The Name: JMU Football Postscript
The Date: November 29, 2012
The Idea: With a potential automatic bid to the FCS playoffs on the line, JMU shit the bed in the second half against ODU and finished 7-4... again. Four years after a national semifinals, fans have only witnessed one playoff appearance. The Class of 2013 will have never have seen a home playoff game. Is it time for a harsh evaluation of JMU's beloved football team on an organization-wide level?
The Unedited, Original Version:
As I sat watching this week’s Monday Night Football game between the Eagles and the Panthers with a few friends from Philadelphia, I started taking mental notes as to why the Eagles are so very bad this year. But there’s so many things inexplicably wrong with this team, it’s hard to find a good starting point.
Injuries to the offense have hampered the Eagles’ runningback LeSean McCoy and quarterback Michael Vick. Even when he is fully healthy, Vick – a signal caller who is as athletically gifted as they come – struggles to make pre-snap reads and seemingly routine throws. He often seems ill-suited to be running an offense at this level.
On defense, a star-studded cast of playmakers underperforms as key personnel aren’t living up to preseason hype. The secondary struggles to cover people effectively, and a supposedly elite pass rush fails to pressure the opposing quarterback nearly every weekend.
Clock management is a constant source of frustration for fans, some of whom are calling for their head ball coach to be fired. Andy Reid is a great guy with a winning record and a history of success in Philadelphia; it seems impossible that such a beloved man who has become the face of an organization could actually be fired.
Hey JMU fans … does this sound eerily familiar?
Everything I’ve just listed is 100 percent true of the National Football League’s most perplexing team, but it also reads a bit like an anatomy of JMU football in 2012. Why is it that a team with literally everything at its disposal can’t even make the playoffs, albeit in the country’s toughest conference? Thousands of fans asked themselves this on a chilly drive home from Harrisonburg two weekends ago, and most are still ruminating on the subject now.
As fans, we have a pathological need for answers that quench our disappointment. Unfortunately, it’s in the fabric of sports that we rarely, if ever, receive them.
Plenty went wrong in the confines of Bridgeforth Stadium this year that has nothing to do with JMU or head coach Mickey Matthews. Injuries up front eroded a pass rush that could have been extraordinary. In my discussions of JMU football with former players and fans, a few keen observers have highlighted the departure of Strength and Conditioning coach Jim Durning as a behind-the-scenes factor in the program’s performance.
The meteoric rise of Old Dominion’s football program has hurt the Dukes in the loss column as well as the recruiting field.
The schedule, while fan-friendly, did very little to beef up the program’s out-of-conference resume, an important factor when the Football Championship Subdivision playoff committee is deciding which girls to ask to the prom.
But Matthews and his staff cannot be absolved of all responsibility. The lack of a forward passing game at JMU has become so publicly mocked, it’s nearly cliché. Calling plays out of the shotgun in short yardage situations has become an inexplicable regularity. The defense, for all its talent, simply couldn’t cover anyone, and incomplete passes were often a result of happenstance rather than actual defensive prowess.
Most damningly, the offense failed to develop an identity as quarterbacks were shuffled and reshuffled like so many decks of cards. Mix in the option, the wildcat, zone-reads, trick plays and numerous other play calls, and it’s unclear as to whether JMU oversees a football program or a Bertie Botts Every Flavored Bean factory.
As a result, JMU message boards are full of young alumni, living in their Northern Virginia lofts, parading on about how Mickey Matthews should be fired as soon as yesterday. They should get back to their cubicle and concentrate on their spreadsheets, because inducing a coaching panic is the last thing the program needs right now.
While the expectations weren’t met and the class of 2013 will graduate without ever seeing a home playoff game, Coach Matthews deserves the trust of this fan base. I’m not a believer in national championships buying free rides, but there just isn’t enough here to trade Coach Matthews for someone who will only see JMU as a stepping stone.
In return, I don’t want to ever hear the words “a lot of teams would kill to be 7-4.” I’ve heard this from coaches, players and fans alike, and it must stop now. While it’s true that Northwestern Wyoming Polytechnical Center would kill for a 7-4 season, we’re not just any team.
JMU is a premiere organization in FCS football, and it’s high time we started acting like it.
The Reception: All over the place, as was expected. Like any good base, JMU fans shine resplendent with apathetics and diehards, critics and unconditionalists. Some fans were (and still are) dying to see someone not named Mickey Matthews calling the plays; whether or not this upcoming season will satiate their appetites for pass plays remains to be seen. Some fans believe it to be purely happenstance that JMU hasn't been truly good since 2008. However you see it, there's certainly enough blame to around, from one Linwood Rose all the way down to freshman backup safeties.
Let's all just agree that, if you live in a DC loft, you probably suck.
The Relevance Today: I've seen Coach Matthews two or three times this summer, and each time it's been at a bar next to my townhouse. We exchange pleasantries each time, and while I certainly won't begrudge ole Mick a beer or three, I hope he realizes how serious the fan base is getting about his job status. I stand by my statement that trading Mickey in for some successful up & comer like, say, Towson's Rob Ambrose, is a waste of nearly everyone's time. While I thoroughly enjoyed meeting Mr. Ambrose last season, and he's a great, well-spoken, and immensely likable fellow... well, if Rob Ambrose is still at Towson in eight years, I'll cheer for Pitt. It's like that, America.
But just because Mickey's staying power is valuable to me doesn't mean he's invincible. Last year's injuries along the defensive line made it clearer than ever to me that JMU needs a stronger S&C program, as I mentioned in the original piece. An alumnus of the 2004 national championship team has made that much clear over on jmusb, and he's hardly the only person to mention that as a former strength that has become a weakness. Pun 100% intended.
Kidding aside, if JMU didn't have a bona fide Buck Buchanan award contender sitting in the middle of the linebacking corp, who knows what havoc might have been wrought upon the purple-and-gold-clad last season.
And the offense simply must find new ways to be dynamic this season. There's just no way around it. I think Michael Birdsong will be airing it out more this season. JMU will once again have potential superstar Andre Coble back in the mix after he missed last season due to academic ineligibility, but with the departure of centerpiece Brian Barlow, who knows how this group of receivers will fare? A new OC and quarterback might change things, but only if Mickey is willing to loosen up his vicegrip on controlling the offense, and the program as a whole is unafraid to pursue bold play-calling, such as the first half of the ODU game last November.
JMU has the stature, recruiting, personnel, and ability to contend for a national championship, this year and every year. The only question that remains is whether they put it all together, or let it fall apart again.
Well, I suppose there's that tiny question of whether or not JMU will, you know, ditch the CAA for FBS football, forever changing the entire landscape of collegiate athletics as the next big domino to fall in the cascading torrent that is conference realignment. But hey: that's what next Sunday is for, right?
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