I think it was the Joker at the end of The Dark Knight that said "... Here We Go."
Okay you know what? Fine, I know it was the Joker, because I've seen the movie over 20 times. Can we move on now?
JMU Football is officially 17 days away from kickoff, and me and my super shiny press pass-- a distant cousin of the handy dandy notebook-- has all the info you rando's out there are craving for. So before one of my roommates jumps up on the kitchen counter and tells you to get the eff out, grab a beer and listen up, because here's everything you need to know about the 2012 JMU football season!
(in no particular order.)
1. The Offense is off to a quick start.
If there's a universal feeling of frustration that Dukes of all ages feel, it's wondering when the hell we might actually throw the ball. But good news on the front-- the offense looks good early on. In fact, concerning the state of the team last Friday, head coach Mickey Matthews actually said that the offense might even be a little ahead of the defense. Thorpe is back and ready to grind in what might be his final year at JMU-- to my knowledge, the NCAA has yet to hand down a decision regarding a sixth year of eligibility for him, though I admittedly haven't gotten to talk to him since last semester-- and his dual threat tendencies are keener than ever. Mix in blog fave runningback Dae'Quan Scott and we're dealing with a pretty powerful run game, even by the highly set JMU standards.
...that is, if Dae'Quan Scott is the starter.
2. Jordan Anderson is pushing for the starting job at Runningback.
With all due respect to Jace Edwards, Dae'Quan Scott became the guy when Thorpe was suspended last year for "repeated violation of team rules." What? No weed jokes allowed this time? Okay, we'll move on.
But as good as he was, and still is, Scott might get beat out for the starting job. I'm going from memory here, but Mickey said something very close to "Dae's shoulder injury isn't the issue, him gettin beat out by Anderson for the starting job is the issue... Anderson is a hell of a football player." That's second stringer Jordan Anderson Mickey is referring to, and there isn't much that is second-string about him. JMU has such quality depth at runningback, I would wager that Jordan could start for just about every other team out there in FCS-land, minus about half a dozen squads. I love both guys; either one will be a force to be reckoned with in the backfield. And though I think Scott eventually gets the nod for starting behind Thorpe, there's always the possibility that his shoulder pops out again and starts causing issues despite the offseason surgery. In that case, it's extremely comforting to know how capable Anderson is and will be in probable limited time this year.
Oh, and let's not forget about friend of the blog and third option Jauan Latney either, who averaged a cool 6.3 ypc in 2011! And he frequents my parties. Shoutout!
3. Evidently we're playing WVU?
The much-anticipated WVU-JMU matchup at FedEx is now exactly one month away, and Mickey was his usual droll self when approaching the topic. When an athletics staff member inquired as to how frequently Mickey was asked about the WVU matchup, he replied "Only about every 30 minutes." Evidently Coach finds his game plan called into question even when he frequents the fairway.
Here's all you need to know about the hype surrounding the WVU game. In the roughly 45 minute press conference, Mickey spent about 5 minutes talking about it; the good folks over at the DNR proceded to write their entire press conference article about the September 15 showdown, titling the article "WVU LOOMS" in big bold letters and generally making it sound like it dominated the presser much more than it actually did. I'm sure Mickey is appreciative.
(Author's Note: I love the guys over at the DNR, particularly Mark Selig. Just saying, Mickey is probably not too happy.)
(Additional Author's Note: As writers, we generally do not care when subjects are unhappy, nor are we supposed to.)
(Final Author's Note, and I promise this is the last one for now: Mickey told me and a few others a colorful tale about how ODU negatively recruited against JMU with one particular in-state wide receiver prospect by showing them an entire file of DNR clips about JMU's supposedly apethic attitude toward receivers. He didn't seem incredibly pleased about this either. I'm thinking the DNR writers are pretty much in the doghouse regardless of what or how they write for the time being.)
In all seriousness, what Mickey is happy about are the details of the WVU game. Let's forget that JMU is getting a shiny coin or two just for showing up (so is West Virginia, by the way); more importantly, it's an FBS game that isn't the first game of the season. Coach Matthews has told me multiple times in the past that he loathes playing an FBS game to start the season because it changes the tone of summer practices and drills. Rather than running camp the way he would like, he would have to run much more full contact scrimmages earlier than necessary to prepare the guys for the physical nature of an FBS matchup. Such was the case last year when we opened up against UNC on the Hill, and got demolished 45-10. UNC's vaunted D-Line tore our inexperienced O-line to pieces both literally and figuratively, and injuries from both camp scrimmages and the UNC game affected the entire rest of the season.
But hey! Since St. Francis and Alcorn State have so graciously offered us a 2-0 start to the season along with a couple warm up practice games, we don't have those issues this year.
