They know what they are talking about out there in Fargo.

http://www.westfargopioneer.com/opinion/...s-might-be

He's creating motivation for the Bison as if they need more. Nice to read about yourself, but I'd rather it be in any other region of the country than where NDSU pulls from. Oh well, we'll just have to double down and maybe if we string a few years together we can actually have a rival who considers us one as well. We sure as he!! don't have one in the CAA.

High-level athletes and high level programs shouldnt need any more motivation to succeed than simply being the best. I love the way Mike Houston embraced that and challenged the team with being the best this year. And to be the best, you need to beat the best. JMU did that in Fargo.

Right now, we're now the champ, and were the best team in 2016. No fluke. Simply the best. I agree 100% with the author of this article, the window is open for years to come (Hero Sports rated JMU #2 recruiting class this year, behind only...Harvard).

After years of underachieving and/or not being able to put all the pieces together, JMU football is there. Embrace it!!

Pretty sure Richmond hates us just as much as we hate them. I consider Richmond to be our biggest rival and I love beating them.

"The Dukes are seen as the third option in Virginia behind Virginia Tech and Virginia for Division I players."

Shhh don't tell the butterflies.

(02-09-2017 03:47 PM)Dadgum Wrote:  Pretty sure Richmond hates us just as much as we hate them. I consider Richmond to be our biggest rival and I love beating them.

Most of their alumni recognize W&M as their biggest rival and it seems to be reciprocated. I will not dispute that we hate each other. I never hated on Appy and always considered them to be our biggest rival even though we didn't play every season. I'm pretty sure we have met Appy on the gridiron more than any team not in our conference and both fan bases showed mutual respect for each other which is very similar to what I am feeling with NDSU.

Update: How can RU be our biggest rival when they don't bring 500 fans to games in Harrisonburg only a couple hours away?

(02-09-2017 04:29 PM)BleedingPurple Wrote:  

(02-09-2017 03:47 PM)Dadgum Wrote:  Pretty sure Richmond hates us just as much as we hate them. I consider Richmond to be our biggest rival and I love beating them.

Most of their alumni recognize W&M as their biggest rival and it seems to be reciprocated. I will not dispute that we hate each other. I never hated on Appy and always considered them to be our biggest rival even though we didn't play every season. I'm pretty sure we have met Appy on the gridiron more than any team not in our conference and both fan bases showed mutual respect for each other which is very similar to what I am feeling with NDSU.

Update: How can RU be our biggest rival when they don't bring 500 fans to games in Harrisonburg only a couple hours away?

It's because they don't have 500 fans, they only have donors to RU

(02-09-2017 03:59 PM)Potomac Wrote:  "The Dukes are seen as the third option in Virginia behind Virginia Tech and Virginia for Division I players."

Shhh don't tell the butterflies.

You know these things will hurt me but you say them anyway...

(02-09-2017 02:56 PM)PhillyDuke Wrote:  They know what they are talking about out there in Fargo.

http://www.westfargopioneer.com/opinion/...s-might-be

You betcha!!!

you're either kidding yourself or are totally out of touch with reality if you don't think Richmond fans consider us their biggest rival. ask them:

*name ONE team that you are absolutely DYING to beat every year, and if you lose, it will eat at you for a long time? given those parameters, most will say us (IF THEY'RE HONEST). now, some that would say W&M would only be trying to say something about how the two schools are more similar, while they polish their monocle and straighten their bowtie. who gives a s**t about that? simply ask them who they want to crush every year, and I promise you it's us if they're being honest about it. THAT'S what a rival is.

(02-10-2017 02:15 PM)Jay M. Youix Wrote:  you're either kidding yourself or are totally out of touch with reality if you don't think Richmond fans consider us their biggest rival. ask them:

*name ONE team that you are absolutely DYING to beat every year, and if you lose, it will eat at you for a long time? given those parameters, most will say us (IF THEY'RE HONEST). now, some that would say W&M would only be trying to say something about how the two schools are more similar, while they polish their monocle and straighten their bowtie. who gives a s**t about that? simply ask them who they want to crush every year, and I promise you it's us if they're being honest about it. THAT'S what a rival is.

Not disagreeing, but NDSU, like App. St. before them, at least feels like a school and a program more proportionate to an actual rivalry with our beloved JMU. RU always feels like we're getting excited about beating a snotty kid up in the sandbox.

Yes but that snotty kid has beat us up more than we have beat the kid. We may have bloodied his nose a little more, for now he owns the sandbox, series is now at 18 for vesties and 16 for the DUKES. Richmond IS one of our biggest rivalries.

(02-13-2017 12:09 PM)JMUsince89 Wrote:  Yes but that snotty kid has beat us up more than we have beat the kid. We may have bloodied his nose a little more, for now he owns the sandbox, series is now at 18 for vesties and 16 for the DUKES. Richmond IS one of our biggest rivalries.

