU won a playoff game! Repeat, JMU won a playoff game! That they did so in resounding fashion only makes it sweeter, but the key to making noise in the tourney is actually accessing the tourney, something the Dukes failed to do in the Withers era. We still think UNH may have been a better squad than LU ’14 or Colgate ’15, but the Dukes were ready to friggin’ roll this year.
Gage Steel interception return – Favorite play of the game, maybe the season. He was being tackled by three guys in one spot and wasn’t brought down for another twenty eight yards. For some reason this play spoke volumes about where this team is now compared to the last four or five years.
Refs Scolding the MRDs – This could have been in the Ugly for the refs, but honestly it sure seemed to be the launching pad for the team, the fans and the playoff run. The Dukes were a bit sluggish/nervous to start the game. Two 3-and-outs from the Dukes, a UNH TD, and QB feeling his way into the game and back from injury had us feeling a bit nervy. But then suddenly the officials decided to tell the MRD’s to quiet down and the JMU Nation’s reaction was beautifully predictable. The entire stadium woke up, got pissed and got out of their seats. They were loud in a way that seemed we were all just beginning to remember what these games can be like from days gone by. Who knows if the team noticed, but it sure was fun from the stands. And remember this folks – here’s current SHSU Head Coach KC Keeler’s comments on the MRD’s from his days at Delaware: “It’s a hostile environment, even the band will cuss at you. It’s classic, we’re warming up and that band is just cursing at us and my guys are looking like, ‘This is the band,'” and I said, ‘Yeah, just wait until you play the team.'” (thanks to saxkow for the tagline all these years!)
Bryan Schor’s Health – Sure looked alright to us. He may have understandably been a bit nervous at the outset, but after taking a few falls and hits, he sure seemed to gain in confidence throughout the game. Needless to say, that throw to Ravenel off the scramble at the end of the half may have been the finest throw by a JMU QB since at least Mike Cawley. No disrespect to JMU legends like Rascati or Landers or Lee, but Schor is starting to look like from a pure passing standpoint, he may be the one.
This Staff’s Decisions – First, the decision not to “just try to run their stuff” as in the last two years, but to dust off the deepest pages of the playbook with the halfback pass and fake punt show just how seriously this group takes this time of year. These are coaches who have been in the FCS playoffs and know you can’t leave anything on the sidelines in these games. Should be fun to watch what they come up with this week! Secondly, offensive tackle Mitchell Kirsch has been battling an injury for while now. He got the start, but just wasn’t moving well. After the first hit on Schor, the coaches quickly made the move to talented freshman Tyree Chavious and everything clicked again up front. We all know we’d rather have Kirsch back at full strength and we know he’s doing everything he can, but this is the kind of cool calculation we love to see from the staff.
Davis hustle – Rashard Davis was all over the place in this game. Catching passes, throwing a TD, causing havoc. But you know what impressed us most? The fact he was the gunner on punt coverage hustling down to be in DeAndrade’s face on the fumbled punt return that really blew the game open. Similar to all the Jimmy Moreland blocks downfield on all of JMU’s big returns this year, the difference on this team from any group since ’08 is that Coach Houston and company have kept all of the talented guys, even the ones who may not have the huge roll they dreamed of, still very much motivated to do the little things. This team is not only deep with talent, it’s deep with “want-to” and that may be just as important.
Friday Night Lights! – It’s ESPN2 with no other college football up against it that night. The Friday night games in ’08 were special and we’ve got a feeling this will be too. Some people say it’s harder on Friday, but honestly, with holiday commitments and everything else, in some ways it’s actually easier for the NoVa and RVA folks to make a quick run Friday night from a family standpoint. And yes, it’ll be cold, and awesome. But here’s what you do. Ski pants, layers, hand and foot warmers, flask. Which is more easily concealed in all those layers. It’s very likely this week’s BOTW will be whiskey.
Andy Talley – Villanova lost in heartbreaking fashion up in some serious weather at South Dakota St. this weekend, falling 10-7 on a last-second field goal that bounced in off the uprights by none other than the nephew of Adam Vinatieri. But one last thank you and congrats to Villanova’s long-time coach for many years of heated rivalry in the A-10/CAA. Not sure we’d say we’ll miss you on the field, but the sport always misses guys like you.
