Wow. Look at that. It’s late August, football season kicks off in less than 2 weeks, and we’ve been basically wasting your time with blog filler and assorted B.S. all summer. Our bad.
Years ago, we used to preview every CAA team in the weeks leading up to the season kickoff. We’d say the pieces were basically good to get you smart enough on CAA football that you could at least fake your way through your average JMU football tailgate. Let’s bring it back and see how many team previews we can crank through in the next week and a half. The over-under is 5 (pro-tip: take the under.)
We’ll start this little adventure with a preview of the Delaware Blue Hens. Why are we starting with Delaware? Well, because we’re not very fond of the Blue Chickens and they’re not supposed to be too great this year, so this will give us a chance to warm up, and throw a few easy cheap shots at UD before we dive into previewing the real contenders.
Looking in the Rear View Mirror
UD finished 6-6 last year. There was absolutely nothing great about the Blue Hens and nothing particularly terrible about them either. Which is probably the perfect way to describe Delaware as a state. It’s just sort of, “there.” In fact, it’s unclear if its actually a state at all, or if it’s simply the home of a bridge that exists so mysterious powers that be can collect tolls from thousands of people traveling to and from states with actual purposes. But I digress. The point is that after years of being one of the big kids on the FCS football block, Delaware football has hit a plateau of mediocrity and relative anonymity.
Excuse Us While We Brace For UD Fan Backlash
Yeah, yeah, yeah. JMU did lose to UD 30-23 last year. We’re using our special blogger executive revisionist history powers to declare it a fluke though. The normally reliable Daniel Brown dropped a TD, the offense slept walk through the first 3 quarters, the defense gave up two huge plays, and special teams were anything but special. And if we’re being honest, JMU didn’t become a good team until after that game. So the loss didn’t happen. It. Didn’t. Happen.
The Ones They’ll Bring Back
The Blue Hens return 12 starters from last year’s team. Seven of those returning starters are on the offensive side of the ball and four are on the defensive side. And before you correct my math, they also bring back their punter. So that makes 12. Said punter, Eric Anderson, also happens to be UD’s arguably top returning player. He averaged over 40 net yards a punt last year. Along with offensive lineman, Ben Curtis, and defensive lineman Blaine Woodson, Anderson was selected to the All CAA Preseason team. They also bring back Jalen Randolph, a talented running back who rushed for over 5 yards a carry and 9 TDs last season.
The Ones They’ll Replace
Delaware will need to replace 5 offensive and 8 defensive starters. Last year’s starting QB, Trent Hurley and his top target, wide receiver Michael Johnson, are both gone. Hurley was middle of the road (sensing a theme here?) QB in a conference that had a few truly great ones. He did complete 64% of his passes and toss 13 touchdowns, but he also thew 14 picks. It’s always tough to work in a new QB, but Hurley is far from irreplaceable. Johnson’s loss will be offset by the fact that UD’s other top 2 receivers return.
Defensively, UD might have a bigger hill to climb in terms of reloading. Last year’s entire corps of starting linebackers is gone, as are three members of the starting defensive backfield. It’s essentially going to be a rebuilt defense. Which might be good, because last year’s defense was just OK. But if you’re read this far, you probably already guessed that.
Milquetoast
As previously mentioned, last year’s Blue Hens did nothing particularly well. They were pretty much middle of the road in all aspects of the game. UD had the seventh best scoring offense in the league, the 8th best scoring defense, the sixth best rushing attack, the seventh best passing attack, etc. We could go on, but you get the point. Delaware was really, really good…at being average.
Why You Should Care
Look, people might say all sorts of outlandish things about Delaware football. They’ll tell you that it’s a shell of a once great program that has been left adrift in a sea of complacency. They’ll claim that the average (there’s that word again) Blue Hen fan is 86 years old, is still amazed by non-leather helmets, really misses the Wing T offense, and doesn’t care so much about who wins or loses as long as the game ends in time to get home in time for The McGlaughlin Group. They’ll tell tales of a stadium so foul and decrepit, it has piss walls instead of toilets. And well, all of those things are absolutely true. But you still should love it when JMU and Delaware get together.
