Last week Jason Adkins predicted JMU would beat CCSU 38-14 and they did. As a result he won the right to be our guest blogger this week. Here’s his story about how JMU became such an important part of his life. Take it away Jason.
What was life like before JMU?
On Sunday morning, after a wonderful Saturday with the family at Bridgeforth, I realized I had won the JMU Sports Blog prediction contest, my mind was filled with “what will I write about?” FBS football? Conference Realignment? Do I look fat in this JMU UnderArmor shirt? After pondering the question for a while, it hit me. There are a million different JMU topics and thoughts that run through my head daily. My life has become so intertwined with JMU I can’t fathom or remember what it was like before JMU. read more…
It’s prediction time everyone. This weekend the Dukes head to Ohio to play Akron. It’s their one FBS (sorta) game of the season. Both teams got the 2013 season started with a win against an overmatched opponent last week. (JMU won, Akron got crushed. My bad for the mistake.) This game should be a tougher test for each.
Here’s how it works, enter a comment with your prediction for who will win and what the final score will be. The person who comes closest (winner & score) gets to write a guest post next week. Last week we had someone get the score exactly correct and we’ll be publishing his guest post tomorrow. Can we keep the perfect prediction streak going? Can the Dukes keep their perfect season going?
Photo courtesy of the awesome epicsnapshots.com
In case you missed it, here is the video from the MRDs pre-game performance of Start Wearing Purple. As we previously stated, the band sounded great. The crowd participation element has a ways to go though. But as we saw with the Pep Band during hoops season, it will happen. And it would be great if it could happen quickly, because Kansas State is trying to steal it.
That’s right. Kansas State is also jumping on the SWP bandwagon. Boo! I came across a KSU video using the song on Youtube while embedding the above version. This is JMU’s thing people. You’d think Kansas State would know not to mess with FCS schools after last week, but apparently not. So learn the words, sing along, and spread the word. This is a great tradition in the making.
JMU got the 2013 season started with a 38-14 win over Central Connecticut State last night. It’s tough to learn that much from these early season match-ups with teams from weaker conferences. The important thing is obviously that JMU got the win. Well, that and the fact that the game was proof positive that football is finally back. Now there is one game in the books and a 1 in the W column. Overall, we saw some things we liked. We also saw a few things that the Dukes probably need to work on.
Here we go folks. The season kicks-off in a few hours. Here’s an open thread for anyone not lucky enough to be in the ‘burg to comment before, during, and after the game. Hopefully we’ll see a bunch of you at the game. If not, enjoy it on Madizone. Go Dukes!
GAMETIME BABY! Seriously, just take a moment, step outside your place of residence, and scream your damned lungs out. Our long national nightmare is over and it’s JMU football season again. Needless to say, not only are we excited for the season, filled with nervous anticipation about the results, and really looking forward to tomorrow’s drive down, tailgate, and bookstore raid, but we also love this time here at JMUSB because over the last four years, some of our favorite posts are doing the game previews. We’ve got some special treats being arranged for later in the season, but we should all catch our breath and remember this is Central. Connecticut. State. University. We’re still unsure how there’s a need for a directional school in a state roughly the size of Rockingham County, but we digress. While Mickey may love some gimmes, the Dukes have a quite the snoozalicious home September setup. Just hope they’re ready when they make that trip to the world’s armpit, also known as Newark, Delaware come the end of the month!
The Basics
14-9. That’s a scary scoreline because it’s the teensy, weensy, crummy margin the Dukes beat CCSU by a couple years ago in the season opener and it should serve as a sobering reminder to those of your predicting a JMU romp this weekend. Nevermind that JMU had 28 turnovers, the CCSU touchdown was scored on the last play of regulation, or that this years’ BlueDevils team likely doesn’t have a 34-year old seemingly indestructible fire-hydrant looking guy playing QB and generally being tough to bring down, the Dukes better not get ahead of themselves, especially while breaking in a new offensive system.
On that system, it’s interesting, though in no way surprising to note that new OC Mike O’Cain has said a couple times this week that although the Dukes want to run their O at a faster tempo and up their number of plays per game to an unfathomable 80, he still said they want to run more than throw. Some things may never change, but we’re cool with it if it means less standing around in the pistol looking at the sidelines and still barely getting the play off.
