{"id":6876,"date":"2014-08-24T21:10:38","date_gmt":"2014-08-25T01:10:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=6876"},"modified":"2014-08-27T10:02:23","modified_gmt":"2014-08-27T14:02:23","slug":"welcome-back-is-jmu-playoff-bound-or-what","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=6876","title":{"rendered":"Welcome Back, Is JMU Playoff Bound or What?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"JMU-STF<\/a>Well hello there. How have you been? It’s damn good to see you again. Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back<\/a>. After a long and relatively uneventful summer, we’re finally on the cusp of starting the 2014 JMU football season. It’s game week. It really is.<\/p>\n

Again, welcome back to those of you who (justly) took a break from reading our blog in the offseason. And a hearty thank you to those of you who were kind enough to use some of your precious goofing off and procrastinating time at work this summer perusing our blog. We don’t understand you (we can hardly even read this thing between the end of hoops and beginning of football, let alone produce any decent content) but we really do appreciate it. Sincerely. And if you’re a newbie, like all of you bright young faces from the\u00a0Class of 2018 (dear God), this might be the beginning of a beautiful and meaningful friendship. But probably not. We’ll try to have some fun though.<\/p>\n

Where was I? Oh yeah, it’s game week. Our beloved JMU Dukes open the 2014 season this Saturday against the Maryland Terrapins of the Big 10. The Dukes are turning the page and starting a new era. There’s new head coach Everett Withers and his staff of hungry young assistants. QB Vad Lee and a number of talented FBS transfers. A new, fast paced offense. You know all this. And if you don’t, go look it up because we’ve been through it already. It’s not time rehash. It’s time to start wearing purple and play some football.<\/p>\n

Here is how things are going to work this week, and most other game weeks. \u00a0You regulars should know by now, but we’ll explain it for the newbies. In the middle of the week, we’ll give you all a chance to make your picks for Saturday’s game. The person who comes closest to nailing it (winner & score) will get to write a guest post next week. Don’t be scared. Dozens of people have done it so far and nobody has embarrassed themselves yet (that’s our job). We’ll also have a Friday preview, complete with our Beer of the Week, and a healthy dose of mocking of the opponent (all in good fun). Since this is the opening week, we’re also going to try to sneak in our season preview. And if any other news breaks or we feel extra motivated, we’ll write a few more posts.<\/p>\n

There is one new idea we’d like to try out this year. It’s pretty simple. We’d like to take the pulse of the JMU fan base throughout the season. To do that, we’re going to post a very simple poll with one question, “Do you think JMU is playoff bound?” each week, or every few weeks. We’ll leave the poll open until Friday night. Then we’ll track the results throughout the season and see how things change from week to week.<\/p>\n

At least that’s what we hope to do. If none of you actually vote in the poll, we’ll probably just bag it. But let’s be confident and assume that this will be a rousing success and the one true measure of JMU fans’ confidence. So without further ado, let us know if you think the Dukes will be back in the playoffs or not.<\/p>\n

[polldaddy poll=8264894]<\/p>\n