The Blue Hens really were among the cream of the FCS crops for years. The JMU vs. Delaware series has produced some truly epic moments. Delaware was once the measuring stick by which many FCS programs (including possibly JMU) measured themselves. Sure, UD has definitely been playing below its program’s lofty standards, but the Blue Hens are not out. Far from it. UD is much more likely just a sleeping giant. Which is good. Because as much as we love to hate them, FCS football is definitely better when the Blue Hens are good. In fact in our ideal world, they would be a Top 5 team every year (with JMU being a Top 4 team that routinely beats them of course.)
Relatively Uniformed Preseason Prediction
Middle of the pack. Sleeping giant or not, we don’t see UD awaking this season. The Blue Hens should be good enough to distance themselves from the dregs of the league, but probably won’t be able to keep up with the real contenders week in and week out. Pencil them in for an upset of at least one top 4 CAA team, offset by a head-scratching loss or two. They’re a generic team worthy of a generic prediction. We think they’ll end up about the same as last year, 6-5 and left out of the playoffs.
Daniel Brown, JMU graduate! TOUCHDOWN! #JMUDukespic.twitter.com/gwlsBCw3T4
— Jodi Scott Root (@JodiScottRoot) August 23, 2015
Former JMU receiver Daniel Brown scored his first professional touchdown in the Ravens’ preseason game last night. As an undrafted free agent trying to make the team, Brown has his work cut out for him. He took advantage of his opportunity on the field last night however, snagging this pass from QB Bryn Renner and going in for six late in the fourth quarter. Check out the official broadcast video over on NFL.com if you want to hear the announcers rave about the catch a bit. It really was a heck of a catch.
…well, the 2015-16 year in JMU Athletics has finally reached us. And if you’ve stayed with our filler, mailing-it-in, often antagonistic or downright offensive, and tortured bored out of our minds selves this summer, well just bless your sweet little heart.
But here we go as the year kicks off with the Women’s Soccer team hosting a seasoning open mini-tourney in the ‘Burg. They host Georgetown at U-Park at 7 p.m. today (if you’re reading this Friday) and follow that up with Seton Hall on Sunday (W&M is also in town facing an opposite schedule but the Dukes won’t face the Tribe this weekend). Hope the ladies can get this year off to an auspices start!
We were #TeamTaylor way before it was cool!
We’d also be remiss if we didn’t mention our [still and forever] favorite squad (at least as long as Taylor West is in school) Field Hockey who scrimmages Syracuse in the hinterlands of Pennsyltucky today as well. With another year remaining for the Reitano/le Vatte/Hubert/Stijntjes core backing her up and hopefully some more speedy underclassmen, this team is primed for a HUGE year in CAA play and hopefully beyond.
Finally, we’re a little late to the game, but JMU’s own Strength of the Unit series is a great primer for football season. The newest installment, on the Receiving corps, is one of the best (and we’re excited about the WR position this year with a great combo of returning players and newcomers).
Two weeks from today, we’ll be feasting on previewing Football’s home opener and Beer of the Week. Until then, enjoy some great appetizers!
Matt DiBennedeto is your new favorite NASCAR driver. At least, he’ll be driving your favorite car in the Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond International Raceway on September 12. Because Dibennedeto’s car will be all decked out in purple and gold and sporting our very own Duke Dog on the hood. And it’s beautiful.
Dibennedeto is a Sprint Cup rookie driving the 83 car for BK Racing. The team is co-owned by Ron Devine, a JMU graduate from the class of 1978. Devine also served on the JMU Board of Visitors for eight years. In the official press release, Devine explained:
“James Madison University is a wonderful university that is nationally known. We are excited to be able to display the JMU logos on the national stage through NASCAR. As an alumnus, I was glad to provide this sponsorship for JMU and Athletics as a way to support its strategic plan, national branding efforts and overall university pride. I want to thank all of the JMU staff and especially the JMU Foundation for supporting this effort. Hopefully this will be the start of many efforts like this to come. Go Dukes!”
