The Basics
Match-up: #6 JMU Dukes (5-1, 3-0 CAA) vs. #25 UNH Wildcats (4-2, 3-0 ACC)
Kick-off: Noon Saturday at the newly renovated Wildcat (no longer “Cowell”) Stadium – Durham, NH
Weather: 59 degrees, mostly sunny. Can’t ask for better than that on this trip.
Broadcast: ASN – this will be on NESN for anyone that has the sports package on their cable package. Basically, you can find this one on your guide in an unexpected spot almost anywhere in the country.
Jonathan K. won our prediction contest last week and earned the right to guest post. Here’s his look back at JMU football through the years.
In the fall of 1999, I walked onto the campus of James Madison University with bright eyes and big dreams. JMU’s football program was also pretty young under new head coach Mickey Matthews. Back then Bridgeforth Stadium had an AstroTurf playing surface (think your living room carpet, only thinner) and two grandstands. Imagine the current student section side of Bridgeforth but on both sides.
I lived in the Lakeside part of campus so on evenings when my dorm buddies and I wanted to play a game of two-hand touch football, we could walk right in to Bridgeforth and play in the stadium- the very same stadium that greats like Gary Clark (Pro Bowl Washington Redskins wide receiver) would catch ridiculous amounts of TDs and Charley Haley (Cowbows/49ers Hall of Famer) would destroy ridiculous amounts of QBs. read more…
The Dukes go on the road this weekend for a tough road game at New Hampshire. It’s going to be JMU’s toughest CAA test thus far. New Hampshire is also 3-0 in league play and have made the playoffs for about the last 27 years (all numbers approximate). This is a very hard, but winnable game. And we’d like to know what you think about it. Leave a comment letting us know who you think will win and what the score will be. The person who comes closest to nailing it (winner & score) will get to write a guest post. That’s it.
Go Dukes!
Keep Rootin!
With summer here again, more and more people are starting to focus more and more on their bodies. A long winter of inactivity can lead to a number of negative consequences for your body. In order to get a body back into good shape, a person will need to find a way to incorporate strength training into their daily life. There are a number of training exercises out there that will allow you to regain the muscle mass lost and get back to a healthy way of life like using a recumbent bike. The following are some tips on how to get the most out of your strength training.
Make Sure You Warm Up
Before you put your body through the grinder doing various squats and Rotational Dumbbell exercises, you have to make sure you warm up. By taking the time to get your muscles ready for the workout you are about to do. This will help you to avoid pulling a muscle or injuring yourself during the workout. If you are unsure about what type of warm ups you need to be doing, then you will need to speak to professionals in order to get some sound advice. read more…
The JMU Dukes defeated the W&M Tribe by the score of 31-24 in a rain soaked Bridgeforth Stadium on Saturday. The victory moved the Dukes to a perfect 3-0 in CAA play and 5-1 overall. William & Mary on the other hand, dropped to 0-3 in the CAA and 2-4 overall. In some ways it was a rather ugly game. The Dukes were able to move the ball, but struggled to convert all the yardage into points in the first half. And the Defense was unable to put the clams on Kendall Anderson and his Tribe teammates, allowing them to hang in there and make a game out of it. Taylor Reynolds came up huge, picking up a Steve Clulely pass in the endzone with under 2 minutes left and the Tribe driving to tie the ball game. Then Khalid Abdullah broke off a 74 yard TD to seal the game. Here’s the good, bad, and ugly from the game.
Good
Abdullah and Cardon Johnson went beast mode again. Johnson had 90 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries. Abdullah ran for a career best 194 yards and three touchdowns. The duo might not be unstoppable, but they’re pretty damn close. And on a wet day in dogfight against a bitter rival, they both elevated their games and helped lead the team to a win.
The O-line. Johnson and Abdullah have rightly been getting a ton of credit for their outstanding play, and justifiably so. But the dangerous pair couldn’t do it without the big guys up front opening up holes for them to run through. They did just that on Saturday. And they also protected QB Bryan Schor giving him time to pass and preventing the Tribe from sacking him.
Taylor Reynolds. The pick in the endzone was obviously pretty clutch, but Taylor made other big plays on Saturday. He came off the edge to make a tackle for a loss near the goal line and hold W&M to a FG. It’s pretty amazing to think about how far he’s come in his time at JMU.
Gage Steele. Steele’s production dropped last season. That was partially due to him battling injuries and partially due to the overall weakness of the JMU defensive scheme. Games like Saturday’s though highlighted Steele’s ability to swarm all over the field and make stops.
Gunnar Kane. As a punter for JMU, Gunnar doesn’t even break a sweat some games. He’s answering the bell when called upon though and was great on Saturday. He booted a career best 66 yard blast to pin the Tribe on its 9 yard line.
The Crowd. We weren’t able to make in Saturday, but we’ve sat through plenty of rainy of games in the past. The fans in Bridgeforth probably weren’t comfortable, but they were loud and supported the Dukes during a tough rivalry game. That’s rootin.
