Holy hell, this weekend turned out to be blogging gold here at JMUSB HQ! So as not to bury the lead, the Dukes destroyed UMass Saturday, a slew of other games broke their way, and they made the FCS Playoffs as an at-large team. But then we found out they were somehow (Jeff Bourne) out bid by Eastern Kentucky for the right to host the playoff opener despite enormous attendance this year in BFS and, you know, that 68 million dollar upgrade paid for by VA taxpayers and current student fees. And that’s not even touching on the fact soccer is heading to the Sweet 16 and Women’s hoops took fellow mid-major power Middle Tennessee St. out behind the woodshed!
First things first, Saturday was unreal! We finally found a true home for HQ over at CoachPriz’s, complete with kegerator, where we hooked up the hdmi cable and fired up UNI/Ill. St. at noon before flipping to watch the Dukes pound the Minutemen and then going back in the second half when Northern Iowa and Florida came back as needed against Illinois St. and Furman respectively. When Chattanooga went up big on Wofford, and some other directional Illinois school started pounding Indiana St. we started celebrating as only three middle-aged, unshowered men can. As it turned out, Wofford actually came back to save their season, but aha, so did Missouri St.! The Bears (I think) somehow managed to shake off their 2-8 attitude and storm back to knock off Youngstown St., thus setting off furious discussion of our plans for next week’s trip to the ‘Burg for a game against Albany or Norfolk St. Whoops.
So after that magnificent Saturday, we awoke Sunday suddenly nervous before the Selection Show. Crazy talk from the toll-booth state and of course the always ridiculous Sports Network poll keeping the Blue Hens above the Dukes in the final poll combined with lots of Illinois St. talk had us on edge. When they announced the first half of the bracket, no JMU, but no real surprises either, so still hopeful. Then the moment comes, “Eastern Kentucky/James Madison” flashes on the screen. Woot woot! We got in! Here we go. Tweet it quick. Noon ESPNU EKU in the Burg next week. See other angry tweets, many other angry tweets. What in the living f*ck is going on. What do they mean it’s AT Eastern Kentucky?! Seriously, at Eastern Kentucky?! And then the bashing commenced.
I can only say that we’ve hashed this out over and over today. There are a million ways to look at it, but in the end there is just no defending the administration, in particular AD Jeff Bourne, for getting outbid for a home game by Eastern Kentucky, from Richmond, Kentucky, stadium capacity 20,000, 2011 average attendance just over 7200 (with a whole 3300 in the house for Saturday’s game). For anyone that doesn’t know by now, the FCS playoffs determines home sites for games between two unseeded teams by sealed bidding on revenue guarantees for the NCAA. Both Rob and I are hugely opposed to this racket, but what else do you expect from the NCAA, possibly the country’s biggest scam. To his credit, and whoever in the administration had the brains to point out this was necessary, Bourne issued a statement on jmusports.com that contained an explanation and an apology. We disagree with his 12,000 attendance projection for this week, but it’s Thanksgiving weekend and even if we drew 18k, I understand that issue isn’t good and no one likes the prospect of losing money on this NCAA goat rodeo. But for all those members of JMU Nation who have stepped up their commitments to JMU Football and Athletics with the building of New BFS and showed up all five weeks this year to make the seemingly unthinkable 25k Strong campaign a reality and turned JMU into the school with the third-highest attendance in the nation this season, this feels like nothing short of a kick in the kneecap (a slap in the face just doesn’t do it justice). Spending 68 mil on the stadium was an investment. An investment in the continued building of momentum for JMU football, an investment in the Harrisonburg community, and an investment in the supposed commitment to making JMU the finest FCS program in the country. If a bid required a slightly risky financial proposition, it should have been a foregone conclusion that the risk was simply doubling down on that investment. They had Aces and refused to split them apparently because those in charge didn’t know that was allowed.
