The Windbreaker

JMU 2011 Football after 2 games

noreply@blogger.com (Drew) — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 01:17:00 +0000

I, like many, had high hopes coming into this year. One of the top defenses from last year returning basically every single player and a couple players coming back from injury meant as long as our offense could show a slight improvement. Justin Thorpe coming back from injury to play QB led to cautious optimism among many fans. Dae'Quan Scott moving to running back also seemed like something that would jump start our offense.

Last week, against UNC, JMU's defense got dominated. They were much larger up front and that meant that their QB could pick apart our secondary and their giant RB had large holes to run through. So the results on defense could be overlooked as a display of how the rest of the season would go. On offense, much of the second quarter and part of the third quarter looked good. Thorpe made some very good passes (even some downfield) and our rushing was decent against a very good FBS defense. We also got out of the game with zero turnovers on offense.

Last night with 25k JMU fans behind them, the Dukes looked a little jittery, out of their element, and pretty unimpressive. I'll start with the offense. Looking at the stats, our rushing offense was nearly unstoppable. 342 total rushing yards on 45 carries equals 7.6 yards/carry. That's a very impressive stat. Scott looked good, but was tackled far too easily for our starting back. The wildcat formations were a nice mix-up, but weren't very effective. Not sure if we just need to block better, but it just didn't seem like that big of a boost. Jordan Anderson looked pretty good, and is slightly bigger, but again, wasn't a standout. Jauan Latney was maybe the biggest surprise on offense and had some outstanding runs. I'm hoping we get to see more of him in the next few weeks. Thorpe looked okay running the ball and seems to be making much better decisions than he did two years ago, but still needs some work hitting the holes instead of dancing around too much. Kerby Long had some very good rushes and seemed to work really well. While gaining yards is important, the biggest thing that this stat box leaves out is fumbles, which will be covered more later.

RUSHING	No.	Gain	Loss	Net	TD	Lg	Avg.
SCOTT,D.	20	145	7	138	1	32	6.9
ANDERSON,J.	10	66	0	66	0	17	6.6
LATNEY,J.	4	53	0	53	0	34	13.2
THORPE,J.	8	62	11	51	0	29	6.4
LONG,K.	3	34	0	34	0	15	11.3
Totals...	45	360	18	342	1	34	7.6

Passing was our biggest weakness. By far. After a decent showing at UNC, Thorpe completely fell apart against CCSU. He should have been able to pick them apart, but instead he made very poor throws the whole night. He went 5 for 11 for 47 total yards and 2 interceptions. He was also sacked once (which killed a great-looking drive). We struggled the second half on offense though because we only attempted a single pass the entire half, and it was incomplete.

Our defense was great in the first half, but struggled in the 4th quarter. I'm not sure if they were tired by the end of the game, but they gave up some bad plays that kept drives alive. Between turnovers at their goalline, a great punt, and a good kickoff (and bad return) they took over at their 1, 2, 5, and 10 yard lines. We were just one yard away from getting safeties several times during the game, but we just couldn't get it. Once we forced a fumble when the QB was hit in their endzone, but he got a quick shovel pass off before he went down. Any of these chances could have ended up completely changing the game, much less if two or three of them had ended up as safeties. We did force two interceptions, but we still did very poorly at getting to their quarterback and putting pressure on him. We also lost one of those interceptions on the runback. The number one rule after getting a turnover: if you don't know how to secure the ball, fall to the ground immediately. They got a first down because we intercepted it and then fumbled. Just fall and let the offense take over. The worst part about the defense...after two games we no sacks. That pathetic and has been a problem for a few years. We need to force the issue a lot more on defense.

So now...the most interesting part of last night's game: the drive chart.

	Drive Started				Drive Ended				Consumed
Team	Qtr	Spot	Time	Obtained	Spot	Time		How Lost	Pl-Yds	TOP	RZ
JMU	1st	H34	15:00	Kickoff	V43	12:54		Interception	4-23	2:06
CCSU	1st	V02	12:54	Interception	V34	07:52		Punt	9-32	5:02
JMU	1st	H13	07:52	Punt	V00	05:09	*	TOUCHDOWN	6-87	2:43
CCSU	1st	V10	05:09	Kickoff	V06	02:31		Punt	4--4	2:38
JMU	1st	V34	02:31	Punt	V38	00:53		Downs	4--4	1:38
CCSU	1st	V38	00:53	Downs	V40	14:53		Punt	3-2	1:00
JMU	2nd	H39	14:53	Punt	H34	12:48		Punt	4--5	2:05

CCSU	2nd	V32	12:48	Punt	V47	10:19		Punt	6-15	2:29
JMU	2nd	H14	10:19	Punt	V36	06:21		Downs	7-50	3:58
CCSU	2nd	V36	06:21	Downs	H46	03:21		Punt	4-18	3:00
JMU	2nd	H20	03:21	Punt	V40	00:33		Interception	8-40	2:48
CCSU	2nd	V18	00:33	Interception	V17	00:00		End of half	1--1	0:33
CCSU	3rd	V20	15:00	Kickoff	V22	14:01		Punt	3-2	0:59

JMU	3rd	H36	14:01	Punt	V01	11:33		Fumble	5-63	2:28	#
CCSU	3rd	V01	11:33	Fumble	H45	07:54		Interception	7-54	3:39
JMU	3rd	H33	07:54	Interception	H40	05:48		Punt	3-7	2:06
CCSU	3rd	V26	05:48	Punt	V31	03:41		Punt	3-5	2:07
JMU	3rd	H28	03:41	Punt	H37	01:48		Punt	3-9	1:53
CCSU	3rd	V25	01:48	Punt	H18	12:53	*	FIELD GOAL	10-57	3:55	#
JMU	4th	H37	12:53	Kickoff	H37	12:53		Fumble	0-0	0:00

CCSU	4th	H37	12:53	Fumble	H03	09:48		Downs	7-34	3:05	#
JMU	4th	H03	09:48	Downs	V34	05:12		Punt	8-63	4:36
CCSU	4th	V05	05:12	Punt	V02	04:53		Punt	3--3	0:19
JMU	4th	V36	04:53	Punt	V00	03:10	*	TOUCHDOWN	4-36	1:43	#
CCSU	4th	V19	03:10	Kickoff	V24	03:01		Interception	2-5	0:09
JMU	4th	V23	00:00	Interception	V23	03:01		Fumble	0-0	0:00
CCSU	4th	V23	03:01	Fumble	H00	00:00	*	TOUCHDOWN	16-77	3:01	#

Our first and last drives of the first half ended in interceptions. After our first touchdown, here's how our next 5 drives ended: turnover on downs, punt, turnover on downs, interception, fumble. I do agree with taking smart risks and going for it on the 4th downs, I just don't really agree with the playcalls. The first 4th down it was 4 and 14 and we tried a long pass. I'm fine with that. I would have preferred to put more air under it so someone catches it. If we do, great. If they do, it's basically a punt instead and they get it with a longer field. We also got to that point because Thorpe got sacked for an 8-yard loss after being at 3rd and 6. The second time we tried to convert, I'm not ever sure what the call was. Thorpe got it and just stood there 3 yards back in the pocket. He froze up when they rushed through and he just stood there with the ball and went down with it. The interception in this stretch was a bad bad pass that we shouldn't have taken on 1st down. We also could have pinned them down inside their 5 AGAIN, but we were called for a personal foul because one of our receivers thought they needed to hit him helmet first when he was already on the ground. Then the next drive Anderson fumbled it on their 4 yard line.

So just for review, here's how many plays they started inside their 5: 2, 2, 1 (pass for 6 yards), 5, 2 (rush for 4/punt), 1, 1, 2, 5 (pass for 33 yards), 3, 2, 2 (punt). That's 4 drives that had multiple plays inside their 5 and we couldn't get a safety.

We threw an interception in CCSU territory (on first down), turned it over on downs on their 38, turned it over on downs on their 36, threw an interception on their 40, fumbled it on their 1, punted on their 34, and fumbled an interception return at their 23. The first drive of the second quarter started badly because of a 15 yard tripping penalty making us start at 1st and 21 after a 4 yard run and included a 1-yard pass and an incomplete pass. The last two drives of the 3rd quarter were: Scott rush for 1, Scott rush for 3, Thorpe rush for 3, punt, Scott rush for 3, Scott rush for 4, Scott rush for 2, punt. This definitely hurt both our offense and defense with short drives, but the game shouldn't have been that close at that point to start with.

Edit: I forgot special teams. Kickoff to their 5, fumble, return of 5 yards; 34 yard punt, fair catch on their 32; 70 yard kickoff, touchback; 34 yard punt, fair catch on their 26; 38 yard punt, out of bounds at their 25; 29 yard punt, out of bounds at their 5; 64 yard kick, 18 yard return, forced fumble, fumble recovered by CCSU at their 19. And they hit both PAT's. Not outstanding, but not bad. Actually very good stats considering most FCS teams only have enough scholarships for their upperclassmen kickers and punters making recruiting the good ones very difficult. We also had a fumble on a kickoff after their field goal in the 4th quarter (missed it during the game as I had gone over to take pics from the old side and didn't see it in the play-by-play in my first run through). Fumbling on special teams is unacceptable (see 2008 Montana semifinal game) and should not be tolerated. After that fumble they drove all the way down to the JMU 3 but luckily we stopped them on 4th down.
Okay, so this has basically been a bunch of rambling, but hopefully the stats helped put some things together for you. While JMU is good in some areas, they definitely need improvement in others. JMU's passing game is struggling. Clearly. The running game is very good, they just need to mix it up sometimes, especially on first and third downs. The playcalling wasn't the main problem last night, though; it was execution. JMU had 4 turnovers, 3 in their territory. The defense also couldn't get any pressure and couldn't convert to get safeties when they had CCSU backed up to their endzone. JMU could have easily ended up with 30+ points if they're smarter and more secure with the ball. Considering JMU averaged 6.9 yards/play on offense, it seems they're just a few plays away from having an offense that puts up 20+ points on other teams, which is really all the defense needs. That's not drinking the kool-aid, that's actually looking at the numbers and seeing where JMU's weaknesses actually are instead of yelling "fire Mickey", "we won't win a CAA game all year", and many other ridiculous things. If JMU can fix a couple things we could be a playoff team, if they don't get better over the next couple games, then there will be another less optimistic post.

JMU Men's Basketball vs. Kansas State

noreply@blogger.com (Drew) — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 20:13:00 +0000

JMU Dukes vs. #3 Kansas State Wildcats
November 12, 2010, 9pm; Manhattan, KS

JMU got left out of the ESPNU rebranding...so I thought I'd work us up our own logo...it's just a rough draft so far...

Watch on ESPNU or ESPN3
Note: Ball St/Buffalo football is on ESPNU at 6pm, so it may run over into the beginning of the broadcast.

Check out the battle for purple supremacy at any of these semi-official locations:
Harrisonburg
Ham's

NYC
The Australian - 20 W 38th St (Btwn 5th/6th Ave - Map)

DC
Bailey's

Richmond
Big Al's West End
Bailey's Southside Richmond (Robious)

Fredericksburg
Glory Days (Massaponax)

Charleston, SC
Moe's Downtown Tavern (5 Cumberland St)

The Line
The line for the game is Kansas State by 19 (though it could change by a couple points before gametime).
If I were a betting man I'd take this line for JMU...

What to Watch
The first thing you'll notice tonight is a complete shift in energy for the Dukes. We are much deeper and seem to be in much better shape as well, meaning we can go 110% for the whole game. The Dukes are a much better defensive team this year as compared to last year. Look for our blocked shots to double and steals to increase by about 50%. Denzel has been studying Dwight Howard and is ready to get after it this year. He's trying to be a much better all-around player and the effort will pay off. With Goins joining him down low, JMU has probably the best frontcourt in its history. Both of them are near unstoppable on offense and are good at kicking it out. Goins will be pushing everyone he plays out of the way. They also have Trevon as a backup who is long and can block shots and grab rebounds.

Julius has much less pressure this year to be the big scorer, so hopefully he'll take the opportunity to be selective on his shot choice, square up, and take good shots. He could be a great player if he just plays without taking so much on himself. We now have plenty of scorers so if he's on fine, but if not he can give the ball up to someone who is having a good night. We also have a healthy Andrey who can come in with energy and aggression. He also has probably the smoothest shot on the team. Andrey wears his heart on his sleeve and everytime he raises his hands at halfcourt for JMU free throws it warms my soul.

Humpty comes in, not only with a sweet name, but a great shot. He's great from the outside and is more than capable when he has the ball in his hands of spreading it around. If he's hot on any given night, he could easily break 20 points. We also have the freshman Jackson who is probably one of the most mature freshman players I've seen in awhile (and by awhile I mean since Devon got here). He rarely makes mistakes and is a solid player.

The playcaller will be a finally healthy Devon Moore. He is one of those special players that makes everyone around him better. Not only is he great at controlling the game, but he can make great cuts to the basket and has a pretty good long shot. Backing up Devon will be Louis, who has as much athleticism and basketball IQ as anyone on the team. What he lacks in natural skill, he more than makes up for in talent. He's one of two seniors on the team and brings some life to this team when he's in. Devon and Louis are also the best players at anticipating passes on defense and snagging steals. Millen, our JuCo transfer guard, is a wildcard and it will be interesting to see how much playing time he sees in this game.

Step one tonight will be not to turn the ball over. We have great leadership, so hopefully we can limit these costly mistakes. Next will be to play hard, but not to the point of picking up dumb fouls. Our starting 5 can play with anyone in the nation, so we need them to stay in the game. The final focus should be on getting rebounds. We can't let Kansas State get multiple offensive rebounds or it won't be a close game.

If we do those things, play hard on defense, and we have a couple players on from behind the arc...look out...it could be a fun night.

JMU Game Notes

And in honor of Noop from the CAAZone boards:

They think they are

But they really are

I mean, honestly...any school that doesn't put the effort in to get a full mascot costume doesn't deserve to win a basketball game... When there are so many 'Wildcats' as mascots, it doesn't help your cause to be the cheapest out of the bunch.

Meet JMU Men's Basketball 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Drew) — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 15:42:00 +0000

This is a whole new JMU Men's Basketball team. Here are my impressions of the guys from the Philadelphia exhibition game.

Devon Moore #40
6'4" 180 lbs. R-Sophomore
Point Guard (Starter)

At the Philly U exhibition game he was still shaking the rust off from being injured last season. He went 1-7 from the floor. 2-4 on FTs. 3 assists, 4 TOs, but grabbed 4 steals. As the starting point guard, the offense runs through him. He makes everyone around him better and provides the most leadership out of anyone on the team. Is pretty good from behind the arc, but his biggest threat offensively is his ability to slice to the basket. He's also a stingy defender and hung tight with VCU guard Eric Maynor as a freshman.

Humpty Hitchens #12
5'9" 175 lbs. Junior (Akron transfer)
Shooting Guard (Starter)

Humpty surprisingly earned a waiver from the NCAA to not sit out a year after transferring to JMU. He was the most impressive player from the exhibition. Smaller guy, but makes up with it in talent and effort. He was our only outside threat against Philly (5-9, 4-6 3pt). Humpty will be playing off guard this season and is rabid on defense staying tight on his guy and gets loooooow in his stance. He was able to grab 2 steals and a rebound in the exhibition.

