Dukes Lose Shootout with Tribe 44-41
The Good
Bryan Schor – The kid is slick. He’s a better athlete than many of us realized, a judicious runner, and for at least his first outing, throws one of the prettiest balls we’ve seen from a JMU QB. The way he puts the ball in exactly the right spot for the receivers to do the best with it after the catch is more reminiscent of Mike Cawley or Greg Maddox than many of our more recent QB’s. Seriously, the kid was almost flawless, and even the one interception he threw was understandable and should NEVER have happened had Ish Hyman simply caught what should have been a beautiful, and game-clinching, TD on the previous play. When the offense scores 35 points against the best defense we’ve faced all year, it’s clearly not on them.
Marcell Johnson – The sophomore safety is seeing more and more action and beginning to flash some real talent. He got caught out of position a few times yesterday, but was in on a ton of plays and it’s nice to see some folks stepping up. We can complain all we want about the defense, but there was some progress yesterday. They got off the field a few times and obviously did the one thing we thought would make the difference by making a huge play with the Raven Greene pick six. You could also see a big difference in the interior line vs. the run up the middle from having Simeyon Robinson back in there.
The Bad
Normally most of these would be worthy of the Ugly section but we’re saving that for a group that’s really earned it the last two weeks.
White Helmets – throw ’em in Newman Lake and never speak of them again.
The high snaps. – The O-Line has been an absolute rock for this team and remains potentially the most important thing for keeping the offense humming, and it stands to reason that R-Sr. Dominick Richards has been an integral part of that success, but damn, this is killing the offense.
Special teams – So let’s see, JMU lost by three. Three point swing on just the first blocked XP alone. Difference in the game. Enough said.
Andy Gresh – This is the assclown who does color commentary for NBCSN’s C-game each Saturday and there are no words, only yelling, to properly describe his mouth vomit.
The CAA – well, specifically the referees. As noted by the special teams comment above, the refs aren’t the only reason JMU lost this game, but that “knee was down” on what should have been a fumble/touchback in the first half was as big of a difference in the game as one referee mistake can possibly be. It was awful, but in no way unexpected. We know all conference complain about officiating in their league, but the stunning consistency of incompetence across every CAA game ever week, has gone so far beyond just officiating that we’re left with no alternative but to turn the blame on the Crumbling Athletic Association itself.
Defensive Scheme – Our problem at this point isn’t with particular players. The kids we have are the kids we have and we’re fairly certain they’re working their tails off and we should shut up and say thank you. Man does this team miss a Sage Harold/D.J. Bryant/Arthur Moats type pass-rushing force off the edge though. But what bugs us is that it seems fairly obvious we can’t just line up, play read and react, and have any hope of even slowing good teams down. We do have some developing athletes in the back of the defense though and at some point, don’t you send more pressure and hope the guys in the back can make a play or two even if they’re more exposed?
The Ugly
The following JMU fans and fan phrases
Withers Sucks Fans – Are you freaking kidding?! Have you already forgotten the three-play attack and 7-5 seasons and seven years of Justin Thorpe? Get a grip people. This program’s been on upward trajectory every single day since Withers was hired. Two close losses to the two other good teams in the conference is no reason to act a fool.
“We’re not ready for FBS because we lose to CAA teams” fans – How many times do smart people need to say this to dumb people? The on-field product you see today will have next to nothing to do with the on-field product you’ll see if (and we realize that’s a huge if) JMU ever announces a move, goes through the transition years where you’re adding schollies and using tons of redshirts while trying to weather a couple lean years, and ultimately makes it out the other side to full membership/bowl-eligible status. Even App. St., who of the recent move ups that has made the fastest jump to top-tier team in their new conference, struggled mightily during the transition years compared with their usual high standards. Also, program and institutional infrastructure are 1o times more important than short-term success. If it was any other way, NDSU would be FBS already. But that’s not the way it works. So just stop it – and you know who you are. If you’re anti-FBS that’s absolutely your right and you can probably come up with at least two good reasons for that position, but the fact JMU lost two games by a combined 13 points to the two best teams in the CAA while also suffering a season-ending loss of an all-time great player is not one of them. Just shut your stupid piehole. And that’s to say nothing of the fact that JMU, UR, and W&M would all be respectable RIGHT NOW in most of the conferences being discussed. You saw SMU (AAC). Have you not seen North Texas (CUSA), Tulsa (AAC), Georgia St. (SB), Idaho (SB), Miami (OH) (MAC), and EMU (MAC)? Consider yourself lucky, but don’t for one second think JMU with 22 additional scholarships of depth wouldn’t immediately be at least respectable.
“Season’s over we’re going 7-4 fans” – Again, in case you didn’t notice, Richmond and William & Mary were good. That’s hard to say, harder to admit, and annoying as hell. But it’s also true. But if you think the bye week isn’t coming at the PERFECT time this week or that Delaware and Villanova are their usual tough selves, you haven’t been paying attention. These two teams are garbage. Delaware has scored a grand total of ZERO points in shutout losses to Rhode Island and Towson. Villanova has a left-handed backup QB that makes Payton look like he’s got a cannon and they’ve lost to Towson and Penn and got blown off the field by Richmond. So just settle the hell down. While JMU has likely blown a first-round bye, the 9-2 record most fans were predicting preseason is very much still on the table as is hopefully another home playoff game. So settle the hell down, go hiking, see your family, enjoy the bye week, and be ready to root on the 14th.
Spring Fest or Special Teams?
A voice of reason cries out amidst the anguished panic of the masses. Thank you.
Anybody can manipulate comparisons of who played who. Here’s one: Albany lost to Villanova 37-0, but came close to Richmond with a 38-31 loss.
