We made it. It’s game week and time to really talk football. That’s just what we did on the latest episode of the JMUSB Podcast. Give it a listen to hear us discuss our expectations for the season, our predictions for the season, and a bunch of rambling about why In-N-Out is overrated and Waffle House rules.
As always, the JMUSB Podcast is brought to you by Pale Fire Brewing. Let them know we sent you next time you’re at the tasting room and they’ll give you a free pint glass.
Be sure to subscribe to the JMUSB Pod via Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
There’s a JMU Football game on Saturday. THIS Saturday. It’s in Raleigh at a real stadium against a real team with a real fanbase. It’s on ESPNU at noon. Except for the playoffs, it’s probably the game that excites many JMU fans the most this season. So make that annual trip to Party City for bags of streamers and purple solo cups. And please listen the JMUSB podcast season preview after we record tonight. And get your work-purple ready for Friday.
And football isn’t the only thing going. In fact, it’ll be about the last JMU Fall Sport to kickoff. A few highlights of the past weekend included Field Hockey bouncing back from a frustrating opening night to pick up their first victory by shutting out Bucknell and the VolleyDukes taking two out of three, including a big statement with a victory over SEC foe Missouri.
So all we’re saying is it’s time to root and welcome back! Pod tonight, an attempt at real writing mid-week, and the first Beer of the Week and Preview coming on Friday. Can’t wait to join everyone on another ride this season.
The NCAA held it’s special presale for FCS National Championship tickets Thursday morning. You might not know because apparently the email with the special code wasn’t ever delivered to plenty of people who registered weeks ago to receive it. The sale kicked off promptly at 11:00 a.m. EST. The email I received announcing it was time-stamped 10:40 a.m. I’d complain about it being late, but I didn’t even register to receive it this year. So, yeah, terrific process NCAA.
I did receive the code though. So I decided to login and see if I could scoop up tickets now, instead of potentially relying on Duke Club Priority Points down the road. The experience was less than stellar. First of all, the website froze. Repeatedly. As a reminder, it’s 2018. And as much as we love FCS Football, the demand for tickets isn’t exactly Hamilton-esque. I studied CIS back when COBOL was a requirement, but even I know that Frisco ticket demand shouldn’t bring a server to its knees.
Anyway, the hits kept on coming even after the website un-froze (melted?). I was able to get all the way to the point where I had to select seats. Yes, you read that right. I had to select seats. Instead of providing a “best available” option like every other online ticketing outlet has done since about 1998, I had to select my seats like I was fighting for an exit row on Delta. read more…
We recorded a very special episode of the JMUSB Podcast last night. And not in the after school special sort of very special. Instead, it was our thrill to welcome JMU Football beat writer for the DNR Greg Madia back to the pod. Greg has been cranking out must-read coverage of the Dukes all off-season and he was kind enough to join us to get us up to speed on the preseason. Football fans should really enjoy this episode.
As always, the JMUSB Podcast is brought to you by Pale Fire Brewing. Let them know we sent you next time you’re at the tasting room and they’ll give you a free pint glass.
Be sure to subscribe to the JMUSB Pod via iTunes or Spotify.
Tamera (or “Ty” as she prefers) Young was a beast back in the day for Dukes. As the star of former coach Kenny Brook’s early teams, she was All CAA multiple times, and the league’s player of the year as a senior when she averaged 20 and 10. She could, and still can, ball out. She is now playing on the Las Vegas Aces, the third WNBA teams she’s suited up for in her 11 year career. She’s a heck of a ballplayer. But she’s an out of this world sneaker head. And we’re not talking about the sort of person who loves to wear fresh Jordans. We’re talking about the sort of person who has a special closet built in her home to house her over 500 pairs of limited edition kicks given to her by the likes of Chris Paul and Dwyane Wade. Ty was recently fined by the WNBA for wearing Wade’s signature shoe, since players must wear only Jordans or Nikes. She probably won’t stop anytime soon though, since Wade himself agreed to pick up the fine.
We can’t recommend reading the feature on Ty and her sneakers enough. And after you do that, check out the touching tribute to her late father she penned for the Players Tribune.
