The Basics
Matchup: Richmond Ticks (5-5, 4-2 CAA) at #2 JMU Dukes (9-1, 6-0 CAA)
Kickoff: 3:30 p.m., Bridgeforth Stadium, Harrisonburg, VA
Weather: Intervals of clouds and sunshine, High 40. Breezy. You know how the Valley gets at halftime when it’s dark so bring all the handwarmers (and the bourbon)
Broadcast: MadiZone and MASN/SNY (hallelujah!). Dorian Brooks back alongside Curt Dudley.
Boys in the Desert: JMU -24 O/U 53, ML -2750 (YIKES!)
A Note About RU
We’ve been touting this all week, but it says everything you will ever need to know about the snobbiest school in the ODAC. Bruce Allen is a Richmond alum. That’s it. Nothing has ever spoken more plainly and more descriptively of everything it means to be a Spatter than that. It’s so perfectly on-brand for the Spatters that we can mail this section in. #FireBruceAllen #SellTheTeam
How the Spatters Can Win
They can’t. They’ll try to use their dynamic QB and a few wrinkles to put up points, and they might succeed for a quarter or so. And we’d be remiss if we didn’t acknowledge that this is probably the best defensive line the Dukes have seen since Morgantown – and it’s theoretically possible they can rattle DiNucci enough to produce a few ghosts of turnovers past. But it ain’t gonna happen. A 24 point spread seems high against a team that really should be 5-1 (that Yale game ah) in their last six with wins over Stony Brook and Villanova, but the best two players on the field in this game are going to be Ron’dell Carter and Ben DiNucci, two weapons that are specifically designed to counter RU’s best assets.
How the Dukes Can Win
Wreck the QB on defense and don’t turn the ball over on offense. The Spider QB, Mancuso, is easily their most important player, and he does have weapons at receiver if allowed to work through the system. But the Dukes need to show him something he hasn’t seen at least since their trip to Boston College. Namely, Carter/Daka/Green/Atariwa/Greene.
On offense, the Dukes just need to not panic if they don’t roll on every drive. Eat the ball a few times if needed and let Harry get a little shine if you must, but just don’t give them anything easy and they’ll wear ’em down eventually and roll in the 3rd like always.
JMUSB Beer of the Week
Pale Fire Brewing Rorschach Dark Saison. We don’t sell out often for our best sponsor, but this isn’t selling out. We love this beer, and it’s black as hell for the blackout at Bridgeforth weekend. But not heavy in any way. We can’t even describe this one really except to say it’s very well-balanced and tasty in a “haven’t had this before” kind of way.
Official JMUSB Prediction
Dukes 38, Spatters 16 – It’s RU. We’d love to predict a blowout. And we’d love to see it. But this one could be a little closer than we’d all like for a while. The Ticks are decently coached and have top-end talent that will mask the depth disadvantage for a little while. That said, it’s Senior Day at Bridgeforth for arguably one of the most distinguished classes in JMU history (we see you Mac Patrick, Dmitri Holloway, and Rashad – all of whom were HUGE in the ’16 title run) and remain very bullish on the Dukes this week.
It’s RU Week or Tick Week or Spatter Week. Take your pick. JMU plays the hated Spiders from the Capital of the Commonwealth. Y’all know hot it works. We want your prediction for the game. Leave a comment below letting us know who you think will win and what the final score will be. The person who comes closest to nailing it (winner & score) will get to write a guest post. That’s it. So leave us your prediction below and get ready to root Saturday. Go Dukes! Beat RU!
Steve Brown did it again. For the second time this season, he won the prediction contest. In this piece, he takes us down memory lane to recall some great games versus the Ticks from the past.
This is my second guest blog post of the season and I am thrilled that it’s during Spider (a.k.a. “Spatter”) week. I have many memories in my life formed by football. My days as a football player in my youth were short and they should have been, I lacked talent. Some of my best memories are as a fan and JMU supporter. I got my first taste of football when the Washington Redskins used to be good. My dad took me to my first Dallas v. Washington game on October 22, 1972. I was 9 years old and I remember RFK was literally rocking with fans because the seats were swaying with the jumping and cheering.
