JMU Sports Blog

Long Live Streamers. Long Live City Stadium!

So I’ve been sick as a dog for three days. I didn’t clear this with Rob. And maybe it’s just the tamiflu (sp?) speaking, but the combination of the ’04 title game being on FB Live right now and today’s justification by the NCAA for the new streamer ban in Frisco citing “player safety” has stirred me out of my own pit of misery and hopefully you’ll enjoy a few random thoughts on these two things. I’m feverish and sweating and can barely even get any soup down but a few things cannot go unremarked.

First, for all the Pepe/Bison internet trolls who think FCS/1-AA traditions didn’t exist prior to 2010, those streamers sure looked beautiful, and fully established in JMU lore, in Chattanooga in ’04. Oh yeah, Chattanooga was a helluva site for the title game. Notwithstanding the turf in ’04, ask Montana, JMU, or App. St. fans how great that city was as a host and quit acting like Frisco is some sacred Jedi text.

On the other side, for all of our own fans making the argument that CAA and the playoffs are so great that anything else would be horrendous, don’t forget we’ve worn a whole lot of “conference” patches on the football unis over the years, including the Atlantic-10 patch from Chattanooga. Things change, always have, always will. JMU will be just fine no matter where we are five or ten years from now so let’s just enjoy the present and not make every game, event, message board thread, or blog post about FCS vs. FBS.

Next, the NCAA has really screwed the pooch on this streamer thing. Here’s the official statement:

Following the 2017 NCAA Division I Football Championship Game, the Division I Football Championship Committee reviewed multiple incidents involving streamers being thrown towards the opposing team bench area and on the field of play during the game. After discussing the issue at length, the committee added streamers to the list of prohibited items for the 2018 Division I Football Championship Game to help ensure the best championship game environment for fans and players from both teams.

This is wholly unsurprising because the NCAA, especially the dotards in Indianapolis, are almost insanely unaware of the passion from fanbases all over the country for events outside of the Power 5. They could’ve just stayed out of it and let things play out. Unlike last year where the tiny Youngstown contingent meant JMU fans were all over the YSU side and inevitably threw streamers that ended up in YSU fan areas or on the sideline itself, this year will be much more of a true 50-50 bowl-game type atmosphere and the sections themselves would’ve likely taken care of most non-frivolous complaints. OR, they could’ve come out strongly and consistently from the beginning regarding the streamer ban. But no, they had to dither for two weeks and allow all of lunatics on both sides to delve deep into every manner of conspiracy theory this side of Infowars. On that note, “of course” the ban was the result of whiny NDSU fans writing the venue and the NCAA about the “dangers” of airborne tissue. And of course now that the NCAA has thrown out the possibility of 15-yard penalties being assessed, in the trolling world we live in today, there’s already an online movement among the worst of the Bison fans to bring streamers to throw in order to get JMU penalized (don’t say we didn’t warn you about this bullshit).

But all that said, thank goodness the NCAA is finally addressing the very real dangers of football and acknowledging the potential harm to players….from Party City streamers. I mean, potential paper cuts are clearly a much greater risk to the “student-athlete” paradigm than two decades of no-show classes like a certain blue-blood.

Things That Are Still Wonderful From ’04

Justin Rascati, Matt Magerko and the whole O-Line, Tony LeZotte, a young Akeem Jordan, Townsend, etc. et al. – How great were all these guys?! We have been so fortunate as JMU fans to enjoy some seriously great players over the years and that ’04 group was the spark that started the conflagration we all get to witness again in Frisco next week. Thanks fellas!

Mickey the Gambler – Coach Matthews’ rep as an uber-conservative in his late JMU years was only more sad because he was the ultimate gambler from ’03-’08. 4th down attempts were consistent no-brainers and the team’s play reflected that.

Things That Did Not Age Well Since ’04

‘Nooga Turf – Still terrible.

ESPN Assigning Reasonably Competent Announcers to FCS games – Hard to believe ESPN used to assign national guys to FCS games. And without Anish Shroff this year, it remains to be seen if the new group will even have done a college freshman’s amount of homework on the JMU/NDSU game.Those kids with “DUKES” on their chests in the sub-freezing air. Seriously, what the hell was wrong with those kids?! (side note: thank goodness this was all mostly pre-mobile)

Bobby Hauck’s haircut – Yowzers. Pretty sure a haircut has never been a better predictor that a coach would be so naive (or good at pretending to be naive) to allow his program to develop such a rape culture that it would precipitate a federal investigation and a book by a bestselling author, after he scooted to greener pastures, and ultimately get him his job back when the fanbase – following proud examples like Baylor and Liberty – would successfully make enough excuses and deflections of such an outcome because losing to Montana St. apparently hurts more than living with that knowledge.

