JMU Sports Blog

The Basics

#5 Sam Houston St. Bearkats (12-0) at #4 James Madison Dukes (11-1), 7 p.m. Friday

Coverage: ESPN2, hot damn. This is the only football game on national tv at any level tomorrow night, needless to say this is the biggest stage the Dukes have played on in quite some time. Every bar in the country will accidentally have this game on.

Weather: Cold AF, Dark, Clear

What’s at Stake: A spot in the Final Four against the winner of Saturday’s noon ESPN game between South Dakota St. at North Dakota St.

FEPO: Dukes favored by 2.5, which means it’s essentially a pick ’em game or Sam would be the slightest of favorites on a neutral field. But this ain’t neutral! Also, the Over/Under for this game is 89.5 or 90 depending on your book, which is allegedly the highest ever number for a Division 1 game. If you ever want to enjoy watching a game, this is your night!

Once a Duke, Always a Duke

So we know you came to read a preview and get hyped, but we’ve been doing this thing for eight years and we don’t get many chances to use our little dorkfest for things other than snidely commenting that Sam Houston is not a state and that they can’t even spell “cat” correctly. But you’re gonna read something else right now. Or at least we politely ask that you do. We were reminded by a couple of former players this week that there are more important things than what’s happening on the field. When Dominick Richards and Vad Lee stunned us by a) knowing we exist, and b) reaching out to ask us to spread the word about the physical, emotional, and financial challenges faced by their former JMU teammate and WR Coby Branch and his family, we were honored. We told them we’d do a whole post about it next week. And then we talked a little more and decided that as confident as we are about tonight, we might never have more eyeballs on this site than today and we needed to include this in the preview. As Vad tell’s the heartbreaking story on Coby’s GoFundMe page:

Coby Branch, teammate, classmate, brother and JMU Football family suffered a life changing asthma attack that caused paralysis and blindness.  As Coby’s Mother recalls, Coby was unresponsive and stopped breathing during the asthma attack at a friend’s house where he was immediately carried by helicopter to the hospital. Following the asthma attack, his Mother was unsure if he would survive.

Since then Coby has fought like hell and is still hopeful of a full recovery, but the challenges he and his family have faced are immense. As Vad and Dom tell it, Coby would’ve been a senior this year. They also note the kid ran a 4.3 as a freshman and had oodles of talent. Their plan is to raise $5000 by December 23rd and present it to Coby’s mom for Christmas. And to their amazing credit, they’re already up to $3655 as we write this post by just spreading the word themselves. We think they can blow right by that number with the help of JMU Nation. Again, here’s the link to Coby’s GoFundMe Page.

We also have to note that we are simply blown away by the power of the JMU family and it really puts into perspective what being a member of the JMU community and/or a Madison student-athlete really means. So please consider supporting the players’ efforts. And if you get a few in a ya and want to throw a few bucks towards the cause in P-Lot tomorrow night, come by spot #88 (thanks Preston!), find Todd, and we’ll turn those in-person donations into the site on Monday. You’e also welcome to bring us moonshine of course if our Massanutten gents are out and about tomorrow night.

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

How Sam Houston St. Can Win

For Some Reason, this feels appropriate again!

By outscoring the Dukes. Seriously, we’ve got some hope the Dukes can come up with some stops tomorrow. Not so sure about SHSU. They really will need every single point of their nation-leading scoring average. Of course, the things that would really help them defensively are pressuring Schor and winning the turnover battle. There is probably no way to overstate how big the turnover issue will be on a cold night in the Valley. These two teams can both score like crazy when given chances and neither can afford to give the opponent extra possessions. Sam Houston’s QB Jeremiah Briscoe is legit and he’s got three ridiculous receivers led by slot-guy Yedidiah Lewis that will have to be exceptional. But what they really need is something special, and basically unexpected, from their defense or special teams at some point.

They also need to avoid their whining, Voldemort-face coach having a full meltdown at Bridgeforth as he was frequently known to do during his years at Delaware. It was always comical too because he’s generally so dang serious and buttoned-up and angry at everything and old-school, pre-09 Mickey who did all kinds of nutty things and didn’t often care about what “the percentage play” was drove him bananas.

How JMU Can Win

By the offense doing what it does and the defense continuing its late-season surge. When the Dukes have the ball this week, they really do need to get back to pounding the rock with Abdullah. Last week New Hampshire’s enormous front did a good job bottling up the Dukes normally brutal rushing attack and forced Schor to beat them. He did, and we all know he can do it again. But it’s gonna be a bit chilly in case you hadn’t heard and SHSU can rush the passer with the best of them, so the Dukes need to get back to more balance. SHSU’s weakness is in the secondary, but they’ve got to respect the run again. We’re also hoping Schor may be a little friskier in the run game with another week to heal up.

