Matchup: #6 Northern Iowa Panthers (10-4, 6-2 MVFC) at #2 JMU Dukes (12-1, 8-0 CAA)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kickoff: 7:00 p.m. Friday, Bridgeforth Stadium, Harrisonburg, VA<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Weather: As rough as it gets. Seriously, pretty sure we can all agree that 29 and snowing would even be way preferable to 35 and raining, but here we are. The good news is that we don’t think the heavy stuff is going to come down for a few more hours!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Broadcast: ESPN2 – with the very solid Anish Shroff on the call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Boys in the Desert: JMU – 19.5 O\/U 47, ML -1250. This line has gone up all week and seems inflated based on the dummy public underrating of UNI. In any case, the high spread doesn’t match the money line so stay away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Bit About Northern Iowa<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A regional public in the Cedar-Falls\/Waterloo area, UNI is\nabout the same size JMU was 25 years ago with just over 10,000 students. And similar\nto JMU, they began as the \u201cIowa State Normal School\u201d and then the \u201cIowa State Teachers\nCollege.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n They play in the very cool \u201cUNI-Dome.\u201d Oddly, they\u2019ve been a 1-AA\/FCS powerhouse since just about the time JMU became one \u2013 losing the title game in \u201905 to App. St. and spending most of \u201907 at #1. But the teams have never met before. As we all know, Kurt Warner led the Panthers before his HOF career in the NFL. Like JMU, UNI is fairly well-rounded with their Athletics\u2019 program, frequently near the top of Valley\u2019s strong hoops\u2019 conference and having authored a memorable upset of Kansas in the big dance a few years back. And like seemingly all Iowans, they care more than anyone else about wrestling, where they compete in the Big 12 with some of the true big boys of the sport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, for the old-heads on the message boards, one unfortunate fact is that UNI has one of the single-worst posters on the internet. He makes Soft Houston\u2019s PodKnows look alright. He\u2019s really right on par with ODuh\u2019s Razor and the guy who almost ruined Montana\u2019s whole program in terms of being a true ignorant douche-canoe. It sucks cause otherwise their fans seem pretty cool and it\u2019s always hard to believe in FCS when one guy spoils a whole community\u2019s opinion of a fanbase. <\/p>\n\n\n\n How UNI Can Win<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Panthers need to ride their legit Top-10 defense and the\nbad weather to an ugly win. Really it\u2019s the same blueprint they followed last\nweek when they recovered from a slow start and just generally mucked up the\ngame in upsetting South Dakota St. 13-10 on the road. Even in the first round,\nthey basically followed that script when they suffocated San Diego\u2019s\nhigh-flying offense in a 17-3 snoozer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n UNI created turnovers in both games, most notably what\nbecame the game-winning pick six in their first rounder against the Toreros,\nand they\u2019ll likely need to so again. Their 7th<\/sup> ranked Defense has\ngiven up just 10 points or less in six of their last seven contests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On offense though, the Panthers have scored 30 just three times all year and scraped out 20 only once in their last five after losing so many of their weapons to injury. Pre-season All-American TE Briley Moore has been out since Week 1 when he was hurt at Iowa St. (though notably he could return this week and still redshirt). Top RB Hoosman has been missing for some time. And they lost top WR Isaiah Weston last week (questionable for this week). But they\u2019ve been grinding the clock with Senior RB Trevor Allen and elusive r-Fr. QB Will McElvain. Nothing explosive \u2013 especially if they\u2019re without Weston \u2013 but UNI has shown they\u2019re capable of surviving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How JMU Can Win<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Protect the football. Hate to simplify this too much and really don\u2019t mean to disrespect a gritty UNI team that has played arguably the toughest schedule in the country (Weber and Iowa St. out of conference plus NDSU, SDSU (2x), and ISU in the Valley. But they can\u2019t score. And they\u2019re massively banged up on offense. And JMU doesn\u2019t haven\u2019t anyone suspended (yet) for targeting this week. As good as UNI\u2019s defense has been, it\u2019s going to take more than 13 points, maybe considerably more, to beat the Dukes in BFS. If the Dukes protect the football, they should win this game. Forget the weather and handle their business and JMU will be back with better weather and a way better crowd a week from now. Really the best thing the Dukes beyond taking care of the ball is show just how dominant they are capable of being on the defensive side against what could be an overmatched unit in that matchup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Beer of the Week<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Bourbon. Cold. Dark. Perfect. Nuff said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Official JMUSB Prediction<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n JMU 30, UNI 9 <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ugly. Ruthlessly effective.<\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/DiNucci_Ben.jpg?resize=1024%2C576\")
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