As first reported by WHSV, Everett Withers has hired the six members of his new JMU coaching staff. Some names began to trickle out via Twitter and the rumor mill over the weekend, but Withers and the school made things official this evening. On the offensive side of the ball, Brad Davis and Andrew Mehringer will be co-offensive coordinators. Davis will also coach the offensive line, while Mehringer will be responsible for Michael Birdsong and the other quarterbacks. Parker Fleming will coach the wide receivers and special teams.
There has been no announcement regarding a defensive coordinator, but Steve Sisa, John Bowers, and and Antoine Smith were hired to help out with that unit. Stisa was named linebackers coach today. Bowers, who played for JMU, will succeed Tony Lezotte and coach the secondary. Smith will be the defensive line coach.
After the news about Mehringer and Davis being handed the reins to the offense broke, Todd made it pretty clear we were excited. Davis is viewed by many as a rising star in the coaching business. As a former lineman for the Oklahoma Sooners, he’s well suited to take control of the Dukes line. He had tremendous success as the offensive line coach and running game coordinator at Portland State. In 2012 his unit helped the Portland State offense gain over 200 yards a game both running and throwing the ball. Perhaps more impressively, the line gave up only 5 sacks in the 343 times the QB dropped back to pass. This past season, the rushing attack coordinated by Davis featured 8 different individuals with at least 20 attempts who averaged greater than 5 yards a carry. As a team, Portland State averaged a healthy 6 yards a carry for the season.
The other coaches are no slouches in their own right. Todd used the term “young and hopefully hungry” to describe Mehringer. The same can probably be said for Smith, Stisa, and Fleming. Bowers however, will bring over 30 years of experience back to JMU nearly four decades after he played for the Dukes. He, Mehringer, and Fleming, were members of the Ohio State staff with Withers. Stisa and Davis were members of the UNC coaching staff during Withers’ time. Antoine Smith hasn’t coached with Withers before, but the 2001 Maine grad already has twelve years of experience as a defensive line coach. He’s been successful everywhere he’s coached. Most recently, he’s been on the staff of Holy Cross (my old man’s alma mater), where he coached three d-lineman to All Patriot League honors.
Withers has assembled the makings of a pretty good coaching staff. With the exception of Bowers, the guys hired so far are young and out to prove themselves. The staff has experience at both big time BCS and FCS programs. Davis looks like a star in the making and Smith should work wonders with the d-line. We’re anxious to see who is hired to be the Defensive Coordinator. Thus far though, the staff is looking pretty good.
We all had a feeling the out-of-conference portion of the men’s hoops team’s year was going to be a tough time. The loss of last year’s three top-scoring seniors (Moore, Goins, Davis), missing arguably their best returning player (suspended G Andre Nation), and having true freshmen playing big minutes, all set up to quickly kill momentum off last year’s NCAA tourney appearance. But despite all that, Brady’s team has managed to right the ship a bit after a really tough start. Yesterday they went down to Wilmington to play their CAA lid-lifter against the Seahawks. Wouldn’t you know it, Charles Cooke continued to show huge development and the Dukes walked out with a win (their 4th of 5 games), a 6-9 record overall, and Andre Nation coming back for Tuesday’s game, the first CAA trip to play the College of Charleston!
THIS guy’s coming back!
Nation seems unlikely to solve the Dukes scoring issues, but he will allow everyone to play their more natural positions. Oh yeah, and if you watched the CAA late last season, you know there isn’t a better perimeter defender in the conference. Ask Delaware’s guards what it’s like? If nothing else, the Dukes will be incredibly active and athletic defensively and should be able to force teams into ugly games (i.e. games they have a chance of winning) the rest of the way. We’re not expecting miracles, but a really competitive team with a puncher’s chance come CAA tourney time isn’t out of the question.
As of this writing, we’ve also been hearing through @FootballScoop , who’s been very accurate this year, that Portland St. O-Line Coach Brad Davis will be the new Offensive Coordinator (or co-OC with Drew Mehringer who came over with Withers from OSU but we’re having trouble figuring out the titles and dotted lines for now) under Coach Withers. One thing’s for sure, Coach E seems to be hiring young and hopefully hungry, which is exciting, and if the Davis hire pans out, he’s also thinking way, way outside the old mid-Atlantic comfort zone.