On offense, the CCSU mainly will look to run the ball with preseason all-NEC selection RB Rob Holloman. Likely to see at least two QB’s in this game and they’re not all that good. Defense was bad last year. Really bad. Like 38+ points per game bad. But hey, they only lost two kids so they’re experienced. Sounds like a JMU Men’s hoops preview during the Dean Keener era. If the Dukes can’t handle they bidness in this one…well, let’s not think about that just yet.
What We’re Most Looking Forward To
The new offense. Winning. How the secondary is holding up though we may not learn much this week. Winning. The enthusiasm for the season that comes with winning. Watching Robertson, a healthy Till, and hopefully a healthy Tyler Snow start wrecking havoc at all three levels of the defense! Dae’Quan Scott in the slot. Streamers! Winning. The freshmen wideouts. Please, please, please let us see a healthy Cam Starke. Winning. TAILGATING! (We’ll be starting up in D2 this week but will only have the JMUSB banner flying for a little while this week – hoping to catch up with Coach Lucas – and then rolling through Godwin to see Dukie95 with a sidetrip to the bookstore and finishing up in PLot – or at the moon bounce, have to see how Rob’s youngest is doing).
START WEARING PURPLE!
We’re looking forward to this so much that it gets it’s own section. Along with a few of the hardcores from the message boards, we’ve been advocating this for years now. Chad Reep and the pep band’s rendition has grown and grown this grassroots tradition from it’s little start in the WNIT run for Kenny Brooks’ team a couple years back to it’s pregame Indiana in Dayton glory during the big dance last year (so thankful I was there for that!). And now word is the full 450+ (thanks Zac) member MRD’s will be busting this insane, nonsensical, nobody-over-40-has-ever heard-of-it, wonderful, amazing song out in what has to be the world’s largest-ever rendition of a Gogol Bordello song. Get in the stadium early enough not to miss this!
Beer of the Week
It’s back and better than ever! We’ve been busy tasting all offseason to bring you more consistently thoughtful selections all season long. Unless of course things start going wrong again this season and we start wandering Hanson Field looking for those wonderful southern gentlemen from Massanutten that so generously served us some of their very own white lightnin’ before and after the ODU game last year, but let’s hope it doesn’t come to this again. The misery that is, we’ll gladly sample the good stuff again! But this game is taking place in August, and it’s going to be muggy and generally still summer this week, plus we’re staunchly anti-Pumpkinites. So an are-you-kidding-me summer beer to start the season. In this case the collaboration between Stone and Rip Current known as R&R Coconut IPA. Hold on, I know what you’re thinking. Coconut sounds ridiculous, but after tasting this smooth and incredibly easy-drinking 7.7%er, you’ll actually be thinking “I wish their was a little more cocunut.” OK, maybe that’s just me, but the rest of you will be thinking, “Wow, that’s a fineassed IPA that doesn’t scream fruity coconut after all!”
Official JMUSB Prediction
Don’t take the Devils lightly, but despite all the caveats, this JMU team is reported to be more on the same page in camp than any in recent years. Time to live up to our considerable talent.
Dukes 31, CCSU 9
Gameday is almost here and we’ve managed to avoid revealing anything at all about our expectations for the 2013 JMU football Dukes. I guess we can’t put it off any longer. This will come as no shock, but we’ve managed to convince ourselves that the Dukes can and will contend for the CAA title. And how did we come to that conclusion you might ask. Was it through careful analysis of the JMU roster and the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition? Was it after poring over mountains of statistics? After conversing with FCS experts from across the country? No. It was none of those things. We’re just homers.
That’s right. While demanding logic and reasoning to support the arguments of others, we’re absolutely no better than one of those mouth breathing, face painting, overly enthusiastic super fans, who insists his team is championship bound no matter what. At least we own it. With that being said, here are the top 3 reasons why we think this could be a big year for the Dukes. And in an attempt to remove our purple colored glasses, we’ll offer a caveat or counter-argument for each. read more…
We’re going to run the prediction contests back again this year. For those of you who are new or simply forgot how it works, here goes. A few days prior to each JMU game, we’ll publish a prediction contest post. To enter, simply leave a comment indicating who will win and what the final score will be. The person who is closest to predicting the winner and score wins. And your prize is the right to write a guest post on anything your heart desires the following week. Pretty simple, right?
For the sake of clarity, we’re defining closest as lowest total point differential for whomever predicted the correct winner. If there’s a tie we’ll flip or coin or something. Just trust us. The prize is a guest post, not a million bucks.
