{"id":7844,"date":"2015-07-29T06:48:25","date_gmt":"2015-07-29T10:48:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=7844"},"modified":"2015-07-29T06:48:25","modified_gmt":"2015-07-29T10:48:25","slug":"jmu-picked-to-finish-second-at-caa-football-media-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=7844","title":{"rendered":"JMU Picked to Finish Second at CAA Football Media Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gwmGcIP3BAc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\nAnother CAA Football Media Day has come and gone. Today&#8217;s event took place at M&amp;T Bank Stadium in lovely Baltimore, Maryland and it unofficially kicked off the 2015 CAA Football season. Or preseason. In any case, it&#8217;s finally time to start talking football.<\/p>\n<p>The highlight of the event is the release of the CAA Preseason Poll and All CAA Teams. As we expected, Villanova, JMU, and New Hampshire took the top three spots. Nova is a deserving pick. The Wildcats return a wealth of talent including the reigning Walter Payton Award winning and 2014 All CAA First Team QB, John Robertson. The team managed to finish second in the league last year, with a record of 11-3 overall and 7-1 in CAA play. UNH won the CAA last season and earned the #1 overall seed in the FCS playoffs before bowing out in the semifinals. New Hampshire hasn&#8217;t missed the playoffs since before JMU won its National Championship.<\/p>\n<p>Our beloved Dukes were picked to finish second in the league. After a slow start last year, JMU rallied behind the play of do everything QB Vad Lee. As great a season as John Robertson had, Lee was right there with him. With a full (record setting) season under his belt, Lee could be even better this year. JMU will be replacing several key players on defense however. Realistically, you could make an argument for picking JMU, UNH, or Nova first and no reasonable person would disagree. Any one of those teams could win the league, as could a W&amp;M or UR if they catch a few breaks.<\/p>\n<p>In only its second year in the league, poor Elon was picked to finish dead last behind the eternally struggling Rhode Island Rams. Elon didn&#8217;t win a game last year and is probably the only team in the league that actually wishes Georgia State was around. The full predicted order of finish can be found here.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the Preseason Poll, the Preseason All CAA Teams were also announced. Villanova picked up both the Offensive and Defensive Players of the Year, which were predicted to go to John Robertson and linebacker Don Cherry respectively. The Dukes were shut out defensively (cough, Taylor Reynolds, cough), but tight end Deane Cheatham and lineman Mitch Kirsch were honored with offensive selections.<\/p>\n<p>Preseason honors are fun, but essentially pointless. JMU will need to earn a spot at the top of the league and a playoff bid that typically goes with it on Saturdays this Fall. Likewise, there are more than a few Dukes who could play their way onto the postseason All CAA teams. John Robertson is a worthy honoree, but he&#8217;s by no means a lock for any postseason honors. As we all know, Vad is rad and UNH&#8217;s Sean Goldrich have the talent to put up big numbers all year. There is plenty of talent across the board in the CAA this season. And it&#8217;s almost time to watch it in action.<\/p>\n<iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fjmusportsblog.com%2F%3Fp%3D7844&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=true&amp;width=450&amp;action=like&amp;colorscheme=light&amp;height=80\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:80px;\" allowTransparency=\"true\"><\/iframe>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Another CAA Football Media Day has come and gone. Today&#8217;s event took place at M&amp;T Bank Stadium in lovely Baltimore, Maryland and it unofficially kicked off the 2015 CAA Football season. Or preseason. In any case, it&#8217;s finally time to start talking football. The highlight of the event is the release of the CAA Preseason [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1113,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=1113","url_meta":{"origin":7844,"position":0},"title":"Dukes Picked to Finish Fourth","date":"July 28, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The CAA preseason poll and all conference teams were officially announced at CAA Media Day. The league's coaches and media picked JMU to finish fourth. Before anybody freaks out, let's remember that the CAA is no longer a 2 division league so if the Dukes actually finish fourth, they'd be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Football&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/mick-at-media-day-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4139,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=4139","url_meta":{"origin":7844,"position":1},"title":"JMU Lands 4 on All-CAA Teams and is Picked to Finish 3rd in CAA","date":"July 25, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The 2012 CAA Football Media Day doesn't even start for a few hours, but someone had an itchy trigger finger and already posted the highlights last night.\u00a0The league's media directors and coaches have picked JMU to finish 3rd in the annual preseason poll. The Dukes were right behind Towson and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Football&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/65103892.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9105,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=9105","url_meta":{"origin":7844,"position":2},"title":"JMU Just Dominated the All CAA Teams &#038; Postseason Awards","date":"November 23, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Purple and gold might as well be the official colors of the 2016 All-CAA Football Teams. The league announced it's postseason awards yesterday and boy did the Dukes represent. A ridiculous 14 JMU players earned all league honors, including a program record 10 on the first team. The haul continued\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Football&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"reynolds high 5","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/55f041bb06c3e.image_.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6836,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=6836","url_meta":{"origin":7844,"position":3},"title":"Dukes Picked to Finish 8th in CAA Preseason Poll","date":"July 24, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"It's a year of change for the JMU football program. A new coaching staff, new starting QB, multiple new skill players, and revamped philosophies on both sides of the ball. Apparently\u00a0that all adds up to low expectations for the voters in the CAA Preseason Poll, who picked the Dukes to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Football&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"Dean Marlow vs UR","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/101213-jmu-rich-ftb2-jl.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1189,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=1189","url_meta":{"origin":7844,"position":4},"title":"JMU is #15 in the First Preseason Poll","date":"August 16, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The Sports Network released its official 2010 FCS Football Preseason Poll and the JMU Dukes find themselves at number 15. I don't want to make too much of this, because the polls really don't concern me. Especially preseason polls. Obviously, it's where you finish, blah, blah, blah. In all seriousness\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Football&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2721,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=2721","url_meta":{"origin":7844,"position":5},"title":"CAA Coaches Pick Dukes to Finish Second","date":"July 27, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"CAA Football Media Day took place today at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland. The William & Mary Tribe were picked by CAA coaches and media relations folks to win the conference this year. Our beloved JMU Dukes received 4 first place votes and were picked to finish as runner-up\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"All-CAA teams\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/steph-robertson-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7844"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7844"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7847,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7844\/revisions\/7847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}