Ok, time to move on. And the good news is, the bracket could not have set up better for the Dukes. The Colonels are a weak team from a weak conference (OVC) and if you told me Saturday morning the Dukes would be a) in the playoffs and b) playing EKU, I would’ve gone Michael Flatley on you faster than you can say Riverdance. North Dakota St. is damn good, but whatever seed we drew in the second would’ve been tough and I love the prospect of JMU’s speed in the dome. After that it would be the winner of Lehigh/Towson, and even if rumors on campus of low, or god forbid, no bids, having been submitted for hosting quarter or semi-final games are true, even a trip to Pennsylvania or Baltimore would turn either of those stadiums into virtual home games for the Dukes (anyone remember Williamsburg in ‘o4 or Richmond every year?)!
In other incredible news, Soccer took out Wake Forest 2-0 in the big dance and advanced to the Sweet 16 at UConn next Sunday!
Tons more to come this week and can’t wait to see a HUGE crowd for brunch at Bailey’s next Saturday!
And of course, one last reminder. The only team to win the 1-AA National Championship with a path consisting entirely of road games: the 2004 JMU Dukes!
We’ll probably know by around 5 p.m. Saturday if the Dukes season is over or they “advance” into the playoffs, we’ll definitely know by 10:30 a.m. Sunday (FCS Playoff selection show is on ESPNU Sunday morning at 10). But the most certain thing about this weekend is that it’s JMU’s last game against UMass as a conference foe. The Minutemen are headed to the FBS next year via the MAC (can you say Wednesday nights in Kalamazoo?!) and have had a bit of a strange season as a result.
First Things First: UMass
Nothing else matters if the Dukes can’t beat the Minutemen. And don’t let the 5-5 record fool you, UMass is tough. With no postseason or CAA title to play for, it’s been an odd season, but there’s plenty of talent on the roster. And one thing’s for sure, all-everything RB Jonathan Hernandez remains a handful. Yes, that’s the same Hernandez who seems like he’s been in the CAA kes will need to show up on D. Oh yeah, the game’s at 1:00 in New England, somebody should remind the D to wake the hell up as opposed to the sleepwalking first quarter they threw up in New Hampshire a couple of weeks ago. They also have WR Julian Talley, who just passed Victor Cruz (yes, that Victor Cruz), on their receiving list, plus he gets back his starting QB Kellen Pagel from injury this week. And of course All-American LB Tyler Holmes will be wrecking shop on D for the Minutemen as usual and the Dukes may have to, gasp, throw the ball a bit.
As for motivation, UMass is a bit of a mystery. It’s senior day for a great group and they may see this as their bowl game with no postseason to look forward to, but they’ve been up and down this year, at times beating up on conference heavies and at times seemingly throwing in the towel agains the bottom-feeders recently. It’s also their last game at McGuirk stadium as they’ll be playing down the road in Gillette Stadium next year.
What the Dukes Need to Do
We need echoes of the HC performance against the Ticks
Play with the intensity and focus necessary under the circumstances, yet not look to their coach for an example of how stressed to be. The Dukes are in the position of needing a win plus help for many reasons but one of them is the lack of understanding on how big the moment is. All the other games and all the lobbying for position and all the talk of playoff games at New BFS mean nothing without this win. Show up!
JMUSB Beer of the Week
Session Fest. Just like the UR game, we’re bring back another Session Lager from Full Sail in hopes those vibes return. Full Sail is making a Session holiday beer called Fest this year and it’s a tasty red lager with great head (twss).
Soccer and Hoops interlude
Soccer is seeded 14th overall in the NCAA tourney and has a first round bye. They host the winner of Friday’s Wake Forest/South Carolina game at home Sunday afternoon. You know how bad the Skins game will be, so tune into MadiZone and catch a winning team! Hoops will get their first big road test at LaSalle at 3 p.m. Saturday. Let’s hope it’s just a celebration continued and not a turning of our attention for the long winter.
The Scenarios
Again, none of this matters if the Dukes don’t win. But in the interest of adding further stress to your Saturday, here are the games you need to keep an eye on.
Northern Iowa @ Illinois St. (Noon ESPN3) – UNI is a solid favorite even on the road but JMU has to have this one go their way to keep Ill. St. out.
Furman @ Florida – Just need the Gators to make themselves bowl eligible to knock out Furman.