Julius Wells #34
6'5" 205 lbs. Junior
Small Forward (Starter)

Julius has amazing talent, but still isn't quite where he needs to be as far as learning how to apply it. When he squares up and waits for an open shot, he can knock down 3's. As we've learned in the past, his problem is he has a tendency to throw up shots. This year he's not the only outside threat, so hopefully he'll learn to be much more selective about his shots. Brady will sit him if he doesn't figure this out quick. He got beat on defense a few times against Philly, so he'll need to work on his anticipation as the season progresses. Julius did have a block, steal, and rebound in the exhibition also.

Rayshawn Goins #33
6'6" 275 lbs. Junior (Junior College transfer)
Power Forward (Starter)

My my my...Goins brings a whole new meaning to the position power forward at JMU... While not the tallest guy at the 4 spot you'll see, the guy is a beast. He moves very light on his feet for how big he is and seems to be just a big hulk of muscle. Brady said that Goins was the 2nd best player in the scrimmage Saturday against Georgetown and was, "every bit as effective a plyer in the post as Denzel is." Could be the best power forward in the CAA this year. Hard to stop on offense and had 10 points and 3 assists in the exhibition. Needs to work on the 5 turnovers he had against Philly.

Denzel Bowles #21
6'10" 260 lbs. Senior
Center (Starter)

Outstanding player. Rated as the one of the top centers in the country this year and has the potential to dominate the CAA. His problem in the past had been motivation, but this year it seems that improved competition in practice and his draft prowess have gotten him going. He's in noticeably better shape, puts in much better effort, and still has the great touch on the ball. Denzel's stats in against Philly were great: 15 points, 4 rebounds, 3 blocks, 2 steals. The ability for him to play less minutes this year will also let him go all out on every play.

Andrey Semenov #11
6'7" 200 lbs. R-Sophomore
Forward

Biggest improvement goes to Andrey. People used to give him grief for falling on the floor so much (which didn't help his injury situation), but that has been corrected. He has come back much stronger and just as aggressive as always, he'll crash inside for rebounds and layups with anyone. Still has a beautiful touch when shooting longer shots. Will be a solid player coming in at either small or power forward. Went 2-4 (1-2) with 5 rebounds (2nd total rebs only behind Goins, most def reb). 1 assist, 1 block, 1 TO, 1 steal. Solid player all around.

Ben Louis #14
6'3" 200 lbs. Senior
Guard

Ben has always been and will continue to be an energy guy. He is very athletic, has a huge basketball IQ, and anticipates opponent's passes better than anyone on the team. Unfortunately with his aggressiveness he often picks up fouls and was the conference leader in fouls last year. Will play backup point guard and will be a solid role player throughout his senior season. Let's hope he does get some good plays this year, so we can get one of my favorite chants going again ("Aussie Aussie Aussie" "Oy Oy Oy"). Against Philly: Played 14 minutes, went 0-1, grabbed 4 rebounds, 3 fouls, 4 assists (tied for team high), 2 TOs, and 2 steals (his specialty).

James Millen #2
6'3" 180 lbs. Junior (Junior College Transfer)
Guard

Should play backup point guard. Supposed to be very good. (Tweaked his ankle before the exhibition so he didn't play)

Chad Jackson #24
6'4" 185 lbs. Freshman
Guard

Very impressed with this freshman. He made a couple freshman mistakes getting caught out of position on defense a couple times, but that's understandable for his first college game. Was great with the ball with only 1 turnover. Was 5-8, 2 rebounds, only had 2 fouls in 26 minutes, had 4 assists (tied for team high), and had 3 steals. If he continues to improve he could end up as the CAA ROY. The only reason would be if he doesn't get much playing time because of our outstanding starting guards. Looking forward to a sterling career for Chad.

Trevon Flores #41
6'11" 230 lbs. Sophomore
Forward

Trevon is a very long player, but isn't looking to get too many minutes this year. Will probably rarely have a game when he gets in for more than 8-10 minutes. He likes to shoot the long ball and seems to be more aggressive than last year. Trevon also added a bit of size on last year's thin frame. won't be in the 9-man rotation, but will see action based on foul trouble of our other forwards.

Andre Prince #13
6'0" 180 lbs. Freshman (Walk-on)
Guard

Didn't get much of a look on him, but the three minutes he played were pretty good. Had one big mistake, but also looked pretty good and wouldn't be a terrible backup guard if we need him. Might get a few minutes if we foul out some guards or if we're up by a lot.

Kevin McGaughey #20
6'5" 185 lbs. Freshman (Walk-on)
Guard

He was recruited to some D3 schools as a scholarship player, but decided to walk-on here. According to Denzel he has the best shot out of anyone he's seen and could be our go to guy in late game situations when we need a pure shooter. Kevin also only played three minutes, but didn't look horribly out of place against Philly U, so hopefully he wouldn't lack too much in the rest of his game if he came in as a shooter for late-game situations. Kevin's role will probably be the designated hitter of our basketball team.

Alioune Diouf is expected to redshirt this year after being forced into action last year.
A.J. Davis will sit out this year after transferring from Wyoming.

DNR blog: First Impressions
DNR: JMU Shows 'Energy' On 'D'

GAMEDAY EVE Report: JMU Football vs. Richmond

noreply@blogger.com (Drew) — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 18:56:00 +0000

#22/23 JMU Dukes (4-4, 1-4) vs. #20/22 Richmond Spiders (4-4, 2-3)
Nov. 4, 2010 - 3:30pm - Richmond, VA

Online audio: MadiZONE (free)
Television: Comcast SportsNet-Mid-Atlantic
Radio: JMU n/Telos Radio Network (Harrisonburg WSVA 550-AM, Roanoke WWWR 910-AM, Richmond WREJ 1540-AM, Hampton Roads WGH 1310-AM or ESPN 94.1-FM
Live Stats: JMUSports.com

Weather Report

Tailgating	11am	48°	0% (precip)
Mid-tailgate	1pm	52°	20%
Getting into the stadium	3pm	54°	20%
Kickoff	3:30pm	53°	20%
Game over	6:30pm	47°	0%

Line for the game
JMU by 1

Injuries
Too many to name at this point...

The Numbers (game averages)
JMU Sagarin (101); Strength of Schedule: 60.84 (123)
JMU Rushing Offense: 168 yds - Richmond Rushing Defense: 154 yds
JMU Passing Offense: 149 yds - Richmond Passing Defense: 198 yds
JMU Total Offense: 317 yds - Richmond Total Defense: 352 yds
JMU Scoring Offense: 17.63 - Richmond Scoring Defense: 21.13
JMU Sacks allowed: 1.38 - Richmond Sacks: 1.63

Richmond Sagarin (121); Strength of Schedule: 61.89 (116)
Richmond Rushing Offense: 176 yds - JMU Rushing Defense: 132 yds
Richmond Passing Offense: 133 yds - JMU Passing Defense: 151 yds
Richmond Total Offense: 283 yds - JMU Total Defense: 283 yds
Richmond Scoring Offense: 17.50 - JMU Scoring Defense: 14.38
Richmond Sacks allowed: 1.25 - JMU Sacks: 1.13

JMU predictor: 63.49; Richmond predictor 56.09 (+3 home) = JMU by 4.4

What to watch
Not really sure what to say at this point... It looks like we're trying to be a little more creative with our playcalling, but we choose to do it at the worst times. We'll get a long drive going with some good passes and then go back to three downs of running it. The Dukes still aren't utilizing their TE's enough in the passing game. I have liked going back to getting into a huddle and then hiking the ball a few seconds after getting to the line instead of sitting around for 15 seconds at the line waiting for the playcall. Richmond's is good, but not fantastic. If we don't come to play they can stop us, but if we play to win this game and try to put up as many points as we can I think we can do well. To say that our offense has struggled in the second half of games this year is an understatement. Whether it's our offense getting off rhythm during halftime, getting tired, or the defense adjusting better than us, we just haven't gotten things done. No matter what happens in the first half, the second half is where this game will be won or lost (yes, I know that is an obvious statement, but you get my point). We need to keep the tempo up and go after the Richmond defense anytime we get the ball.

On defense, for the most part we've been great. It seems like there's always one or two drives a game though where we just aren't in sync. We need to fix that starting tomorrow. I know our depleted defense is getting tired, but they can't take any plays off. Richmond is using their fourth-string quarterback and we need to take advantage of that. Against Delaware, they put up 13 (with their 1st string QB). They got shut out by UNH. They only scored 11 against UMass. Then they destroyed Towson 28-6. Last week they only put up 7 on Villanova. So their scoring has been all over the place. I think our defense can keep them in check.

The game changer will be special teams, just like it was last week. Skahn, who was a beast at the start of the season, seems to have lost his ability to punt it more than 30-40 yards. That combined with the fact that our coverage team is TERRIBLE. We had guys surrounding the UMass returner last week and he made it out of the group and made it up the sideline for a huge game. This is a weakness for our team that should be fairly easy to fix because we have the athletes, just need to stay in our lanes.

The Series
JMU is 4-3 vs. Richmond since 2003. Since 2004, every game has been decided by a touchdown or less except for 2006. The away team has also won every game since 2004.

My Thoughts
This team is killing me. While I enjoy drinking the kool-aid...I'm starting to see the bottom of the glass. Our offense has had flashes of being effective, but has also seemed inept at times. Injuries have absolutely killed the team (especially the offense line), but we should have enough guys to consistently get at least 17 points. We have too many weapons to not. Both JMU and Richmond have to win out to make the playoffs, so both teams will be fighting with everything they've got. I still believe our defense can hold them around 10-14, so it'll come down to how well our offense and special teams do. Still keeping the faith for this game and think we can get the win.

Windbreaker prediction: JMU - 14, Richmond - 13

JMU Auto Emblems
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Game Notes
JMU Game Notes

Score Updates
To get score updates on Twitter, subscribe to @JMUWindbreaker. I'll be posting scores at the end of each quarter and any major action that happens.

And as always...

GAMEDAY EVE Report: UMass vs. JMU Football

noreply@blogger.com (Drew) — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 19:12:00 +0000

#18 UMass Minutemen (4-3, 2-2) vs. #15 JMU Dukes (4-3, 1-3)
Oct. 30, 2010 - 3:30pm - Harrisonburg, VA

Online video: MadiZONE (subscription required)
Online audio: MadiZONE (free)
Television: Comcast SportsNet-Mid-Atlantic, Comcast SportsNet-New England
Radio: JMU n/Telos Radio Network (Harrisonburg WSVA 550-AM, Roanoke WWWR 910-AM, Richmond WREJ 1540-AM, Hampton Roads WGH 1310-AM or ESPN 94.1-FM
Live Stats: JMUSports.com

Weather Report

Tailgating	8am	34°	0% (precip)
Mid-tailgate	12pm	55°	0%
Getting into the stadium	3pm	62°	0%
Kickoff	3:30pm	63°	0%
Game over	6:30pm	55°	0%

Line for the game
JMU by 12

Injuries
Too many to name at this point...

The Numbers (game averages)
JMU Sagarin (96); Strength of Schedule: 60.58 (124)
JMU Rushing Offense: 166 yds - UMass Rushing Defense: 156 yds
JMU Passing Offense: 145 yds - UMass Passing Defense: 163 yds
JMU Total Offense: 311 yds - UMass Total Defense: 318 yds
JMU Scoring Offense: 18.14 - UMass Scoring Defense: 22.43
JMU Sacks allowed: 1.43 - UMass Sacks: 1.14

UMass Sagarin (121); Strength of Schedule: 56.04 (162)
UMass Rushing Offense: 176 yds - JMU Rushing Defense: 131 yds
UMass Passing Offense: 245 yds - JMU Passing Defense: 150 yds
UMass Total Offense: 421 yds - JMU Total Defense: 281 yds
UMass Scoring Offense: 24.43 - JMU Scoring Defense: 13.43
UMass Sacks allowed: 1.43 - JMU Sacks: 1.14

JMU predictor: 64.57 (+3 home); UMass predictor 58.18 = JMU by 9.39 (o/u 31.5)

What to watch
You can probably call this week "The Ditching of the Pistol." Our offense gained some variety and a little bit of confidence up at Villanova last week, and we've hopefully been practicing more of that. Dudzik had 22 completions in 33 attempts for 213 yards. That is by far the most passes we've seen from JMU this year (and in years past). I got halfway through 2008's stats and gave up trying to find a game where we passed that many times...especially when we had that many completions. The pistol obviously wasn't working for us, especially when we lined up and ran it every first and second (and sometimes third) down. Throwing in an I-formation and wildcat on those downs really helps throw the defense off. Our biggest problem is running on first and second down and passing every third down. And then when we're down at the end of the game, we start trying to bomb the ball down the field. We have a scripted playbook and every team knows what we're going to do. We showed some glimmers of hope against Villanova by throwing the ball a lot more and showing those other formations. UMass has a pretty good defense, so we're going to have to mix it up so that can't attack our weak offensive line all afternoon.

Last week against UNH, UMass passed for 450 yards, but only ran for 43 in 26 rushes. Pretty much every week we lose another defensive started, and this week Pat Williams is questionable after a concussion last game. Our #1 job this week will be to stop their passing game and prevent any long plays. Last week we allowed more big plays than during any other game all season. Even with almost 500 yards of offense, UMass only scored 13 points, so we need to keep them out of the endzone. They also had a lot of penalties and three turnovers (sound familiar). Look for Max Alexandre to play a larger part in his second week back after tearing his ACL in spring practice.

This week we need to win the penalty and turnover battle. We shot ourselves in the foot last week making stupid penalties whenever we got a good drive going.

Both teams are fighting for a spot in the playoffs. Either team can probably make it into the playoffs with a 7-4 record this year. UMass has Maine, Delaware, and Rhode Island left on their schedule after this week. Maine and Rhode Island and "should win" games, but Delaware is probably a loss for UMass. That means that we are their most legitimate third win on their schedule. The Dukes have Richmond, W&M, and Maine left on their schedule. We "should" beat UMass and Richmond, though both will be tough games. Maine is definitely a "should win" considering it's our last game and could determine whether we get in or not. The elements in Maine in November will make it tough, but they aren't fighting for a playoff spot, so that should help us out. W&M is doubtful, but if our offense can put things together in the next couple weeks we definitely have a shot.

What we've learned this season (as we do most seasons) is that no CAA team is unbeatable. Anything can happen and it should be an interesting final 4 weeks.

The Series
UMass is always a tough team to play. We've won 3 of the last 4, including a 17-14 win up in Massachusetts last year.

My Thoughts
Last week ended up in an interesting way. Villanova scored how much I was hoping they'd score, but we failed to hit double-digits for the first time all year (though we would have done that if we had hit our 33 yard FG), so we couldn't take advantage of it. I think we'll see a revived offense after having 2 weeks to prepare an expanded playbook. If our offense can play better, it can revive our defense which has been hindered by injuries the further we go into the season. Our guys are feeling the heat now and know they have to win. I believe we'll pull this one out.

Windbreaker prediction: JMU - 24, Villanova - 21

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Game Notes
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Score Updates
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And as always...

GAMEDAY EVE Report: JMU Football vs. Villanova

noreply@blogger.com (Drew) — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 19:46:00 +0000

#11 JMU Dukes (4-2, 1-2) vs. #6 Villanova Wildcats (4-2, 2-1)
Oct. 23, 2010 - 3:30pm - Villanova, PA

Weather Report

Tailgating	8am	41°	0% (precip)
Mid-tailgate	12pm	57°	0%
Getting into the stadium	3pm	64°	0%
Kickoff	3:30pm	64°	0%
Game over	6:30pm	60°	0%

Line for the game
Villanova by 10.5

Injuries
Too many to name at this point... Plus Coach Matthews closed practice so this week's injury list wouldn't be current.