The Bad
Fan confusion on when to get loud – A lot of fans (and scoreboard operator telling them to) “getting loud” while JMU was on Offense this week. We love the energy the playoffs bring, but let’s tighten up our game.
Close calls – They all went JMU’s way this week, or at least none of them went against us, and we need to be ready to overcome them should they not go so well later on. The near late-hit on the sidelines, the near hands-to-the-face on the QB, the weirdly second guy knocking the ball out of Alls hands on the TD. All were called correctly, but let’s not forget this is FCS, and these could go any way at any time. Be ready and overcome. For the record, those were SoCon officials and it was a huge improvement from the usual.
Kirsch Health – Need him back. If he’s not back now, rest him and save him for later.
The Ugly
My anger at Coach on the first 4th and Goal – I was apoplectic. I said horrible things like “this is pure late-era Mickey bullsh*t!” and generally forced everyone around me to listen to all the reasons we should have gone for it. Loudly, annoyingly, and inappropriately. Guess there’s a reason Coach Houston is the Coach of the Year and I’m a doofus in the stands, huh? Look, I still think every coach everywhere needs to go for it on 4th down about 100x more than they do, and I still think the Dukes should’ve punched it in or pinned UNH at the 1. But Coach knows his team. Surely he thought there were plenty of points to come. Probably he thought it would settle the team down, or at least not get them in panic-mode if they had failed to convert. Maybe he wants to keep building Tyler Gray’s confidence, something they’ll surely need as the Dukes move along. But in any case, he was right, I was wrong, and I apologize to Section 211.
SHSU Fans – They had less than 5k at a HOME game Saturday and yet somehow this is the loudest, most obnoxious group of internet trolls in the country at this level. NDSU is loud, but they’ve earned it. We’d just love your help on Twitter this week if we get them riled up haha.
THANK YOU for pointing out the Scoreboard Operator’s inexcusable incompetence. I had planned to call the athletic department this week to express my frustration and still plan to do so.
agreed – I’ll never understand how our fanbase with a football rich tradition like ours doesn’t know to be quiet on offense. MRD’s I love you, and the refs telling you to not play was the turning point of the game… HOWEVER your snapchat need to be reserved for when we are on defense – you were bush league doing that mini wave/yell when we were on offense, shame, we knew better in my day, we also didn’t have facebook, snapchat, or twitter but that’s neither here nor there.
RU travelling clear across the country to EW is going to be a show for them so we can also enjoy that.
Perhaps someone can figure out how to coordinate the fan noise to raise it up a level. An easy fix is to bring back the 3rd qtr- “Lets Go” / “JMU” that alternates from student side to opposite side. (WVU does this the entire game and it keeps the crowd engaged, sorry )
BTW- You alleged SH fans were “internet trolls”. They may be trolls but I was not aware they could utilize the internet.
Dude behind me in the student section kept saying the entire first series “Dude this crowd is weak, we need to get pumped up and get rowdy.” It was finally explained to him that he needed to politely shut the F*** up and wait until we were on defense to be loud. Loved the intensity of the crowd after the MRD call, by 3rd down I had nearly lost my voice from my-life-is-in-danger level screaming. However, devils advocate, the ref wasn’t wrong.
Re: whether or not the team noticed the crowd noise Saturday, here’s a great quote from The Breeze: “’Honestly, in my five years here I’ve never heard the crowd that loud,’ redshirt senior linebacker Gage Steele said. ‘I could literally feel them yelling.'”
SHSU is a crappy school, with jerk-off fans. I was not planning on going until I started reading the diarrhea they post online. I am now compelled to go way the heck out of my way to sit in freezing cold temperatures just so I can scream my head off and make them and their team and their douche-wad coaches feel as unwelcome as possible. GO DUKES!
Fans: show up Friday and be loud on Defense; dress warmly, very warmly
Q for all: Did anyone else have a terrible experience with the UNH fans Saturday?
There were a group behind us that yelled personal, profane and digusting things at my party (my wife included.)
Come to find out his kid plays for UNH. Very sad.
I hope he cooled off on the way home.
Hoping for a nice game friday.
GO DUKES!!
