After being very frustrated last night, I took a fresh look at our schedule.

We should beat Towson , Elon, Stony Brook and Charlotte ( got beat by Gardner Webb)

We have to steal one from RU or W&M.

Then we go 8-4 and sneak into the playoffs

That UD loss just kills us. We lose all margin for error. Also they just lost to an NEC team

Our schedule is actually pretty weak this year, even though it appeared strong.

I think the staff has a lot of growing to do, but the above is very possible.

Here is a swig of purple kool aid for ya!

As fans, I feel we over value JMU football and under value our competition. FCS has always been a league where good football players choose to stay closer to home to get their education. Many FBS caliber players who want to play as Freshman and Sophomores have played at the FCS level for years.

The reason the CAA has been dominant is because the northeast conferences did not offer scholarships. The NEC and the Patriot do now. That is why their programs are slowly improving. With Albany coming from the NEC to the CAA, they talent is slowly improving as well. Keep in mind, they dominated the NEC for many years. Also, the NEC has at least five wins over CAA schools this year after Sacret Heart beat UD yesterday at UD.

With more scholarships available at northern schools, northern kids are going to choose to stay closer to home so their family and friends can see them play. Albany and Stony Brook have put a lot of money into their athletics. Both schools were in the playoffs a lot prior to coming to the CAA. They are better programs than Hofstra and Northeastern were.

Matthews staff recruited poorly over the last few years, which is why JMU has so many “athletes” on their roster. They took the best they could get without consideration of the position they played. We are paying for it the last five seasons.

Whether fans want to believe it or not, Withers is putting a competitive team on the field each week and the games have been exciting to watch from an offensive perspective. No more boring Mickey ball. There is talent but not enough to win the CAA or go far in the playoffs. Being over .500 in the CAA would be an accomplishment for our first year coach.

I'm not seeing any teams we 'should beat' left on the schedule based on the results so far. Maybe Elon. I won't say Charlotte being a road game.

Are we still drinking the 'Juice' ( aka Kool-Aide )? No games are sure-things this season ...

I agree that no game is a sure thing with this young team but Charlotte and Elon are games they should not lose. Elon beat Charlotte and was just waxed by UNH yesterday. They are not a good team right now. Towson is pretty bad too.

Unless this team just lays an egg, the SB, UR and W&M games will determine our season. The other three should be sure wins. I expect the Dukes to be 5-3 when they play W&M.

I am feeling like the CAA will get only 3 teams in the playoffs this year. There is an outside chance for 4 but nothing more than that. MVC and Big Sky will be multi bid leagues. Lucky for the CAA that the Patriot will be a one bid league. UR beating Liberty helped the CAA's cause yesterday.

JMU's chances to make the playoffs are remote. They likely have to win out. Maybe, just maybe, they get in if they go 5-3 in league play. At 8-4, I fear there are not going to be any "quality" wins once the at large bids are given out by the committee. JMU needs to finish no worse than 4th in the conference to get an invite. Finish in 3rd place and they are a lock.

(10-05-2014 11:29 AM)JMUNation Wrote:  I agree that no game is a sure thing with this young team but Charlotte and Elon are games they should not lose. Elon beat Charlotte and was just waxed by UNH yesterday. They are not a good team right now. Towson is pretty bad too.

Unless this team just lays an egg, the SB, UR and W&M games will determine our season. The other three should be sure wins. I expect the Dukes to be 5-3 when they play W&M.

I am feeling like the CAA will get only 3 teams in the playoffs this year. There is an outside chance for 4 but nothing more than that. MVC and Big Sky will be multi bid leagues. Lucky for the CAA that the Patriot will be a one bid league. UR beating Liberty helped the CAA's cause yesterday.

JMU's chances to make the playoffs are remote. They likely have to win out. Maybe, just maybe, they get in if they go 5-3 in league play. At 8-4, I fear there are not going to be any "quality" wins once the at large bids are given out by the committee. JMU needs to finish no worse than 4th in the conference to get an invite. Finish in 3rd place and they are a lock.