Villanova has been missing their key playmaker, Szczur, for the past few weeks, but he may be back tomorrow.

The Numbers (game averages)
JMU Sagarin (89); Strength of Schedule: 57.53 (149)
JMU Rushing Offense: 179 yds - Villanova Rushing Defense: 84 yds
JMU Passing Offense: 134 yds - Villanova Passing Defense: 196 yds
JMU Total Offense: 313 yds - Villanova Total Defense: 279 yds
JMU Scoring Offense: 20 - Villanova Scoring Defense: 16.17
JMU Sacks allowed: 1.0 - Villanova Sacks: 1.33

Villanova Sagarin (79); Strength of Schedule: 56.93 (154)
Villanova Rushing Offense: 192 yds - JMU Rushing Defense: 118 yds
Villanova Passing Offense: 204 yds - JMU Passing Defense: 148 yds
Villanova Total Offense: 397 yds - JMU Total Defense: 266 yds
Villanova Scoring Offense: 32.67 - JMU Scoring Defense: 13.33
Villanova Sacks allowed: 1.50 - JMU Sacks: 1.17

JMU predictor: 64.68; Villanova predictor 70.66 (+3 home) = Villanova by 8.98

What to watch
What can I say...once again I have another week of saying our offense is struggling. And it's just gotten worse. After having a good turnover ratio for the year, we lost all of that against UNH. The Dukes had one fumble returned for a TD and two interceptions. Towards the end of the game we obviously got desperate and started taking shots downfield when our guys weren't open. Our blocking still isn't where it needs to be to open up holes to run through or give Dudzik the time to plant his feet and throw an accurate ball.

My keys to the game are the same as they have been: short routes to Sharpe in the seam, an occasional long pass down the sideline to keep them from cheating up too much, and a few 2 back sets to help keep the pressure off in blitzes. Villanova has a very good rushing defense, so we're going to have to try to beat them in the air, which is very very tough for this team. Let's hope the young offensive linemen suddenly have an epiphany and learn how to block. We need to figure out some way to give Dudzik and extra couple seconds to check his main receiver and then check the secondary receiver. The receivers also need to not be so scared to adjust to the ball. The first interception wouldn't have been an interception if the receiver had slowed down his route to catch the ball. He either would have gotten it or drawn defensive pass interference.

Villanova has a very good balanced offense. Even without Szczur, they're great. With him, they are even more dangerous as he has put up incredible numbers on the Dukes in the past. Hopefully even if he's back he won't be 100%. Our defense has been solid this year, except for the second half of the UNH game. With a couple injuries, they're ability to stop the run has started to dwindle. It looks like we might have to pull the redshirt off of sophomore Adrian Cavanaugh just to have enough guys to rotate in.

Villanova lost to a better-than-usual Temple team by a touchdown, crushed Lehigh, crushed Towson, beat Penn, lost to W&M by a touchdown, and then crushed Maine last week. I guess our best shot is to hope for the score to be 31-24, since both of their loses have been 31-24.

Special teams was pretty bad last week. Skahn, our punter who started the year amazingly, started kicking short. Thanks to another injury they also moved him in to do placekicking, which he's not very good at. There's a possibility we'll pull a redshirt off of a pretty highly-touted freshman and have him play. Scott showed a spark as a return man returning one punt to the UNH 11 yard line which led us to our second touchdown. If the two other guys running beside Scott decided to block the punter it would have been a touchdown on the return. Let's hope Scott can stay consistently on that level from now on.

The Series
JMU vs. Villanova is usually a tough game. In 2004, when we shut them out, 17-0, on their field, was when many people took notice of our team on our way to a National Championship. We also won 28-13 in 2005. We lost at Villanova by one, 20-21, in 2006. Landers had one of the best passing games against them of his career in 2007 (a game I scored a sideline pass for) and destroyed them 35-7. In 2008 we had a memorable last second hail mary touchdown catch in a monsoon. We then met them in the playoffs at home for the quarterfinals and beat them again, 31-27. Last year wasn't so good though. Right after Dudzik got injured we played them on our Homecoming and got humiliated 0-27 on a rainy, miserable day.

My Thoughts
This game doesn't look good. They are the defending National Champions. Even before the season started I basically marked this down as a game we would more than likely lose. Now that we have several injuries and our offense has all but stalled...it looks even worse. I keep trying to think of ways that we could win this game, but it's tough. With all of our injuries, this game is probably tougher than our game against Virginia Tech. We also don't have the element of surprise. Unless we change our gameplan or have some surprise all-star performances, we're not gonna win this game. Our only hope is to have a defensive or special teams touchdown, hold them to under 10 points, and manage to get one touchdown or field goal on offense. I just don't see us scoring more than 14 with all our injuries.

Windbreaker prediction: JMU - 14, Villanova - 24
What I hope happens: JMU - 17 - Villanova 14

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Game Notes
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GAMEDAY EVE Homecoming Report: UNH vs. JMU Football

noreply@blogger.com (Drew) — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 12:43:00 +0000

#15/16 UNH Wildcats (3-3, 1-2) vs. #6/7 JMU Dukes (4-1, 1-1)
Oct. 16, 2010 - 3:30pm - Harrisonburg, VA

Televised on Madizone, The Comcast Network, and Comcast SportsNet New England

Weather Report

Tailgating	8am	43°	10% (precip)
Mid-tailgate	12pm	60°	10%
Getting into the stadium	3pm	62°	10%
Kickoff	3:30pm	62°	10%
Game over	6:30pm	58°	20%

Line for the game
JMU by 3.5

Injuries
DT Emmons, LB Veney, and QB Thorpe are likely out for the year. OL Monroe has been out since the beginning of the season, so not sure if he'll be back anytime soon. RB Yancey (hamstring), RB Sullivan, TE Barlow, and K Wright (quad) are probable for tomorrow.

The Numbers (game averages)
JMU Sagarin (40); Strength of Schedule: 62.79 (124)
JMU Rushing Offense: 191 yds - UNH Rushing Defense: 139 yds
JMU Passing Offense: 129 yds - UNH Passing Defense: 149 yds
JMU Total Offense: 320 yds - UNH Total Defense: 288 yds
JMU Scoring Offense: 21.2 - UNH Scoring Defense: 16
JMU Sacks allowed: .4 - UNH Sacks: 1.83

UNH Sagarin (192); Strength of Schedule: 54.27 (187)
UNH Rushing Offense: 128 yds - JMU Rushing Defense: 121 yds
UNH Passing Offense: 238 yds - JMU Passing Defense: 128 yds
UNH Total Offense: 366 yds - JMU Total Defense: 249 yds
UNH Scoring Offense: 22.5 - JMU Scoring Defense: 10.4
UNH Sacks allowed: 3.17 - JMU Sacks: 1

JMU predictor: 71.52 (+3 home); UNH predictor 61.58 = JMU by 12.94

What to watch
JMU's offense against Towson struggled once again. Dropped passes by wide receivers, errant passes by Dudzik, and some porous blocking on the line led to JMU only getting 17 points against a fairly weak team (though their QB was much better than expected). With a windy day expected tomorrow, I'm guessing JMU will once again go without making long passes down the field. Expect a few short routes and that's about it. The rest will be pounded out on the ground. With Sullivan and Yancey both questionable, expect Noble to get a shot at producing some yards on the ground. He might finally get a chance to show what he can do as an every-down back. UNH's defense is okay, but nothing spectacular. Their team is usually behind on turnovers, but the difference last week was that Richmond had to put their 3rd string QB in who is usually their punter after their first string QB was injured on the first drive and UNH's defense took advantage.

UNH's offense luckily is just as bad if not worse than JMU's. After getting 7 turnovers from their defense, the Wildcat's offense only picked up 10 points. I would actually consider it 7 points as the field goal came on a drive of -2 yards before they kicked the field goal.

RU turnovers and subsequent drives by UNH:
Interception (from Corp) returned for TD...
Fumble on UNH 42, 3 and out...punt
Interception on UNH 35, drove to RU 30...punt
Interception on RU 35, returned to RU 15, 3 and out...FG
Interception on UNH 7, 1 first down, sacked...punt
Interception on RU 41, 3 and out...punt
Interception on UNH 23...ran time out

They beat CCSU 33-3, lost at Pitt 16-38, lost at Rhode Island 25-28 (really? URI?), beat Lehigh 31-10, lost at Maine in overtime 13-16, and beat Richmond last week 17-0 at home. They only gained 66 yards on the ground and 166 yards in the air after having an extra 7 drives. I'm not intimidated by their offense.

Their special teams has been pretty good. Ours has looked fantastic at times and rather weak at others. Whoever wins this battle will depend on which of our special teams decides to play.

The Series
JMU has played UNH twice since our National Championship year and we've won both in high scoring games (42-23, 41-24). The last time they won was in 2003. This is their first year having to play many of the former CAA south teams in the same year and we're seeing the effect on them.

My Thoughts
Our offense can hopefully be counted on to score at least two touchdowns and a field goal. UNH hasn't been that fantastic on defense, so I think we can get to the crucial 17 point mark. Our defense has been incredible and I don't expect that to end anytime soon. Judging by the Richmond game last week we can probably hold them under 250-300 yards. While I don't think this will be the blowout the last couple meetings have been, I do think the Homecoming crowd will have our team ready to play. If Sullivan and Yancey are out or limited, look for Noble to handily break the 100 yard mark in this game. I'm also hoping that we at least take a shot or two down the field and try to take advantage of our speed at WR. Also look for our safeties to get at least one more interception...they're kinda good at that...

Windbreaker prediction: JMU - 17, UNH - 13 (seems like we're gonna have to get used to scores like this

Game Notes
JMU Game Notes

Score Updates
To get score updates on Twitter, subscribe to @JMUWindbreaker. I'll be posting scores at the end of each quarter and any major action that happens.

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W&M Marketing Fail: Part III

noreply@blogger.com (Drew) — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 16:20:00 +0000

For those that have been following this blog for awhile, you've already read about W&M's new mascot suckage and last year's incredibly terrible Homecoming shirt. So you get the idea that they fail on a regular basis over in the lesser burg. Well, not to let their fanbase down, they went all out for their new shirts:

So let's break this down...

First of all, in case you didn't know, W&M has joined the list of schools that have a mascot that has absolutely nothing to do with their nickname. Their mascot is a mythical animal called a griffin. Supposedly, these things can fly given the premise of the shirt. Not sure why they can't breathe fire too, while they're at it. Or it could've been something cool like a liger. Who knows...maybe Busch Gardens paid them to make their mascot coincidentally the same as Busch Gardens' newest ride. Unfortunately, W&M's version is not cool or exciting, will never make some scream with excitement, and people will never stand in line to see it. On the other hand, it is the same color as someone who has ridden the Griffin a few too many times. And what does that have to do with the Tribe? Even W&M's most popular alum made fun of it on national TV (around :55 mark):

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Virginia's Confederate History Month & Griffin Mascot

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show Full Episodes

Political Humor

Rally to Restore Sanity

Second, paying for your own Homecoming t-shirts? How terrible is that? In the land of purple and gold, we get a free I Bleed Purple shirt every Homecoming (as long as you beat the lines). I just don't see any W&M student putting up $15 for anything that's not a book, especially a terrible shirt like this. Plus, how is Chanellos managing to give our $5 gift certificates? Doesn't that make their famous cardboard pizza free?

Third, what kind of tagline is that? "Fight or flight... Hens can't do either!" Listen Tribe, any school trying to call out another team's mascot on what it can or can't do when their own mascot doesn't actually exist just needs to give up, alright Tinkerbell.

Maybe the W&M Athletics Marketing department should stop playing Dungeons and Dragons and learn how to actually do their job without making a fool out of the entire W&M community.

GAMEDAY EVE Report: JMU Football vs. Towson

noreply@blogger.com (Drew) — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 15:20:00 +0000

#6/7 JMU Dukes (3-1, 0-1) vs.Towson Tigers (1-4, 0-2)
Oct. 9, 2010 - 7:00pm - Towson, Md

Televised on Madizone

Weather Report

Tailgating	8am	56°	0% (precip)
Mid-tailgate	1pm	72°	0%
Getting into the stadium	6pm	70°	0%
Kickoff	7pm	67°	0%
Game over	3pm	60°	0%

Line for the game
JMU by 21

Injuries
DT Emmons (ankle), RB Yancey (hamstring), and K Wright (quad) are out tomorrow.

The Numbers (game averages)
JMU Sagarin (65); Strength of Schedule: 60.90 (120)
JMU Rushing Offense: 194 yds - Towson Rushing Defense: 198 yds
JMU Passing Offense: 128 yds - Towson Passing Defense: 181 yds
JMU Total Offense: 321 yds - Towson Total Defense: 379 yds
JMU Scoring Offense: 22 - Towson Scoring Defense: 38
JMU Sacks allowed: .50 - Towson Sacks: 1.4

Towson Sagarin (192); Strength of Schedule: 59.74 (128)
Towson Rushing Offense: 135 yds - JMU Rushing Defense: 109 yds
Towson Passing Offense: 172 yds - JMU Passing Defense: 137 yds
Towson Total Offense: 307 yds - JMU Total Defense: 246 yds
Towson Scoring Offense: 19 - JMU Scoring Defense: 9.75
Towson Sacks allowed: 1.8 - JMU Sacks: 1

JMU predictor: 69.47; Towson predictor 42.02 (+3 home) = JMU by 24.45

What to watch
Against Delaware, our offense struggled. They usually weren't left in a good spot by the special teams though, because there were penalties on many of our returns. The offense had to dig itself out of a whole most times and they found it difficult to power through the middle of Delaware's defense. Still waiting for us to feature the eagle more prominently and to make more throws to our tight ends. We also haven't thrown many long passes, which is more of a product of our offensive line not giving Dudzik time, which really limits our offense and lets the other team have a more focused defense. Against Towson, our offensive line should be able to give Dudzik some time so he can get in rhythm going into the heart of CAA play.

Towson is the perennial doormat of the CAA. This year, they started out the season getting trounced at Indiana. Then they played now #185 ranked Coastal Carolina at home and it took 5 overtimes for them to win. Villanova was their next game up, and they got destroyed 7-43. Then came a bad Columbia team, who they lost to 10-24. Last week, UMass beat them 27-14 in a game that stayed fairly close for a lot of the game. They haven't beaten a CAA team (not named URI) since 2007 when they beat Richmond by 2.

Even with an extra 5 overtimes against a bad team (CCU) to boost their stats, they're averaging just over 300 yards of offense per game. They're also allowing almost 400 yards on defense. Indiana was the only team they scored over 17 points on, and they're averaging 13.8 points in regulation. Our defense on the other hand is giving up only 9 points a game and our first-team defense has given up only 2 touchdowns the entire year. This year's defense has also given up zero fourth-down conversions.

The Series
JMU has won the last 6 games. Towson hasn't won since 1992.