On defense, the Dukes have got to do three things above all. First, keep receivers in front of them and make tackles. Sam is going to gain yards, and those of us in the stands are going to be frustrated about all the 10 yard gains. But that doesn’t mean JMU should bite and give up huge plays. Second, find a way to generate pressure. We’re really hoping Simeyon Robinson might be back at full strength and ready to have another wreck-the-world day like he did at Maine. But Ankrah, Stone, and Cornell are more than capable as well. Finally, the Dukes need to hang in the game mentally. Most likely, the Bearkats will score as much as anyone this side of the Spatters has this year, but a few big plays (sacks, int’s, etc.) might just be enough no matter what point in the game they come.

And lastly, JMU’s going to need to make a couple of plays in special teams. They might need a crucial kick in tough conditions from Tyler Gray at some point or another igniting runback.

Beer of the Week

Whiskey. Have we mentioned the weather? All types work from our friend Swayze’s suggestion of Maker’s Mark to old JMU standby Jim Beam. We’re partial to Four Roses Single Barrel for the tailgate and Dickel for the flask, but all comers are welcome.

Notes on Proper Fan Preparation

Layer up. Load up on streamers for this SHSU “defense.” You’re gonna be wearing boots and your feet will be cold so stand up off the freezing bleachers and use those boots to stomp those metal bleachers like crazy. Yell your ass off (on defense). If you’re not in Bridgeforth, you don’t get to bitch about attendance. The students that are there deserve our respect and clearly show they root! 16k lubed up lunatics are 3x as loud as a full Parent’s Weekend crowd so enjoy have fun and root!

This is also as good a place as any to give a special “we appreciate what you do” to DirtyDukes of message board infamy for his work battling Sam Houston’s delusional and “unique” fanbase on the Any Given Saturday site this week, which seems to be comprised of more internet trolls than actual fans given they managed 860+ posts of complaining about their seeding, the weather, how crappy they think the Dukes are, and generally continuing the tradition of misspelling everything despite the fact they had less than 5k actual fans at their home playoff game last week.

Official JMUSB Prediction

Dukes 51, Kats 41

Need to restock after that one!

With Saturday recovery and holiday commitments, we’re a little later than usual with this wrap-up. And it’s been so long since we could really get into a playoff run that we forget how easy it is to only look forward (is it Friday yet?!), but we did want to to give you a few quick thoughts on the win over UNH Good/Bad/Ugly style.

The Good

Over the hump – JMU won a playoff game! Repeat, JMU won a playoff game! That they did so in resounding fashion only makes it sweeter, but the key to making noise in the tourney is actually accessing the tourney, something the Dukes failed to do in the Withers era. We still think UNH may have been a better squad than LU ’14 or Colgate ’15, but the Dukes were ready to friggin’ roll this year.

Gage Steel interception return – Favorite play of the game, maybe the season. He was being tackled by three guys in one spot and wasn’t brought down for another twenty eight yards. For some reason this play spoke volumes about where this team is now compared to the last four or five years.

Refs Scolding the MRDs – This could have been in the Ugly for the refs, but honestly it sure seemed to be the launching pad for the team, the fans and the playoff run. The Dukes were a bit sluggish/nervous to start the game. Two 3-and-outs from the Dukes, a UNH TD, and QB feeling his way into the game and back from injury had us feeling a bit nervy. But then suddenly the officials decided to tell the MRD’s to quiet down and the JMU Nation’s reaction was beautifully predictable. The entire stadium woke up, got pissed and got out of their seats. They were loud in a way that seemed we were all just beginning to remember what these games can be like from days gone by. Who knows if the team noticed, but it sure was fun from the stands. And remember this folks – here’s current SHSU Head Coach KC Keeler’s comments on the MRD’s from his days at Delaware: “It’s a hostile environment, even the band will cuss at you. It’s classic, we’re warming up and that band is just cursing at us and my guys are looking like, ‘This is the band,'” and I said, ‘Yeah, just wait until you play the team.'” (thanks to saxkow for the tagline all these years!)

Bryan Schor’s Health – Sure looked alright to us. He may have understandably been a bit nervous at the outset, but after taking a few falls and hits, he sure seemed to gain in confidence throughout the game. Needless to say, that throw to Ravenel off the scramble at the end of the half may have been the finest throw by a JMU QB since at least Mike Cawley. No disrespect to JMU legends like Rascati or Landers or Lee, but Schor is starting to look like from a pure passing standpoint, he may be the one.

