{"id":8963,"date":"2016-10-13T06:55:16","date_gmt":"2016-10-13T10:55:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=8963"},"modified":"2016-10-13T09:34:30","modified_gmt":"2016-10-13T13:34:30","slug":"guest-post-i-want-to-party-like-its-1999","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=8963","title":{"rendered":"Guest Post: I Want to Party Like It’s 1999!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jonathan K. won our prediction contest last week and earned the right to guest post. Here’s his look back at JMU football through the years.<\/em><\/p>\n

In the fall of 1999, I walked onto the campus of James Madison University with bright eyes and big dreams. JMU\u2019s football program was also pretty young under new head coach Mickey Matthews. Back then Bridgeforth Stadium had an AstroTurf playing surface (think your living room carpet, only thinner) and two grandstands. Imagine the current student section side of Bridgeforth but on both sides.\"endzone\"<\/p>\n

I lived in the Lakeside part of campus so on evenings when my dorm buddies and I wanted to play a game of two-hand touch football, we could walk right in to Bridgeforth and play in the stadium- the very same stadium that greats like Gary Clark (Pro Bowl Washington Redskins wide receiver) would catch ridiculous amounts of TDs and Charley Haley (Cowbows\/49ers Hall of Famer) would destroy ridiculous amounts of QBs. <\/span><\/p>\n

In 1999 the Dukes had a pretty good running back by the name of Curtis Keaton, who was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals in the 4<\/span>th<\/span> Round of the 2001 draft. JMU ran the ball with Keaton\u2026 a lot. \u00a0In fact, Mickey Matthews liked to run the ball so much that we referred to the wide receivers as \u201cwide blockers\u201d. 1999 was also the start of a mini football dynasty. JMU has not had a losing season in over 13 years and in that span we have competed for Division 1 National Championships several times (and won one in 2004). If you were to put a list of top FCS (I-AA) programs since 2000, JMU would be in the top 10, easily. I remember watching Keaton and the Dukes beat (more like dominate) UConn and University of South Florida at Bridgeforth Stadium. Those were legendary days. College football has changed a lot in the past few decades. We are still on that streak of not having a \u00a0losing season but we have lost something pretty significant\u2026 our old rivals who have moved to FBS (I-A) conferences. <\/span><\/p>\n

Here is a list of schools that have played JMU in Harrisonburg but probably won\u2019t be making a trip back until we \u201cjust move up\u201d (jmu) to FBS:<\/span><\/p>\n