My Thoughts
This is a shorter write-up than usual, but I don't expect Towson to really give us too much trouble. For everyone not going to the game, you should be spending your Saturday getting everything ready for Homecoming. Feel free to watch replays of games from 2004, the App State game from 2008, or the VT game and yell as loud as you can with it over the next week to have your voice in top condition for next week's game against UNH. While the crowd noise last week was okay for family weekend, it is the complete opposite of what I expect for Homecoming. I expect a rocking crowd in 8 days. The "GO" "DUKES" chant between the student and alumni sides was awesome, but could be much louder. Can't wait to hear a full crowd yelling it for an afternoon game as the sun is going down. Oh, right...the game tomorrow. We'll score a few touchdowns and a couple field goals. If we go up by more than 2 touchdowns and aren't kneeling the ball by the beginning of the 4th quarter, look for Towson to start whining. Towson will be lucky to get a couple field goals. If they don't get any turnovers or big penalties, I doubt they even get that. My 3 goals for this game: get the offense in rhythm, give the defense a rest, and cut down on penalties.

Windbreaker prediction: JMU - 27, Towson - 6

Game Notes
JMU Game Notes

Score Updates
To get score updates on Twitter, subscribe to @JMUWindbreaker. I'll be posting scores at the end of each quarter and any major action that happens.

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GAMEDAY EVE Report: Delaware vs. JMU Football

noreply@blogger.com (Drew) — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 18:09:00 +0000

#5 Delaware Blue Hens (4-0, 1-0) vs.
#3 JMU Dukes (3-0, 0-0)
Oct. 2, 2010 - 12:05pm - Harrisonburg, VA

Televised on Madizone, The Comcast Network, and Comcast SportsNet New England
Also check out the official viewing parties

Weather Report

Tailgating	8am	46°	0% (precip)
Mid-tailgate	10am	55°	0%
Getting into the stadium	11:30am	61°	0%
Kickoff	12:05pm	63°	0%
Game over	3pm	68°	0%

Line for the game
JMU by 5

Injuries
LB Jamie Veney out for the season

QB Pat Devlin has a fracture in his non-throwing hand

The Numbers (game averages)
JMU Sagarin (36); Strength of Schedule: 55.21 (167)
JMU Rushing Offense: 204 yds - Delaware Rushing Defense: 80 yds
JMU Passing Offense: 129 yds - Delaware Passing Defense: 151 yds
JMU Total Offense: 334 yds - Delaware Total Defense: 231 yds
JMU Scoring Offense: 26.33 - Delaware Scoring Defense: 5.5
JMU Sacks allowed: .67 - Delaware Sacks: 1.25

Delaware Sagarin (66); Strength of Schedule: 52.35 (181 - I don't think this includes their D2 game)
Delaware Rushing Offense: 271 yds - JMU Rushing Defense: 122 yds
Delaware Passing Offense: 155 yds - JMU Passing Defense: 137 yds
Delaware Total Offense: 426 yds - JMU Total Defense: 259 yds
Delaware Scoring Offense: 30 - JMU Scoring Defense: 8.67
Delaware Sacks allowed: 1 - JMU Sacks: .67

JMU predictor: 72.11 (+3 home) ; Delaware predictor 69.98 = JMU by 5.13

What to watch
This game is going to be epic. It doesn't get much better than a sold-out conference game between the #3 and #5 teams in the nation when they're both still undefeated. The two things that could ruin the potential atmosphere: family weekend with parents not knowing how to cheer and students being afraid to get crazy...and it being a noon game when limits tailgating and students are still half asleep. We can't let this stop us. Everyone needs to PURPLE OUT and get crazy for this game. Get there at 8am and get some proper tailgating in. Bring some jackets, it's gonna be a little chilly in the morning. Make sure to have extra purple shirts, jackets, and blankets to give to friends and other JMU fans just in case they forgot what game they were going to and showing up in white (or even worse...blue). These two teams are potential seeded teams for the playoffs and this game could help decide who gets one of the 5 seeds this year. Wear purple, stay on your feet, and yell until you can't yell anymore and then you can still clap your hands and jump up and down.

So let's talk about the Liberty game...our offense couldn't execute much of anything. Dudzik couldn't pass and made a few bad reads on the option and Sullivan dropped the ball a couple times. Plus, we didn't even reveal the eagle (wildcat) with Seaton in the mix. Mickey and company took a huge risk in not letting that loose in a close game, but hopefully it will payoff.

Expect to see the eagle and probably a few WR reverses with some of our speedy WR's. Delaware has a much improved defense with some good depth...and they're big. We need to use that to our advantage and use our speed to create some distance while passing and not try to power through the middle on runs. Dudzik also needs to do some scrambling and take the outside route on his options because powering through the middle is gonna be difficult against Delaware. We also need to bring our TE's back into the passing mix as they're big targets with good hands and will probably be open more that the WR's. Look for Noble to get the start as an award for his performance last week and Sullivan to come in to give him a breather as a punishment for putting the ball on the turf twice against Liberty. Mickey called out the entire offense on Monday and I think they'll step up and come in with a ton of energy tomorrow.

Delaware's offense is much improved over the past couple years. Devlin, their QB, is great, but needs to have pressure put on him. He's not the best at scrambling, and probably still has nightmares about how we treated him last year up in the hen house. Their biggest weapon is their freshman RB Pierce. He has sliced through every defense he's come up against and will be tough to stop. One advantage we have...our defense is (probably by far) the best defense they've faced all year. If we hold Pierce under 100 yards, I'd find it hard to believe we lose the game. We've gone seven quarters without giving up a TD, including three quarters against a BCS team.

Their schedule so far has been wholly unimpressive, but they've beat up on all of their opponents pretty bad. They beat D-II West Chester, 31-0. They beat 0-3 South Dakota State (#154), 26-3. They beat Duquesne (#178), 30-6. Last week they beat a bad Richmond (#105) team, 34-13, after going into the 4th quarter 20-13.

It will probably come down to turnovers, which we're pretty much even on...both being near the top of the nation in getting turnovers. Special teams will also come into play, in this case I think we have the advantage. Skahn, our punter, is clutch and one of the best punters in the nation. It would be surprising if the other team ever started past their own 40 after a punt. We've also blocked a field goal.

The Series
JMU has won the last two games and hasn't lost at home against Delaware since 2001.

My Thoughts
Starting off with Delaware as our first conference game is good and bad. Good because it's a great test, that if we win, shows great promise for the rest of the season. It'll also be a very very hard game that could very well end up a loss. I think we probably the best defense in all of FCS. And defense matters more than anything. This will be a very tight game, but I don't see JMU losing at home. I think we'll reveal a few more plays on offense, which is more in-sync this week, and pull a few blitzes on defense. Our defense will also be trying its best to keep our interception streak alive. JMU gets one medium-long passing TD and two rushing TDs, along with a FG. Delaware I think will get one TD from both rushing and passing, but our defense holds them in the back of the redzone two more times for a couple of FGs. If we lose the turnover battle, we lose the game, but I think we hold onto the ball and send the hens back to Delanowhere.

Windbreaker prediction: JMU - 24, Delaware - 20

Game Notes
JMU Game Notes

Score Updates
To get score updates on Twitter, subscribe to @JMUWindbreaker. I'll be posting scores at the end of each quarter and any major action that happens.

And as always...

JMU's New Jumbotron: Coming in 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Drew) — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 15:50:00 +0000

Some of you may have heard about the new jumbotron for Bridgeforth Stadium we will be getting this upcoming offseason. While no official decisions have been made and no specs have been finalized (aka these could go up or down, but it's doubtful they'll change significantly), let me just give you some details that I've picked up from reports I've read and conversations I've had:

First season: 2011
Full size: about 62'x43' (again, no final specs have been decided on)
Video size: 45'x25'

What hasn't been made to clear in anything I've read are the meaning of these numbers. Most reports have said that the "video portion" will be 45'x25'. What that doesn't clarify is the fact that the entire 62'x43' structure will be an HD video board. The full size will be used for things like the intros before the team runs out onto the field. We can also hope they could use the full thing for replays of major plays or similar things, but that's more me dreaming than what they are actually planning on doing. So the 62'x43' is the actual size of the video board. During the game, the 45'x25' will be what shows live game footage, replays, etc with the score, stats, ads etc around the edges. It will go just in front of the APC, but raised higher than the top of the Plecker Center. The balcony that currently hangs off of the APC will also be removed.

Just to compare, the entire size of the current scoreboard is 70'x30'. So it will be almost as wide, but about 50% taller than the current scoreboard. The scoreboard will be about 70% wider than the part of the APC that extends out and is all glass. It is over 3x wider than the field goal posts. Another fun size comparison: it is almost the width of the Harrisonburg Buffalo Wild Wings and the height is about the distance from the front door to the men's bathroom.

Video boards of other schools (full list):
#15 - Ohio State - 90x30 - 2,700 sq.ft.
-----JMU (proposed full size) - 62x43 - 2,666-----
#16 - Rutgers - 68x37.75 - 2,567
#22 - ECU - 84x28 - 2,352
#26 - West Virginia - 85x23 - 1,955
#27 - LSU - 76x25 - 1,900
#28 - Virginia - 57x32 - 1,824

#40 Clemson - 61.5x19 - 1,169
-----JMU (proposed only video) - 45x25 - 1,125-----
#41 Georgia - 45.5x24 - 1,092

Montana - 36x26 - 936
Towson - 47x17 - 799
Liberty - 36x20 - 720
Richmond's TickVision - 35x20 - 700
Appalachian State - 40x17 - 680
Delaware - 20x16 - 320

A quick combo of a photo I got at the Liberty game of the team running onto the field, a little photoshopping the screen and supports in (NOTE: I didn't take the time to take the balcony off, but that won't be there next year), and put up a shot of the football promo that Digico created, which might be similar to what they do next year (imagine Welcome Home by Coheed and Cambria playing the in the background). Obviously it's basically just me eyeballing what it will look like, but it should give you an idea of the size.

GAMEDAY EVE Report: Liberty vs. JMU Football

noreply@blogger.com (Drew) — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 16:14:00 +0000

#22/21 Liberty Flames (2-1, 0-0) vs.
#3 JMU Dukes (2-0, 0-0)
Sept. 25, 2010 - 6:00pm - Harrisonburg, VA

Televised on Madizone and the Liberty network

Weather Report

Tailgating	8am	66°	10% (precip)
Mid-tailgate	1pm	82°	0%
Getting into the stadium	5pm	82°	0%
Kickoff	6pm	79°	0%
Game over	9pm	68°	0%

Line for the game
JMU by 17

Injuries
WDT Nick Emmons and LB Jamie Veney look to be out for the Liberty game.

The Numbers (game averages)
JMU Sagarin (37); Strength of Schedule: 57.37 (152)
JMU Rushing Offense: 204 yds - Liberty Rushing Defense: 144 yds
JMU Passing Offense: 155 yds - Liberty Passing Defense: 181 yds
JMU Total Offense: 359 yds - Liberty Total Defense: 325 yds
JMU Scoring Offense: 34.5 - Liberty Scoring Defense: 20
JMU Sacks allowed: 1 - Liberty Sacks: 2.33

Liberty Sagarin (144); Strength of Schedule: 44.92 (213)
Liberty Rushing Offense: 135 yds - JMU Rushing Defense: 153 yds
Liberty Passing Offense: 332 yds - JMU Passing Defense: 105 yds
Liberty Total Offense: 466 yds - JMU Total Defense: 257 yds
Liberty Scoring Offense: 34 - JMU Scoring Defense: 11.5
Liberty Sacks allowed: 1.33 - JMU Sacks: 1

JMU predictor: 73.66 (+3 home) ; Liberty predictor 55.44 = JMU by 21.22

What to watch
The first week against Morehead State, JMU used a playbook they had practiced for 3 days. In week 2, JMU revealed their pistol offense to defeat Virginia Tech, 21-16. But even that playbook was still very "vanilla" and we didn't give away much of our overall playbook. Over the past two weeks they've been adding in their Eagle plays into the offense (another name for Wildcat) with last year's 3rd string QB, Seaton. Look for this offense to have a lot of wrinkles and the defense not to know who has the ball until the hit the line of scrimmage. Unless Liberty gets lucky, there will be few tackles for loss against JMU in this offense. We have an abundence of speed with our WR's and we have three solid RB's so we won't have any problems staying fresh with our skill players. Our defense is ridiculous this year, and even though we have a couple injuries, look for them to make a statement. They are a pass-happy offense, so look for at least one interception and probably one fumble by a receiver as our safeties will be anxious to hit someone again after a couple weeks off. Today's game is the first real test against a possible FCS playoff team, so keep a watch and see how each phase competes. One area where we have an advantage is punting, so JMU should win the field position battle all night.

Liberty destroyed a terrible FCS team (232), then pulled an upset on a terrible FBS (143) team, and then got upset by a bad FCS team (193). Their QB, Brown, is a very athletic guy. He could play RB or WR also, and sometimes does. We need to keep a contain on him and get after him or he will make some plays. Think of him as a Landers or a Tyrod Taylor. His WR Summers is very athletic and tall. They will be the main guys to get yards the entire night. Our main focus will be Brown and if we stop him from getting big games, we'll win this game in a big way. Their defense is nothing to write home about. They'll do an okay job, but I don't expect them to be able to keep up with us for four quarters.

Two years ago they were held out of the playoffs after going 10-2. Last year they lost to a bad Stony Brook team in the last week to keep them out of the playoffs. Especially after a bad loss to Robert Morris, this is their ticket to the playoffs. This is their Super Bowl. When we played their last year, they hyped it as the biggest game in their history, and we beat them in a monsoon, 24-10. For JMU, we need to prove that the Virginia Tech win wasn't a fluke. We played a terrible FCS team and a ranked FBS team and won both. We need to come in focused and prove to everyone that we are that good. We have outstanding senior leadership this year and they pride themselves on going one week at a time. I don't see us overlooking this game. Plus we're 7-1 after bye weeks. I don't see this game being close.

The Series
JMU has won the last four games against Liberty, including last year's 24-10 win.

My Thoughts
Liberty is a good team, don't get me wrong. And they're completely focused on us and have been for a couple weeks. That still doesn't excuse losing to Robert Morris. They haven't proven anything other than their offense can put up yards, but not many points (except against a really terrible St. Francis team). I don't believe their defense can stay with us. We're too ready for this game and we'll open the playbook up a little more. The Dukes are ready to get back out there and light up the Flames. To win, Liberty needs to win the turnover battle by at least 2, but I think the Dukes stay on the good side of that statistic and get a couple more turnovers. JMU will probably give up a fairly quick TD in the first or second quarter, a field goal early in the third quarter, and then another TD in garbage time once our starters are out at the end of the game.

Windbreaker prediction: JMU - 38, Liberty - 17

Game Notes
JMU Game Notes

Score Updates
To get score updates on Twitter, subscribe to @JMUWindbreaker. I'll be posting scores at the end of each quarter and any major action that happens.

And as always...

Football: Week 3 Recap

noreply@blogger.com (Drew) — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 03:11:00 +0000

Even though JMU had a bye week in week 3, there is still a lot of interesting things to discuss. This could be a very special year for the Dukes so I'm going to try to stay consistent on updates.

Past Opponents
Morehead State (225) - Lost to Dayton. This win will continue to bring down our strength of schedule in the Sagarin ratings. MSU is averaging 41 rushing yards/game after three weeks.

Virginia Tech (28) - After a ending the first half down to ECU, Tech stormed back and won 49-27. Looks like VT has gotten its confidence and will make our win look even better as the weeks go on.

Future Opponents
Liberty (144) - Lost to Robert Morris (23-30), ranked 193 in Sagarins, whose only other win was against Sacred Heart, ranked 239. After beating FBS team Ball St, Liberty played Robert Morris in a true trap game and was I guess looking ahead to our game next week. This could still be a close game, but don't look to be holding your breath in the second half. RMU got 4.1 yards/rush, so look for JMU to stuff it down Liberty's throat.