Bad
Another missed chip shot. Tyler Gray has a big leg and has been huge on kickoffs all season. He missed what should have been a gimme on Saturday though. It happens and he’s too good not to bounce back though.
The rushing D? This one’s tough to judge. It wasn’t a shut down performance worthy of the good section, but it definitely doesn’t deserve to be labeled bad either. Others might disagree based on the fact that W&M ran for 205 yards. The reality is that the JMU defense pretty much held W&M in line. The Tribe averaged 4.7 yards per rush. They average 4.8 yards per rush on the season. So on a day where everyone in the world knew that W&M was going to try to pound the rock and keep the Dukes offense on the sidelines, JMU basically limited them to a standard performance.
Ugly
The win. This was an ugly win over a bitter rival. And yes, this is a total cop out and my way of turning the ugly section into a compliment. Todd and discussed in Saturday night though and we simply can’t pick nits and look for things to be upset about after JMU took care of business against the Tribe and probably eliminated them from the postseason as well. Style points don’t count in the win column. Coach Houston and the Dukes beat a desperate Tribe team in the rain and are 3-0. Life is good.
Hope you all are safe and sound wherever you are today. Plenty of folks are already back in the ‘burg tailgating and getting ready for the Dukes big game against the Tribe. JMU hasn’t lost to the W&M since 2004 and will attempt to keep that streak going today. W&M is looking to right the ship and salvage its season before it gets too late. But we don’t want that to happen.
If you’re not going to be in Bridgeforth, tune in via Comcast SportsNet or Madizone and chat with your fellow Dukes fans right here. Consider this your official open thread for all pre-game, in-game, and post-game chatter.
Go Dukes!
Keep Rootin!
Once again, it’s time for the Dukes to welcome the boys from William & Mary to Harrisonburg. No matter if you call them the Tribe, the Indians, or the Pantsless Griffins, it’s a big game and one we definitely circle on the calendar every year. Now we could waste a few paragraphs throwing out cheap nerd jokes, rehashing the story about the craziest party in W&M history time students stormed the library, or pointing out that the W&M undergraduate social experience is about as much fun as a trip to the DMV, but we won’t. Because while JMU & W&M couldn’t be more different, they’re both pretty damn great in their own ways. And we respect the hell out of W&M both as a school and a community. It’s an outstanding academic institution, full of incredibly talented professors and bright students, with a proud and distinguished history of preparing individuals for great success in all sorts of career fields. But that’s not why we respect them. We really couldn’t care less about any of that to be honest. William & Mary hates Richmond. A lot. That’s something we respect. read more…
Our friends from The William & Mary Sports Blog were kind enough to answer a few of our questions about the Tribe before Saturday’s JMU vs. William & Mary game. They’re good guys and have a blog that should definitely be on every CAA Football fan’s regular reading list. It’s like a more erudite, less snarky version of our little project here. Anyway, they also humored us by agreeing to publish some of our thoughts on the game over on their site. Read on for some great insight into the Tribe. Enjoy.
Let’s get the big one out of the way. Coming into the season W&M had high hopes to contend for a CAA Championship, but the Tribe has struggled to find its rhythm thus far. Is this a case of the team simply being overrated in the preseason or is it more a case of the team not playing up to its potential?
Coming into this season, the Tribe was ranked in the top-10 in every preseason poll, even as high as number 6 in the country. The offense returned nearly every starter (besides the center and fullback positions) from a unit that averaged 31 points and 412 yards per game a season ago. This year’s W&M squad was expected to compete with the high powered offenses of the FCS, including the likes of JMU, Richmond, and others. However, the Tribe offense has performed very poorly this season, averaging a mere 19 points per game, including just 22 total points in the team’s last 2 games. The defense, meanwhile, has been stellar for the Tribe. After losing key players like Deandre Houston-Carson and Luke Rhodes to graduation, it was expected that this unit would struggle in 2016. That is not the case, as the defense is the strength of this Tribe team, featuring young talent such as freshman Nate Atkins, Corey Parker, Bill Murray, and Arman Jones, among others–which we’ll go in depth on later in this piece. Ultimately, the offense has put the defense in difficult situations all season with turnovers, which makes the defense’s performance to this point that much more impressive. read more…
Jason Kennedy (aka maddukes98) won our prediction contest last week. Here’s his guest post on the life of a JMU football fan far away from the Commonwealth.
Having been born and raised in Virginia and lived there for almost 40 years, it’s painful for a JMU alum and fan like me to be living in an area where everyone is wearing purple and gold and rooting for a team that has a dog for a mascot. I’ll wait until you re-read that sentence in disbelief. read more…
(11/13/10) – (Harrisonburg)
(Traci White/Daily News-Record)
The JMU Dukes welcome our old friends the Tribe to Bridgeforth Stadium this Saturday. JMU and William & Mary have staged some epic battles over the years, with the bad guys taking last year’s contest by the score of 44-41. However, JMU has taken care of business at home against its rival from Williamsburg. In fact, William & Mary last one a road game in this series all the way back in 2004. But that past is the past and we’re here to discuss Saturday’s game. Leave us 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.
Go Dukes!
Keep rootin!