This Staff’s Decisions – First, the decision not to “just try to run their stuff” as in the last two years, but to dust off the deepest pages of the playbook with the halfback pass and fake punt show just how seriously this group takes this time of year. These are coaches who have been in the FCS playoffs and know you can’t leave anything on the sidelines in these games. Should be fun to watch what they come up with this week! Secondly, offensive tackle Mitchell Kirsch has been battling an injury for while now. He got the start, but just wasn’t moving well. After the first hit on Schor, the coaches quickly made the move to talented freshman Tyree Chavious and everything clicked again up front. We all know we’d rather have Kirsch back at full strength and we know he’s doing everything he can, but this is the kind of cool calculation we love to see from the staff.

Davis hustle – Rashard Davis was all over the place in this game. Catching passes, throwing a TD, causing havoc. But you know what impressed us most? The fact he was the gunner on punt coverage hustling down to be in DeAndrade’s face on the fumbled punt return that really blew the game open. Similar to all the Jimmy Moreland blocks downfield on all of JMU’s big returns this year, the difference on this team from any group since ’08 is that Coach Houston and company have kept all of the talented guys, even the ones who may not have the huge roll they dreamed of, still very much motivated to do the little things. This team is not only deep with talent, it’s deep with “want-to” and that may be just as important.

Friday Night Lights! – It’s ESPN2 with no other college football up against it that night. The Friday night games in ’08 were special and we’ve got a feeling this will be too. Some people say it’s harder on Friday, but honestly, with holiday commitments and everything else, in some ways it’s actually easier for the NoVa and RVA folks to make a quick run Friday night from a family standpoint.  And yes, it’ll be cold, and awesome. But here’s what you do. Ski pants, layers, hand and foot warmers, flask. Which is more easily concealed in all those layers. It’s very likely this week’s BOTW will be whiskey.

Andy Talley – Villanova lost in heartbreaking fashion up in some serious weather at South Dakota St. this weekend, falling 10-7 on a last-second field goal that bounced in off the uprights by none other than the nephew of Adam Vinatieri. But one last thank you and congrats to Villanova’s long-time coach for many years of heated rivalry in the A-10/CAA. Not sure we’d say we’ll miss you on the field, but the sport always misses guys like you.

The Bad

Fan confusion on when to get loud – A lot of fans (and scoreboard operator telling them to) “getting loud” while JMU was on Offense this week. We love the energy the playoffs bring, but let’s tighten up our game.

Close calls – They all went JMU’s way this week, or at least none of them went against us, and we need to be ready to overcome them should they not go so well later on. The near late-hit on the sidelines, the near hands-to-the-face on the QB, the weirdly second guy knocking the ball out of Alls hands on the TD. All were called correctly, but let’s not forget this is FCS, and these could go any way at any time. Be ready and overcome. For the record, those were SoCon officials and it was a huge improvement from the usual.

Kirsch Health – Need him back. If he’s not back now, rest him and save him for later.

The Ugly

My anger at Coach on the first 4th and Goal – I was apoplectic. I said horrible things like “this is pure late-era Mickey bullsh*t!” and generally forced everyone around me to listen to all the reasons we should have gone for it. Loudly, annoyingly, and inappropriately. Guess there’s a reason Coach Houston is the Coach of the Year and I’m a doofus in the stands, huh? Look, I still think every coach everywhere needs to go for it on 4th down about 100x more than they do, and I still think the Dukes should’ve punched it in or pinned UNH at the 1. But Coach knows his team. Surely he thought there were plenty of points to come. Probably he thought it would settle the team down, or at least not get them in panic-mode if they had failed to convert. Maybe he wants to keep building Tyler Gray’s confidence, something they’ll surely need as the Dukes move along. But in any case, he was right, I was wrong, and I apologize to Section 211.

SHSU Fans – They had less than 5k at a HOME game Saturday and yet somehow this is the loudest, most obnoxious group of internet trolls in the country at this level. NDSU is loud, but they’ve earned it. We’d just love your help on Twitter this week if we get them riled up haha.

The Basics

Match-up:  Round of 16, New Hampshire Wildcats (8-4) vs. #4 JMU Dukes (10-1)

Kick-off: 2 p.m. Saturday, Bridgeforth Stadium, Harrisonburg, VA

Weather: 47 degrees, sunny. Can’t ask for better December football weather!

Broadcast: ESPN3, available in approximately the 780’s or 790’s on most DirecTV bar packages

What’s At Stake

The season. A home game for the Dukes against the winner of Chattanooga @ Sam Houston St.. A chance for Coach Houston’s staff to prove once and for all that they’ve improved on what Coach Withers started. Simply, JMU needs to win to put the postseason failures against Liberty and Colgate behind them and prove the program is really back into national contention. Granted, UNH may be better than either of those two teams, but we really hope JMU is MUCH better.

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