Haha, I'm not saying it hasn't been evenly contested, only that it makes me sad it's even a thing still since 2004. We should own them in football. I also think (and yes, I'll get killed for saying this I know) the RVA crowd on both sides gets really myopic about how big of a thing it really is outside of that area. The games down there are always really fun because they have that bowl game feel of a 50-50 crowd and they remain fun at BFS because they're almost always important to the standings and even more because there is nothing left to compare them to in FCS. If ODU and/or ASU hadn't passed us by, those would easily be as big or bigger at least at BFS. Even taking football out of the equation, same thing would've been said about GMU or VCU in hoops prior to their moving on. If you live in Richmond and have to deal with a bunch of donor-neighbors or even - god forbid - JMU alums who donate and attend Tick games (trust me, these d-bags exist), I get it why it's such a big deal. But otherwise, if it wasn't so important in the standings it wouldn't mean so much. We didn't miss them in hoops for example until everyone else that mattered left too.

(02-13-2017 12:09 PM)JMUsince89 Wrote:  Yes but that snotty kid has beat us up more than we have beat the kid. We may have bloodied his nose a little more, for now he owns the sandbox, series is now at 18 for vesties and 16 for the DUKES. Richmond IS one of our biggest rivalries.

I'm not seeing it, they bring both of their fans to away games and you want to call them our biggest rival. You've got to have fans not just a team. Further proof we need to move forward.

(02-13-2017 10:30 PM)BleedingPurple Wrote:  I'm not seeing it, they bring both of their fans to away games and you want to call them our biggest rival. You've got to have fans not just a team.

if they're not our biggest current rival, then who is? key word being "current". and also keep in mind that a rival should also see US as THEIR biggest rival (USC/UCLA, Montana/Montana St., Ohio St/Mich, Lehigh/Lafayette, etc. those teams all hate each other, it's not one sided).

(02-14-2017 01:27 PM)Jay M. Youix Wrote:  

(02-13-2017 10:30 PM)BleedingPurple Wrote:  I'm not seeing it, they bring both of their fans to away games and you want to call them our biggest rival. You've got to have fans not just a team.

if they're not our biggest current rival, then who is? key word being "current". and also keep in mind that a rival should also see US as THEIR biggest rival (USC/UCLA, Montana/Montana St., Ohio St/Mich, Lehigh/Lafayette, etc. those teams all hate each other, it's not one sided).

Now you get it.

(02-14-2017 06:50 PM)BleedingPurple Wrote:  

(02-14-2017 01:27 PM)Jay M. Youix Wrote:  

(02-13-2017 10:30 PM)BleedingPurple Wrote:  I'm not seeing it, they bring both of their fans to away games and you want to call them our biggest rival. You've got to have fans not just a team.

if they're not our biggest current rival, then who is? key word being "current". and also keep in mind that a rival should also see US as THEIR biggest rival (USC/UCLA, Montana/Montana St., Ohio St/Mich, Lehigh/Lafayette, etc. those teams all hate each other, it's not one sided).

Now you get it.

i do? i'm still not sure i'm understanding what you're saying. before, you were saying Richmond is not our biggest rival. now it sounds like you agree they are our biggest rival.

I think the point BP is making is that JMU no longer has a current rival in the CAA of today. The rivals of years past (UR, ODU, GMU, VCU in bball; ODU, App St. in football) have moved on and left us in a CAA without a true rival. Spider fans care far more about A10 basketball. W&M is not as exciting as the budding rivalries with the OOC teams mentioned in this thread.

I don't really agree. I do think UR is JMU's rival and vice versa - the hate/jealousy is real. JMU takes public funds and invests like crazy in its sports programs to build stadiums and such, but no real money to finish the deal. UR has a yuuuuge endowment with a stadium size issue. The profiles of the two schools may be different, but the league is the same.

But I get BP's point... I think.

Regarding the article sited by the OP, it really lumps in MM with Whithers and JMU's "lack of success" over the past decade or so. The stats on JMU making the playoffs and then bowing out early are true enough, but the regular season record in what was for many years the most competitive FCS conference speaks volumes for JMU's success since 2004, even in off years. I slightly disagree with the author and would be a bit miffed if I were MM reading that first half of the blog. Yet to be fair, MM did not ever get us over the hump after 2004 and really rode Landers much the same way Whithers rode Vad Lee. I will still say though that MM deserves a bit more credit than what this article provides for the "staying power" JMU has in FCS football.

I guess the definition of "rivalry" in football is pretty loose these days considering JMU and ODU have only ever played one another twice.

Back to the OP...I'd say JMU is no longer a sleeping giant. I agree we were a sleeping giant. We're plenty awake now. Couldn't care less about 'rivals' or any of that stuff. Just win, babyyyyyy!...preferably in January. :>)