My wife and I had our first date at the JMU v. UVA football game on September 17, 1983. She only agreed to go with me because I had a car. JMU beat UVA in 1982 21-17 and we were looking for a second straight win. It didn’t happen despite two punt return touchdowns by Gary Clark. The date with my bride to be was more successful than the Dukes were that day. Thanks to JMU football bringing us together; we have been together for 36 years. Below is the article from The Breeze.
Not only are my wife and I into JMU football, my children are as well. On December 2, 2017, my daughter got married in Richmond. This was a home playoff game, but I was happy to miss this game for such a special day for our family. She did marry a Virginia Cavalier and he’s a fine young man despite his choice of schools. We all got dressed early enough to watch most of the first half of the playoff beat down in the bar. I walked her down the aisle at halftime.
Enough about memory lane and back to talking about the game circled on our calendar all year: Senior day with a chance to win the CAA title against the Spiders. We stand and yell loudly at every game, but we will yell a little louder at this game. We bring a ton of streamers to every game, but we bring more streamers to this game. We yell at the referees every game to call holding against the opponent every game, but we are more obnoxious with our yelling at the refs during the UR game.
I did some research and I can’t find a game where JMU has won the conference title against UR at home or away. You can mark this down in permanent marker: IT WILL HAPPEN ON SATURDAY and it will sweet. As part of Tick week (for those that don’t know, the UR Spider looks like a blood sucking parasite), here are my top 5 JMU wins over UR with some family history sprinkled in:
5. 10/10/87 at JMU—“We Won Our First”—This was JMU’s first win against UR and it was at home 41-3. This started a 5-game winning streak. JMU had lost 4 in a row after beginning this series in 1981 (my first game at City Stadium).
4. 11/13/99 at JMU—“The Family Weekend Event“—We brought our kids to their first UR v. JMU game in ‘99. We moved to Richmond in 1998 from Florida and this game in mid-November 1999 was special. JMU was co-champions with UMass of the A10 Conference that year.
3. 10/1/11 at JMU—“Blackout”—This was the first blackout and UR was riding high with their QB transfer from USC, Aaron Corp. We sacked him 7 times for a loss of 47 yards. It was the first time JMU wore the black jersey and we have never lost in the black jersey.
2. 11/5/16 at UR—“The Catch”—#7 JMU was playing at #6 UR. Both teams were loaded with talent and JMU wanted to keep the winning streak alive while also avenging the loss from 2015 when we hosted ESPN College Game Day. Richmond was 1 game back in the CAA standings at 4-1 and JMU was 5-0. JMU was behind 37-33 at the 6:43 mark in the 4th quarter but took the lead for good when Kloostermann high pointed the ball from Schor for the touchdown with less than 2 minutes to go in the game.
- 10/11/08 at UR—“Scotty, Scotty, Scotty.” Nothing more needs to be said if you are a JMU fan. It felt like we had 10,000 JMU fans at City Stadium for this game. My family had seats on the 30 and this game was a slobber-knocker. JMU was undefeated against the FCS with the only loss being against Duke. JMU was tied with UR with less than a minute to go. Scotty McGee was the best punt returner in the nation. The only thing UR needed to do was kick it away from Scotty with 8 seconds to get to overtime. Scotty ran the punt back 69 yards for the game winning touchdown. It was the #1 play on ESPN that night. Some random JMU man hugged my 16-year-old daughter out of sheer joy when we scored that TD and it didn’t seem creepy or odd. We were all just a purple and gold family going crazy.