According to reports, Georgia Tech quarterback Vad Lee is leaving the Yellow Jacket program and transferring. Lee is expected to seek out an opportunity to play for an FCS program so that he does not have to sit out a year. Reports indicate that he is interested both Richmond and JMU. He has 2 years of eligibility remaining.
Lee played his high school football in Durham, NC. He was a much sought after recruit due to his athleticism and ability to both run and throw effectively. On paper, he sounds like the perfect JMU QB (under Mickey Matthews that is). According to the hype, he had the most passing ability of any QB that Paul Johnson had ever coached at Georgia Tech. However, he struggled as a starter this year and completed less than 50% of his passes on his way to 11 TDs and 10 picks. Of course in Johnson’s triple option attack, no QB is going to amass tons of yardage or TDs throwing the ball. And speaking of the triple option, according to ESPN’s Joe Schad, Lee said “The triple option was never really my thing.” Fair enough. Let’s assume he came to that realization after deciding to attend Georgia Tech and learning the system. Because if being an option QB never appealed to him, then Georgia Tech would be a really odd choice.
Michael Birdsong is coming off a record setting year for the Dukes. Personally speaking, I think he’s earned the starting role and I’d love to see him continue as QB 1 under Coach Withers and whomever signs on as offensive coordinator. With all due respect to Dan Schiele, getting some additional depth at the QB position would not be a bad thing. And if bringing in a transfer added just an extra bit of motivation for the Ginger Giant, that wouldn’t hurt either. Or maybe Lee could become the umpteenth JMU player to come to the school as a QB and make an impact at some other position. We’ll see how this thing plays out.
h/t to Michael Evangelista (@Michael_2Clutch) for bringing this to our attention
The Dukes won for the third time in their last four games last night, defeating Ball State 73-68 in the Convo. The win gets JMU to 5-9 on the season. Ball State dropped to 2-8. Brady and the moves now will open CAA play with a game at UNCW this Saturday. The game at UNCW will also be the last game of Andre Nation’s suspension.
Charles Cooke had another monster game for JMU. He led the Dukes with 20 points to go along with 3 boards, 4 assists, a block, and 6 steals. Ron Curry also had an outstanding all around game, dropping 17 to go along with 6 rebounds and 6 assists. And the senior statesman of the bunch, Mr. Andrey Semenov, chipped in 16 points. Here are three quick thoughts on the win.
Offense, Powered by Defense
Obviously, getting a combined 53 points from Cooke, Curry, and Semenov was critical. This win came as a result of the Dukes’ defense however. Playing a zone for much of the night, JMU pressured Ball State to force 19 turnovers. In the first half, JMU limited its opponent to only 34.8% shooting from the field. They did it by extending the zone and pressuring the ball handlers before they could really initiate the offense. It made for some very ugly and scrappy stretches for Ball State. And for easy transition buckets for the Dukes.
Like Having Five Semenovs
So we mentioned the defense. Well, it didn’t come easy. In fact, it came as a result of all five Dukes on the court mixing it up, using their bodies, getting up in opponents’ faces, and diving for loose balls. JMU was getting after it. It was essentially the sort of effort we’ve seen from Andrey Semenov throughout his career. The type of effort and intensity that makes you beam with pride when it’s coming from your team. Not coincidentally, it’s also the sort effort that makes you stomp your feet and cry foul when it’s coming from your opponent. We’ve always loved Semenov’s game and his competitiveness. And it’s nice to see that the entire roster seems to share his willingness to get their hands dirty when games get tight.
One More Game
Saturday’s game at UNCW will be the final game of Andre Nation’s suspension. Things haven’t been easy without him. We know this. Attempting to replace Rayshawn Goins, Devon Moore, A.J. Davis, and the rest of last year’s graduates was never going to be easy. Doing it while playing without Nation made it even more challenging. But if we’re trying to find the silver lining, his absence has given other players a chance to step up. And many of them have, in particular Charles Cooke and Ron Curry, who have shown All CAA type potential at times.