Delaware (92) - This is still a HUGE question mark. Game 1 was against DII West Chester where they won 31-0. Game 2 was against South Dakota State, ranked 170, and they won 26-3. Game 3 was against a bad Duquesne team (also the Dukes), ranked 199, where they won 30-6. They haven't even had a decent test yet, so they are a big unknown. They have great skill players in QB Devlin (Penn State transfer) and freshman RB Pierce who is putting up huge numbers. I still consider them 1-2 TD favorites in their game against Richmond this weekend.

Towson (179) - What can I say, Towson is Towson. 1-2, their only win took them 5 overtimes to beat a bad Coastal Carolina team. They lost to Villanova 7-43. Even at Towson's very nice stadium, we'll probably still claim the numbers for a home field advantage and win it in the first half.

UNH (128) - This was a real head-scratcher. Week 1, they beat Central Connecticut State 33-3. Week 2 they played Pittsburgh respectably, 16-38. This past weekend though, they played a Rhode Island team that won a single game last season and hasn't won more than one CAA game since 2006. I'll keep my eye on UNH, but for our Homecoming game, this just got slightly less stressful in my mind.

Villanova (69) - This will be very tough. Last year's National Champions took #46 ranked, now 3-0 Temple down to the end and narrowly lost 24-31. They beat a decent Lehigh team 35-0 and a bad Towson team 43-7. If we're still undefeated up to this point (fairly likely), look for a rough game up at Villanova.

UMass (72) - UMass is looking stronger than they have in recent years. They beat a mediocre W&M team 27-23. They beat a bad Holy Cross team 31-7. Then they lost a very close game to #20 Michigan, 42-37. Probably the fourth best CAA team at this point behind Villanova, JMU, and Delaware.

Richmond (84) - Richmond lost at Virginia 13-34 to start the year, had their bye week on week 2, and barely beat a decent Elon team 27-21 in overtime. Richmond had 3 turnovers in that game and their defense allowed Elon to gain 392 yards, 319 of which were in the air. Reports are that both their offensive and defensive lines played terrible and passes were not very accurate. Richmond is a sloppy team with a new coach, lots of new players, and a new (much smaller stadium) and I don't see them as much of a threat this year.

William & Mary (101) - Week one: lost to UMass 23-27. Week two: shutout VMI 45-0. Week three: won a very close game to ODU (more on them later), 21-17. W&M's defense is weak and their offense isn't much better. After a very strong season last year, there has been a huge dropoff for Waste Mana...William & Mary. There is no reason for a game to be that close against a team in only its second year of existence. Senior Day at JMU will be a chance to blow up a W&M team that put a hurting on us last year.

Maine (163) - Lost to a bad Albany team 0-3. Beat a worse Monmouth team 31-23. Lost to FBS Syracuse, 14-38. I'm not scared of the team, but we will be playing in Maine on Nov 20. It will be cold and weather conditions could be bad. There's still a lot of time between now and then, but I think if we're undefeated, we fight to defend that, if we have one loss, we'll hopefully still be fighting to get a top 4 seed for playoffs. If we have more than one loss, it could be hard to get motivated before playoffs.

Other Teams of Interest
Georgia State (234) - Beat DII Shorter team, 41-7. Lost to NAIA team, Lambuth, 14-23. Then they took Jacksonville State (who beat Ole Miss in double-overtime to start the season) to overtime, but lost 27-34 in their first season of football. They will join the CAA in 2012, so this is a team to keep your eye on.

Montana (123) - Perennial FCS power Montana started the season with a 73-2 beating on DII Western State. They they lost at Cal Poly (ranked 133), 35-33. This past weekend they lost at Eastern Washington, 27-36. Luckily for them, they play in the Big Sky and would have to be upset to lose another game this season, but maybe for the first time in awhile they won't win the Big Sky. I'm pretty sure they'll still get an at-large spot in the playoffs though unless they have a complete meltdown.

Elon (122) - A playoff team from a year ago, they lost at Duke 27-41. They beat a DII Shaw team by 55-26. And then they lost at Richmond in OT, 21-27. They play in the weak Southern Conference with a App State team that is surprisingly not dominating this year (though they did lose QB Armanti Edwards to graduation...instead of to a lawn mower like last year). Look for them to challenge for the SoCon crown and make it to the playoffs even though I wouldn't expect them to make it past the first round or two.

App State (100) - Won a way-too-close game at now 1-2 Chattanooga, 42-41. Beat a terrible Jacksonville team 45-14. Then beat an even worse NC Central team, 44-16. May be the first year App State has legitimate cause for concern over winning the SoCon, though they'll probably still make the playoffs. Ends the regular season playing Florida.

Old Dominion (213) - Second year of playing and they're already competing with W&M? They started the year losing to a terrible Jacksonville team (same one that got crushed by Appy), 25-35. Then they beat a terrible Campbell team (worst team in all of DI football). This past weekend they kept it close against the Tribe. I'm thinking it was a combination of W&M being bad this year, not wanting to lose to their 757 neighbors, and ODU wanting to prove that it wasn't going to be a CAA patsy when it joins the conference next year. Impressive? Kinda. Cause for concern? Definitely not. At least not yet.

In a related note, Richmond has tried to start a tradition of throwing streamers in their new stadium. Sound familiar? This has been a JMU tradition for decades and a JMU football tradition for over half a decade. App State has also tried to copy our streamer throwing. While I appreciate that they think we're that awesome, that's our thing. Stop now.

JMU Best Team In Virginia?

noreply@blogger.com (Drew) — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 23:05:00 +0000

More reporting to come, but for now, enjoy this:

Fun Stats

JMU is only the second FCS team ever to beat a ranked FBS team
JMU hadn't won a game against an FBS team since 1990 with a win over Navy
This was Virginia Tech's second loss to an FCS team in its history (Richmond was the first, in 1985 - three years after UR moved down to the FCS level)
Virginia Tech hasn't started a season 0-2 since 1995
This ended a 32 game home non-conference win-streak for VT
Said streak began with a 47-0 win over JMU on September 4, 1999 (What goes around comes around)
JMU was paid $450,000 by Virginia Tech to play the game
Jamal Sullivan's 77-yard TD catch was the longest reception against Tech's defense since 2003
Virginia Tech was 7-1 on games after short weeks under Beamer (now 7-2)
The Hokies are now unranked for the first time since Nov. 30, 2008 (they garnered no points in this weeks AP poll)
JMU has 11 points in the week's AP Poll (USA Today Poll doesn't allow votes for FCS teams - yet)
JMU is now #33 in the Sagarin rankings of all Division I football teams

Media Attention
DNR

JMU Stuns Virginia Tech
Biggest Win Ever At JMU
Duke Fans Celebrate 'Historic' Victory
We Believed
JMU Now No. 3
Bye Comes At Good Time For JMU
No Doubt: JMU's Biggest Win Ever
Straight Into Lore

ESPN
On The Mark: On Any Given Saturday
Page 2: Is Texans' win a sign of Armageddon (Sweet Play of the Week)
Bottom 10 teams looking to trade places

Breeze
King for a day
Celebrations at JMU
Shocker in Blacksburg

Nothing to lose

Other
Washington Examiner: JMU's brilliant scheme (James Irwin)
Roanoke Times
dailypress.com: CAA Power

GAMEDAY EVE Report: JMU Football vs. Virginia Tech

noreply@blogger.com (Drew) — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 15:54:00 +0000

#15(FCS) JMU Dukes (1-0, 0-0) vs.
#13(FBS) Virginia Tech Hokies (0-1, 0-0)
Sept. 11, 2010 - 1:30pm - Blacksburg, VA

Watch the game on ESPN3 or at one of the official JMU viewing locations

Weather Report

Tailgating	8am	58°	10% (precip)
Mid-tailgate	11am	65°	10%
Kickoff	1:30pm	67°	30%
Game over	4:30pm	69°	50%

Line for the game
VT by 31 (started at 25.5)

The Numbers...
...don't really matter at this point in the season against vastly different opponents.

What to watch
JMU's offensive production will depend on how long the offensive line can hold off the Hokie's defense. I have a feeling they will be attacking our offense from the very beginning trying to wear us out and get us scared. Our best chance will be to get off some quick passes or screens to make them back off. Dudzik won't be able to hold onto the ball for more than 4 seconds on most plays so getting a long shot to Kerby will be difficult. Virginia Tech's defense is fast, but inexperienced. JMU needs to use that against them and do reverses and misdirections. Also, use the option a lot. Make them oversell. Playactions and flea flickers will come in handy too. DE Chris Drager is also injured, so J.R. Collins will be making his first start and is two inches shorter. This is on the left side against big man Theo Sherman, so it's pretty ideal for the Dukes. Make them hesitate and make sure they don't put 8 or 9 in the box. Make them stay honest, but don't be reckless.

The one thing we can not do is turn it over. Surprise surprise, but basically every game we've lost since 2004 has been because of turnovers. RB's need to hold onto the ball and Dudzik needs to focus and make sure that he hits his receivers. We had a tendency to throw long last week, which will get us in trouble against Tech. There is ZERO margin for error this week. Once we're down by 2 or 3 touchdowns, Mickey will put in Jace Edwards, our true freshman QB, which will pretty much signal we've given up trying to win.

On defense, JMU is in a tight spot. Tyrod Taylor in the past has been known to not be a good passer and has thrown many interceptions, but he seems to be much more selective this year (at least from the Boise State game). He is also still a huge threat at quarterback, which could spell disaster for the Dukes. And if that wasn't enough, the Hokie running backs are even more dangerous. Ryan Williams could be up for the Heisman if he has the season people expect him to. The one weakness to their offense is their offensive line. JMU needs to assert as much power as they can early and try to contain their running. While we lost a couple NFL quality linemen to graduation, the returns can definitely do the job. O'Neil, Emmons, Brown, and Bryant are all capable of getting in the backfield and causing chaos. JMU's defense from front to back is very solid though, so I would expect us to hold them to fewer points than some people expect. Our safeties are FCS All-American quality and we are deep at linebacker. We'll need these guys to step up and make at least one interception or force a fumble. This will deflate the fans and kill their offensive rhythm. Both Tyrod and Ryan carry the ball very loosely and came very close to fumbling several times on Monday. We can't sacrifice a tackle, but if we have a couple guys trying to pull one of them down, get a hand in and pull it out. Another key is to stay behind them and prevent the long play. I would rather give them 5 yard passes all day and run the clock out faster than give them the easy opportunity for a long bomb that would get their players and fans excited.

Special teams could be interesting. Everyone has heard about 'Beamer Ball,' but on Monday we all saw that Virginia Tech is more than capable of having miscues. Skahn looks to be an excellent punter for us and last week our kickers did the job pretty well (other than the one kickoff that went out of bounds). There's no need to take risks here. If they're closing in on punt returns, fair catch it. Memories of the Montana game are still clear in my mind.

They are coming off a close loss on Monday to a better team. Yes, they'll come out fired up, but that doesn't always mean they will be focused. The fans won't be nearly as into it after the loss, playing against an FCS team, on an early Saturday game, in crappy weather. If we can score early, get a turnover, or a 3-and-out...it'll shut them up quickly.

The Series

JMU is 0-6 against Virginia Tech, the last game being played in 2003. The Dukes were outscored by a combined score of 0-90 the last two games.

My Thoughts
JMU is a longshot to be in this game. We're playing one of the top FBS teams in the country. While, in my opinion, overrated, they are still an extremely good team. This isn't Maryland (the bottom of the ACC), it's Virginia Tech (one of the best in the ACC). All the same, if the Dukes play mistake-free football, we can keep it close enough to make Tech fans uncomfortable. Our defense is good enough to hold them closer than what all of the people saying, "Tech will determine the margin of victory." Our offensive line is the only thing that scares me. Whether we can score or not will depend on them. Most of Tech's players probably went to high school with a lot of JMU players, or at least played against them. While there's probably some respect there, it's not much. JMU's players are tired of hearing that they're the a JV team. They're ready to get out there and play. The best thing JMU can do is come out quick and score in the first 10 minutes of the game. If that happens, the Hokies will start to doubt themselves. JMU will keep it close for at least the first half. This will definitely be an interesting game to watch. I think JMU can get a couple touchdowns and a couple field goals. I'm gonna go ahead and say we miss an extra point though...something on special teams has gotta go wrong...I'd rather it be that than anything else. Virginia Tech will average a touchdown a quarter and get a couple more field goals. There will be a lot more running than in Monday's game, so the score will be lower. The chances of an upset are slim, but it's not impossible. We've been drinking the kool-aid over the past week and, to be honest, we really really reeeeeeally don't like Virginia Tech. Nothing would bring the Windbreaker more joy than to crush their hopes and dreams (plus we found their sensitivity after the Boise St. loss amusing and couldn't imagine what they would be like after a loss to lowly ol' JMU). GO DUKES!

Windbreaker prediction: JMU - 19 (that's right, 19), Virginia Tech - 34
My prediction (copying JMU Sports Blog): JMU - 27, Virginia Tech - 24
ESPN ACC blog prediction: JMU - 7, Virginia Tech - 42
USA Today prediction: JMU - 14, Virginia Tech - 27

Other Previews

JMU Sports Blog
Planet Blacksburg
Virginia Tech Fan

Game Notes
JMU Game Notes

Score Updates
To get score updates on Twitter, subscribe to @JMUWindbreaker. I'll be posting scores at the end of each quarter and any major action that happens.

Live Video
If something crazy happens, and it's close at the end check Qik.com/JMUWindbreaker for live video from the stands.

And as always...

Women's Lacrosse Wins CAA Championship

noreply@blogger.com (Drew) — Mon, 10 May 2010 14:44:00 +0000

The JMU Women's Lacrosse team beat Hofstra on Saturday, 10-6, to win the CAA Championship for the seventh time in 14 years. This also gave them the CAA's autobid to the NCAA tournament, which they'll be attending for the 10th time. They made it to the semifinals in 2000 and the quarterfinals in 1998, 1999, 2001, and 2004. The Dukes also made it into the tournament in 1995, 1997, 2003, and 2006. This year will add to a decade and a half of incredible play by JMU Women's Lacrosse.

Some impressive stats compiled this year by the Dukes:

Started the season dominating VT, 16-3
Ranked #7 in the nation at the end of the season
Seeded 5th in the NCAA tournament
16-2 record, only losing to #13 Loyola by 4 (8-12) and #1 Maryland by 1 (7-8)
16 wins ties the school record
Beat Yale by 6, Princeton by 1, UR by 13, #4 UVA by 1
Went undefeated in CAA play, which includes #8, #16, and #24
Won CAA tourney games by 3 and 4 points
233 goals for vs. 129 against...almost a 2-1 ratio
One of only two teams to go undefeated on the road this season

The Dukes will start the NCAA tournam ent at home on Saturday, May 15, at 1pm against Stanford. Stanford lost 10-9 at Towson on March 28 and beat Hofstra 14-13 in three overtimes at home on March 31. Stanford is coming in ranked 15th in the nation with a 15-5 record. Their 5 losses were to #11 Syracuse (7-16), #2 Northwestern (11-18), #1 Maryland (8-20), #8 Towson (9-10), and Denver (12-17). Stanford is 3-4 on the road this season. The only road wins were against 0-14 Fresno State (19-4), 8-10 California (12-7) and 13-5 Denver (11-10 2OT). Between Stanford's poor play on the road, their loss to Towson, triple-overtime win at home against Hofstra, and their bad loss to Maryland, who only beat us by one, makes me believe that getting Stanford to play at JMU is a great draw for the Dukes and gives them a great chance to move on to the next round.