4. The schedule is pretty awesome.
I've been saying this for months now, and hats off to Athletic Director Jeff Bourne and co. for doing some good work here, but the schedule really lines up for us. Mickey highlighted the Towson and ODU games-- to be broadcasted nationally on NBC Sports thanks to a swanky new CAA television deal-- as particularly significant in the race to crown a CAA champion. That's all I'll say about the schedule for now though, as I've already kind of analyzed it to pieces. For more on that, check out my snarky blog piece here or my more polished and polite newspaper article over here.
5. Vets on Vets on Vets.
No, I'm not still in JMU Baseball/Harrisonburg Turks writing mode, talking about the good ole days in Veterans Memorial Park. This team is so much older and more experienced than last year. Pop quiz-- did you know that a pretty giant portion of the 2011 offensive unit was actually freshmen? A huge portion of the O-Line, Jace Edwards, many of the skill players... even Scott was just a sophomore, and had only broken out in one of the final 2010 games when he almost single-handedly upset #1 William & Mary in Williamsburg in the first of many dominant performances.
This year? It's a whole different story. On offense, guard Earl Watford is a preseason All-America nod by most FCS online publications, and the rest of the line comes back a year stronger too. Thorpe is primed and ready, and we've already discussed the depth and experience at runningback. At receiver, Andre Coble was recently declared academically ineligible for the 2012 season, but other guys are ready to step up and fill the gap. Don't sleep on senior tight end Brian Barlow, who I think is about to have a huge year as the go-to guy on third down for Thorpe. (well, you know, third downs where we actually decide to pass the ball.)
On defense, we've lost the likes of DJ Bryant to the Houston Texans and a couple other quiet producers like Lamar Middleton and Vidal Nelson, but let's not forget that JMU's calling card is their defense. Mickey highlighted leaders up front like friend of the blog Tyler Snow and Stephon Robertson, and a couple Maryland transfers should fill out a leaky secondary that was truly the only concern of mine this offseason (I want no repeats of that Maine game last year.)
And lest I forget the kicking game, (place kicker) Cameron Starke and (punter) David Skahn are supposedly kicking the hell out of the ball. Don't forget, Starke kicked two game-winners last year, including the icing on a first-round playoff win down in Kentucky. So there's that too.
6. Don't start bringing out your 2004 jerseys just yet, though, because it's not quite all rosey.
You didn't think that nothing was going wrong... did you?
Thorpe is of course the golden boy of the moment, but if he gets hurt? Or otherwise finds himself off the field for reasons I'll be even more pissed about? Vanderbilt transfer Lafonte Thorougood is currently the backup, but is being hamstrung by, well, some hamstring issues. It's affecting how quickly he's picking up the offense.
In fact, quite a few guys are having some hamstring issues-- WR DeAndre Smith and roughly 8-10 other Dukes are injured because of hamstring problems. None of them are serious or considered to be threatening to any important playing time, and Mickey said the problems should resolve themselves by the start of the season... but at the same time, Mickey says he's conversed with his staff regarding the possibility of having to burn one of the redshirts on the prized trio of freshman quarterbacks. He's not worried though. He'll do it if he has to.
7. All in all, I think we're gonna be pretty good this year. Evidently, I'm not the only one.
JMU finds themself as low as five and as high as two in many of the national preseason polls, ahead of the likes of both Towson and ODU despite finishing behind both in the CAA preseason media poll. Now these polls came out this week, so they weren't the topic of discussion at the JMU presser last Friday. But according to Paul Montana via Tuesday's DNR, Mickey finds a #5 ranking to be "reasonable."
The real question here is this-- if we're 3rd in the CAA media poll, but ranked ahead of all other CAA media teams in the national polls... which is the correct line of thinking?
Well, not to cop out here, but I'm not sure one is more correct than the other. The CAA is once again going to be a knock-down, drag-out dogfight, and it's a continuing testament to the league's toughness that JMU, the defending champion Towson Tigers, or even those ass hole Monarchs over in Norfolk could be the true best preseason team-- if such a thing even exists.
(Author's Note: The Sports Network ranked six CAA teams in their preseason top 25, including JMU [5], Towson [7], ODU [8], New Hampshire [14], Delaware [15], and Maine [21].)
To me, the most important thing I took away from the press conference was the quality of the depth the team seems to have this year, and I think that's the difference not only between 2011 and 2012, but generally speaking, it's the difference between good teams and great ones. Coach Matthews reported that they typically pit the 1st offense against the 2nd defense and vice versa, and though the 1st teams usually crush their undermatched teammates, the second teams seemed to be holding on alright this year on both sides. This doesn't mean our offense and defense are subpar- on the contrary, it means we're going to be able to get some good rest minutes in the middle of drives if need be.
That could be huge against experienced teams (Towson) or in physically punishing games (ODU). Best those two teams, and the CAA is very much ours for the taking.
What's that? Sixteen days and counting? Meet you in the baseball lot.
Here we go.
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