Here are some more links and tidbits you might have missed:
Our pal Bennet Conlin put together a weekly newsletter to cover JMU football this season. He’s gathered an impressive group of contributors, and us. Check out the first edition and be sure to register to have them delivered straight to your inbox. read more…
Todd is back from vacation, so the entire band is back together for the latest episode of the JMUSB Podcast. In it, we chat about JMU Football’s spring game and start to see what we can glean from summer camp so far. Based on early reports, we’re starting to get pretty excited about a few young guys. We also take a spin around the NFL to update everyone on the status of the 9 Dukes in the league. Finally we go a little Off Topic and chat about some of our favorite cover songs. Hope y’all enjoy it.
As always, the JMUSB Podcast is brought to you by Pale Fire Brewing. Let them know we sent you next time you’re at the tasting room and they’ll give you a free pint glass.
Be sure to subscribe to the JMUSB Pod via iTunes or Spotify.
JMU Football padded up today for the first time this preseason. That means we’re getting closer to real football, and real football talk. But with only a few practices in the books, we’re still in prime hot take season. Ill informed bloggers, who are excited for the season, but still don’t have much in the way of real news or analysis to report (i.e. us), can still be confident that dumb predictions will be forgotten once the real games start. And if said random predictions actually come true, we can mercilessly remind everyone and pretend like we weren’t throwing early August darts at the wall.
Given the above, I was fully prepared to drop this searing hot take on you. I predict at least four different JMU running backs will have 100 yard rushing games this season. Sizzling, huh? We know JMU has a stable of terrific running backs heading into this season. Last year, the running game struggled at times when young guys were forced to step up and take a lot of reps on the o-line. That experience should pay dividends this year. And with guys like Gerren Butler and Tyree Chavious returning from injuries, the offensive line and rushing attack, might be more consistent in 2018. Still, I admit that saying four different guys would have 100 yard games was nothing more than a wild ass guess. Then I looked at the stats from last year. Maybe it’s not so wild. read more…
Todd is away enjoying vacation, so Chase Kiddy from Hero Sports joined the pod to guest host with me yesterday. In this episode we discuss the big news out of the other ‘burg, Jimmye Laycock’s retirement announcement. We also discuss differing out of conference scheduling philosophies, and spend some time talking about the JMU football players’ names you should (or will) know this season. And we even have a special guest. New JMU Women’s Tennis coach Shelley Jaudon stops by to school us on college tennis and talk about her expectations for the upcoming season.
As always, the JMUSB Podcast is brought to you by Pale Fire Brewing. Let them know we sent you next time you’re at the tasting room and they’ll give you a free pint glass.
Be sure to subscribe to the JMUSB Pod via iTunes or Spotify.
That is a picture of PC Dukes. Or more accurately, it is a picture of the rubble that once was PC Dukes. It’s been well documented that the former home of the double-punch was nearing its end, but it doesn’t make the destruction any less painful. Pour a little All Sport imitation (and carbonated for some reason) Gatorade type sport drink on the curb. First they took D-Hall. Now our Dukes is gone too. read more…
Our beloved JMU Dukes are all set to play the Louisville Cardinals in 2022. The schools made it official and announced the game, which will take place on November 5, 2022 and be played in Louisville’s Cardinal (not Papa John’s) Stadium. The Cardinals will pay JMU $600,000 for. Unless some other school breaks the bank for 2021, a year JMU hasn’t yet scheduled an FBS game, it will be the largest payout the Dukes have ever received.
This is great news for Dukes fans. Louisville is a respected program from the ACC. The Cardinals have been to bowl games the past 8 seasons and have a Heisman Trophy winner in Lamar Jackson who likely will be starting for the Baltimore Raves in 2022 (sorry Flacco, not elite). While Head Coach Bobby Petrino is, well, Bobby Petrino, the man can coach. Playing on the road at Louisville is a chance for JMU to face some a terrific program and it will garner some serious attention if the Dukes walk out with the W. And Louisville is one heck of a road trip for fans. We got to thinking about it and here are our top 600,001 reasons that we’re excited for this game.
1-600,000: Dollars
600,001: Bourbon Trail
