Before we move on to a promising start to hoops and tomorrow night’s big home game against a very strong Kent St. team (see their drubbing of WVU last week), here’s our season wrapup on the gridiron.<\/p>\n
The NDSU Game<\/strong><\/p>\n Rob said it very well postgame, but it’s worth reiterating.\u00a0 While a 2nd round exit didn’t meet my expectations coming into the season, it felt about right given everything that’s happened since the 2010 season ended.\u00a0 In the end, the Dukes just got beat by a better team on Saturday.\u00a0 Two big botches on the kickoffs out of bounds gave NDSU opportunities and they made two huge plays (a 53 yard FG and the beast McNorton run that was probably aided by the Pat Williams and Tavieon Cuffee injuries earlier in the game).\u00a0 That was really the difference.\u00a0 In some ways it felt refreshing to walk away from a frustrating Dukes “result” without actually being particularly frustrated\u00a0at anything\u00a0specifically self-inflicted.\u00a0 The playcalling and coaching were aggressive, pass-happy, and clearly showed the staff understood what they were up against.\u00a0 Thorpe missed one throw in the 2nd half horribly, but depsite message-board ranting about his play, I didn’t find any way to put this one on JT.\u00a0 He even made some mature decisions to get rid of the ball a few times in a defensive struggle that was closer than the final score and idiot ESPN commentator Jay Harris made it out to be throughout.\u00a0 Defense held them in as usual and played their hearts out, but as has been the case all season, the Dukes could never find the huge turnover or special teams play to change the game.\u00a0 Again, the kickoffs were killer, but tough to heap too much blame on Cam Starke, who only one two games for the the Dukes this year.<\/p>\n The Season<\/strong><\/p>\n The truth is this 2nd round loss started a long, long time ago.\u00a0 Yes, these are excuses but we need to acknowledge them so as\u00a0to not lose sight of the actual accomplishments of the group in pads when the whistle blew Saturday.\u00a0 This loss really started with Jon Williams and the Rose brothers offseason shenanigans last summer.\u00a0 In the end, the biggest blow to the Dukes season was probably\u00a0losing Emmons and O’Neill at the two defensive tackle spots early in the season.\u00a0 This turned the defense from dominant to very good, reduced QB pressure against the pass and dominance against the run and put huge pressure on the back seven.\u00a0 Wonder if all those short passes we all hated giving up might’ve been a different story with those two in the lineup more often?\u00a0 Moving on, we can obviously thank our QB for missing five games of which the Dukes lost two very tight ones he might’ve contributed in.\u00a0 One more win, and certainly two, and the Dukes definitely wouldn’t have beent\u00a0playing the seeded Bison Saturday.\u00a0 And finally, a big shoutout to our AD and co. for putting us on\u00a0long road trips the last three straight weeks.\u00a0 The DLine injuries can’t be accounted for and it always takes some breaks to go deep, but many of those others are preventable and let’s all hope JMU can avoid the same fate in 2012.<\/p>\n Having said all that, it’s really hard not to be proud of the effort the team turned in the last five weeks and the way they hung in there through all of that the last year.\u00a0 HUGE credit to the seniors on this team too for their leadership throughout, particularly Vidal Nelson, Pat Williams, and Roane Babington.\u00a0 Oh yeah, and of course we’re gonna miss JMUSB favorite DJ Bryant even if he couldn’t depart the field without one last personal foul.<\/p>\n The biggest thing to remember about the 2011 season is that the Dukes accomplished their two most important goals, if not their most audacious.\u00a0 JMU averaged 25,000 fans at Bridgeforth and the Dukes made the playoffs (where they even won a game).\u00a0 Those were the most important things to ensuring long-term success and no matter your position on offensive creativity (or lack thereof), the need for an OC, stale coaching jobs, or weed-smoking QB’s, you cannot deny those two accomplishments and what they mean to next year and beyond.<\/p>\n Next Season<\/strong><\/p>\n Can’t remember exactly when it was, but much-maligned AD Jeff Bourne once said his expectation was that JMU is in contention for the playoffs every year and that they make a DEEP run at least once every four years.\u00a0 If two 6-5 seasons and a second-round 8-5 playoff team are the in between, with 25k and a VT win thrown in for good measure, those of us whining may need to reexamine our priorities.\u00a0 Next year is 2012 and I don’t need to remind you how the Dukes performed in ’04 and ’08.<\/p>\n If we’ve learned anything during our “rebuilding” the last couple of years, it’s that you can’t project the future roster (Corwin Acker, Jon Williams, Nick Emmons where are you??).\u00a0 But one thing’s for sure, next year’s team “should” be even better if they can find some true leaders in the locker room.\u00a0 The offense ONLY loses Long and Babington and this O-Line\/TE\/RB group could be special next season.\u00a0 Of course a transfer D-Linemen or playmaker (WR\/KR type) sure wouldn’t hurt either.\u00a0 Personally, I think this team can win with Thorpe, but we’ve got eight months for that debate.<\/p>\n And last but not least, Mickey has two years left on his deal, so barring fisticuffs between he and President Alger during their initial meeting or his taking driving lessons from a Richmond coach, you can go ahead and set the over\/under on the first visor toss for about six minutes into the season opener next season.\u00a0 Needless to say, however, next year will be determinative on the future of this staff.<\/p>\n Oh yeah, and we get to rent the Keg Bus for a trip to FedEx to play the real Mountaineers!\u00a0 (and don’t tell us about the Big 12\/WVU might cancel stuff unless it actually happens – the buyout they’d owe Danny Snyder makes it much more likely poor cross-state “rival” Marshall will be the one left out in the cold if necessary).<\/p>\n Now, let’s all turn our attention the Humpty Dance!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n