Wofford @ Chattanooga (2 p.m.) – Nearly an identical setup to our game with Wofford in the same spot as JMU and Chatty as a dangerous 5-5 team. This is probably JMU’s best hope for a necessary upset. Go Mocs! (that’s Chatty).
Missouri St. @ Youngstown St. (1 p.m.) – YSU’s upset of North Dakota St. last week made JMU’s road a lot tougher, but an unlikely upset of the stupid Penguins by Mizz. St. would more than make up for it and knock out YSU.
Southern Illinois @ Indiana St. (2:05 p.m.) – Indiana St. a big favorite here too, but an upset would be great for JMU.
Liberty @ Stony Brook (3:30 p.m.) – Would be nice to have Liberty win this game, which would in turn give JMU their only win of the season over playoff team. Resume’s thin already for the Dukes, but this would help a bit.
Dukes need UNI and Florida to do what they’re supposed to and one of the trio of YSU/Ind. St./Wofford to lose. If those things happen, we’ll have high hopes for Sunday morning!
Keep the Faith! Go Dukes!
Prediction
Dukes 35, UMass 13. Statement.
Reader Jason Kennedy, JMU Class of ’98, won our prediction contest last week and earned the right to post about anything he’d like. Take it away Jason.
Since no segue is even appropriate, I guess I will just jump right into my guest blog. To be completely honest, the reason I won the prediction contest this week was because I pulled a “Price is Right” moment early Saturday afternoon. I was the 4th bettor who got to see all the other bids and was able to tell Bob Barker, “$1001” when the next highest bid was $1000 and the gold watch on display had a retail value of $1699. I believe there were something like 11 guesses before I read Todd and Rob’s prediction post and instead of picking a score (for JMU) that I actually believed in, I ended up going with something that was in my mind an outrageous score thinking that it was the only way I was going to win because nobody else had anything close. Yeah, I know kind of lame. But I did win the gold watch on my way to play Plinko on stage.
The telling part of that decision making process is that I really didn’t have faith in Dukes’ offense to put that many points on the board or the defense to hold them to that few points. (The 13 points were essentially garbage time in the 4th Q so it was practically a shutout). I really had 23-20 in my mind because that is the type of games we play. I have just become accustomed to this style and that kind of result. The point to this is that when the selection committee huddles up on Sunday they are going to validate what we all know – we just didn’t pull out one of those tough, closely fought games against the teams ahead of us in our conference – and pass us by for some weak 9-2 team from another lesser conference. Of course it’s not fair that the CAA is the SEC of FCS and JMU has to play tough teams EVERY single week of the conference schedule. The committee doesn’t want to put 5 teams from 1 conference in a field of 20 even though I believe that even at 7-4 (knock on wood) JMU is far superior to some of the other teams in weak conferences with better records. Really, I didn’t just jinx the Dukes. Did I?
The Dukes have no one to blame but themselves because there were 3 opportunities to get to get to at least 8-3 in our losses to 3 of the 4 teams ahead of us in the standings. I don’t really plan on pointing fingers because I only have 10…..But seriously even with the bad decisions, bad execution, or just plain bad luck, I still maintain that it comes down to quality of competition and how it is so concentrated in the CAA. If you are still a Top 20 team with a record of 6-4 as the Dukes are, the selection committee has to seriously look at why the votes still keep coming our way. Maybe with the talk of expanding the field to 24 the CAA will be able to get 5 teams. However, in the meantime, specifically in terms of this season JMU Nation has to be content with a decent year (assuming a strong finish against UMass) plagued by quarterback issues, untimely injuries (are they ever timely??) and a coach that continues to drive the hardcore fans nuts. Just without playoffs at the end to look forward to. Come Sunday, if by some miracle the selection committee feels the schizophrenic play-calling of M2, or really-bend-and-almost-break defense is what is needed in the field of 20 then I guess it will be as much as a surprise to me as when I won this guest blog contest. But realistically I just don’t think it’s in the cards. Now if I successfully predict the UMass game do I get to play in the Showcase Showdown??
