For many years, I would say we have failed to meet our expectations in football. I would say 2008 was the last year we came close. When Withers came in, I think many of us had high hopes, especially last year.
For the first time in a long time, I think we have the potential to exceed our expectations. For a first year coaching staff, I have an incredible amount of confidence in their abilities. I do think they have fixed a lot of the glaring problems in the last few years and are building a very dangerous team.

Here are my questions:
What are your expectations for this year's squad?
Do you think they have the potential to exceed your expectations?
What would the lowest result that would be acceptable to you?



My expectations:
8-3 and 1 win in the playoffs.
I definitely think they have the potential to exceed that, in both record and postseason play.
Anything less than 7-4 and a playoff win would be a disappointment.

I don't like determining the success of a season on X number of playoff wins.

JMU could go 8-3 regular season, get seeded and have a first round bye. This means we are in the final 16 teams without playing a postseason game. Or JMU could go 8-3 in regular season but not get seeded (2015 W&M). In which case we would probably get paired up with an easier opponent, get a playoff win but still only be in the final 16. Is one of those a better season than the other? I don't think so but I can understand the fact that the second option includes an additional win versus a playoff team.

Or JMU could go 8-3 get a first round bye and win the second round game and be in the final 8. It is technically the same as winning the first round as a unseeded team and then losing in the second. I think we can all agree one of those options is better than the other.

My question: Has JMU ever been one of the final 16 teams playing (not saying playoffs due to current expansions) three years in a row?

My expectation is to have similar success to the first portion of last year but in a different way. We won some exciting shootouts (some by the seat of our pants) and lost some crazy free-for-alls.

Without Vad's talent to rack up points I think we're going to have similar scoring success through discipline and execution. As much as Withers breathed excitement into the program I think Houston's success will be more focused, consistent and repeatable.

We're going to beat the sh!t out of Richmond, Nova is without their star quarterback, and hopefully W&M continues to be jinxed against us. I'm expecting to ride this new energy to a 2-loss regular season and plowing deep into the playoffs.

13 Wins.

Johnson, Abdullah, Woods, Sharp > Banks, Fenner, Hines

What are your expectations for this year's squad?

8-3

Do you think they have the potential to exceed your expectations?

Yes, in the playoff round of eight

What would the lowest result that would be acceptable to you?
8-3

8-3, first round bye and then who knows from there.

Love much of what I'm seeing from Houston and staff, imo he was an absolute home run hire, lets just hope he doesn't get the "jimmy legs" and bolt at the sight of the first warm FBS body.

Expecting 8-3
Definitely potential to exceed that depending on the QB play.
Missing the playoffs is unacceptable for this program in a watered down FCS.

p.s. Houston has walked into a stocked cupboard and he addressed the one glaring need by bringing in Mitch at QB. No matter how the QB battle turns out initially, JMU will likely be 2-1 after 3 games. Its the rest of the games that QB play will matter.

What are your expectations for this year's squad? 8 wins + at least 1 playoff victory
Do you think they have the potential to exceed your expectations? any given Saturday, baby!
What would the lowest result that would be acceptable to you? 7 wins

(08-24-2016 05:07 PM)DoubleDogDare Wrote:  I don't like determining the success of a season on X number of playoff wins.

JMU could go 8-3 regular season, get seeded and have a first round bye. This means we are in the final 16 teams without playing a postseason game. Or JMU could go 8-3 in regular season but not get seeded (2015 W&M). In which case we would probably get paired up with an easier opponent, get a playoff win but still only be in the final 16. Is one of those a better season than the other? I don't think so but I can understand the fact that the second option includes an additional win versus a playoff team.

Or JMU could go 8-3 get a first round bye and win the second round game and be in the final 8. It is technically the same as winning the first round as a unseeded team and then losing in the second. I think we can all agree one of those options is better than the other.

My question: Has JMU ever been one of the final 16 teams playing (not saying playoffs due to current expansions) three years in a row?

If you're referring to a potential three years in a row this season, we lost to liberty in the 1st round two years and weren't among the final sixteen teams. So no three consecutive top sixteen.