All that is true. It’s great exposure for JMU. Really though, we’re just happy we’ll get a chance to see Duke Dog go for a little cruise the lights at over 100 miles per hour. The race takes place the same night as the Dukes home game versus Lehigh, but we’d like to think the Duke Club has a nice spot on Godwin field set aside for the Duke Dog mobile at the remaining home games.
The 2015 NFL season starts again next month and fans are getting hyped for the new round of American football games. The NFL season culminates with the Super Bowl and next season’s Super Bowl is the 50th anniversary of the championship, so it’s one to watch.
With the first preseason match being played next week we’re getting close to the clash of the American football titans as they battle it out to get to the Super Bowl final.
The New York Jets are the bookies’ favourite to be knocked out of the initial geographical leagues without ever making it to the Super Bowl championships, along with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who have not had a great offseason. These teams are expected to be knocked out the quickest, coming dead last in the Super Bowl before it’s even begun. read more…
Seriously people, we’re getting down to single digits for some sports and for all of the conference disappointment we occasionally let rebuild in our minds over the summer, we are thrilled to be back to what really matters – it’s almost gameday baby! Though I’m not really sure how we could be any more excited than the players must be to see the new football locker room. Huge thank yous and shoutouts to the Alphas fundraising crew that’s been making this happen under the Withers regime. The minions are here to support you when the time is right.
Also, in JMUSB-relevant news, 10 days till Field Hockey! (Women’s Soccer has the first official game of the year this Friday, but as our three long-time readers know, it’s Field Hockey all day and #TeamTWest all the time).
Coach Withers and the Dukes are back at practicing getting ready for the season. While the players pretty much work year round, it was definitely a long offseason for fans. And as much as some of us love JMU football, it’s not like we’re there’s top notch, round the clock coverage. In fact, Dukes’ coverage is so lacking that you unfortunate souls have decided its actually worth your time to read this blog. So let’s quickly recap the major stories of the offseason before jumping into the real preseason discussion.
Where We Left You
The first year of the Everett Withers Era ended with a bitter home loss to Liberty in round 1 of the playoffs, but it was still a pretty great debut. The Dukes started off slow, but once Vad Lee and the offense got rolling the wins started piling up. The defense took most of the season to adjust to a 3-4, and still was far from lights out. The offense, behind a couple of hot shot co-offensive coordinators, was a bit of a juggernaut though.
About Those Hot-Shot Co-Offensive Coordinators
Gone and gone. The success Brad Davis and Drew Mehringer had coordinating the Dukes offense did not go unnoticed. As a result, both young coaches were snatched up by other programs. Davis left for East Carolina, where he’ll coach the offensive line. Mehringer returned to him home state of Texas to join the Houston Cougar coaching staff.
And That Defense With Growing Pains
The coordinator on that side of the ball, Brandon Staley, is gone too. He returned to John Carroll University in Ohio, where he coached prior to joining the JMU program.
Tell Me the Defense At Least Features Some More Experienced Players
Actually three players, including two very talented defensive starters, got kicked off the team.
This Isn’t Fun to Read
You ever heard the saying, “We don’t make the news, we just report it.”? Yeah. Well we don’t even report the news. We wait for others to report it and then we just aggregate it. Then maybe we’ll add some snarky joke. Anyway, don’t blame us.
Tell Us Something Good
Vad is back. And Vad is Rad.
More Good Stuff Please
While it sucks to lose coordinators on both sides of the ball, it’s also a sign that Withers has a good eye for talent. Seeing Davis and Mehringer go is particularly rough, but there’s no reason to believe that either are irreplaceable. In fact, there’s reason to be optimistic that the guys Withers’ hired or promoted to serve as coordinators. Steve Sisa will take control of the defense after coaching the safeties last season. Last year’s defense was slow to adjust to the new scheme. Maintaining some consistency by allowing Sisa to continue working with the same system, is better than starting all over again.