The Dukes head up to UMass this weekend for the regular season finale. At 6-5, JMU needs to win this one to have any chance of making the playoffs. UMass is looking to win one more CAA game before heading to the MAC next year. Make your prediction in the comments and the person who comes closest to nailing it (winner & score) will get to guest post next week. Go Dukes!
Pronounced with an Umpty.
The 2011-2012 JMU basketball season opened today. Admittedly, it completely snuck up on me and I’m not sure I’m really ready for hoops season. Luckily, JMU was ready and they secured an 82-73 win over Canisius. It marks the first time the Dukes have won their season opener in the Matt Brady era. It’s also the first win post Denzel Bowles, the team’s leading scorer for the past 2 seasons. The Dukes did it without Devon Moore, who’s academically ineligible this semester, and Rayshawn Goins, who’s injured. While Canisius isn’t exactly a powerhouse, all things considered it was a good win.
Everyone has been assuming that Devon would be the leader of this team. With Moore out, Humpty Hitchens stepped up in a big way. He shot the ball well all game and finished with a career high 26 points. He also assumed the leadership role and rallied his teammates together down the stretch with an impromptu pep talk. According to Mark Selig’s tweet, it went something like this, “We’re going to the cup every time. F*ck the jumper! We’re going to the cup every time!” Two things stand out about that quote. First, I’m pretty sure Humpty stole it from John Wooden. Second, it’s actually the exact same thing I said whenever Julius Wells got the ball last season. Good for Humpty for being vocal with his teammates and getting everyone focused down the stretch. It’s just the sort of thing this team was lacking last year.
The other big story for the Dukes was the debut of Wyoming transfer, A.J. Davis. Davis was slow to get going offensively, but his aggressive play payed off down the stretch. He finished with 23 points and a number of big dunks that fired up the crowd. I was slumming it with Madizone audio today, but the guy sounds like a player. Aside from Humpty and Davis’s big scoring, the game was a lot like most Madison games we’ve seen the past few seasons. There were lots of turnovers, some low percentage 3 point attempts, and an Andre Semenov injury scare. It wasn’t necessarily a pretty win, but it was a win. And that’s a good thing.
JMU bounced back after 2 disappointing losses and defeated Rhode Island 31-13 today. With the win, JMU moves to 6-4 (4-3 CAA) and keeps its playoff dreams alive. The Dukes pounded the ball on the ground all day, rushing for 241 yards. The defense also got the job done, shutting Rhode Island down and forcing 4 turnovers. It was a great win on a perfect Saturday for football.
Attitude Adjustment
Maybe it was the return of Justin Thorpe, or because it was Senior Day, or it might have been due to the fact that it was the final home game of the inaugural 25K Bridgeforth Stadium season. Whatever the cause was, the Dukes came out of the gates much more aggressively today. The defense stopped Rhode Island on the Rams first drive and then Thorpe, Dae’Quan Scott and the offense promptly marched down the field to take a 7-0 lead. The Dukes’ offense simply overwhelmed the Rams on the drive, taking huge chunks of yards at a time. Thorpe ran for 44 yards on the opening drive alone and capped it with a TD. The scoring drive set the tone for the rest of the day.
Sneaky Domination
This was an odd game. The outcome was never in doubt after JMU jumped out to the early lead. Rhode Island was completely overwhelmed by the JMU defense all day. The Dukes had Rhode Island’s QB on the run and prevented the Ram offense from ever getting in synch. JMU put up 31 points and marched right down the field with ease on several drives. Dae’Quan Scott eclipsed the century mark for the 6th time this season and found the endzone twice. JMU also had a couple drives where they seemed to be completely out of whack though. It was one of those games where there seemed to be long stretches where the offense looked to be stuck in neutral, broken up by brilliant plays. JMU definitely was the better team. When the line opened holes, they steamrolled down the field. When they didn’t though, the Dukes move backwards.
Who Let That Guy In?