JMU found itself at #2 in the initial FCS Playoff rankings when they were released last week. The Dukes opponent for this past Saturday, the New Hampshire Wildcats, landed in tenth. This provided the Dukes with an opportunity to make a statement. Make a statement they did. Despite letting the Wildcats jump out to an early lead, JMU pretty much blew their doors off. If it was a fight, it would have been stopped.
The Dukes put up 537 yards of total offense and limited New Hampshire to under 250. Despite letting the Wildcats get out to an early lead, JMU stormed back, scoring 41 unanswered points. We were fairly confident JMU would win comfortably, but we didn’t see this coming. And we loved it. Here are three quick thoughts on the win that got JMU to 9-1 and clinched at least a share of the CAA title.
Best Quarter of the Year
JMU’s second quarter was a thing of beauty. The first quarter was decidedly not. The Defense was caught sleeping a few times in the opening period, and let New Hampshire take advantage of a few big plays to score twice and keep the game knotted at 10. Then the second quarter happened.
JMU opened Q2 with an 8 play 80 yard drive capped off by a Percy TD. The Dukes followed it up with an 8 play 63 yard drive and a Dylan Stapleton touchdown. Then they took advantage of a short field and Nooch ran one in. Meanwhile, the defense seemingly caught fire after Dimitri Holloway was ejected for targeting. The Dukes D force UNH to punt after a 7 yard “drive.” JMU grabbed an interception on UNH’s second possession of the quarter. It was the most complete quarter JMU has played all year. Shut down D and an offense that frankly made one of the CAA’s top defenses look flat out incompetent.
Nooch Exercised Some Demons
We all remember last season’s game at New Hampshire. The wheels kind of came off for Nooch in that one. He had a couple of turnovers and was benched for Cole Johnson in the Dukes’ loss. This year’s contest was much better. In it, all Nooch did was throw for 293 yards and two touchdowns, run another one in, and show that he has complete command of this offense. The only reason fans aren’t talking more about Nooch’s performance is probably because it’s what everyone has come to expect from the senior. We know certain fans will never forgive Nooch for what happened in the playoffs. And many will completely discount anything that happens until the playoffs this year. That’s their prerogative. But based on his body of work this season, Nooch is mounting quite a case to be the CAA’s Offensive Player of the Year.
The CAA is Drunk
But JMU just keeps winning. The league makes no sense after JMU. None whatsoever. Every time we think a team is starting to separate itself from the pack, an upset happens. Or maybe they’re not upsets. We have no idea. We thought Richmond was dead earlier this season. Now the Spiders come to Bridgeforth tied for second in the league. Nova impressed the hell out of us in week 7. Since then, all Nova did was lose 2 straight before beating…Richmond. Stony Brook took the Dukes to OT, but then lost 3 out of 4. However, they did manage to beat…New Hampshire. Towson was picked by everyone to compete with JMU for the league title, but has looked nothing like a contender. They have rallied to win two straight and can still make the playoffs if they win out. The league is a mess. Teams are beating each other up every week. The one constant is the Dukes.
JMU gets everyone else’s “A game” and thus far, has managed to run the gauntlet unscathed. Outsiders can look at the records and conclude that save JMU, the CAA has nothing but mediocre teams. They’re wrong. There are plenty of good football teams. It’s a talented league and it’s hard to win ball games week in and week out. Yet JMU keeps going just that.
The Basics
Matchup: #10 New Hampshire (5-3, 4-1 CAA) at #2 JMU Dukes (8-1, 5-0 CAA)
Kickoff: 3:30 p.m., Bridgeforth Stadium, Harrisonburg, VA
Weather: Partly Cloudy, High 45. Finally some great football weather. Cold Friday night, cool Saturday night, and it’ll be dark by halftime.
Broadcast: MadiZone and MASN (hallelujah!). And note that legendary JMU alum and former JMUSB podcast guest Steve Buckhantz will be in the booth doing color commentary alongside Curt Dudley this week. Can we make this a thing forever please?!