Anyway, JMU welcomes Central Connecticut State to town for the 2013 season opener. The Dukes are anxious to start the season off right and show off their new and improved offense. Let us know who wins and the what the final score will be in the comments. And bring your A-game if you win the right to guest post. We may or may not be using this contest to scout talent and find a new blogger to join us full time.
First things first, let’s drop the “SEC of the FCS” talk when discussing CAA Football this year. It’s just not true any more. That’s not to say the CAA isn’t a damn fine football conference. It is. As Todd mentioned in his national notes though, the balance of power in the FCS appears to have shifted to the west. The CAA only put 3 teams in the playoffs last year. Three teams that collectively won one game. The league is still arguably the deepest in FCS. Unlike in years past however, it’s no lock that we’ll see multiple teams challenge for a trip to Frisco.
Alright, we got that out of the way. While all of the above is true today, that doesn’t mean we won’t see multiple CAA teams emerge as national championship contenders in the coming months. We might. The top half of the CAA is loaded. Loaded with experience, strong defenses, and some prolific rushing attacks. And in fact, with the league’s prestige taking a slight dip, pretty much every team in the league has a healthy little chip on its shoulder. There are teams that feel they were unjustly left out of the playoffs last year, new teams anxious to prove they belong in the CAA, and teams that know they’ve underperformed the past few years. And every team in the league wants to prove that the CAA is still the best league in the land. read more…
Only five more days till JMU football is back! We’ll be posting a bunch this week. Today we’ll share some news and notes from around FCS nationally and we’ll be drilling down all week by going from the national scene to a CAA preview to a JMU season preview and finally to the game preview for CCSU.
These notes are very general on the national level as even us two FCS nerds can’t claim much expertise outside of the CAA’s [expanding, as-ridiculous-as-any-FBS-option] footprint but hopefully this will get us all primed for the most notable items.
First, the playoffs expand again to 24 teams this year. If you can’t make it this year, firings should be expected. Put simply, once you take away the teams the sizable number of FCS teams that either are ineligible due to moving up, whose conferences don’t participate in the playoffs, or who individually don’t participate because of conflicting participation in moneymaking “classic” games at season’s end, more than a quarter of the remaining teams will make the field. Five from the CAA doesn’t seem farfetched at all this year and with eight byes the first week, winning the conference should all but assure that team a bye as opposed to the last few years when there were only four byes available.
Next, while we all know FCS polls are a bit of a joke to begin with, you’ll need to be extra vigilant to avoid getting worked up over them this year. This is because a large number of voters appear to be still ranking some of the former powers who are transitioning to FBS and therefore ineligible for the playoffs (they’re adding scholarships to get ready for FBS). This includes most notably Georgia Southern and Appalachian St., but in at least one preseason poll also includes ODU. It should be noted that ASU and GSU may remain in the mix all season as, because their announcements came later in the offseason, they’ll be playing a normal FCS schedule against which they may be very successful. ODU has been preparing longer and to their credit has scheduled much tougher for the their transitional year.
As far as the favorites go, there probably hasn’t been a more consensus #1 in a long, long time than this year’s two-time defending champion North Dakota St. Bison. They return a TON of their starters and contributors and are expected to run roughshod over the MVC this time around. After NDSU, the next three are pretty much a consensus group as well with Sam Houston St., Eastern Washington, and Montana St. As you can see, the power in FCS has definitely shifted west at the moment. After the top four, you’ll find a slew of CAA teams scattered throughout the top 20 led by Villanova and Towson.
What could have been one of the all-time classic national FCS games when ASU travels to Montana this week has lost a bit of luster with the Grizzlies beginning three years of probation after shenanigans of every conceivable flavor and ASU on the way out of FCS, but it’s still an awesome event for this level and makes you wonder why more of these games can’t be made.
As always, keep your eyes out for some FCS/FBS upsets over the next few weeks. It won’t carry anywhere near the magnitude of VT, but the Dukes certainly have a shot when they travel to MAC cellar-dweller Akron in Week 2. On the bigger stage, it will also be interesting to see how NDSU does when they travel to Manhattan, Kansas to take on the highly ranked, but Colin Klein-less K St. Wildcats. Somebody better warn them.
Hope that gets you excited and see you tomorrow with a fuller CAA preview.