Todd had the good fortune to score a pass to the club level today. We’re pretty sure this makes him the first blogger to infiltrate the luxury lounge and party with the 1% of JMU Nation. On the other hand, I took in the game from the comfort of our regular seats in section 202 with the family. At one point I had to duck out to change my 19 month old son’s diaper. When I returned I got a text from Todd to let me know he was feasting at the buffet, bellying up to the bar, and chatting up none other than Dr. Carrier and his lovely wife. To recap, I was changing diapers and Todd was breaking bread with Uncle Ron. The new Bridgeforth has really nice family restrooms with changing tables though. So, yeah fair trade.
Photo courtesy of JMUsports.com
For the third year in a row, the playoffs are essentially starting for the Dukes waaaay earlier in the season than any of us would like. But hey, it’s Senior Day in the ‘Burg, looks like good weather, and a bunch of the ’04 Champs are going to be on hand to wrap up the New BFS inaugural season festivities. Let’s hope some of their magic rubs off to at least keep the Dukes alive another week!
Really all about the Dukes
No disrespect to Rhode Island, a tough-minded team that has played everyone in the CAA close and is certainly more than capable of defeating a reeling JMU team, but this game is really all about the Dukes, and as our fabulous guest poster put it on Thursday, it’s really about JMU attitude. Justin Thorpe returns just in time as Jace Edwards’ injuries will keep him from even dressing Saturday. Hopefully Justin can provide the type of emotional spark the team needs, but that’s a lot to ask for a kid who hasn’t played in five weeks and surely has been dealing with a range of emotions.
The OLine has now had two full weeks to work together and the D has had half a season to adjust to their own holes at DTackle so more excuses in the trenches. Mickey himself took over kick coverage after potentially season-crippling breakdowns at UNH last week so no excuses there.
Seniors
Pay special attention to Babington, Nelson, Bryant (please no personal fouls though), Middleton, Pat Williams, Cuffee, Allen, and Long. We’ll miss them all but it sure would be nice to not see that group finish 6-5 or worse their last three years.
JMUSB Beer of the Week
This week’s choice is Founders Backwoods Bastard. It’s more than 10% ABV, tastes like bourbon, and is damn good. And think of it this way, you’ll be primed to celebrate or to begin the irrational Saturday evening new coach speculation no matter what the outcome of the game.
Scoreboard Watching
For those of you so inclined, pass the purple kool aid and pull up the 1-AA Scoreboard on your phone to follow the following games throughout the day. We’re all rooting for the following teams (though I’d suggest keeping that to yourself during the game):
Lehigh over Georgetown (REALLY need this one to keep the Patriot League to one bid)
North Dakota St. over Youngstown St. (REALLY need YSU out of the mix)
Texas St. over Central Arkansas (unlikely upset bid, but would be HUGE if it happened)
Norfolk St. over Morgan St. (would clarify the MEAC though the MEAC is likely one bid regardless)
Elon over Furman (unlikely but would be big)
Missouri St. over Indiana St. (very unlikely but would be HUGE)
Northern Iowa over Southern Utah (very likely and would eliminate SUU)
Georgia Southern over Wofford (would still need Wofford to lose to Chattanooga next week too to matter)
Western Carolina at App. St. (extremely unlikely but go Catamounts!)
Oh yeah, what about a JMU Prediction
None of the above will matter without a JMU win. But I wouldn’t have gone to the trouble if I didn’t think the Dukes were going to show up at home at least one more time this season! Dukes 21, Rams 13
It’s prediction time folks. You know the rules, add a comment to let us know who’s going to win on Saturday and what the score will be. The person who comes closest to nailing it (winner & score) will get a chance to guest post next week. It’s the home finale. JMU vs URI. Who wins?