Villanova got blown out by W&M. They have yet to play Richmond
My biggest frustration is the lack of discipline in some of the squad. JMU is the most penalized team in the CAA and by a wide margin. Cleaning up the play couldn’t hurt and also has cost some pretty big momentum in the last 2 games.
Thanks Todd. Couldn’t agree more.
Todd you are on point. wither’s is the best thing to happen to JMU football. The CAA officials are just horrible. This alone is a reason to get out of the CAA. losing to two good teams is not what we wanted but it is a reality. Schor is going to continue to improve which is good for us. Thanks and couldn’t agree more Todd!
Good Stuff Todd. Only point I disagree with is the defense “showing progress.” I don’t see how giving up 103 points in two games is progress.
I also think the total lack of discipline, penalties, is killing us, and a lot of them are totally unnecessary, i.e. the out of bounds hit on the return. I know the officials are bad, but I think they were bad both ways. We got away with a couple of hits, again on sidelines, that could have been called. I kind of like the white helmets, I just wish we could win a game with them. We are going to end up 9-2 and at the beginning of the season everyone would have signed on for that. The center needs to work on his technique these next two weeks. That is a tough job, which I did back in the day. Seems like he just needs to extend his arm and make sure his butt is low, but I am sure he is doing what he was taught.
One other thing: how is it that we position kick to the corner and the returner STILL gets around the corner on the short side?
I will be absolutely shocked if the Dukes don’t come out breathing fire against Delaware, especially the defense. GO DUKES!!!!!!!
I like the fight in our team… The thing that puts me on “Monkey Tilt” is our Coaches comments and behavior in the post game press conferences!
PREACH. Everyone needs to settle the hell down. JMU, in all likelihood, will finish with 9 RS wins, which is the best regular season we’ve had in a while. We’re going to make the playoff, with a backup quarterback, no less. So everyone chill.
As for the penalty yards, I’m really tired of hearing about that, too. JMU runs 90 plays a game. When you run more plays, you commit more penalties, and you rack up more penalty yards. The mistakes are only a function of the speed of the offense. If you boil it down to yards/play, which is an advanced metric that offers a more appropriate perspective… we’re really not doing that poorly.
Defense & Discipline win Championships
Look, if we lose either of the next two, then yes the team might be accused of underachieving. That said, will I take 9-2 and a play-in game? Hell yes.
Remember that the first half of the year was a cupcake schedule (BTW SMU is currently 1-7) and the defense wasn’t exposed that much. I’m guessing that the coaches have taken the defense as far as they could. Rob, I disagree that it’s a scheme issue, if that was your point; I think the D just doesn’t have great personnel, and they get beaten 1:1 in big situations all the time. We know what the recruiting priorities will look like next year. But beating some combination of Griffins/Ticks needs to be on the objectives list for the coaching staff.
I do think the penalties are a coaching issue. But it’s a young team in a relatively new system. I say that we see way fewer penalties in a couple of years if we can keep Coach Withers around.
And RJ, the scores from last year’s championships? BCS 42-20, FCS 29-27. “Defense wins championships” is a fantastic relic of the Darrell Royal/Bear Bryant days, right up there with “Three things can happen on a passing play, and two of them are bad.” Love the young-earth shout-out, tho.
I agree with pretty much everything. Except Andy Gresh. I like him. He’s a CAA guy through and through and he has fun. I will, however, readily admit to having somewhat low standards; I also think Joe Buck’s ok
@Todd: had to go back and check, but think I escaped the 3 fanbases of hell membership. I flirted with membership in 1 and 3 because I don’t think the repeated ‘we didn’t score enough points’ (I keep hearing Belichick’s “we’re on to …..” in my head) type of answers do anybody any good, from the outsider’s perspective (and that is everybody not on the practice field) the special team’s play just seems to get worse each week, and I also said the we shouldn’t go to the playoffs if we finish 7-4. I don’t really think that will happen given the crap sandwiches that Delaware and Villanova have become, but hey, Chaminade never should’ve beaten UVa in hoops all those years ago, either.
@sunchase: I’m an old guy who spent 4 of his 5 years @ JMU as a statistician for women’s basketball and football (kept drive charts from the roof of the original pressbox when there was no Newman Lake-side stadium) — so when people start throwing out numbers I tend to go checking them out for validity.
What I found out was the Dukes average only 8 more plays per game than their opponents, yet commit 3.5 more penalties per game — so my non-advanced analysis tells me that we commit penalties on 43% of those additional plays.
Averaging 1.8 yds/play more than our opponents (7.1 to 5.3) yields a net yardage advantage of 14.76 yards which is negated by the minimum -17.5 yds (3.5 penalties x 5 yd/penalty). Additionally we average 1.8 yds more per assessed penalty than our opponents.
I fully recognize I probably have too much time on my hands that I felt compelled to research this, but hey — what else do old ‘get off my lawn’ guys do at night?
The Dukes still comfortably make the playoffs…most of us are just making the observation that unless the level of play in 2 of 3 phases of the game gets better, we will most likely not have a long playoff run.
Strongly disagree… The white hats were clearly meant to be in the “Uggo” section, right after the bandwagon fans.
And the defense needs its own section. What comes after “The Ugly”? B/c that’s where the defense should be.
@Ken– crushed it old school, and please don’t unscrew my head for being near the lawn. Thanks man.
Bottom line, the sky is not falling, and we have a damn good coach that is already spoiling us rotten. 9-2, and see what happens in the playoffs.
7-4, no playoffs. Start the FIRE WITHERS blog now!
Funny, I guess JMU Athletics wants to part with the white helmets as well.
http://www.jmusports.com/news/2015/11/3/Football_1103150159.aspx