Someone’s starting to look a lot like a certain other heroic RB!

So it was a big, bad Missouri Valley team. And the Dukes were banged up. And they were underdogs in the desert by kickoff. And they turned an insane FIVE first quarter turnovers into just seven points.

And none of that meant a darned thing to the boys in purple! Needless to say, we are beyond thrilled that this team stepped up in an enormous way, with a big assist from a raucous Bridgeforth December crowd, and silenced all the doubters. Wait, what’s that you say? The defending champs riding a 26-game winning streak, including a true road game at the team they face next, are an early 3 point dog? Haha, well we’ve got 19 more days to worry about all that. Today we’re here to celebrate Saturday’s surreal performance with the good, bad, and ugly.

The Good

10 – That’s right, there are two digits in the number of turnovers JMU caused on Saturday. When the Dukes scored only one TD off the five in the first quarter, we were nervous that would haunt them. Little did we know they were just getting warmed up! This number is obviously the thing that made this game surreal, but it was a HUGE credit to Bob Trott’s game plan.

Outpost Buttons – TeeDee the Squirrel making a tiny cameo on this week’s button was outstanding and for those that collect them, seems sure to make this one a favorite.

Next Man Up – No doubt I’m going to go on way too long talking about these guys on the pod tonight, but Bryce Maginley,  Justin Bethea, and Landon Word were absolutely outstanding filling in for numerous injured Dukes. Filling in for Curtis Oliver, the fifth-year senior Bethea held up beautifully in one-on-one coverage all night, including a great play on SDSU’s all-everything Tight End when the game was still competitive. Kyre Hawkins was shaken up for a while in this game and Word didn’t miss a beat. That’s another transfer getting comfortable. And oh by the way, Maginley made arguably the biggest play of the night with that massive hit that caused the fumble that set off the avalanche of turnovers and set the tone for what JMU was willing to give physically to win this ballgame. Also, his pops is also going to be a fixture of “cool” at Dukes games for the next few years!

Pass Rush – In case you forgot JMU has some athletes that, when turned loose in the game plan by Bob Trott’s masterful scheming, can wreck havoc. We’ve seen the Dukes consistently play their base defense without a lot of blitzing most of this year. But they clearly decided to show SDSU QB Taryn Christion he wasn’t the only one with quicks. Carter, Ankrah, Urquhart, Robinson were fantastic and it was fairly clear early in the game that Christion was shook that he was getting run down from behind by linemen and linebackers. Brown, Moreland, and Robinson all got their own chances so the Jacks never knew where the rush was coming from. Yes, rushing so many opened lanes for the running game and an occassional slant pass, but as fans this was so so so much fun to watch the Dukes attack all night.

Raven Greene – If you’re gonna break the all-time JMU record with your 14th career interception, might as well do it in style! Raven’s interception return for a long TD was the icing on the second half BFS party.

Riley – The Dukes would love to get John Miller back in three weeks, but with Alls and Eldridge cranking it up lately, this offense is starting to hum the last two weeks. And oh yeah, almost overnight Riley Stapleton has gone from in/out of the lineup to a near-unstoppable force of 6’5″ FCS beast!

Jimmy ‘effin Moreland – There are many reason Jimmy is one of our all-time favorite Dukes players, and all of those reasons were on display this week. Get a PI call? No worries, just make a one-handed pick 40 yards downfield next. Get beat inside for a TD? Again, just forget it and put it behind you like all the great DB’s, then go back out there pick off two more, get a half a sack, and spend most of the night in one-on-one press man coverage against the 1st team All American WR. It’s not an exaggeration to say that Jimmy was probably the player most responsible for crushing the souls of the Bunnies this week when the realized JMU’s #2 corner was better than anybody on their team.

Marcus Marshall – Not sayin’, but just sayin’, these last two weeks sure did look a hell of a lot like playoff Khalid didn’t they? And his biggest play of the night wasn’t even on offense, but rather the huge 40 yard kickoff return after SDSU had closed to 14-10 right before the half. That return set the stage for the biggest score of the night as the Dukes marched right down (thanks Riley) and punched in another TD in less than a minute.