As an officer in the armed forces, I am constantly responsible for maintaining what we refer to as “situational awareness”. This is the idea that to effectively maintain unit readiness and effectively respond to threats, you must always be aware of the situation around you. Sometimes, you can be so caught up in the details that is behooves you to take a step back and figure out how you got into the current situation and whether you are headed in the right direction. Let’s check that compass and wind it back to our most successful season (2004) and see how we got here…
Offense 2004
The 2004 team was built around the offensive line. The line consisted of three (yes, three, the youngest of which signed with the Buffalo Bills) HUGE tackles, and three interior linemen that would rather punch you in the face than block you (see: Burns, George: Kidney Punch). Additionally, the “6th man” was 6’5”, 285 with about 2% body fat and literally bent and broke equipment in the weight room. The backfield consisted of a balanced RB (signed w/ New York Jets), a power runner, and a 3rd RB who came out of nowhere and made big plays when he was needed (Furman, 4th and Goal). Additionally, the offense was operated by a transfer QB who had the ability to read coverages, throw the deep ball, run the option and (gasp) read the defense and call his own audibles. The WR’s stepped up and made big time plays when it counted (Maine, Furman). We ran variations of the following formations: I-Formation, Shotgun and One-Back (2-tight). Every 4 downs, it was a lock that we were going to run either the power or the zone run (successfully) at least once. 3rd and short was a guaranteed 1st down because smash mouth football was our bread and butter. It was a JMU football tradition for the offense and defense to get in a sideline-clearing brawl on the first day of full-pad practice.
Offense 2011
In my opinion, the 2011 team is built around one or two players. It appears to me that the entire offense is (was) built around Dae’Quan Scott and/or Justin Thorpe. If we look back, this approach all began during the Rodney Landers era. The idea is that you get a stud athlete that is far better than the competition and let him go make plays. Obviously, this worked (sort of) during the Landers Era. This tactic is common with teams like the Indianapolis Colts (Peyton Manning), Michigan Wolverines (Denard Robinson), and various pop-warner teams. The problem with this tactic, as we found out in 2008 against Montana (and the colts found out this year), is that if (when) that player is injured, your offense tanks. The other glaring problem is that the defense only has to shut down one guy to effectively kill the offense. There is no “I” in TEAM, as they say.
read more…
While we’ve all been cringing about the gridiron freefall the last few weeks, there’s been big news elsewhere in JMU land, both incredibly good and unbelievably tragic.
First, we want to send our thoughts and prayers out to the family and friends of fifth-year senior cheerleader, former Duke Dog, and incredible JMU fan Nick Keatts. We didn’t know Nick personally, but many of us remember him painting his face and dressing up as a purple-and-gold version of The Joker during the magical 2008 football season. We’re also not the ones to describe his impact on JMU, so we’ll just leave that to The Breeze. But all you need to know about his impact on JMU and JMU athletics is that his memorial service was held tonight in The Convo. With all of our gnashing of teeth and whining and complaining, events like this should make us all step back and appreciate the unparalled sense of community that Madison gave, and continues to give, to each of us.
Your MLS Rookie of the Year in his purple and gold!
There’s no proper segue, so we’ll just move to the other end of the spectrum to send a HUGE congratulations out to former Dukes soccer star C.J. Sapong, who was today named MLS’ Rookie of the Year. I know soccer doesn’t move the JMU sports meter all that much and Rob and I just don’t have the bandwidth or motivation to cover it regularly, but we’re both huge soccer fans and it’s actually kind of unbelievable that a kid from JMU was just the named ROTY in national sports league! Sapong’s Sporting Kansas City team made it to the Eastern Conference finals this year while Sapong became a star on the field and off (google CJ Sapong/Hope Solo for a great laugh).
Just to stick with soccer, the men’s team is hosting this weekend’s CAA Tourney as a decent favorite with a solid shot of not only taking the title, but maybe advancing to the Big Dance as well. If you’re headed down for football and making it a weekend, the semis are Friday night and with a win the Final will be Sunday early afternoon. In fact, Sunday could be one of the best sports days at JMU in a long time as the CAA Final precedes the men’s hoops opener against Canisius which has been moved to 4 p.m. to accomodate the socccer match. For all of concern the last few weeks, it’s seriously not out of the question to think you could get to town Friday evening at 7, watch JMU Soccer win twice to take the CAA and punch their ticket, see new stud AJ Davis and the basketball team come out of the gates with a strong win, and even catch a victory on Saturday (hopefully accompanied by a Lehigh victory over Georgetown and a Texas St. upset of Central Arkansas)! Just couldn’t resist.
