JMU Knocks Off #1 William & Mary

Balance? We don’t need no stinking balance! I’ve got to hand it to Mickey Matthews, Durden, and the rest of the JMU coaching staff. They came up with a strategy that they thought would work, and then they stuck with it. JMU defeated the William & Mary Tribe by the score of 30-24 and did it without a single yard passing. One pass attempt, zero yards, one win. The coaches went with WR Dae’Quan Scott playing wildcat qb for most of the day and just ran the ball down the Tribe’s throats. Scott ran for 125 of JMU’s 266 yards and had 3 TDs in his breakout performance.

We had a bit of a bizarro JMUSB situation this week. Todd, who’s normally one of the most optimistic fans I’ve ever met, was pretty down on the Dukes and their chances this weekend. I am usually the paranoid, sky is falling, my favorite team is dooomed, sort of fan. Yet for some reason I really believed JMU was primed for an upset win. I was down after the Richmond loss, but somehow snapped out of it and convinced myself things weren’t that bad and decided to stick with my plans to go to the game. I am so glad that I did. The weather was beautiful and so were the results. It was easily the most fun I’ve had at Bridgeforth since the Rodney Landers years.

I’ve heard a few folks grumbling about this being an ugly win or bemoaning the fact that the Dukes didn’t have a single passing yard. Seriously? The Dukes knocked off a CAA rival who was ranked #1 in the country. And they did it by setting up in the wildcat and just daring William & Mary to stop them. I thought it was bold almost to the point of arrogance, and just a blast to watch. Why do anything different if the Tribe couldn’t stop what JMU was doing? Todd and I have been clamoring for more touches for Dae’Quan and the plays he made today are the reason why. Just a great game by an exciting player. An exciting redshirt freshman player I might add.

This game showed how little I know about the Xs and Os of football. I’ve been screaming that the Dukes should pass more, add some variety to the playbook, etc. Then Matthews has the stones to basically run the same thing over and over again and it worked. I feel awful for Dudzik, who essentially got replaced on his Senior Day, but the insertion of Scott was an outstanding move that gave JMU its best shot at winning. It also resultedd in some exciting football. And man was it fun to watch the Dukes win again!