@Mark – I did not even notice more than about 13 UNH fans sitting in their little quadrant. Hopefully you were not sitting there. Or do you mean to tell me that UNH fans infiltrated the Home Team side? All the more reason we need to show up and buy all available seats for Friday nite. That being said, you and all others around them had and endless supply of retorts you could have blasted them with bases on the Dukes shutdown performance. I hope y’all let them have it!
What a game…I was so nervous heading into it that we would lose (again) in our first playoff game. But the team came out and dominated like they should against a still very good UNH squad.
Re: The crowd – I was extremely disappointed that only ~13,000 showed up. I understand that December games can be hard to get to because of holiday commitments and the fact that the games aren’t announced months in advance, but we should do better than that. However, the crowd that was there was so locked in and rowdy after the whole band thing, it made up for it in my mind. That was probably the coolest thing I’ve ever experienced at Bridgeforth.
Re: SHSU – Agree with everything Todd said about their fans. They’ve complained all season about being underrated and disrespected, all while running up the score on a hilariously weak schedule. Don’t get me wrong, I’m scared of the actually football team, but shutting their fans up would be extra sweet.
Friday can’t come soon enough!
I got you on Twitter, brajs.
@ Danny,
We were seated small side, toward scoreboard.
They didn’t want banter, they wanted to fight in the parking lot. That and much talk about KY Jelly, oddly enough.
They must do things differently in New Hampshire…
Tell all your buddies, it would be nice to have a full house Friday Night.
Mark
A couple of things that really stood out to me were 3rd down conversion percentage, no big penalties, and the passing defense was actually really good. Both QBs were contained and they really only had 1 good drive (at the start of the 2nd half). I took a look at Sam Houston’s schedule and other than 1 game, they really didn’t have a tough schedule. The one thing we can say about JMU is we’ve been tested by really good teams and won big games on the road (one even with a backup QB).
JMUsports.com has changed what they’re saying from ESPN2 to ESPN3 for Friday night. Did we get bumped?
Agreed about the significant irritation factor of the New Hamphsire fans. I drove from Raleigh only to have to sit in the heart of that tiny little contingency of New Hamphsire die hards. The one UNH guy in front of me only had one chant the ENTIRE game: “You can’t do that . . . you can’t do that” (uttered every time JMU incurred a penalty). In the 2nd half, his buddy started throwing out expletives, and because there were a bunch of kids around, I told him to cease his shenanigans. Well that is when the f-bombs really started to fly (all directed towards me). I just shook my head and requested he simply check out the scoreboard.
Will be coming back from Raleigh this Friday night to watch back-to-back playoff victories!
@JMU2003DUKE According to the ESPN app we’re still on ESPN2. Hopefully it stays that way
The Ugly-
Taking a knee on 4th down. You only take a knee to end the game. Fingers crossed that Coach Houston keeps doing it as part of an epic trolling campaign against other CAA coaches.
Kick ass until the clock hits =zero….THEN have class.
Thanks Shrowder. I swear it said ESPN3 yesterday. Either they fixed it or I’m going blind… either one is a possibility.
@Smith – You aren’t wrong that they aren’t wrong. The rule is ‘sporadically’ enforced. I thought I saw the QB point at the band right before the announcement…don’t think they’ll do that again.
I’ll be driving up from the Raleigh area also this Friday to watch the game (Thankfully I’m on ‘vacation’ this week). Hopefully we can show SHSU fans what talent and class are. Duuuuuukes.
@2004 — we sometimes disagree on things, but oh my lord i couldn’t agree more on the kneel-downs. Taking a knee is for Catholic mass and the final minute of the game. That should be it. I get that Houston is trying to be “respectful”, whatever that means. It’s not like this is a bad team that we don’t want to embarrass — it’s the second round of the playoffs! It just bothers the hell out of me — especially against a team we had beat, and then almost came all the way back, earlier in the season. You would think against UNH, of all teams, we would keep the pedal down for the full 60 minutes.
Pretty sure the scoreboard stuff was NCAA mandated. Can’t have anything specific for the home team, if something is played for one team it has to be played for both. That’s why the stadium stores don’t carry any JMU specific gear during the game, it’s all NCAA/playoffs related. And that’s why they called out the band, much stricter than usual for these games.