{"id":5790,"date":"2013-08-29T08:55:06","date_gmt":"2013-08-29T12:55:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=5790"},"modified":"2013-08-29T08:55:06","modified_gmt":"2013-08-29T12:55:06","slug":"your-high-level-completely-biased-and-unscientific-jmu-football-outlook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=5790","title":{"rendered":"Your High Level, Completely Biased, and Unscientific JMU Football Outlook"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"stephon\"<\/a>Gameday is almost here and we’ve managed to avoid revealing anything at all about our expectations for the 2013 JMU football Dukes. I guess we can’t put it off any longer. This will come as no shock, but we’ve managed to convince ourselves that the Dukes can and will contend for the CAA title. And how did we come to that conclusion you might ask. Was it through careful analysis of the JMU roster and the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition? Was it after poring over mountains of statistics? After conversing with FCS experts from across the country? No. It was none of those things. We’re just homers.<\/p>\n

That’s right. While demanding logic and reasoning to support the arguments of others, we’re absolutely no better than one of those mouth breathing, face painting, overly enthusiastic super fans, who insists his team is championship bound no matter what. At least we own it. With that being said, here are the top 3 reasons why we think this could be a big year for the Dukes. And in an attempt to remove our purple colored glasses, we’ll offer a caveat or counter-argument for each.<\/p>\n

1. Stephon Robertson, Dean Marlowe, and the Defense<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you’ve been paying attention the past few years, you already know Robertson and Marlowe are absolute studs. Robertson is all over the field making plays week in and week out. Marlowe roams the field from the safety position and can deliver the big hit or play the ball with equal success. This year it’s unquestionably their defense. Defense has long been the Dukes calling card. Objectively speaking however, last year’s D had a number of mediocre (or worse) outings. My personal theory is that there was so much focus on fixing the offense, that the coaches took their eye off the ball with the defense. Now Mickey has an OC with head coaching experience who appears to have full carte blanche to run the system he wants. And that means Mickey can focus on his beloved defense. That’s unquestionably a good thing and I expect the results to be stellar.<\/p>\n

Caveat<\/strong><\/p>\n

Depth in the defensive backfield. They don’t have much. On paper they don’t at least.<\/p>\n

2. The Ginger Giant<\/strong><\/p>\n

Michael Birdsong is unquestionably “the man” for JMU when it comes to the QB position. There is nobody looking over his shoulder. He’ll be the first JMU QB since Rodney Landers left town who isn’t looking over his shoulder after every bad throw to see if a new QB is checking in to take his spot. And as we saw last year when Birdsong played as a true freshman, he’s got a lot of talent. He’s got a big arm and surprised everyone with his rushing ability. The new offense O’Cain is implementing supposedly is much more dynamic and fast paced. Once Birdsong gets comfortable in it, we expect him to shine.<\/p>\n

Caveat<\/strong><\/p>\n

We’re talking about a guy who has 77 career passing attempts.<\/p>\n

3. Mike O’Cain’s New Offense<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>Yeah, yeah, yeah. We didn’t exactly set off fireworks when we heard Mike O’Cain was hired to be the new offensive coordinator for the Dukes. In hindsight, that had everything to do with our disappointment in JMU not landing Hal Mumme and very little to do with O’Cain’s qualifications. O’Cain is an experienced coach who has run a number of very successful offenses at the FBS level. And as we mentioned above, he appears to have more leeway and autonomy than his predecessor Jeff Durden did. Mickey Matthews is many things. He’s not an adventurous or aggressive play-caller though. By handing over the offense to a guy like O’Cain and giving him the freedom to finally implement a more balanced and fast paced attack, JMU should drastically improve on offense.<\/p>\n

Caveat<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 2012 Virginia Tech offense, which O’Cain played a part in.<\/p>\n

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