On the offensive side of the ball, Withers has tapped Brett Elliot and Zak Kuhr to serve as co-coordinators. Like Mehringer, Elliott comes to JMU young and hungry after a low level position at a P5 school (Mississippi State). Kuhr was in charge of JMU’s running backs last year. Under his leadership, the Dukes rushed for over 200 yards a game. With a more mature and comfortable Lee, the offense could be even better under Elliott and Kuhr than it was under Mehringer and Davis.
That’s the glass half-full version of the coaching situation. It might take a bit more spin to see the positive in 3 players getting kicked off the team, but it’s still possible. Jimmy Moreland and Raheem Stallings were impact players for the D. Withers talked a big game about accountability and players living up to his high standards. Not bending the rules for even the most talented players, shows how serious is and sets a good tone for the program. As we’ve seen with the basketball team, sometimes it’s better to just cut the cord and set a tone, than make exceptions for talent.
So Things Are Gonna Be Alright
We think so. The players seem to buy into what Withers is selling. And he and the coaches convinced some pretty damn good players to join the squad.
That’s Good. What Else?
We weren’t kidding about Vad being Rad.
Now We’re Talking
Plus, there’s Gage Steele, Taylor Reynolds, Ish Hyman, Brandon Ravenel, Khalid Abdullah, Deane Cheatham, Ascene Jacques, Austin Lane, and a whole bunch of big uglies. There is talent on this roster. After some less than thrilling offense in the final years of the previous regime, the Dukes are now playing a fun and exciting football. And the defense made strides last year and should be much more comfortable in the 3-4. There aren’t many easy outs in CAA Football (there are a few though…looking at you URI and Elon), but the Dukes definitely have the talent to win it.
Uniforms are a topic near and dear to our hearts. No detail is too small for us to discuss for hours over a few adult beverages. It turns out that at least 3 other people obsess over them like we do. Maybe more actually. Nick Phillips, Ryan Barto, and Sean Petrizzi broke down the new JMU football uniforms together and offered to share their thoughts with us on the blog. Let us know what you think in the comments.
Our Take: The 2015 JMU Football Uniforms
Let’s face it, the dog days of summer are upon us. Sure, the NL East race is starting to heat up and Ronda Rousey is hotter than ever (see what we did there?..), but we can all agree that the daily coverage over the PSI of a football has officially run its course. And even though Fall camps are finally cranking up and a different hype video set to the “300” movie soundtrack drops every day, we’re still a good month or so out from the college football season opener.
So when JMU’s new home uniforms were leaked on social media last week, it inevitably gave us football die-hards a talking point to get through another week. The three of us have discussed and here are our takeaways:
1. Consistency
With the new home purples, it is refreshing to see that JMU tried to stay consistent with the black jerseys that were such a huge hit when they debuted at Homecoming last year. You’ll notice that the “Madison” wordmark on the chest, the numbers font, and the block “M” shield on the collar are the same on both. And while we wish the shoulder sleeve stripes on each jersey were the same, we’re willing to let this slide.
Instagram image courtesy of @zachjmu
However, if you look closely (specifically at the collar) you’ll notice that the jerseys are actually two completely different Nike templates. The black jersey is Nike’s “Speed Machine” template. Featured by the Flywire collar, this jersey was debuted by Oregon in the 2011 BCS National Championship and can be seen on Sundays by the majority of teams in the NFL. The new purple JMU design is actually Nike’s “Mach Speed” design, which eliminated the Flywire collar and was featured last year by Ohio State, Alabama, FSU, and Oregon in the CFB Playoff games.
One of our major gripes with past years uniform sets is the fact that often times the Home, Away, and multiple alternate jerseys were all of different templates. We do acknowledge, however, that as a FCS school without the mega apparel contracts of FBS powerhouses, sometimes updating the team’s look means only adding one new jersey each year. Now, what remains to be seen is whether or not last year’s Away Whites and Alternate Golds will also get the Nike “Mach Speed” update.. We sure hope so.