What makes this team young other than the age of the assistant coaches? BDK and others have done the research on other threads disproving that theory, as this team is no younger than JMU teams of the past few years.

I have not seen the research you are referencing. Maybe inexperienced is more accurate. I see a lot of guys playing this year whose names I do not recognize. I don't recall a time in JMU history when so many Freshman were getting playing time. Mickey use to redshirt most of his Freshman class. While the roster may look the same in terms of age disbursement, it sure seems to me that there is a bunch of youth on the field.

I would love to end up 8-4 but based on what we've seen so far, that would be a near miracle.

We should win out at home. W&M is a good team but they don't play well at JMU. UR is good but they have problems on defense. It will be a shoot out at Robbins Stadium. Our defense will be better by this game but it will be tough to win in Richmond. Stony Brook is the trap game for us. Taking a long bus ride to Long Island sucks and this may be a problem in early Nov.

I don't know, guys. That seems like a far look ahead. We haven't shown we're able to win any game yet easily. To think we have the potential to win all of our games or all except one seems like a stretch. We really need to get healthy at a few positions and stay healthy for that to even be a remote possibility.

We will be in every game the rest of the season. This team can score points. If Vad Lee & Co. put up 35 a game, we will win most (UR is a ?) down the stretch. The defense is getting better every week but the kinks we are working out are tough to watch at times and fun at other times. We had 3 freshmen in the secondary last night playing with a guy that had not played defense until 2 weeks ago. 8-4 should happen and a playoff game at BFS.

Bulldogg....there's some people saying we could go 8-4 this season.....where are ya????

I agree with you, JJ, but 7-5 seems more likely to me than 8-4. For us to be UR or W&M this year will require a lot if improvement on our part or major injuries on theirs.


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I would be thrilled with 6 and 6. This team is very Undisciplined and not well coached. Not giving up on Withers but I will streak Bridgeforth if we win out.

That Elon game may be cold George. I'm not sure the ladies will understand.

The quality of play in FCS football has diminished greatly.

All colleges that were capable of moving up to FBS have found ways to do so.

(10-05-2014 07:35 PM)Dukeman Wrote:  The quality of play in FCS football has diminished greatly.

All colleges that were capable of moving up to FBS have found ways to do so.

Except for one.

8-4 requires stealing one from wm and ur, which I will say is unlikely.
Elon is the only likely win. Towson, charlotte and stony brook are probable wins. Wm is a probable loss and ur is a likely loss.
Realistically, if we don't drop a bad loss to a team we shouldn't lose to, we're looking at 7-5.
That's an improvement over last season, despite the anti-withers crowd trying to say otherwise.
6-6 is more likely with the losses to wm and ur and a likely one remaining bad loss.

Giving 3 points for home field advantage, here's the Sagarin predictors for the rest of the season as of right now:
Towson: JMU by 11.13
@Charlotte: JMU by 5.41
W&M: W&M by 5.22
@SB: SB by 0.9
@Richmond: RU by 11.27
Elon: JMU by 12.13

I agree Towson, @Charlotte, and Elon should be sure things. I think we can take @SB. I also give us the edge against W&M because it's homecoming. While we still need a lot of work, and maybe we started at a worse position at the beginning of the season, I've seen more improvement since the beginning of the season this year than I have in the past several years. I think Richmond could be the only one we drop, but anything could happen in a shootout...and make no mistake...that will be a shootout. Two good offenses vs. two bad defenses. Could be Villanova all over again, but against a worse team.

(10-05-2014 07:18 PM)The Purple Wave Wrote:  I would be thrilled with 6 and 6. This team is very Undisciplined and not well coached. Not giving up on Withers but I will streak Bridgeforth if we win out.

How about you keep your clothes on so I don't have to bail you out of jail in late Nov. I have a new deal. We win out, you buy me a bottle of my favorite dark liquor. We fail to win out and I do the same for you.