Having won 3 of its last 4, JMU is carrying a little bit of momentum into the CAA opener. With only 5 wins on the season, the Dukes definitely aren’t where they’d like to be. They’ve improved throughout the season and the effort is there though. If Coach Brady and the Dukes can smoothly integrate Nation into the mix, this team could be dangerous. As the youngest team in the CAA (and second youngest in the nation), JMU will still face an uphill battle in league play. Play defense like they did last night and shoot the ball a little better, they’ll have a chance to beat any CAA team though. Buckle up. Things are about to get interesting.
We sure did enjoy hearing this on Friday, then warning folks we’re just lobbing unsubstantiated, rumor-based grenades into the already smoldering realignment fire that is JMU these days. And a big thanks to WHSV Harrisonburg’s own @WHSVdstoltzfus for ferreting out this story from a local NJ rag known as MyCentralJersey.com long before it got picked up by a few Virginia papers this weekend. Pretty sure the kid thought, “ahh, it’s just the local paper, no one will read this” if he thought at all before giving his interview.
Anyways, in the story found here new JMU QB commit Rob Nittolo says “[JMU]’s really up and coming and they’re moving to Conference USA soon.”
This is becoming impossible.
There are just so many levels on which to enjoy this little nugget. First, the one thing that’s safe to assume is that we know what’s being sold on the recruiting trail. Of course, you’ll find more truth at a White House press briefing than you will from a recruiter so it SHOULD go without saying that this third-hand information is utterly and completely unreliable.
Plus, there’s the fact that our young, and hopefully future stud, QB, went on to say “I just really love the coaches and the whole staff…the new coaches I really like…” Although it’s nice to know new Coach Everett Withers is already doing double duty for the Dukes in addition to finishing his time with tOSU in the Orange Bowl, it’s also amusing to read about “the whole staff” since at this time that includes exactly no one.
So we’ve established this little story means exactly zilch in reality, that the CUSA word may even have been sold by a soon-to-be former coach on his way out the door with nothing to lose, and that our new recruit either wasn’t coached well in what to go public with or still believes in Santa. But even while we laugh at the story, it’s nice to hear JMU referred to by a recruit as “up and coming.” We couldn’t agree more. Also, we can all hope where there’s smoke, there’s fire! Time will tell.
Merry Christmas to you and yours everyone. We hope you’re happy, healthy, and able to spend some time with family and friends.
If you’ve been following our schoolboy-giddy Tweets at all the last few days, you’ll know that we are thrilled with JMU’s hiring of Ohio St. Co-Defensive Coordinator/Safeties Coach Everett Withers as the sixth head coach in Dukes history. Yes, there are always nits that can be picked if you work hard enough (including the awkward 24 hour signing/courtship that ended in the media black hole of Friday evening, the fact Withers may very well have been fired by OSU along with the rest of the Buckeyes defensive staff after Tahj Boyd shreds them one more time in the Orange Bowl, and of course the fact he’s an App. St. Mountaineer), but you’ve got to be either really cynical or entirely unrealistic to explain any position that doesn’t involve thinking JMU hit a home run with Coach E. Seriously, James Madison just hired Ohio State’s Co-DC. Just think about that for a second. Ohio St., a school many of us love to take shots at, but one of the absolute big boys of FBS. Also a guy who UNC fans really appreciate for salvaging their season and their dignity in the wake of Butch Davis’ leaving in disgrace. A guy who’s reputation seems to be built on recruiting and having players respect him. A guy with serious NFL experience and a guy who played for Mack Brown during his playing days in Boone.
Most important of all, Everett Withers is NOT a Spotswood Country Club backroom hire. In other words, this didn’t come from the obvious old-school 1-AA thinking that many of us expected from JMU. Look, we were vocally anti-Stinespring because VT fans hate him and he’d been demoted twice, but outside of him, we probably would’ve spun the other known candidates (Barlow, DeFilippo, even lil’ Beamer) positively. Our loose personal connections to DeFilippo certainly would’ve had us excited and none of those coaches would’ve been “awful” hires. But the truth is, as always, we’re just two dumb fans, and despite our interest in college football betting, we have no idea which of these guys would’ve been successful if given the opportunity. We don’t even know for sure that Coach Withers will be any better off than even Stinespring (who is a JMU alum after all so he can’t be all bad). What we do know for sure is that this hire was made differently. THIS hire, at THIS time, was just too important to continue sending the same business-as-usual-monitoring-the-situation message that we’ve all grown so weary of, and this is not that. What we do know for sure is that there was a process and that the process appears to have been handled in such a way that there weren’t a million leaks leading to bad rumors and good candidates jumping ship. We can surmise that the use of Carr Sports Consulting helped cast a wider net and allowed for quietly made calls to coaches outside of the obvious. We know for sure that Coach E has been an FBS, BCS for that matter, head coach before. He was hired and worked for Urban Meyer at Ohio St. Read that one again. Say what you will, but THAT ain’t small time.