This is the sixth time JMU is hosting a first-round NCAA game. The Dukes are undefeated so far in first-round home games (5-0). JMU has also beaten Stanford in the two previous contests where they have faced each other: once in 2007 in Palo Alto and then in Harrisonburg in 2008, both 10-9 wins.

Their possible path to the National Championship would be (using national ranking):
First Round: #15 Stanford (15-5), May 15
Quarterfinals: #9 Georgetown (13-5) or #11 Syracuse (13-6), May 22-23
Semifinals: Most likely #1 Maryland (18-1) or #6 Penn (14-3), May 28
Championship: Most likely #2 Northwestern (17-1) or #3 UNC (15-2), May 30

JMU had a moment of silence before the game in memory of Yeardley Love - the University of Virginia lacrosse player who was found dead last week - and wore orange wrist bands with her initials on them, as it did before its semifinal win on Thursday. Many of Hofstra's players had Love's last name written on their legs. -DNR

JMUSports.com LACROSSE #5 SEED IN NCAA TOURNEY, TO HOST STANFORD SATURDAY
Windbreaker Pictures of W&M Game
Windbreaker Pictures of Hofstra Game

Fire Burning, Fire Burning at the Block Party

noreply@blogger.com (Drew) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 05:08:00 +0000

By now I'm sure everyone has heard about 'JMU Riot 2010'. The news quickly spread all over the region and even ended up in a quick segment on CNN, Deadspin, and on a few other national websites. Sorry this is very late, but my internet wasn't working for 5 days...so give me a break. I'm gonna do my best to lay down the history, what happened (as best as I can, without actually having been there), and suggest some things for the future.

History
So waaay back when at JMU...back when Greek row included fraternities, they held a big alumni weekend. They had bands on Greek row, fenced off part of it where they would have alcohol and would card people to get in, had a constant police presence, and kept everything orderly. At some point, State and University attorneys decided having any sanctioned parties like this on campus was a bad idea. Thus, parties like this were moved off campus.

Even when large parties happened off campus, they were kept under control. In former-President Ronald Carrier's (or 'Uncle Ron', as we was affectionately known) administration, he would show up towards the end of the afternoon and hang out for a little bit. He would then say something like, "Alright, everyone have one more drink, and then we'll all go home." And everyone knew that at that point, they had had their fun and it was time to go.

Flash forward to the fall of 2000. The block party that happens every year the weekend before classes start had been growing and growing. Well it finally got out of hand and rioting started. Now, on the riot scale, this was pretty minor (as was the one this past weekend). Things were thrown, people were injured, and there was property damage. It made national news and was a black eye on JMU's reputation. Things were done to help curtail what made the party spin out of control and the years went by without a mishap.

So now along with the pre-classes block party in the fall that had the previous 'riot', there has been an 'alumni weekend' block party in Forrest Hills that goes on usually two-three weekends before the end of classes. There is a part now dubbed 'Springfest' which occurs in Fox Hills on Friday. Apparently residents of Fox Hills were threatened by their landlord that they couldn't have Springfest, so the Friday event from what I understand didn't happen. So on Saturday everyone that had come into town because of the Springfest Facebook invitation came to the Forrest Hills block party. Up until this year it was contained to 2,000-3,000 people. Last year, people filled probably 3/4 of the grassy area, the sidewalk along Village Lane, and a few people would be up on the hill.

You Gotta Fight For Your Right...To Get Tear-Gassed?

The Facebook events had been spread around. People had been invited. Various forms of alcohol had been purchased. Reports are that 8,000 flooded the Forrest Hills/Forrest Hills Manor area, and I don't doubt that number. YouTube videos will show just how ridiculously packed it was. There was no walking room even on the street and even the hill was pretty packed.

So where did this influx of 5,000-6,000 come from? There are approximately 17,000 full-time students at JMU. So that means that last year if 2,500 students showed up, that's just under 15% of the students (if they were all JMU students). This year, that number would have been around 47% if all of the attendees were from JMU. That's ridiculous. So let's say there was a massive (and probably untrue) increase of 10% more of current students coming to the block party. 25% of 17,000 is 4,250, which again is a ridiculous increase. I would put the number from JMU more around 3,000-3,750. That number would be mean that less than half of the block party attendees were from JMU. Just some of the colleges I've heard had people come were Virginia Tech, Maryland, West Virginia, Penn State, Radford, Columbia...and many more. There were even people from California that came to the block party. That's not to mention the kids from the area that came out (who are pretty famous for causing trouble at JMU parties).

One father of a JMU freshman said her daughter had hallmates that had as many as six visitors staying in their rooms coming for the block party. Another girl said you could tell who was from JMU because any girl wearing jeans was obviously not a JMU girl, because they always wear sundresses to the block party. You could also tell the guys from out of town because their mouths were hanging open because they weren't used to seeing the likes of JMU girls in sundresses. And these people seemed to be a majority of the group that was there.

All afternoon there were calls to get emergency assistance for people at the block party, but rescue personnel couldn't even get in, and if they could, they didn't have room to get the person out. People drank and partied as usual.

Around 4pm, the Harrisonburg Police Department sent in a few officers to try to get people to vacate the area. They got pelted with beer cans/bottles, so they left before being injured any further.

This about the time that things went downhill quickly. A couple girls got up on an electrical box in the middle of the crowd. Some valiant guy decided that they shouldn't be up there, so he jumped up to try to get them down and that's when people started throwing things at him. It started with cups, but when he wouldn't get down it progressed to bottles and larger objects. Once he got down, some other less-than-intelligent people decided it was a great king-of-the-hill game to see who could last the longest. So people would jump up on the box just to get pelted. A giant circle was created around the box and anyone who entered the circle immediately got things thrown at them.

At about 6pm, a text went out to students saying to vacate the Village Lane area. The problems with this is that not everyone carries their cell phone to block party, not everyone checks their phone frequently, it takes awhile for those messages to get to everyone, not everyone is opted in for text message notifications, and half of the people there weren't even JMU students. I also heard that this was a signal to some people that it must be a great party so they decided at that point that they should head to Forrest Hills-I'm really hoping this was just a rumor. This is also about the time that about 200 police offers from around the region showed up, many in riot gear. The police started announcing over a megaphone that people need to leave.

A few idiots thought that they had the right to drink openly on public property and didn't want to leave, so they started throwing bottles and rocks at the cops (for every person throwing things, there were at least two trying to get them to stop). Some geniuses also lit a couple dumpsters on fire. This is when the cops started pepper spraying, launching tear-gas into the crowd, and moving forward. There were also reports and supposed video of rubber bullets even though the HPD denied having used them. At this point, most people had already left after either seeing the cops or getting the text message telling them to leave. So the crowd was probably down to about 1,000 when the tear-gas started flying. This created widespread panic and chaos and basically everyone left. Up until this point, many people who were left were just standing in amazement at what was going on and you can watch YouTube videos of the crowds scattering when the first few founds of tear-gas are sent into the crowds. After this, few people were left and the ones that stuck around were arrested. Another reason I don't think many JMU students were left in the crowd of 60-100 at the end is that if someone sees tear gas, who is more likely to stay: someone who lives a few blocks away or someone who lives a few hours away and has nowhere to go?

There's also video of people trying to surrender or get around the cops to leave and then getting pepper sprayed or tackled to the ground. In my opinion, if someone is leaving (since that was the point of the show of force), let them go. I realize you don't know what they're going to do and they've been there that long so they have no excuse, but there's no need to attack anyone if they are trying to leave peacefully. There are other videos that people complain about an unneeded use of force, but after being attacked for so long, I say they used a lot of restraint and was surprised that didn't happen more.

How to fix it and what went wrong

First, to all of you who brought in all your friends from all over the East Coast...never do that again. This is a JMU party and should stay that way. It's our reputation on the line and was tarnished this past weekend because it got out of hand.

Second, the HPD needs to have a constant presence. They can say all they want that they had the same force there throughout the day that they've had in the past, but the fact that people were walking around in the street with cups tells me they didn't. HPD needs to be there and ticket anyone who steps off the sidewalk with a cup in their hand, just like they normally do. If a fight breaks out, get in to stop it immediately. If anyone tries to fight you off, make them an example so that it doesn't get out of control. I realize they tried to break it up peacefully, but jumping to riot gear will polarize peoples' fight or flight response. So some took off running in any direction, while it angered the rest and they decided to stay and fight.

Third, if you see police in riot gear...leave the area. Immediately. Plain and simple. Attacking a police officer is stupid, irresponsible, and lands you in jail. Complaining about the cops when you live a middle-class life is ridiculous. Just because some guys in a rap video or movie said, "F the police," and you thought it was cool, doesn't actually make it cool. It makes you stupid. There was an interview with one guy at the block party who was talking to someone else asking, "what have the police ever done for you?" I have no other response than that person doesn't deserve to live in this country. Period.

The End of Block Party?
No. I don't see how that would ever happen. But how can this be fixed for the future? The biggest issue is containment. Rope off an area and only let certain people in. Also, cops need to be a constant and strong presence throughout the day. Up until this year, if anyone stepped off the sidewalk with a cup in their hand, they were issued a citation. This year, you couldn't even tell where the sidewalk was there were so many people. Things need to be kept orderly from the very beginning. Students also need to police each other and try to keep this from happening again.

Depending on how official you want to make it, you can have a certain number of tickets allotted to each townhouse. Once the tickets are gone...they're gone. You can even charge a few bucks for each ticket to help pay for porta-potties, drinks, any damages to property, cleanup, etc. If you have thousands of people who are drinking a lot, they're gonna need to use the bathroom at some point. There were a lot of problems this year with people trying to break into townhouses to use the bathroom. Porta-potties people. Seriously.

On the other hand, if you want to hold an event on campus you can basically just follow the revive the jMubilee event that was held a couple years ago. Using SGA funds, fundraising money, and donations, you can hold a giant event on Godwin Field. Lots of free food, free (non-alcoholic) drinks, have live performances from local/JMU bands and a capella groups, and a variety of games. Invite the community and all JMU students. jMubilee of 2008 was held the afternoon on the last day of classes and had around 1,600 people attend, but it can be held on a Saturday a couple weeks before if need be. If you want any other info on this let me know...I can tell you exactly what you need to do. There are even t-shirts already made and ready to sell. The intent was to bring the JMU campus and Harrisonburg community together for a day of fun, which I think is exactly what the city needs right now.

Positives to come of this?
While nothing could really make up for the rioting, there are three things that happened after the block party that show that most JMU students don't condone what happened. To start off with (even though it was planned before the rioting happened), JMU Greek Life helped cleanup all the trash that was left behind, which I believe they do almost every year. So to all those who look down on all the fraternities and sororities...please thank them for at least cleaning up your mess. I also heard a report about a couple of people recycling a lot of the glass bottles and cans.

The next good thing that happened is that within hours of the rioting, a JMU student came up with a great idea to help raised money to help pay for the damages to property: sell t-shirts and give the proceeds to pay for repairs. The original t-shirt group is up to over 5,000 members. Here's another design that is saying they'll also donate the proceeds, but is much smaller. There are also impostor shirt creators that say nothing about raising money to repair damages and are trying to profit from this, which is pretty awful in my opinion.

The final thing I wanna talk about is possibly the most helpful and long-term. A few students decided to start a group to organize community service around the city. I hate that it took what happened to motivate people to do this, but I'm glad it finally happened. Dukes Helping Harrisonburg already has over 2,000 members and organized a 50-person project yesterday. The official kick-off meeting is this Tuesday, so I'm anxious to hear what their long-term plans are.

So again, this was terrible and should not be repeated in any manner, but most students and alumni were horrified about what happened and many are acting to fix what happened as best they can.

President Rose's Response

Dear Students:

Let me first acknowledge that many of you did not attend springfest on Saturday. To those of you who were involved, your collective behavior was an embarrassment to your university and a discredit to our reputation. No one is opposed to some fun on a beautiful spring weekend, but public drunkenness, destruction of property, and threats to personal safety are unacceptable outcomes. Yesterday’s events reflect poorly on your character and were demonstrable evidence of less than sound judgment.
As a university community, we care about our neighbors. Unfortunately, the events of this weekend do not demonstrate that concern.
To mitigate the negative consequences of these types of situations in the future, we will be conferring with students, property owners, law enforcement, including the Virginia State Police, government officials and others.
Linwood H. Rose
President

As far as what JMU can actually do to the arrested students remains to be seen. Because it happened off campus, only those arrested can be disciplined by JMU, and even then the students will have to go through the official process of Judicial Affairs. Otherwise, the school risks lawsuit for not following official procedure.

Mayor Kai Degnor's Response

The incident yesterday at the Springfest between partygoers and police is unfortunate and disappointing. There is simply no doubt that enough of this crowd did, indeed, get out of hand and create an unsafe situation – indeed injuries, property damage, and dumpster fires – even before police arrived. Left alone, this behavior could have easily continued and escalated. I commend officers for exercising their responsibility to disperse the crowd to restore a safe environment. That said, the videos of multiple tear gas canisters landing amongst the students after they already began fleeing the scene raise concern.
Preventable measures must be taken to keep events, especially planned and advertised open and unmonitored drinking parties, to grow to such a large crowd in a small residential area. This is the second time in a decade this has occurred. With foresight and planning, it should be the last.
I’m collecting all the information I can, and I have asked for a report at Tuesday evening’s council meeting so that we can understand the facts and begin exploring where to improve our policies. As this event is reviewed, I call on all community leaders, including student leaders, to be responsible for their constructive participation in the discussion about how to move forward.
–
Mayor Kai Degner
City of Harrisonburg, Virginia

Kai is a JMU grad and I'm sure hates that this happened because it reflects poorly on the school he attended. He already had it bad enough coming from JMU (someplace that a small, but vocal Harrisonburg crowd hate) and being a Democrat in Harrisonburg, so this didn't help. It also works well for him because he can recommend the most severe punishment he wants and put all of the responsibility on JMU. For a full discussion on the responses, check out HBurgNews. Current SGA President Candace Avalos also publicly apologized at the city council meeting.

Injuries
Dozens were taken to RMH for injuries. One person was flown to UVA and two were taken by ambulance for more serious injuries. There were also several officers with mainly minor injuries and a K-9 unit reportedly had a minor injury.

Arrests
Of the people arrested, 15 were JMU students and 15 were not JMU students. Out of the eight people with the most serious charges (so far), only one was from JMU. This list is courtesy of the Breeze. Investigations are ongoing so expect more arrests in the coming weeks.
The following people face charges from HPD for felony malicious wounding by mob and misdemeanor assault or battery by mob:
Dominick Angelo Brown, 21, Manassas
Sherman Thomas, 23, Vienna
Kalvin Lamar Jackson, 24, Chantilly
Nathaniel Gillom, 20, Herndon
Aubrey Humphrey, 21, Fairfax
Dameon N. Lyles, 20, Chantilly

The following people face charges from HPD:
Justin Lyons, 24, Harrisonburg
-charges: assault on a law enforcement officer and participate in a riot with a dangerous weapon
-non-JMU student

Japheth E. Rawls IV, 21, Harrisonburg
-charges: profane swearing or intoxication, failing to leave from an unlawful assembly, assault on a law enforcement officer and participate in a riot with a dangerous weapon
-JMU student

The following people are charged with profane swearing or intoxication and failing to leave from an unlawful assembly (from the Harrisonburg Police Department and Virginia State Police):
Bobby D. Washington, 20, Washington
-non-JMU student

Mark E. Stephenson, 24, Arlington
-JMU student

Brendan A. Hassett, 20, Williamsburg
-non-JMU student

Timothy P. Chapman, 22, Harrisonburg
-JMU student
-Chapman is the former editor-in-chief of The Breeze but ended his position on April 1. He was not involved with any of the Springfest coverage.

