{"id":12099,"date":"2026-09-02T08:37:56","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T12:37:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=12099"},"modified":"2026-09-02T08:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T12:44:10","slug":"its-jmu-vs-liberty-and-no-one-could-possibly-preview-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=12099","title":{"rendered":"It’s JMU vs. Liberty, and No One Could Possibly Preview This"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

JMU football will kick off the 2026 season on Saturday with much fanfare in front of a raucous, sellout crowd. The stakes are at least semi-meaningful, as the Dukes will put their 22-game winning streak against in-state opponents on the line. The opponent is Liberty, who isn\u2019t quite an official rival, but it\u2019s also a team any JMU fan with a social media presence probably wants to beat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Normally for key games, season-openers, and other in-state detritus, I like to write game preview a la the days of yore. But we\u2019re all friends here, so let\u2019s just be totally candid \u2013 there\u2019s no real way to write a game preview for this week. I left Harrisonburg years ago. I still talk to people close to the program, but I\u2019m not at preseason camp anymore. I don\u2019t attend practices anymore. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, I\u2019ve had no exposure to the team, and so it\u2019s hard to provide any kind of meaningful analysis of what Saturday will look like. For that, I\u2019d recommend a visit to the DNR\u2019s Sports page<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So instead of our usual fanfare, I thought the fairest and most honest two-dimensional preview I could offer would be a visual look at the roster turnover. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you don\u2019t obsessively follow personnel movement like it\u2019s the north star, the one thing to know about the start of this season is that JMU is mostly starting over \u2013 again. As was the case with the 2024 campaign, much of the previous roster has either graduated or walked out the door to follow their old coach to a new team. That\u2019s the way the world works now in college football, so we offer no ill will and hope everyone succeeds in their next ventures in the Hollywood hills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nonetheless, if you look at this year\u2019s starting 22 next to last year\u2019s, you\u2019ll understand how deep the reset is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve listed the 2025 starters here, alongside my projection of what the starters could<\/em> look like. Returners are bolded, and offseason transfers are italicized. I\u2019ve given priority to ETSU transfers who arrived with new offensive coordinator Cam Aiken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not the Gospel of Napier here. I can be wrong about any or all of this. But it\u2019s a guess at what we might see on Saturday when the Dukes take the field against Liberty. And the point of this exercise is to highlight just how different this year\u2019s team will be from last year\u2019s team that ended the season in the College Football Playoff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JMU has weathered massive changes in the last five years more than once, and so the program will surely weather these, too. But as is the case where there\u2019s any massive institutional turnover, some growing pains are to be expected. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2024, those growing pains involved slow starts, unforced errors, and losses to less talented teams. If JMU experiences something similar this year \u2013 especially in the first month of the season \u2013 this chart is a good place to come back to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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