Boys in the Desert: JMU -17.5, O/U 38.5, ML -1080 (YIKES)
A Few Important, and Funny, Notes About New Hampshire
Get Well Coach – Unless you’ve been under a rock, you know that long-time Head Coach Sean McDonnell had to step away from the program on the eve of the season due to complications from cancer. We wish nothing but the best to Coach and the whole UNH program and community.
Coach Santos – UNH’s Interim HC in Coach Mac’s temporary absence is none other than former QB Ricky Santos. Santos was already the only player in CAA history to have played more seasons than Andrey Semenov, and now he’s back, and he has the ‘Cats right back where they’ve always been. On the cusp of a playoff birth.
DMV Kids – Also like always, the Wildcats have a smattering of players from DMV programs that will know the Dukes well. This year’s group has players from Westfield, St. John’s, Damascus, West Springfield, among others.
Marty Scarano lives! – This is a super deep cut for only the nerdiest of FCS superfans, but those who have followed the FCS, and in particular the inner workings of the Selection Committee that is seemingly always led by the UNH AD, you know that their appearance in the Committee’s first rankings this week should come as no surprise. We kid because we love. Well, not really, but only because we will always kind of hate the football-only CAA poachers.
How the Wildcats Can Win
Play “Perfect plus.” In other words, UNH needs to play nearly their best game. “Plus” they really need to turn the Dukes over just like last year. Their defense has been solid for a long stretch now and dominant at times. But the offense hasn’t shown it’s capable of outscoring a team like JMU all year without things really breaking their way. This begins with penalties, turnovers, and short fields. As we all saw to our horror, this is exactly what happened up in Durham last year when UNH whipped the Dukes ass all over the field. Everyone remembers this is the game when DiNucci turned it over the first two series, got benched, and then Cole promptly turned it over two more times. Force that kind of thing again, and the Wildcats will be all over the seed discussion next week no matter how surprising it was to see them slide into the Committee’s first top 10 this past week.
How the Dukes Can Win
Don’t turn the ball over. That’s it. New Hampshire hasn’t really exploded offensively on anyone. In fact, they flat-out cannot score as they are last in the CAA in total points scored with 161. And it’s not even close; JMU leads the conference with 349, but no one else except UNH is below 211. That’s Hideous. But the Cats play extremely strong on the other side of the ball, matching JMU in almost every major defensive category statistically. And if they can force the Dukes into the kind of shield-your-eyes debacle we saw last year, where JMU simply gives the game away by burying themselves under an avalanche of turnovers, UNH is absolutely capable of winning again.
JMUSB Beer of the Week
Tree House Brewing’s Haze NE IPA. Oddly, for as much as we’ve been IPA guys over the years (and taken a lot of crap from our “OK, Boomer” audience), we’ve been a little put off at times the last couple years as seemingly every brewery has moved away from the piney/hoppy-but-clean West Coast style towards the “dank” and unfiltered/cloudy New England IPA. Done well it can be great, but more often than not, it just tastes exactly how it looks. That is to say cloudy, unfiltered, and generally crappy. But thanks to our tailgate crew, we got to try this young legend from Massachusetts’s Tree House. Complete with a gorgeous purple tall-boy can, this beer has all the citrus notes so many of this style try for while still maintaining that huge hop profile we love.
Official JMUSB Prediction
Dukes 31, UNH 10 – Wildcats simply cannot score. They’ve played inspired football after losing Coach Mac on the eve of the season and stumbling – understandably – out of the gate. Like they always do, they’ve grinded their way to maximizing the talent they have and putting themselves in position for a playoff berth. But if you can’t score, you can’t beat this Dukes team. We are very bullish on the Dukes this week.
Coach Cignetti and the boys come off the bye week to face New Hampshire this Saturday. It’s a bit of a revenge game after the Dukes’ wheels came off the bus against the Wildcats last year. And since the CAA is drunk this year, it’s a much, much bigger game than anyone would have guessed a few weeks ago. But enough about that. We want to know how you think it will play out. Leave a comment below with your prediction for Saturday’s game. The person who comes closest to nailing it (winner & score) will get to write a guest post. It couldn’t be simpler. So give us your predictions below and Go Dukes!
