JMU Fan Opinion Poll After the UNC Loss
[polldaddy poll=5479894]After digesting JMU’s season opening loss to UNC for a few days, my opinion still hasn’t changed. I’m disappointed, but am far from discouraged. For me it’s pretty simple, JMU was just outmatched by UNC, a team with NFL caliber talent at several positions. I didn’t see anything on Saturday to make me less confident about the Dukes’ chances heading into FCS play. And while there is nothing encouraging about the loss per se, I did see some things that I found encouraging. The QB play was better than I expected it to be for instance, which was encouraging because it has been my biggest area of concern since last season ended. Not everyone sees things the way I do however and several folks were kind enough to share their differing opinions in the comments over the weekend. So Todd and I thought we’d take a little poll to see if there was any sort of consensus among JMUSB readers. Please take a second and vote to let us know where you stand. And share your opinion in the comments, especially if you disagree with us. That’s what the comments are for, not just for telling us how great the blog is (although those sorts of comments are always welcome).
Definitely no worse. I like how the offense looked, especially since I believe that they held back some of it. The D will be nasty and deep. I firmly think this is a playoff caliber team that is very motivated after a few down years. 8-3 or better is very reasonable.
I also feel better that we don’t have those hideous unis the Terps are rockin right now.
Def. not worse.
I am very worried that our vaunted defense gave up a TD on almost every single possession, though.
I said this in response to a previous post, but I’ll repeat it. I voted “yes” based on my one concern that our D wasn’t even a speedbump for UNC until the game was out of reach. And our O went three-and-out time after time – again, until the game was over in the first quarter.
I wasn’t expecting a win, but I was hoping to see a respectable showing for a half (or even a quarter). The way they moved the ball at will, UNC barely noticed we were there. Their QB had one incompletion (which we caught, I think).
Not alarmed, but concerned.
UNC NFL caliber players, don’t think so.
Anyway, Would have liked to see the defense a little tighter.
Hated how Mickey Matthews said “…it was a pay day, now the real season starts…” Really! Looks like a L in the column, which means it was a real game. Poor attitude for the “25K Strong” movement.
My opinion – short of a playoff run this year (a deep one) – I think it’s time to move on from Mickey Matthews.
Agree with Jason 100%
UNC D-Line was incredibly fast. DqS could never find the edge. I like Anderson as the thunder to his lightning. Offense is going to be significantly better than last year. D needs to tackle better. That part of their game was just bad on Saturday. Kicking game was a joke. Special Teams play needs to improve. I think they’re deep enough to be a playoff team and compete for the CAA title, but I also think their special teams may be bad enough to cost them a game here and there and in the brutal CAA that could be enough to keep them on the outside looking in. It starts for real in 5 days!
I wasn’t expecting a win, but I was hoping that with Mickey calling the plays our offense would look less bland. That didn’t happen, and as a result I’m as concerned as ever about our ability to move the ball consistently with down field passing.
I’m not as concerned about our defense as some. UNC’s offensive line is huge. And Ryan Houston is as big as some of our D-linemen. I think against FCS level teams they will fair well.
Craig,
Coples and Donte Paige-Moss are projected 1st and 2nd rounders. LB Kevin Reddick is considered a top 5 linebacker prospect. And LB Zach Brown runs a 4.35 40 and is expected to a 2nd day draft pick. So yes, they do have NFL caliber talent.
I understand being frustrate with Mickey, as I am too. But don’t discredit the talent that UNC puts on the field.
Craig, you are both in denial and ignorant to say UNC doesn’t have NFL caliber talent. Renner, Jones, Paige-Moss, Powell, Zac Brown, Bernard, and many of the O-Linemen will all be playing on Sunday’s. There is no reason to be discouraged.
Please back away from the ledge people, let this thing play out a few weeks. This game meant nothing to how the team is likely to perform the rest of the way. Also, show up this weekend!
For those calling for Mickey’s head on a platter, I’d ask that you stop and consider whether you’re really confident JMU would get anyone better. It wasn’t that long ago that everyone was screaming for Lefty’s head on a platter for not winning the CAA tourney often enough, and what we got was 12 years of Dillard and Keener. All of the sudden, 25 win seasons and NIT berths didn’t seem all that bad, did they? That big purple stadium is going to look really stupid when it’s as empty on game days as the Convo was (and still is).
I won’t get into the whole Brady issue, but the same thought applies.
A bad coaching hire right now would be devastating to whatever thought we might have to move up to FCS. Mickey’s far from perfect (as are we all), but he’s won big at JMU, he recruits well, and most importantly, he’s not Sherman Dillard. Any out-of-work “name” coach we might be able to hire (Friedgen, maybe Leach) is only going to use us as a stepping stone back to FCS, and anyone else we might hire is a roll of the dice.
With the new stadium that needs to be filled, and the need to keep our FCS options open, we need consistency. Frankly, I don’t have faith in the JMU brain trust to hire anyone better, and the program is in too delicate a position right now to risk a bad hire.
I meant FBS, obviously.
Offensively, it was pretty much what I expected, but I gotta say, I’m pretty concerned about the defense coming away from that game. Granted, we had a lot of very short drives in the first half, so the defense spent a lot of time on the field, but still, UNC was moving the ball almost effortlessly on those first half drives. I’m a grad student down here in Chapel Hill, and there was not much excitement around town for the Tar Heel offensive side of the ball to be explosive or dominant coming into the game, so for them to come out and light us up like that was a bit discouraging.
That being said, we’ve now got a home game this weekend to work out some kinks, and something tells me the defense will look a bit stingier at expanded Bridgeforth this weekend. I won’t be able to make it up to Harrisonburg until Homecoming, so I’m looking forward to hearing about the new stadium experience on here and on the caazone.
We don’t need the doom and gloom. Let’s give UNC a little respect here – they are a top-50 (maybe even better) team and let’s all look at what happened to the other top FCS schools against FBS teams. It was probably more of an exception to the rule last year with JMU and all the other FCS teams beating FCS teams. This year, Week 1 I believe maybe only Richmond’s win over Duke was worth even noting (and maybe not even that given Duke’s program compared to the other ACC teams). App State, UNH, Delaware etc all fared no better than JMU. Of course I was a little disappointed in the Defensive effort by JMU but they did worn out by a much bigger offensive line and they have better athletes. But JMU definitely didn’t phone this game in, they played with heart and were just outmatched. Now if we play like that against Liberty or the top CAA teams then we can question how good (talent/ability/skills) the team truly is. Thorpe impressed me and I hope that is a sign of great things to come.
I don’t really understand how anyone think that Mickey taking over the offense would make it less bland. As anyone who played under him knows, he is notorious for stepping in and overriding the coordinators. The ONLY year Durden called the plays w/o interferance was 2004, and we all know how that turned out.
3 words: VERTICAL PASSING GAME.