Everett Withers got his first win as head coach of JMU yesterday. After finding themselves down 21-10 at the half, the Dukes stormed back to beat the Lehigh Mountain Hawks 31-28. Lehigh drove down the field and had a chance to tie it with a 27 yard field goal attempt with 51 seconds remaining. Freshman cornerback Jimmy Moreland blocked the kick though and the Dukes ran out the clock. At the risk of over-simplifying things, the first half was not fun to watch and the second half was a lot of fun to watch.
JMU’s first half featured a whopping 296 yards of offense. Unfortunately, it also featured a overthrown pass to a wide open receiver in the end zone, a dropped pass that could have been six, a missed FG, and several untimely penalties. Despite moving up and down the field, the mistakes resulted in JMU only scoring 10 points. Lehigh’s offense was also moving, equaling the Dukes’ 296 yards. Fewer mistakes for the Mountain Hawks enabled them to convert that production into 21 points and an 11 point halftime lead however.
After an extended halftime break due to a lightning delay, JMU stormed back (pun intended). Pulling himself together after a rough first half throwing the ball, Vad Lee looked more comfortable and passed much more effectively. The Dukes put together scoring drives of 66, 99, and 98 yards. With their backs against the wall, the offense delivered. And the defense played a quintessential bend but don’t break final two quarters. The Mountain Hawks moved the ball, but the Dukes managed to limit them to only 7 points in the second half. Jimmy Moreland saved the day with a huge blocked FG to prevent Lehigh from tying it and seal the Dukes’ win. Below are a few quick thoughts on the game.
606, 322, 284
Those numbers equate to JMU’s yards of total offense, rushing yards, and passing yards respectively. While the mistakes that limited the Dukes to only 10 points in the first half were frustrating, they’re also correctable. And it’s very encouraging that the offense was able to move the ball so well. Lee looked completely out of sorts in the first half, completing only 9 of 22 passes. He calmed down and managed to go 11 for 15 after the break. It would be nice to see him and Daniel Brown connect more, but his second half play was impressive. He took command of the offense and the Dukes scored in bunches. Good stuff.
Rushing wise, the Dukes were overpowering. Khalid Abdullah got dinged up and didn’t play in the second half, but he cruised to 86 yards in limited action. Freshman John Miller carried the load in Abdullah’s absence and finished with 107 yards on 16 carries. JMU has a ton of talent at running back and an offensive line that was clearing huge holes all day against Lehigh. If yesterday’s effort is a sign of things to come, we could see some great running performances down the line.
98, 287
That’s the average number of yards rushing JMU allowed per game last season, followed by the number of yards rushing the Dukes gave up yesterday. Credit to Lehigh QB Nick Shafnisky and his teammates who played very well, but JMU simply cannot expect to win if they let teams move the ball like Lehigh did. Lehigh had 504 yards of total offense. They ran the ball between the tackles and they ran around the edges. JMU really struggled playing contain and gave Lehigh a lot of space. Hopefully the D is just experiencing growing pains as it adjusts to the 3-4, but there is work to do. Lehigh is a pretty good team with a good QB. The CAA has some better than good QBs who will pick JMU apart if they don’t fix some of these issues though.
22
That’s the number of months since JMU beat Maine in Orono for their last road win prior to yesterday’s victory in Bethlehem. That puts things in perspective. It’s only one game, and it doesn’t mean JMU is going to roll through the CAA, but it was a gutsy win. Obviously, there were plenty of mistakes early and we were as frustrated as anyone in the heat of the moment. The team hung in there and battled in the second half, outscoring Lehigh 21-7. While it would have been great to see JMU take control from the start, the team showed a lot of resolve turning things around. There are things that have to be fixed, and fixed quickly before CAA play starts. There is a whole lot of talent on JMU’s roster though. And the win was a nice step forward after a disappointing outing at Maryland.
