Fan Confidence Poll: Coming Off a Homecoming Victory
[polldaddy poll=8423061]The Dukes got their best win of the New Era last Saturday, defeating William & Mary 31-24. JMU now sits at 6-3 with 3 games remaining. Two of those games are on the road against Stony Brook and Richmond, and the finale is in Bridgeforth against Elon. If the Dukes get to 8-4, they’ll certainly be in the discussion for a playoff bid. If they get to 9-3, they’ll be sitting pretty.
Last week 47% of respondents thought JMU would make the playoffs. Will the confidence increase after the big win? Vote in the poll and let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Good shot at Stony Brook
Very tough at Richmond
Great win with ELON at Home
Loss to Delaware will keep Dukes off anyone’s ballot
Too many good teams out of CAA
UNH, Richmond , Villanova , etc…
If we finish 8-4 which translates to 8-3 FCS I see the Dukes making it. Loss to Maryland is not considered, I believe
I still am in the “No” crowd — not to be a nay-sayer, but to because we’ve yet to see a 60-minute performance from all three units against a good opponent, win or lose.
CAA is not strong enough for 5 teams and 4 might be a stretch. Win all 3 and it’s still dicey. It will depend on how Delaware competes against UNH and ‘Nova in their last two games. If we’re tied with UD in-conference w/2 losses, the first look is going to be head-to-head — bad for us. Second will be common opponents and they will have beaten UNH and ‘Nova — ugly for us. Now I don’t think the Blue Hens can beat both, if either, of those teams but the Giants weren’t supposed to beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl either….
Go 2-1 and have UD finish behind us in-conference then we are in pretty good shape, provided the loss is the Richmond and is a close game at their place. A loss to either Stony Brook (again!) or Elon and we are done, even if we beat the Spiders.
Bottom line: finish the season on a 7-game win streak (including 4 road wins and 3 against teams ranked when you play them) and it makes it VERY difficult for the committee to ignore you.
As for the attendance issue, JMU is not battling anything the big schools aren’t struggling with as well. With my high school daughter involved in Fall and Winter sports, I just can’t justify the 48-hour commitment to drive to H’burg for a game and miss her games / matches. I took her to the playoff game @ Eastern Kentucky (I don thank Jeff Bourne — I didn’t mind the 90-minute drive to THAT Richmond) Deployments and mission forced me to miss too many of my kids’ events during my 25-year active duty military career — not going to miss them when I have a choice. When we’re empty-nesters, I’ll bring my wife to the best stadium in the land!
I know UNH is NOT a common opponent; was specifically referring to Villanova. UD does not play UR this year, so I think the Spiders and Wildcats are interchangeable for the purposes of the playoff discussion.
We should win at least 2 out of 3 of the remaining games and if we do, I think JMU will get a playoff spot. I would like to get another shot at Villanova and an opportunity to give John Robertson a proper send-off.
After seeing the polls I believe the FCS doesn’t want JMU in the playoffs, so we’re pretty much going to have to win out to prove to them we belong.
I’m not convinced we will beat Stony Brook. If they can manage to keep it tight, they may beat us in the 4th quarter where we stage another comeback, but fall short. Would like to see us come out and score 21 points in the first quarter to keep them behind us.
I don’t see us beating Richmond. They play for 4 quarters and we don’t.
I think we go 8-4 with losses to UD and UR and the CAA only gets three in the playoffs. UNH, ‘Nova, and UR.
We need to win all 3.
Just going to point out that if we were D-1 right now this whole conversation would be not happening and most of us would have checked out for the year. I know money is what drives this stuff but I love “being in the playoff picture”. New CAA slogan: “CAA, it’s not that sh*tty.”
Go Dukes!!
We’re gonna need a bigger boat (for those jumping back on the Dukes wagon).
Cory – good one. Not much chance to make the playoffs if we don’t win out. While I hope that happens, an 8-4 season would be nothing to complain about given the circumstances (new coach, new offense, new defense, lots of young guys).
Go Dukes!
Big article today in an online newsletter I get that centers on higher education issues. Implicates Withers as part of the academic scandal at North Carolina. He refused to talk to investigators and Bozo Bourne issued a statement saying he did a thorough background check before hiring him. Article intimated that if Withers was found a part of the academic fraud when he was head coach that it could have Implications for JMU even if Withers was at UNC when he violated rules. I don’t think anything will come of it but it casts a little doubt in my mind about him when he refused to talk to investigators but Bourne probably would not have hired him if Withers had any kind of scent of involvement in that academic fraud at UNC. Other than that, it will be tough up at Stony Brook this weekend. Think we would have to win all remaining games to make payoffs. Like LDs new conference slogan for the CAA.
I’m hoping for 8-4, but can see 7-5 happening pretty easily. Either way, I think we probably have to win out to get in. The latest poll is both disappointing and telling.
Question – are the FCS polls taken seriously by the voters or by fans? I see that W&M is still ranked ahead of us although we beat them head to head and they have one more loss. Things like that make it hard to put any credibility in the polls.
Rob and I disagree a little but even the poll is severely misleading. Everyone is forgetting that all the other teams basically outside the top 10 are in the exact same position as the Dukes – their big games/meat-of-the-schedule/tough stretch is still to come. 8 wins and above .500 in CAA play is still more likely in than out when all is said and done no matter what the polls show now.
Also – Mike in Ohio – we’ve seen those reports. I work in Higher Ed as well and I’m guessing we follow the same publications. But we’ve also heard Withers and his camp vehemently dispute those allegations. His attorney has stated that he made himself available on more than one occasion via phone or video-chat, but was unwilling to travel from Columbus, and away from his job at them time, simply to accommodate the investigators working in Chapel Hill. Personally, I think if there was more to the story the NCAA would have made a bigger deal one way or the other. Withers was only at Chapel Hill one year before this came to light and was actually chosen by Chapel Hill to step in as Interim Coach and deal with the mess left by those before him.
Bottom line – we’re not at all willing to pass judgment on him based on the NCAA’s position at the moment.