We’ll have plenty of time in the coming weeks and months to dive into what the contract details mean about JMU’s future as those details surface, but one thing’s for sure: this hire speaks unbelievably loudly and crystal clearly about JMU’s vision for itself. Bourne and company can do the “this was an FCS hire” dance till their feet hurt, but FCS teams that are content with the status quo don’t hire Ohio St.’s Co-Defensive Coordinator at a rate that blows away what their 15-year-National-Championship-winning coach was just bought out of. And you can bet that any conference with JMU on their radar knows that.
One last thought that we haven’t heard discussed this weekend. For what it’s worth, JMU players and former players seem to be generally pleased. While some of the other candidates may have had stronger ties to Virginia football and recruiting, they also had a few enemies out there because of that. By going outside the Commonwealth’s more obvious candidates, JMU got someone that, for the time being, truly provides a fresh start with very little in the way of preconceived notions. We like that too.
Anyhow, now that we’ve finished the champagne, time to watch Coach E assemble a staff and hit the hustings on the recruiting trail after he finishes up his business in a little game known as the Orange Bowl. Also, only one more game for men’s hoops before Andre Nation returns to the court for the bulk of conference play!
Boom. Everett Withers is officially the 6th head football coach at James Madison University. Fans were forced to sweat it out all day after reports surfaced yesterday that the deal was all but done. Thankfully, JMU didn’t get Mummed again. No press conference has been scheduled, but a conference call with the media will take place tonight. We were not invited to said press conference. I only assume that means they’re giving us the first sit down exclusive with Coach Withers.
Withers of course has been the co-defensive coordinator and assistant coach at Ohio State for the past two seasons. His hiring is effective immediately, but he’ll be remaining with the Buckeyes through the Orange Bowl on January 3.
We’ll be back with our thoughts on the hiring later. For now though, let’s just say that we’re pretty optimistic about this move. If nothing else, it showed that JMU was ready, willing, and able to break out of a small-minded, regional mindset. I’ve heard the grumblings from Buckeye fans about the OSU defense that Withers helped run. Those critiques don’t bother me however, because I make a habit of ignoring Buckeye fans (kidding…sort of). His experience working alongside Urban Meyers could prove to be invaluable and he did some nice work at UNC. Reports indicate that he’s a guy players love to play for and he’s had considerable success recruiting in the Southeast, which he could leverage to open up a new pipeline for the Dukes. All in all, it’s a pretty bold move for Jeff Bourne and JMU. And we’re excited about it.
According to reports by FootballScoop.com, Everett Withers will be the new head coach of the JMU Dukes. Withers has been the co-defensive coordinator and assistant head coach to Urban Meyers at Ohio State for the past two years. Prior to joining the Buckeye staff, Withers was the interim head coach for North Carolina in the wake of Butch Davis’ dismissal. He also spent time as the defensive coordinator for the Tarheels and was on the coaching staff for the University of Minnesota, Tennessee Titans, and University of Texas. There has been no confirmation from Withers, any of his people, JMU, or Ohio State at this time.
Reports indicate that Weathers and JMU are currently finalizing contract negotiations and we can all expect a press conference and official announcement tomorrow. We’ll be back with plenty of thoughts on the potential hiring once the ink is dry. Provided JMU doesn’t get Mummed again of course.
Mickey Matthews had the above ad run in the DNR this morning. In it thanks the JMU and Harrisonburg communities for all of their support over the past 15 years. It’s a classy move by JMU’s all time winningest football coach and his family.
It’s not unusual to see millionaire athletes do something like this after they trade or retire. The fact that Mickey did it in his situation, while not unprecedented, just seems a little bit different and speaks volumes about the man. Just a classy move all around. Well done Coach. And thank you for all you did for us fans.