The Dukes face Lehigh at 12:30 today. The term “must win” is grossly overused, but yeah, this is a big one for week 2. Consider this your open thread for all pre-game, in-game, and post-game conversation. Enjoy the game. Let’s Go! Let’s Go! Let’s Go!
After further consideration the New Era will start this week. At least we hope it will. Coming off a disappointing loss to Maryland, JMU travels 271 miles north to take on Lehigh from the Patriot League this Saturday. It’s a chance to right the ship and get to .500 for the Dukes, and the season opener for the Mountain Hawks.
The Facts
Match-up: JMU Dukes (0-1, 0-0 CAA) vs. Lehigh Mountain Hawks (0-0)
Kickoff: 12:30 PM at Lehigh’s Goodman Stadium
Weather: High of 88 with 80% of thunderstorms
Broadcast: Streamed (for free) here. JMU audio available via Madizone.
We’re in just our second week of our brand new experiment to gauge JMU fan confidence. We’ve asked the same question, “Are the Dukes Playoff Bound?”, twice now. Once before the Maryland game, and once after. The Dukes’ loss was either incredibly enlightening, or we have a rather reactionary fan base. Regardless, there was a pretty steep drop in fan confidence. Last week 84% of respondents thought JMU was a playoff team. This week only 56% believed that.
Fun for NC Triad Dukes
Anyone in the Greensboro area who’s looking for something to do tomorrow evening, can join Todd as he watches JMU soccer take on UNCG at 7:00 on the UNCG campus. He’s new to the area and would love to meet some other JMU fans or alums. He’ll be the guy in a JMU polo looking like your run of the mill unkept middle-aged who‘s wandered into the wrong place and will stand out as a non-parent, non-coach just by being there. Those are his words, not mine by the way. I actually think he’s a handsome young man. Younger than me at least.
Last week Matt won the prediction contest and as a result he got to write a guest post. In it, he reminds us the importance of having perspective and appreciating the little things. A reminder we could probably all use after last week’s disappointing result. Take it away Matt.
Yes, the Dukes’ loss to Maryland was disappointing. Terribly disappointing even. But JMU has a chance to get back on track with a road game at Lehigh Saturday. And we’d like to hear your prediction for the game. Let us know who you think will win and what the final score will be in the comments. The person who comes closest to nailing it (winner & score) will get to write a guest post. Pretty simple, right? Let us know who you think will win and Go Dukes!
[polldaddy poll=8280544]Last week we kicked of our new fan confidence poll and asked readers if they thought JMU was playoff bound. A resounding 84% of poll respondents said “yes” the Dukes will make the playoffs. Now we’re one game into the season and the Dukes are coming off a pretty severe loss to Maryland. Maybe you think the loss foretells a season of disaster. Maybe you think the Dukes’ performance can be written off as an anomaly. Regardless, we ask again. Are the Dukes making the playoffs?
So obviously that wasn’t pretty. In fact, it was just awful. Not even exactly painful, just really unentertaining, undisciplined, awful football if you can call it that. But we’re going through our normal Good, Bad, Ugly process of recapping the game and we all need to calm down about this one until we see the Lehigh game.
Reality Check/Reminder
Remember this was the start of a shitty year.
In 2004, when JMU won the Championship, the Dukes lost to West Virginia 45-10, and that was in Week 3 after two games to iron out the kinks. In 2008, when JMU had it’s best season ever (where it didn’t win the NC of course), the Dukes opened up with a similarly uninspired 31-7 loss to a then punching-bag Duke team. This weekend the following happened to other CAA squads picked ahead of the Dukes: CAA favorite New Hampshire lost 52-20. Delaware lost 62-0 to Pitt. Towson lost at home to CCSU. Stony Brook lost 13-7 at home to Bryant. William & Mary played well and still lost 34-9 to Virginia Tech. Maine won by the oh-so-flattering score of 10-6 at home over a MEAC team. Only Villanova’s painful 2OT loss in the Carrier Dome Friday night looked like any sign that a team might be really good. We’re not saying that justifies or excuses this game in any way, but it’s just to say I think we can reserve judgment on this season and the Withers era for at least one more week.