Jay Deck won last week’s prediction contest and earned the right to guest post. Here’s a good one for your Friday morning.
One of the many things that I love about JMU is its fan base. Many other schools would love to trade places with us exactly because of the enthusiasm, spirit and support our fans show here at Madison. In addition to our outstanding athletics, we also have renowned academic programs and a beautiful campus. I believe these are just a few reasons why when students come to JMU after graduation they don’t want to leave the area.
Tailgating at football games are a blast. We started out with just four of us and have rapidly grown to approx. 20. This is not including those who stop by to visit before heading to other tailgates, or the JMU Staff who drop by simply to make sure everyone is having a great time. I love planning the menu with my wife for our tailgates and are very grateful for friends and family who tailgate with us. I love going around to other tailgates to see friends having fun and especially love seeing nothing but purple and gold. You can just feel the excitement in the air when the buses arrive with the team. The Dog walk has become a great addition to the Saturday game tradition. Oh and you can’t mention JMU football without the Marching Royal Dukes. It is great to see the MRD’s and team come together to celebrate both before and after a game.
Then there are the many functions we put on our calendars a year in advance, the Cappello concert at the Forbes Center, the Beer and Wine event inside Bridgeforth Stadium on family weekend, and what would family weekend be without the Dinner on the Diamond. It is great to spend time with the softball team and supporting them. Then we move onto Basketball and the Pep Band.
Going to the many games and supporting the many teams at Madison is something we enjoy by living in the Burg. I guess what I am trying to say is that you can have fun anywhere on campus and with anyone of our teams. Lots of other schools may have their little clicks but not here at JMU, no matter where you go you feel welcome. That’s the beauty of Madison we are all family. I also encourage folks to come out to the performing arts or simply just take a walk and enjoy all that JMU campus has to offer.
I want to give a big shout out to JMU Sports Blog and JMU Nation! These groups give the fans a great sense of family and I love the fact that I can talk to people from all other the US about the teams and school we all love. I also want to recognize the Duke Club and their staff. These folks work hard putting on events both to help not only support our athletes but also to bring the fans and athletes together. The Spirit of Madison is something we can all be proud of! JMU is an amazing University and the last thing I want to say is GO DUKES!
The weather stayed dry and the Dukes kind of ground out a win over a game Towson squad 27-10 at Homecoming over the weekend. Here are our thoughts from the win that took JMU to a much-needed bye week and a strong 8-1 record with only three games to go.
The Good
The Defense – shhhh, don’t say it out loud just yet, but the Dukes Defense is starting to click in Coach Hetherman’s scheme. They gave up a few plays here and there. And Flacco did Flacco things that are really hard to account for and not something you see from other QB’s. But the pressure is really getting home consistently and the big plays are starting to come every week. All while still stopping the run. Five different players had tackles for loss. The Tigers had a mere 60 yards rushing and only 29 yards total in the third quarter. If this defense turns teams over, look out! 10 points ain’t gonna beat this edition of the Dukes.
Running Game – Percy went over 100 and the Dukes went for almost 250 on the ground. Even with some big defensive plays in the second quarter and the Polk highlight, it was really great to see JMU and the big boys up front get back to road-grading as it helped squeeze the life out of this game. 27-10 isn’t a complete blowout, but it never felt like a game in the second half.
P5 Speed – What can we say about Brandon Polk?! One thing is for sure, the speed and talent that got him to Penn St. sure plays well in the CAA. But it’s more than just the flash, Polk has become a reliable pass catcher and an impeccable route runner and the connection he and DiNucci have developed is poised to be one of the most explosive things in the country down the stretch. Especially with the Stapleton brothers out-muscling kids on the other side for everything else.