Just off the top of my head, we made the playoffs from 06-08 and it was a 16 team field back then, so yes it's happened once.

I think we're 8-3 material. A loss to a ranked unc team, a loss to UR or WM but not both, a wtf loss to a lower team such as UD or UNH. I guess unh isn't technically ever a bad loss.

What are your expectations for this year's squad?
8-3, make the playoffs (depends on pairings then)
I think we split with Rich/W&M and split with UNH/UV.

Do you think they have the potential to exceed your expectations?
yes, could 10-1 and top 4 seed.

What would the lowest result that would be acceptable to you?
Not going to define that with losses. Any result where JMU does not make the playoffs and I deem that disappointing/unsuccessful season.

Offensively
I expect the running game to be strong dominating early and getting better. I expect solid to great QB play regardless of who is playing, both QB's will improve markedly as the season progresses. I expect our receivers to execute a ball control passing game with the potential for big plays at any moment. Short passing game early to build confidence, play action and swing routes to running backs being more prevalent than in past years. I expect the offensive line to fire off the ball on running plays (circa 2004) which will plow the roads for our staff of great running backs. An uptempo offense with our kind of running game is going to be pretty.

Defensively we are deeper in the secondary than I can recall. Expect a lot of ball hawking from TR and associates assisted by a strong pass rush from Ankrah and co. at the DE position. Tough linebacking led by Gage will buck up well and stop the run consistently with some blitzing to disrupt the opposing offense and help out our DTs. Interior D line is the unknown, but expect some pleasant surprises there.
This defense is going to be especially tough in the red zone.

Gunnar can change the game by flipping the field with his punts. Don't know much about the place kickers, but JMU usually has top kickers.
Expect some big run backs in the return game. Very deep in return guys all of which can get the job done.

Excited for the games to begin.

9-2 .... deep playoff run

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Dukes crush

I expect an up-tempo smash-mouth football team. I don't expect our opponents to move at ease up and down the field as they have the past couple seasons. I'm looking for the "D" to be similar to a MM team and the "O" to not be controlled by the coaches to the point we see a lot of plays winding down the play clock as Mickey's commonly did. I do hope we air it out frequently especially with 8 - 15 yard passes over the middle. I love getting the tight-end involved in the passing game, but that does take an accurate QB.

Prediction: 9 - 2 and two playoff wins.

I know it sounds about as cliche' as it gets but I expect the whole thing.

(08-24-2016 10:23 PM)Dukes2Space Wrote:  I know it sounds about as cliche' as it gets but I expect the whole thing.

I have no issue with that expectation, though I doubt you or anyone else would predict it. Two different things.

(08-24-2016 10:43 PM)BleedingPurple Wrote:  

(08-24-2016 10:23 PM)Dukes2Space Wrote:  I know it sounds about as cliche' as it gets but I expect the whole thing.

I have no issue with that expectation, though I doubt you or anyone else would predict it. Two different things.

No, not really. I think the only people who could reasonably expect it would be NDSU fans. They've been racking them up.

We lose to UNC and NDSU. The rest of the season will be wins.

UR, W&M, UNH nor UD are better then they were last year. JMU is going to be much improved on defense. Neither QB is as good as Vad but both will be better then Schor was at season's end. The coaching staff is seasoned and will make a difference in the close games. JMU would have beaten Colgate and Liberty with this staff.

I am expecting big things from this season. Anything less than the semi's will be a disappointment. As Hart said, it is a watered down FCS compared to '04 and '08.

With a loaded coaching staff, and great roster I'm expecting big things.

UNC has a soft underbelly against the run, and hopefully our staff have done their homework and will exploit it. Looking for that game to be close or a W.

The wildcards for us this year is QB play and defense. If those two things gel, we should be semis or in the NC game, likely against NDSU. It may be too big a leap from last year to upset them, but I would expect a good fight there too.

Anything below 8-3 regular season and 2nd/3rd round in playoffs would be a disappointment. Looking for 10-1 and a trophy.