The Good
The secondary actually looked improved. This seems counterintuitive in a beatdown like this, but there were bright spots in the back (in fact, the avalanche of points in the first half was largely on the offense’s mistakes). In particular, Jimmy Moreland looks like a true baller and it was nice to see both Taylor Reynolds and Aaron Peak contributing positively at times.
Major injuries seem to have been avoided. No way we can overstate how big this is. Whether that was 52-7 or 31-20, a loss to an BCS team is just a loss to a BCS team when it come to FCS playoffs so this is big.
The Bad
Discipline and Penalties, especially early. Simply killed any chance the Dukes had of being competitive.
High snaps. Hate to pick on an individual player, but hard to ask Lee to do anything when he’s leaping to bring it down every time.
Both of these items are in the Bad, not the Ugly, however, because they can be fixed. On the other hand…
The Ugly
Gameplanning. It’s tough to say, but it sure looked to us like Vad Lee had instructions not to keep the ball (to protect himself?) on any read option action. Other than the over-amped, undisciplined start from the defense and special teams, it sure looked like the coaching staff trotted out the ole Mickey vanilla-in-our-FCS-take-our-check-and-get-on-the-bus game plan. New era?
Lack of pressure from the front seven. Maryland returned almost every starter on O from last year and we’re really hoping this is just a massive talent advantage on the O-Line, but for a unit that the coaches were touting as JMU’s best, the complete lack of pressure on Maryland QB CJ Brown was shockingly disturbing. This makes the ugly because I don’t know how you fix this one. Just an awful performance that put the secondary in dire straights all day. Not even the most improved secondary can cover forever. It should be noted that at least in the run game, the missing Gage Steele probably would’ve made a huge difference and we hope he was smartly held out and is on track to make it back soon, but even he probably wouldn’t have effected the missing rush.
Dukes in the League!
On a positive note, lots of good news on former Dukes in the pros this weekend.
Josh Wells made the 53 for the Jags. Akeem Jordan held on to make the 53 for the Skins (Mike Caussin was also IR’d by the Skins so may not be done yet). Jordan Stanton was signed to the Giants practice squad. And of course Arthur Moats will be suiting up for the Steelers and Earl Watford is expected to play a much bigger role for the Cardinals this year. Great work from all these guys and Go Dukes!
The Dukes kick off the 2014 season and a new era against the Maryland Terrapins this afternoon. Kick-off is at 3:30 and the game will be televised on the Big Ten Network. Audio will be available via Madizone. Consider this your open thread for all pre-game, in-game, and post-game chatter. Go Dukes. Beat Maryland.
Here. We. Go! Time for “juice” and all the hype and all the transfers to actually kick this thing off! And time to put away, or at least be pleasantly distracted from, the continuing disappointment that is the Dukes’ conference affiliation. And what better way to start the Coach Withers era than with a trip to a B1G Ten School – ha. We’ll go through our normal preview and then hopefully have a few extras if you’re like us and your attention is returning to the blog after the offseason. To get you warmed up, just a reminder of why college football, despite it’s obvious mountain of moral hazards, is the best!
The Basics
Stephon Diggs. Deon Long. Along with the rest of the college football world, we will continue to mock “Maryland in the B1G” until they prove they can hack it after decades in the weaker ACC (Petrizzi and Darden – the truth is the truth so can it). But those two names we started with – Diggs and Long – are 100% legitimately the best pair of wideouts in the new league this year. If Diggs stays healthy, he could be a first-round pick next year. And in case you missed it last year, the Dukes struggled mightily at the corner spot last year. So there’s that.
Maryland, despite it’s own questionable administrative decisions and overall athletics turmoil over the last few years, really does probably have it’s most talented and capable team in years, certainly during Head Coach Randy Edsall’s tenure. That said, the 22.5 point spread fails to reflect the fact that the Terps are still a vulnerable P5 team. Generally, we’re betting the Dukes will score points and be reasonably competitive up front on both sides of the ball, the question is whether our new style can keep up if this turns into a pinball game.