JMU’s in-stadium media/music person – Whoever you are, that stroke of brilliance at the start of the fourth quarter was breaking out the old Alabama classic “If You’re Gonna Play in Texas” (you gotta have a fiddle in the band) was next level stuff!

Students! – Again, that was incredible work by the students on attendance and involvement.

The Bad

Injuries – When you only have 63 scholarships and you play 15 games two years in row, there’s simply no way to get through unscathed. But JMU has a lot of question marks we’ll all be following over the next two plus weeks.

The Ugly

Frisco ticket crunch – It just sucks. No way around it. When the Frisco Stadium is smaller than Bridgeforth and you’re matching up with an equally great fanbase like NDSU, there’s just gonna be a lot of disappointed and/or priced out fans. Yes, we wish against wishing there was some way they could move this game to SMU or the Cotton Bowl or hell, sell out the lower bowl of Jerry-World, but the NCAA cabal, as usual, doesn’t give one single shit about FCS or fans or anything else except making the most money with the least effort ever. It’s already a joke that the stadium is hot garbage compared to either BFS or the FargoDome. It’ll be awesome that it’s sold out and will be as intense as any FCS/1-AA title game has ever been, but it sucks for fans.

Christmas came early! Or you might say, on its first night, Hanukkah showed us it ain’t playin’ in 2017! Because JMU’s newly beloved Head Ball Coach Mike Houston signed a 10-year extension that “keeps” him at JMU through 2027. You’ve probably read the news story already or you can read it here but just a few thoughts.

• Yes, a bigger school can still buy him out. But it’s pretty clear when Houston said JMU was the best “non-P5” job in America, he wasn’t kidding. With this move, he took all but the cream of the G5 crop out of the mix. In other words, he ain’t going to Texas State or Louisiana-Lafeyette or ODU. And yes, 5 or 10 years of success and bonuses at JMU probably work out financially in Houston’s favor compared to 3 years and a pink slip at UTEP.
• If he gets bought out Tressel-from-YSU-to-tOSU style by a Power 5 program, that will clearly be based on his sustained success, which means we’ll all be very happy Dukes by that time and say thank you!
• Needless to say, with National Signing Day a week away, this should be a huge boost in recruiting immediately by taking all the Bobby Wilder/Scottie Montgomery/Rich Huesman/Danny Rocco horsecrap talking points about “Houston’s outta there” way way way off the table.
• 10 years is an enormous commitment from both sides and JMU’s vision is to be applauded. First and foremost AD Jeff Bourne, but even Charlie Kind and Jon Alger. This type of thing is way out of the norm for JMU’s traditional operations and credit where due to the leadership team for thinking creatively about how to keep a great asset to the university. On a governance and execution note, it also should not go without saying that doing something so unusual (for any Virginia public school) probably required some serious backchannel (and maybe even closed session) work with the Board of Visitors. That alone is a heavy lift and solid work. But the fact that all of those conversations had to have been taking place over some period of time and then the announcement came basically out of the ether is a credit to the process as well.
• Don’t yell at us, but seriously, 10 years also allows for a couple tough years along the way, like say when JMU is transitioning to FBS. Just sayin’.
• Finally, here’s Houston’s quote: “James Madison is a special place. Amanda, our boys and I want to be here and consider this home,” Houston said. “JMU approached me in in the second half of the regular season to discuss an extended contract. During negotiations, there was significant interest from multiple FBS programs. Throughout the process, JMU was proactive in wanting to make a long-term commitment while ensuring that our staff could remain intact. I’ve turned down opportunities at the FBS level, and I did it because I believe in James Madison University.  I believe in the leadership of Jeff Bourne, Senior Vice President Charlie King and President Jonathan Alger. I believe in their vision for our university and our athletics programs.  I also believe in our student-athletes, everyone in athletics who supports us and the passionate fan base that cheers for us. I am committed to ensuring that the JMU football program is one that is a reflection of our outstanding institution.  I’m committed to staying here because JMU is different.” We’d heard from some Valley friends that are friends with the Houstons that in their opinion he and his family were legit about loving the area, and with a quote like that, we’re just going to take the man at face value, something that is just so refreshing in a cynical, skeptical college sports landscape.

Now let’s all get ready to ROOT on Saturday!