{"id":9202,"date":"2017-01-04T18:59:59","date_gmt":"2017-01-04T23:59:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=9202"},"modified":"2017-01-05T09:59:40","modified_gmt":"2017-01-05T14:59:40","slug":"2004-to-2017-things-are-a-little-different-huh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=9202","title":{"rendered":"2004 to 2017: Things are a little different, huh?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_9187\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9187\" data-attachment-id=\"9187\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?attachment_id=9187\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/maurice-fenner-james-miller-017017541.jpg?fit=641%2C427&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"641,427\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"maurice-fenner-james-miller-017017541\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Now let&#8217;s hope the Dukes dominate like Mo Fenner again Saturday!&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/maurice-fenner-james-miller-017017541.jpg?fit=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/maurice-fenner-james-miller-017017541.jpg?fit=641%2C427&amp;ssl=1\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-9187\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/maurice-fenner-james-miller-017017541.jpg?resize=300%2C200\" alt=\"Now let's hope the Dukes dominate like Mo Fenner again Saturday!\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/maurice-fenner-james-miller-017017541.jpg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/maurice-fenner-james-miller-017017541.jpg?w=641&amp;ssl=1 641w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-9187\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Now let&#8217;s hope the Dukes dominate like Mo Fenner again Saturday!<\/p><\/div>\n<p>It&#8217;s ALWAYS a great day to be a Duke &#8211; always has been, always will be &#8211; but it&#8217;s hard not to feel particularly fortunate during a week like this one. Thought we&#8217;d do a little look at how different things are from the last time we made this trip to now so we can remind everyone how damned awesome everything is these days even if we all have our complaints and concerns about the sustainability of FCS (though we acknowledge the G5 is no better in this regard) and ANY conference at any level that has some schools with football and some schools without.<\/p>\n<p>For those that weren&#8217;t around or don&#8217;t recall here&#8217;s a quick list of things that didn&#8217;t exist prior to 2004:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Bridgeforth Stadium as the badass thing it is.<\/li>\n<li>Tailgating in any major capacity. Seriously, all that craziness we have now did NOT exist.<\/li>\n<li>Success, and a belief in success. JMU had good teams and some great players prior to 2004, but having lived through both runs, most of us &#8220;hoped&#8221; the Dukes would beat Lehigh and Furman, much less Montana. We&#8217;re all rolling to Texas this weekend fully expecting a Penguin beatdown!<\/li>\n<li>Failure that mattered. In the same way we didn&#8217;t have success, we also didn&#8217;t have quite the heartbreak that expectations produced. The NCAA screw job on the matchup and the world&#8217;s worst spot of the ball ever in &#8217;06 at Youngstown St. comes to mind. So does the fumble at App. St. and the Rodney Landers injury in the &#8217;08 semis. That shit hurts. And it produces&#8230;<\/li>\n<li>&#8230;A real fanbase. We had hardcore folks (I see you BSKB, Dukester, etc.) and parents. But we didn&#8217;t have &#8220;the mob&#8221; former CAA commish Yeager referred to, we didn&#8217;t bitch at coaching hires, AD decisions, or the off-field issues of the diving and field hockey teams. And we certainly didn&#8217;t have massive explosions of all things purple like Gameday or this weekend. The games at W&amp;M and Chattanooga in &#8217;04 were &#8220;well-attended&#8221; by a bunch of us twenty-somethings and the hardcores but they weren&#8217;t anything at all like the Homecoming-On-HGH we&#8217;re about to see both in Frisco and at viewing parties around the country (shoutout to Grey&#8217;s Tavern in Greensboro).<\/li>\n<li>The Hill. The hill may be filled with seats now for softball, but the massive success across the board in basically everything but Men&#8217;s hoops and baseball was NOT the norm. Again, JMU had good teams and great players, but the expectations for success were just not the same.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So as we convene our massive purple lovefests this weekend, let&#8217;s all give a HUGE tip of the cap to that &#8217;04 team, their beloved coach Mickey Matthews (who by the way recruited almost all of the current team&#8217;s top stars and leaders), and even some of the admin folks along the way with the vision to support athletics even if things don&#8217;t always move at the pace some of us desire. When YSU shows up with their budget-ass 1400 fans, just know that was us once. And when we turn Frisco purple, maybe send a little thank you up that you&#8217;re a part of the greatest place on Earth.<\/p>\n<iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fjmusportsblog.com%2F%3Fp%3D9202&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>It&#8217;s ALWAYS a great day to be a Duke &#8211; always has been, always will be &#8211; but it&#8217;s hard not to feel particularly fortunate during a week like this one. Thought we&#8217;d do a little look at how different things are from the last time we made this trip to now so we can [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3156,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=3156","url_meta":{"origin":9202,"position":0},"title":"Guest Blogger: JMU Fandom &#038; The Window of Opportunity","date":"November 1, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Kevin Lombard, a proud JMU alum, won last week's prediction contest and earned the right to post about whatever he'd like. Take it away Kevin. I\u2019ll start with the obligatory \u201cI\u2019d gladly trade my opportunity to write this blog entry for a Dukes victory last Saturday\u201d. There\u2019s obviously very little\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Football&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Natl-champs-J.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3195,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=3195","url_meta":{"origin":9202,"position":1},"title":"Guest Blogger: The Doctor Is In","date":"November 9, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Reader 2004 Duke won last week's prediction contest. Here his insider's take on how this year's Dukes team stacks up against the 2004 National Championship team he played on. Take it away 2004 Duke. The Doctor Is In: The Cure As an officer in the armed forces, I am constantly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Football&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/NC-zoom.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4902,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=4902","url_meta":{"origin":9202,"position":2},"title":"A JMU Alum Is the 5th Strongest Man in the World","date":"January 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, technically I'm not sure that headline is correct. However, Mike Jenkins, a 2004 graduate of JMU, finished fifth in the 2012 World's Strongest Man held in September and October of last year. How the hell did we miss this? I don't think I'll ever spend my free time deadlifting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Football&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/IMG_8920-513x342.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5297,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=5297","url_meta":{"origin":9202,"position":3},"title":"Duke Dog Is Back To Avenge His 2004 Capital One Mascot Challenge Defeat","date":"April 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"As some of you undoubtedly remember, Duke Dog was a finalist for the 2004 Capital One Mascot Challenge. Of course he lapped the competition in the fan vote category, only to have the powers that be render said vote 100% meaningless by declaring some other costumed chucklehead the winner. Duke\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Sports&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5689,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=5689","url_meta":{"origin":9202,"position":4},"title":"Storylines as JMU Football Begins Practice","date":"August 4, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The JMU football team reported to camp today and we're only 27 days away from the season opener versus Central Connecticut State. Not only does that mean we can see the light at the end of the tunnel, I think it gives us the right to ease ourselves into some\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Football&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"Maine James Madison Football","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/100811-jmu-um-ftb3-mr.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4408,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=4408","url_meta":{"origin":9202,"position":5},"title":"Guest Blogger: Putting Harrisonburg on the Pigskin Map","date":"September 25, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Reader Mark Steidler came came closest to predicting the final score of last weekend's game against URI. As a result, he won the right to guest post. Bookmark his personal blog here and check out his thoughts on elevating the JMU football program below. Every four years, we\u2019re faced with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Football&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/DDFD.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\/9202"}],"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\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9202"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9207,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9202\/revisions\/9207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}