We know our OCD is in full-effect here, but the attention to detail here is important when building the identity for a team’s brand.
2. Madison Overload
On one side, we like fact that the wordmark “Madison” is prominently stitched across the chest. Since the early 2000’s, the team has worn “Madison” across its chest, which has allowed for consistency and has been great for branding over the last decade and a half. However, based on the image that was leaked, it appears that “Madison” is also featured not only on one, but both pant legs. Does this make or break the entire get-up? No, but just because you can put large text down each pant leg doesn’t mean you should. We feel this screams “FCS” and resembles gaudy biker shorts more than football pants. Plus, for a school that very rarely refers to itself as “Madison,” it’s interesting that the team favored the three “Madison” wordmarks over the nowhere-to-be-found “JMU” logo. More on that later…
3. What’s with the block “M”?
The block “M” featured on the collar shield doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. The shield itself is fine and mirrors the industry standard, but we are not Michigan. In none of the current JMU branding and logos is a block “M” ever featured, and this just seems to be another example of “just because you can doesn’t me you should.” This would have been a perfect spot to showcase the “JMU” logo or even the Duke Dog head logo (see TCU example).
4. Madison vs. JMU
Our university has a bit of an identity problem. As the athletic program has seemingly moved more towards the “JMU” wordmark logo, removing the Duke Dog from atop the letters, it is interesting that the school’s most prominent and top revenue grossing sport is so keen on pushing “Madison”. When someone asks where you attended college, 99% of people respond with, “JMU,” with the occasional “James Madison” if you live outside of the Mid-Atlantic.
From a branding aspect, we’ve always likened JMU to the LSUs, USCs, and TCUs of the world. How many times do you hear, “I went to Louisiana State University?” The truth is, we actually love the use of “Madison.” But since it carries little to no weight in the professional or athletic worlds, and none of the university’s branding (outside of the football uniforms) is geared towards using it, why would we push it? Before taking that next big leap to the big boys, it is obvious the university needs to tighten up its branding.
5. We get it.
Look, while we may favor the more traditional uniform looks, we fully understand why JMU has gone this direction with their uniforms. In order to appeal to the #Swag crowd and new recruits, it’s more important than ever to make sure you’re staying current with the latest styles and trends. Shoot, some recruits will choose a school based solely on their apparel sponsor and school colors. Chrome helmets, Pro Combat, 455 different uniform combinations…we get it. And in all honesty, it’s nice to see JMU outfitted in the latest and greatest “Mach Speed” template this year (the first year it’s officially available to schools) because it proves how seriously this coaching staff is about changing the culture of our football program.
We’d like to here y’all’s thoughts. Do you favor the “Pro Combat” trends? Are we over-analyzing all this? Does anyone else even care?
Charles Haley became the first former JMU football player to be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday. The five time Pro-Bowler and owner of a record 5 Super Bowl rings did his school proud.
Haley was a terror on the field and for years was well known for his antics off it. It turned out however, that those antics came as a result of Haley’s battle with mental illness. It’s a topic he addressed head on during his speech. He explained:
My life spiraled out of control for years, for years, but today, guys, I am getting back into the locker room, to my teammates, and tell them guys the mistakes that I’ve made, and that the only way that you can grow is that you’ve got to ask for help.
I walked into the league a 22-year-old man with a 16-year-old inside of me screaming for help, and I would not ask for it. I would not ask for that help. But today, guys, I take my medicine every day, and I try to inspire others to do the same, and that’s because I finally listened and thank you.
Of course the speech wasn’t entirely about Haley’s mental health, but it was nice to see him speak so openly and honestly about something so personal. He also shared many stories and threw in a pretty good Jerry Jones impression for good measure. The speech drew rave reviews overall. It was a great moment for Haley and for the JMU Football program.
It’s all happening. JMU football is back in swing. Players reported back to campus today and the Road to Frisco begins tomorrow. That’s right, the first practice of the 2015 season is Monday. This means real games will be here soon. We’re excited a little bit. OK, a lot.