Vad Lee vs. Maryland
Don’t be fooled by any purple-drank aided parking lot boasting that Vad Lee led a blowout at Maryland by Georgia Tech two seasons ago. He played a lot that day behind then-starter Tevin Washington and scored two rushing TD’s, but GT only attempted two passes all game in a 33-13 blowout largely due to the fact the Terps were starting a freshman linebacker at QB after their entire depth chart was lost for the season to injury. We do love that Lee certainly won’t be intimidated by the opponent or the stage, but let’s not get carried away.
A Few Notes on Maryland, the state and the school
Rioting, arson, and burglary. That’s the list of things Maryland is better at than JMU.
Berger cookies are effing terrible, like BertieBotts vomit-flavored terrible. When combined with a Natty Boh that’s the Fat Amy Combo! Maryland likes to fancy itself a progressive leader among states, but that’s horseshit. Maryland is the only municipality that can wreck two great things – horse racing and casino gambling – at the same time in slow motion over two decades by simply allowing their politicians own competing graft to slow the process down and end up with hideous creatures from Dundalk playing $25 tables at some ghetto mall casino instead of allowing customers to enjoy themselves at a real facility with a little thoroughbred action along the way. You know what else sucks? Snake Dog IPA. Really, it’s putrid stuff, but somehow Flying Dog has convinced everyone they’re “Maryland’s Brewery” even though they started in Colorado and have cool labels. Every time we go somewhere like Wolf Trap that is begrudgingly finally beginning to sell something other than In-Bev or AB products, I get excited and then it’s such a letdown when the only concession is this crap. And no, Maryland does not get to claim Delaware, or Delaware’s Dogfish Head, as their own. Ray Rice.
Look Out for the Stripes
Just to warn you in advance, you’ll need to be prepared for some real ACC/P5 buttsaving from the referees in this one. When JMU last played up there I lost track of the sheer number of shady calls down the stretch of that one and then in OT. Just know that it’s coming and you’ll be able to stay a little calmer.
Beer of the Week
Summer weather and a big, beautiful tailgate require a big, beautiful summer beer. So put down that stupid, awful, disgusting pumpkin crap that shouldn’t be allowed on shelves at all, but at least not till October and go track down a Maine Beer Co. Lunch. This really is an almost perfect IPA (shut up hipsters, I still love
Beautiful!
a great IPA) from a really cool group of brewers and it’s absolutely perfect to prep for a big upset. And don’t let the 7.0% ABV scare you. Just remember, it’s Maryland, where there are always drunker assholes yelling “O’s, Stroh’s and Natty Boh’s.”
Coverage
If you can’t make it to College Park, this one’s on the B1G Ten Network. Good news is that you almost certainly have it on your cable or satellite provider. Bad news is it’s on the B1G Ten Network’s supplemental channel which may take some searching of the Guide. Here’s a very helpful tool for figuring it out in your area: Finder. Beware of the Nebraska/FAU game and make sure you keep looking around your dial though if that’s what you get. 3:30 p.m. by the way. Also, any NC folks that want to come watch in the new JMUSB HQ Annex in Greensboro, shoot us an email.
Official JMUSB Prediction
Dukes 38 – Terps 35 – Dukes shun the kicking game all day (which would be both fantastic and the correct play) before finally trying one to win it, which reverses the score from the last visit to College Park.
News and Notes
Here are a few things we love from the beginning of school down in the ‘Burg.
1) Purple Tennis Courts being installed! Rob may hate colored fields, but for my money, the more purple the better.
2) A pretty cool story from The Breeze about old friend of JMUSB ’99 alum Seth Burton (former Breeze Sports Editor that once assigned me a trip to UVA to cover baseball that I probably botched), who had an odd summer to say the least in his role as VP for Communications for the LA Clippers.
3) Newman Lake is drained. Again. Moist cesspool.