The Bad
The crowd exodus – whooo boy that Homecoming crowd was there to party, not root this week. P-Lot was still packed at kickoff and a whole lot of folks – not just students – rolled after the Dukes seemingly seized control by the half. We try not to complain about this, and we never weigh in on students, but it was very noticeable, especially considering the weather stayed decent all day.
The Ugly
Replay Angles – That long pass down the sidelines that Towson “completed,” and then had “stand” upon further review happened right in front of us. More notably, it happened right in front of Coach Cignetti, who for the first time we can recall this year, gave the refs the full Mickey! The kid dove, caught the ball, and very clearly landed out of bounds. But as we’ve seen over and over at Bridgeforth, for some reason that spot on the field – the JMU sideline from the 5 to about the 20 in the wraparound corner of the stadium, seems to never yield a camera angle that allows for anything to be overturned. As much as we may want to, we can’t really blame the refs if there really isn’t evidence to overturn something like that.
The Basics
Matchup: #16 Towson (4-3, 1-2 CAA) at #2 JMU Dukes (7-1, 4-0 CAA)
Kickoff: 3:30 p.m., Bridgeforth Stadium, Harrisonburg, VA
Weather: Cloudy, High 63, but should be dry. 30% chance of showers in the morning but really looking like a shot at getting this played in decent conditions
Broadcast: MadiZone and MASN2 (hallelujah!); and yes, that’s MASN2, not MASN as you may have heard earlier because of Nats World Series Coverage (Let’s Go Nats! Sorry Rob)
Boys in the Desert: JMU -16.5, O/U 58.5, ML -975
A Bit About Towson State
Towson University used to be Towson State University. And they’re even more sensitive about being called “Towson St.” than Elon is about being the Fightin’ Christians. They are still quarterbacked by Tom Flacco. As opposed to his older brother, he is considered “elite,” at least by CAA standards. Their second best player, Shane Simpson, an all-around badass RB/WR/KR is out for the season, but WR Shane Leatherbury is still around to threaten defenses catching balls from Flacco. He caught five TD’s last week over Bucknell. He and Rashad Robinson will have a great opportunity to put something on film for NFL scouts as they matchup in what should be a classic.
How the Tigers Can Win
Turn the Dukes Over. Same as we said for the Tribe last week. Towson will score in this game. But if the Dukes don’t put the ball on the ground, JMU will score too against a defense that has – even charitably – been suspect against decent teams. And the Dukes are better than decent when they aren’t turning the ball over (see every game except WVU and Stony Brook).
But big plays, on specials or in the turnover department, combined with anything that gives Flacco a short field, would go a long way towards Towson having a chance here.
How the Dukes Can Win
Grind and focus. Whatever they found on D in the fourth quarter of the Villanova game two weeks ago sure carried over against William & Mary’s No-Go offense last week, and they’ve got to just continue that effort against a more explosive, more talented Tigers team. This is JMU’s ninth straight game and the bye will be very welcome next week, but the fellas need to grind out this last one to fully enjoy the healing powers of some downtime.
The Dukes are stronger, faster, and just plain better at most spots on the field. Towson was high-flying last year before the Dukes mostly made them look like the average team they ended up being in the playoffs. Flacco will get his, but if the Dukes can avoid turning the ball over, JMU should score at will and control this thing.
JMUSB Beer of the Week
Pale Fire Arrant IPA. It’s Homecoming. We couldn’t pull off a live show this year, but go out downtown and visit our friends. And while you’re there, throw back a couple of these bad boys.
Official JMUSB Prediction
Dukes 42, Towson 17
It’s Homecoming week and the Dukes are all set to face Towson in a game many thought might decide the CAA title back in August. That’s no longer the case, but this is still a huge game. And we’d like to know how you think it will play out. Leave a comment below giving us your prediction for Saturday. The person who comes closest to nailing it (winner & score) will get to write a guest post. That’s it.
Go Dukes!