Steven T. Moxham, 20, Harrisonburg
-JMU student

Juan S. Infante, 20, Chantilly
-non-JMU student

John J. Underwood, 21, Abingdon, Md.
-non-JMU student

Ryan F. Gallagher, 21, Downington, Pa.
-JMU student

Kevin W. Yarmosh, 23, Reston
-non-JMU student

Jeffrey D. Small, 21, Harrisonburg
-JMU student

Travis A. Basso, 22, Morgantown, W.Va.
-non-JMU student

Ryan M. Byrne, 20, Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y.
-JMU student

Samuel A. Johnson, 19, Richmond
-JMU student

Timothy E. Davis, 21, Columbia, S.C.
-non-JMU student

Anne T. Birkhead, 22, Harrisonburg
-JMU student

Gabriel A. Walman, 22, Harrisonburg
-JMU student

Brett M. Weiner, 19, Mansfield, Mass.
-JMU student

One charge of failing to leave from an unlawful assembly from HPD:

Matthew C. Frazier, 21, Harrisonburg
-JMU student

The Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control also arrested four people (ages and hometowns were not provided):
John Jorgen Sutter
-drunk in public and unlawful assembly
-JMU student
-Sutter is one of the co-news editors of The Breeze. He has not been involved in any of the Springfest coverage for the April 12 or April 15 issues, and he will remain uninvolved in The Breeze’s coverage.

Christopher Ryan Dashiell
-assault and battery of a police officer and unlawful assembly while committing a criminal offense
-non-JMU student

William B. Dale
-drunk in public and unlawful assembly
-JMU student

Jared Lee Roberts
-unlawful assembly and underage possession
-JMU student

Media Coverage
DNR: Good Time Gone Bad
DNR: News Travels Fast
DNR: Police: More Arrests Likely
DNR: Last Disturbance 10 Years Ago
DNR: Weekend Riot Fallout Begins
WHSV: Students Clean and Recount the Block Party Aftermath
WHSV: JMU Students Raise Money For Block Party Repairs
HburgNews: HPD Investigation Moves Forward
HburgNews: Mayor, JMU Present comment on Village Lane riot
HBurgNews: Police use tear gas and pepper spray to disperse block party The Federalist: Riot Breaks Out At Springfest
Associated Content: Is Social Networking the Cause of the Riots, or Just a Medium?
The Washington Post: Crowded off-campus party degenerates into 'war zone'
CNN iReport: Civil Disturbance results in a riot at James Madison University

That's all I have for now...I'll update with any other major happenings that come from this.

Snooki Visiting JMU: Start of a Revolution?

noreply@blogger.com (Drew) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 06:34:00 +0000

In two days, March 3rd, Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi will be visiting James Madison University. I can't remember a more hotly discussed about event. Even when now-President Barak Obama came there wasn't as much hate spewed (okay, maybe that's a stretch). Snooki, more than probably any other entertainment figure these days, is loved by some and really hated by many others at the same time. For those that don't know, Nicole (originally from New York, and actually Chilean) was a part of the show "Jersey Shore", which followed the lives of several "guidos and guidettes" Real World-style. It was basically a train-wreck of a show and Snooki is most famous for getting punched in the face by a guy at a bar.

Over the past couple weeks, the news of Snooki coming to JMU has been all over the place, all the way from the Breeze and the DNR to Perez Hilton and the Huffington Post. Students, alumni, community members, and people from all over the country have been placing their judgment on Snooki, UPB, JMU, and JMU students. All the while, the show sold out in three days. I figured it's about time for the Windbreaker to step in and put its two cents in.

To start off with, I'd like to say I've maybe seen five minutes of the Jersey Shore (most of which was the child reenactment), because I'm not a fan of reality TV. I also don't like the fact that it glamorized that culture and while I enjoy making fun of it every now and then...this show was doing the opposite.

That having been said, I'd like to defend UPB on their decision as someone who was on their exec board for two years. The University Program Board tries to provide a variety of educational and entertaining events throughout the year. So far this year, according to UPB Public Relations Director Stephen Eure, they've "brought such events as the awareness program To Write Love on Her Arms, the educational How-To Series, and informational Sex Rules event." This event is purely for the entertainment value and is trying to hit a different segment of the JMU population. Not only that, UPB didn't really have much of a choice. Every semester they put out a survey to students giving different choices for comedy/lectures/musical performances in different price ranges and Snooki was an overwhelming favorite. None of the other choices got nearly that response, leaving UPB little choice other than to give students what they wanted. I've stated on here before how difficult it is to find an act to bring to campus that students are actually interested in, is in UPB's budget, and an act that has an open date on a rare night that campus locations are open. Again, anyone is welcome to join UPB for all the people who are always disappointed (it's pretty much your fault if you don't like what they bring).

To a majority of you that are judging Snooki and UPB...are you really in a place to judge. I love my school and am proud that anyone can come here and have a great time on any given night without having to pay to have fun, but it's a slippery slope. It's hard to walk around campus or talk to students without hearing about less-than-flattering things that happened over the weekend. And what reaction does this stuff get from their friends? Praise. The lifestyle people are condemning is happening every weekend (and most weeknights) at JMU, and the people living this very lifestyle are celebrated...but that's because these conversations are had in private (or at least not on TV)...out of the eyesight of others. Hypocritical? Maybe a little bit. Oh, and in case you didn't read the Huffington Post article, it was mainly talking about the fact that the event's Facebook wall had to be disabled because of the discriminatory posts from JMU students. And these are the people talking about being ashamed of their school? I'm all for giving feedback and saying you don't want to go (look to Josh Kelaher's Breeze letter or Facebook group for examples of good ways to do this), but to say some of the things that were posted is ridiculous.

So where do we go from here?

Most likely...nowhere. Snooki will come to campus. Some people will be pissed. Others will be entertained. Spring Break will happen. Everyone will forget or move on.

But is that really it?

All of you that are in an uproar...are offended...are ashamed...will you let this travesty just pass by?! Why not do something about it?

Get an educational lecture on campus. Bring in a senator, congressman, governor, or other political figure. Bring a debate on campus. Want to make a point? Get with UPB (or heck, maybe even join UPB) and help bring one of the above mentioned onto campus (UPB can help you get a list). Get them into Wilson Hall (after all, it has a higher capacity than Memorial). If UPB has already planned out their full budget, try SGA, other student orgs, or do some fundraising to get someone good and get them in there. Then pack the place out. Get it to be better attended than Snooki. Then do it again. And again. Make your event bigger than Snooki. Why not create a culture on campus of involvement in politics or education? Find something you're passionate about and pursue it. If you don't want to be known as just a party school that brings Snooki to campus...you know who can change that persona? YOU!

Stop being reactive to events on campus like Snooki and instead be proactive. Get out there and create a difference in your school. In my four years at JMU I saw a program formed by the a small group of student leaders on campus called jMubilee to bring together the JMU campus and Harrisonburg community. Every a year we put on at least one event, but my senior year a handful of awesome students helped me put together a huge event on Godwin Field the last day of classes. We scrounged together $10,000 from different places on campus and had free food, live music, an outdoor movie, and free games for over 1,600 people. Anything is possible at JMU. The faculty and staff are more than willing to help. Stop thinking small. Dream big. Complaining might make you feel better for the moment, but it doesn't help anyone and won't improve things for the future. Do something about it!

To UPB, I'd say make all of these people put up or shut up. Bring a good cultural event to campus and see if the attendance is even comparable.

I'm a huge fan of the "Be the change" campaign. There were a few phrases that always stuck out to me: Be exceptional, Be the example, Be visionary, and Be passionate. To extend that a bit further... Don't wait for someone else to start something...be the ignition. Don't join the trend...be the trend. Don't accept things the way they are...push the boundaries. There aren't too many things at JMU that are beyond the scope of a group of passionate, resourceful students. If I may borrow a page out of Dr. Mark Warner's book... "YOU MAKE A DIFFERENCE!"

Your move JMU...

Bobbleheads - JMU Athletics Marketing Win

noreply@blogger.com (Drew) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 19:20:00 +0000

The Athletics Department a couple years ago, headed by Alyssa Gerlando (Director of Athletics Marketing), stumbled upon a great promotion...bobbleheads. The first year, they started with Duke Dog and James Madison. Last year, they moved on to the basketball coaches, Matt Brady and Kenny Brooks. Once they finished up basketball, they moved on to the iconic Mickey Matthews (still waiting for the action figure with patent-pending visor throwing action!) and the Duke Dog statue in front of the APC.

These bobbleheads quickly became one of the most popular giveaways I've ever seen. Usually giving away just 500 of these items, the coupons to get these are usually given out within minutes of the doors opening (one hour before game time). The week before and after the giveaways, the message boards are usually buzzing with people asking how they can get one and bargaining with those in the area. Some have even shown up on eBay (how I got the Brady after getting to the game only half hour before gametime last year).

While some suggest that the bobbleheads should be sold at the bookstore, I think it would cut down on the demand for these at basketball games (and at this point we need all the help we can get). Maybe down the road once we've cycled through all the JMU icons and we start cycling back through we can put them in stores also.

If you want your very own Duke Dog statue bobblehead, they will be given away at the game against VCU this Saturday. The game starts at 6pm and the doors are set to open at 5pm.

2010 JMU Football Schedule (Official)

noreply@blogger.com (Drew) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 16:33:00 +0000

This is the official 2010 schedule for the James Madison University football team. Times will be added in the summer as TV schedules are worked out.

JMUSports.com article

9/4		Morehead State
9/11		@Virginia Tech
9/19		Bye
9/25		Liberty
10/2		Delaware (Family Weekend)
10/9		@Towson
10/16		New Hampshire (Homecoming)
10/23		@Villanova
10/30		UMass
11/6		@Richmond
11/13		W&M
11/20		@Maine

Looks to be a pretty good schedule. We get to open the new stadium with a (most-likely) dominating win over one of the worst Div. I football teams in the nation (RPI: 232/245). Then we get an opportunity to go down to Tech and play the Cho...I mean Hokies. Followed by a nice bye week. Then we play Liberty at home. We then alternate home and away CAA games through the rest of the season.

Overall it's not a terrible schedule and isn't as bad as last year. But we also end up as the only CAA team to not play Rhode Island, which next year should by quite a bit be the worst team in the conference. We can pretty much expect a loss against VT and then we have to survive the gauntlet of the last 5 weeks, which should be against at least a few teams who could make the playoffs. Richmond will not be nearly as good this year as last year after losing a lot of seniors. Make sure to get your tickets early, because the Ticks are moving into their new mini-stadium this year that holds a whopping 9000 people. We brought nearly that many in 2008. An interesting sidenote: our stadium currently (considering the East stands aren't there) holds as many as their new stadium does.

Next year is looking pretty good so far. New recruits are coming in, which could include at least 2 quarterbacks. This gives us 3 available QB's and another 2 to redshirt...can't wait for that QB battle...

And for another note, the playoffs have expanded to 20 teams (2 more conferences with autobids and 2 more at-larges). This means there's one extra round to get it down to the normal 20 teams. The NCAA Championship game has also been moved to January 9, 2011.

Nov. 27 - NCAA Playoffs, First Round
Dec. 4 - NCAA Playoffs, Round of 16
Dec. 11 - NCAA Playoff Quarterfinals
Dec. 17-18 - NCAA Playoff Semifinals
Jan. 9 - NCAA Championship Game

2010 JMU Football Recruits

noreply@blogger.com (Drew) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 18:31:00 +0000

Commits
Dejor Simmons - RB (all-purpose) - Virginia Beach (VA) Green Run
3 star recruit (5.7 rivals rating)
5-8 170 lbs, 4.39 40; offers - Connecticut, Duke, Marshall, Toledo
Sprained his ankle, out for all but 4 games in his senior year. Still ran for 600+ yards. All-district.
Highlight video

Anthony Rose - SS/WS - Amherst (VA) Amherst
3 star recruit (5.5 rivals rating)
6-3 195 lbs, 4.5 40, 290 bench, 315 squat; offers - Maryland, Marshall, Ohio

Henry Hunter - QB (Dual-threat) - Sachse (TX) Sachse
2 star recruit (5.4 rivals rating)
6-1 205 lbs, 4.5 40, 255 bench, 385 squat; offers - Army, Navy
Youtube highlight video

Corey Davis - ATH - Jersey City (NJ) St. Peter's Prep
2 star recruit (5.4 rivals rating)
5-9 175 lbs, 4.41 40, 4.2 shuttle, 34" vert, 225 bench, 395 squat, GPA 3.1

Ryan Dixon - WR - Frederick (MD) Linganore
2 star recruit (5.2 rivals rating)
6-1 178 lbs, 4.5 40, 265 bench, 375 squat, GPA 3.

Marquis Woodyard - CB - Frederick (MD) Thomas Johnson
2 star recruit (5.2 rivals rating)
5-10 174 lbs, 4.6 40, shuttle 4.52, 33" vert

Kyle Linn - S - Bridgewater (VA) Turner Ashby
2 star recruit (5.1 rivals rating)
6-3 185 lbs, 4.65 40, 3.5 GPA

Eric Magruder - ATH - Petersburg (VA) Petersburg
2 star recruit (5.1 rivals rating)
6-1 175 lbs, 4.47 40, 300 bench, 400 squat

Eric Bucholtz - DL - Malvern (PA) Great Valley
6-5 230 lbs

Matt Cunningham - OL- Fairfax (VA) West Potomac
6-4 260 lbs

Jace Edwards - QB (pro-style) - Midland (TX) Midland Lee
6-2 185 lbs, 4.6 40

Josh Hogan - LB - Fairfax (VA) WT Woodson
6-3 220 lbs

Wyatt Johnson - WR - Highland Springs (VA) Highland Springs
5-11 184 lbs

Juan Latney - LB - Massaponax
?

Brandon Lee - OLB - Sterling (VA) Park View
6-1 200 lbs, 5.00 40

Dean Marlowe - S - Holy Cross
6-3 170 lbs, 4.50 40

Anthony McDaniel - LB - Upper Marlboro (MD) Wise
6-0 245 lbs, 4.86 40, 4.82 shuttle, 29" vert; offers - Richmond
Note: Commited to Richmond, but switched when London left for UVA.

Graham Sharples - K -Winchester (VA) Handley
5-10 150 lbs

Matt Williams - C - Springfield (PA) Cardinal O'Hara
6-3 275 lbs, 5.00 40

Preferred Walk-ons
Michael Goodman - K - Radford (VA) Radford
Group A First-Team, All-State Kicker

W&M Mascot Survey - Opinion

noreply@blogger.com (Drew) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 21:13:00 +0000

So those that have been reading the blog for at least the last few months may have seen a blog post I did about William and Mary's marketing department. First with a review about their logo/mascot troubles. Then, I talked about their search for a new mascot. Well, they've finally released the five finalists to their search. I couldn't resist posting about this, because...well...I try to report information concerning JMU and things related to JMU. So because William & Mary is in our conference and most of us know someone who went there, this just can't be overlooked when they're choosing a new mascot. Plus it's just entertaining. This is purely an opinion piece...not really much factual reporting in any of it (but be clear these are the actual options for their mascot)...put it's too entertaining to pass up...

So after an intense search and opening it up for people to send in their ideas about a new mascot, they've named their five top ideas. So, without further ado:

1) Griffin
Maybe the best choice, but really? A griffin? What does that have to do with anything? A Griffin is a mythical creature, kind of like a loud crowd at W&M...who knows... And maybe I'm mistaken, but didn't the NCAA take away their feathers...what's with all the birds? Are they really that bitter? They're clearly trying to get back to the point where they can put feathers on their logo again. Maybe be a little more subtle next time W&M...

2) King and Queen

I thought we went over this with the homecoming t-shirt. You can't have two mascots. Not to mention, having a king and queen is dumb. Are they gonna be called 'the Kings and Queens'? 'The Kings'? 'The Queens'? I guess this is the closest to actually connecting to William and Mary, but it's stupid. And illogical. You can't have two mascots like this. Why not just call them the William and Mary William and Mary's?

3) Phoenix

I hope they never play Elon; that'd just be confusing. I don't think it's wise to use this when a school so close has the same thing, but I guess there are several wildcats around. At least Elon has a reason in the past century for being the Phoenix. Nothing could be raising from the ashes except maybe their reputation after this list of choices. And still trying to get those feathers back with lots of bird options I see.

4) Pug

Hahahahahahahahaahaha. Please. For the love. Be the pugs. That would make my life. Instantly. That picture is so freaking classic I wanna frame it and hang it up in my house. I can't say anything else about this without crying from laughing so hard.

5) Wren

It's not intimidating. It's not cool. It's not popular. I can't wait to hear the announcers for that game "And here come the flying Wrens!!!!" Apparently Wren is just the name of one of their main halls and chapel and had some recent controversy. Still, yawn. File this under the instantly forgettable category. Neeeeext.

Oh wait, there aren't anymore. Waste Management marketing is so full of fail it's incredible. No dump trucks? That would at least be semi-intimidating. You could even have Dane Cook come and introduce it as being BAMF. But then again he hasn't been funny for 5 years (for those that thought he was funny to start with). I almost feel sorry for Waste Management that the PC bug bit them and no matter what they go with it's gonna be so terrible.

Stop the presses (or pixels...whatever)! Apparently this is just a change of MASCOT, not their name. So they will remain the William and Mary Tribe, but are just getting rid of Oscar. So what do any of these have to do with the Tribe? Absolutely nothing. This is just even more confusing to me now. Why would you change your mascot to something COMPLETELY different and not change the name? Having a bird or a dog as a mascot and then being called the tribe is baffling. And didn't the King and Queen kill the Tribe? This just keeps getting better. Keep it coming W&M.

GAMEDAY EVE Report: Towson vs. JMU Football

noreply@blogger.com (Drew) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:15:00 +0000

Towson Tigers (2-8, 1-6) vs.
JMU Dukes (5-5, 3-4)
Nov. 21, 2009 - 3:00pm - Harrisonburg, VA

Watch the game on Madizone

Weather Report

Tailgating	8am	40°	10% (precip)
Mid-tailgate	11am	51°	10%
Getting into the stadium	2am	56°	10%
Kickoff	3pm	57°	0%
Game over	6pm	49°	0%

Line for the game
JMU by 28

The Numbers (game averages)
JMU Sagarin Strength of Schedule: 61.44 (199)
JMU Rushing Offense: 177 yds - Towson Rushing Defense: 176 yds
JMU Passing Offense: 147 yds - Towson Passing Defense: 179 yds
JMU Total Offense: 325 yds - Towson Total Defense: 355 yds
JMU Scoring Offense: 20 - Towson Scoring Defense: 36
JMU Sacks Allowed: 1.70 - Towson Sacks: 1.70

Towson Sagarin Strength of Schedule: 58.37 (128)
Towson Rushing Offense: 107 yds - JMU Rushing Defense: 135 yds
Towson Passing Offense: 144 yds - JMU Passing Defense: 155 yds
Towson Total Offense: 251 yds - JMU Total Defense: 290 yds
Towson Scoring Offense: 14 - JMU Scoring Defense: 20
Towson Sacks Allowed: 2.30 - JMU Sacks: 2.60

What to watch
JMU's offense is getting better every week. Unfortunately, it was raining for last week's game, so our passing game was limited. The weather will be perfect this week, so I expect to see a lot more passing. We'll be trying to put some points on the board and put on a show for our seniors. Caussin is only 66 yards off becoming only the second tight end to hit the 1000-yards receiving mark. Justin Thorpe has set the freshman quarterback rushing record. He's close to becoming the second highest freshman rusher in school history. After Noble's performance last week, I would expect him to get a good number of the carries again.

Towson has gone through five quarterbacks this year and has a terrible offensive line. Knowing that...let's talk for a minute about Arthur Moats. He has 11 sacks this season, only one off of Chris Morants record of 12. I think it's pretty much guaranteed he'll get set this record. Chris Morant's next record is a 33 career sacks, four more than Moats currently has. This is certainly within Moats' reach and I think that he could certainly pass Morant's record. Oh, just in case you didn't know, Moats also leads the team in tackles for loss (23.5) and tackles (83) this season.

I'd also expect the defense to get at least one interception. Most likely it will be by Jamaris Sanders, but could be by Scotty or Jakarie. Our secondary has been playing great this year and I don't expect that to change for a terrible quarterback.

Scotty also hasn't returned a kick or punt for a touchdown this year after being tied for both JMU records after last year and being on off the combined record for all of FCS. When better to do it than his last college game against a terrible team.

The Series

JMU and Towson first met in 1976, and they met every season from then through 1992 except for 1980. JMU leads the series 15-5-1, has a 9-1 lead in games at JMU, has won the last five games overall and the last six at JMU, and won 58-27 last season at Towson.

My Thoughts
Towson's only two wins are against a bad Coastal Carolina team (5-5) and a Rhode Island team that only has one win this season. I think the chances of Towson winning are about the same as us getting into the playoffs. According to JMU alum Erik Pitzer...that's about 0.3%. I think all of younger players are going to be getting ready for next year. Our seniors are going to be playing to pad their stats and get that last look from scouts. Arthur will get at least four sacks. The defense as a whole will have at least nine. Sanders will get an interception. Scotty will return a kickoff for a touchdown. Thorpe will run for two touchdowns and throw for three. Rockeed and Caussin will have at least one touchdown each. We will gain 400+ yards and will hold them below 200 yards.

Windbreaker prediction: JMU - 38, Towson - 7

Game Notes
JMU Game Notes

Score Updates
To get score updates on Twitter, subscribe to @JMUWindbreaker. I'll be posting scores at the end of each quarter and any major action that happens.

Live Video
Check Qik.com/JMUWindbreaker towards the end of the game or for big goal line plays (basically whenever I feel something good might be coming). I'm still experimenting with this and will hopefully get it up and running for the end of basketball games, so bare with me at the start.

And as always...

GAMEDAY Report: JMU Football vs. Maine

noreply@blogger.com (Drew) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 07:06:00 +0000

UMass Minutemen (5-4, 3-3) vs.
JMU Dukes (4-5, 2-4)
Nov. 14, 2009 - 12:00pm - Amherst, MA

Watch the game The Comcast Network

Weather Report

Tailgating	8am	47°	90% (precip)
Mid-tailgate	10am	51°	70%
Getting into the stadium	11am	52°	70%
Kickoff	12pm	53°	70%
Game over	3pm	53°	80%

Line for the game
UMass by 4.5

Injuries
TB Griff Yancey (foot) and TB Lee Reynolds (ankle) are all out this week. LB Jamie Veney will be back this week. CB Taveion Cuffee (ankle) and LB Chase Williams will play, but not start.

The Numbers (game averages)
JMU Sagarin Strength of Schedule: 60.87 (124)
JMU Rushing Offense: 173 yds - UMass Rushing Defense: 112 yds
JMU Passing Offense: 150 yds - UMass Passing Defense: 173 yds
JMU Total Offense: 324 yds - UMass Total Defense: 285 yds
JMU Scoring Offense: 20 - UMass Scoring Defense: 19
JMU Sacks Allowed: 1.78 - UMass Sacks: 1.33

UMass Sagarin Strength of Schedule: 55.57 (148)
UMass Rushing Offense: 144 yds - JMU Rushing Defense: 132 yds
UMass Passing Offense: 240 yds - JMU Passing Defense: 162 yds
UMass Total Offense: 383 yds - JMU Total Defense: 295 yds
UMass Scoring Offense: 27 - JMU Scoring Defense: 20
UMass Sacks Allowed: 1.22 - JMU Sacks: 2.67

What to watch
Last week, JMU look decent, but not outstanding. They got by with turnovers, and that's about it. We obviously pulled back in the second half, but we still just couldn't get a consistent rhythm on offense. Also, after coming off an 8 sack performance against Delaware, the JMU defensive line got very little penetration against Maine.

On offense, the Dukes will have to try to make some passes. Bubble screens to Noble and Randolph, seam and slant passes to Caussin, and long passes where Rockeed can go up for the ball will be key tomorrow. The rain will make us hesitant to pass, but we really need to open up the running game and that won't happen if we stick on the ground. Thorpe has been building some confidence, so now it's time for him to go out and prove he can keep producing.

On defense, we're gonna need to put the pressure on. Havens, the UMass QB, has a bad habit of throwing to the other team, so it'll be the defense line's job to force him to throw it quick. The defensive backs will also have to be watching the ball and catch it if they get an opportunity. They're pretty solid in run and pass, but they are more likely to turn it over in the air, so make them pass it.

We're on an two-game win streak after losing against a few very good teams. UMass hasn't really beaten anyone other than an upset over UNH a few weeks ago. They looked great at the start of the year, sticking with Kansas State, soundly beating a few mid-tier FCS teams, but then got handled by Delaware and Richmond. It looks like this one will come down to who comes to play tomorrow.

The Series
The teams first met in 1986 with Massachusetts winning 16-14 at JMU on a late field goal. JMU won for the only time at Massachusetts in 1987 (21-15), and the teams tied 28-28 in Amherst in 1989. The 1989 tie is the last tied game in JMU history.

My Thoughts
This is a tough one to call. JMU hasn't won up there in a long time, and this just doesn't seem like this would be the year to do it. By why not? We broke the streak of losing at Delaware. The cold rain could mess us up, but if we throw the ball some and focus on winning the turnover battle, we might be able to pull off the win. UMass will be fighting to stay on the playoff bubble with only Hofstra left. We're fighting for a winning record (and maybe a long shot to be in playoff talks if you're really drinking the kool-aid).

Windbreaker prediction: JMU - 20, UMass - 17

Game Notes
JMU Game Notes

Score Updates
To get score updates on Twitter, subscribe to @JMUWindbreaker. I'll be posting scores at the end of each quarter and any major action that happens.

And as always...

GAMEDAY Report: Maine vs. JMU Football

noreply@blogger.com (Drew) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 07:42:00 +0000

Maine (4-4, 3-2) vs.
JMU Dukes (3-5, 1-4)
Nov. 7, 2009 - 3:00pm - Harrisonburg, VA

Watch the game on Madizone

Weather Report

Tailgating	8am	35°	0% (precip)
Mid-tailgate	11am	54°	0%
Getting into the stadium	2am	61°	0%
Kickoff	3pm	61°	0%
Game over	6pm	54°	0%

Line for the game
JMU by 6.5

Injuries
At long last, reports are that WR Kerby Long (and backup QB) and CB Mike Allen will be back. CB Taveion Cuffee (ankle), TB Griff Yancey (foot), and TB Lee Reynolds (ankle) are all out this week. LB Jamie Veney (knee) out for season.

The Numbers (game averages)
JMU Sagarin Strength of Schedule: 62.84 (116)
JMU Rushing Offense: 170 yds - Maine Rushing Defense: 163 yds
JMU Passing Offense: 153 yds - Maine Passing Defense: 213 yds
JMU Total Offense: 323 yds - Maine Total Defense: 376 yds
JMU Scoring Offense: 20 - Maine Scoring Defense: 23
Sacks: 2.88 - Sacks allowed: 1.63

Maine Sagarin Strength of Schedule: 59.82 (129)
Maine Rushing Offense: 120 yds - JMU Rushing Defense: 143 yds
Maine Passing Offense: 212 yds - JMU Passing Defense: 150 yds
Maine Total Offense: 331 yds - JMU Total Defense: 293 yds
Maine Scoring Offense: 21 - JMU Scoring Defense: 21
Sacks: 2.13 - Sacks allowed: 1.88

What to watch
On offense, we just need to keep doing what we did the second half of last week. Now that Thorpe has confidence, he's playing up to where I would expect him to be. He's still not perfect, but he's getting a lot better at putting the ball where it needs to be. He was, after all, the CAA player of the week last week. He'll really be able to shine tomorrow against a sub-par defense. It's gonna be ideal football conditions and Thorpe will be able to run and throw it all over Maine's defense. The offense just needs to get in a rhythm and limit turnovers. There's no need to force anything against Maine.

Maine's offense is nothing special. They have a weak running game, but a fairly good passing game. This means we can focus on shutting down the passing game and make them run. I don't see them being able to stick with our defense line. There were 8 sacks last week against Delaware. Moats, Daniels, Bryant, and company are gonna be looking to tee off on Maine's QB. Plus, if we start bringing in blitzes like we did last week, it will definitely throw them off (btw, for those that weren't watching last week, Scotty should have had a forced fumble, but they called it an incomplete pass). If we mix up rushing 3 guys like last week with a few corner blitzes, it could be a rough game for Maine. Chase Williams also won CAA rookie of the week last week with his outstanding play against Delaware. I could pretty much point to every player on the defense to look for. Entire D-line...outstanding. Scotty McGee played the best game of his career on defense against Delaware. Pat and Chase Williams...great players, especially when they play well in the same game. Jakarie Jackson...can't say enough about this true freshman. He will be a beast in the next year or two and will be a name people remember.

Both teams are out of the playoffs, so this is for pride. JMU will be showing off their seniors as much as possible to get looks from scouts and trying to get the younger guys some experience for next year. The Dukes have by no means given up and will be fighting hard to try to get to the 6-5 winning record by year's end.

The Series
JMU has an 8-4 series lead including winning the last three. JMU is also 4-1 at home against Maine.

My Thoughts
Last week, Maine took down UMass 19-9. We took down Delaware 20-8. Both teams pulled upsets and are at an emotional high. I just don't see Maine having the talent to pull this one out. Barring 3 or more turnovers I think JMU wins this game. Thorpe is finally in a rhythm and will be playing the worst defense since Liberty or Hofstra. Our offense will be able to get us about 20 and I really don't think our defense is going to give up more than 17 at the most. JMU will be playing in front of a crowd that thought they were down and out, but has built up excitement again after last weeks big win. The key to the game will be turnovers for our offense and how well their offensive line can hold back our beasts on the defensive line.

Windbreaker prediction: JMU - 24, Maine - 13

Game Notes
JMU Game Notes

Score Updates
To get score updates on Twitter, subscribe to @JMUWindbreaker. I'll be posting scores at the end of each quarter and any major action that happens.

And as always...