(10-30-2026 07:50 AM)Halz87 Wrote:  

(10-30-2026 07:32 AM)JMU2004 Wrote:  

(10-30-2026 07:26 AM)Polish Hammer Wrote:  

(10-30-2026 05:41 AM)fishingduke12 Wrote:  Just working backwards from what I remember
1. Evan's missed seeing a wide open TE to convert on 3rd down in ot
2. Last drive of regulation on the second run - Coleman misread the RPO like he typically does and rb gets stuffed meanwhile if he kept it, there's green grass for 15 yards putting us into FG range
3. Harrison fumbles on our own 25 - 3 plays later Troy scores. Next drive throws a pick
4. Evans opens the half with a pick 6
5. Mikey scott fumbles after a 40 yard catch and run down to their 25

Even with the 2 qb system, playcalling, penalties whatever - if any one of those things goes differently jmu wins the game. [b]This is not saying there is no blame on the coaches this is saying that at a certain point you need to expect D1 players to execute basic football tasks[/b]

Exactly! Plenty of blame for the coaches in this game, but people want to blame them when the players fail to execute the fundamentals.

I have YET to see a player sat down after a dumb penalty. Yet to see a player ride the pine after a fumble or poor INTs.

Players don't execute when for a few reasons. First, they simply don't have the ability or are injured/hurt. Second, they aren't prepared. Finally, they aren't held accountable.

This staff has been exposed on the latter two.

I completely agree. One of my pet peeves ... undisciplined. completely fixable.

add offensive lines inability to open running holes or hold a stable pocket. That might not be fixable.

Bing. UNDISCIPLINED. In Fewest Penalty Yds Per Game JMU sits at 126 of 138. Worst we have ever seen out of a JMU team.

(10-30-2026 05:41 AM)fishingduke12 Wrote:  Just working backwards from what I remember
1. Evan's missed seeing a wide open TE to convert on 3rd down in ot
2. Last drive of regulation on the second run - Coleman misread the RPO like he typically does and rb gets stuffed meanwhile if he kept it, there's green grass for 15 yards putting us into FG range
3. Harrison fumbles on our own 25 - 3 plays later Troy scores. Next drive throws a pick
4. Evans opens the half with a pick 6
5. Mikey scott fumbles after a 40 yard catch and run down to their 25

Even with the 2 qb system, playcalling, penalties whatever - if any one of those things goes differently jmu wins the game. This is not saying there is no blame on the coaches this is saying that at a certain point you need to expect D1 players to execute basic football tasks

While I like having Evans in the game, he has never looked any further than his primary receiver. I mean in any game he's ever taken a snap for the Dukes. He has this belief that he can make his #1 have a completion. If he could learn to look at his alternates, he could be a solid QB for us. In addition, he stares at his target. Furthermore, our coaches almost refuse to call design run for our QB unless we're in a desperate situation. Both QB's can run, one simply has more power than the other.

I've been saying all year, we simply have not been impressive if you watch our games. Throw out Wagner (shouldn't be playing a highschool team), the only game we executed and our coaches did a good job, was against GA State. That's it. Throw out the final scores, just simply watching our games unfold, any average team can beat us and that's now being played out.

(10-30-2026 12:42 PM)BleedingPurple Wrote:  I've been saying all year, we simply have not been impressive if you watch our games. Throw out Wagner (shouldn't be playing a highschool team), the only game we executed and our coaches did a good job, was against GA State. That's it. Throw out the final scores, just simply watching our games unfold, any average team can beat us and that's now being played out.

The team isn't without its flaws, but it's better than you're giving it credit.
JMU has yet to play a complete game, and the team remains undisciplined. There is talent, but last night those flaws exposed the team, and following the App St. loss by a similar margin in OT, makes the flaws all the more obvious.

I have posted this before, but we have to be approaching U-Miami territory with the number of undisciplined late-hit type penalties. It has been a problem for the last few coaching staffs.
I know at the HS level it is getting harder to discipline kids because there are no backups anymore...no threat to losing your position. Is there a similar effect in G6 football? Has NIL/transfer portal taken any depth that JMU may have had before?

It falls on Fletcher "Shotgun" Cox, CPA. Shoulda just ate the poop!

It looked like our offense simply gave up in the second quarter.

(10-30-2026 04:58 PM)We Are the Dukes of JMU Wrote:  It looked like our offense simply gave up in the second quarter.

You’re right. Troy could’ve pulled their team off the field and we might have been able to score a few plays later depending on how many penalties we’d incur and how far we’d be backed-up.

(10-29-2026 11:25 PM)ParentofJMUMRDs Wrote:  Loss is on the offense. 5 turnovers and the offense completely disappeared about 1/2 way through the second quarter. Do not know why that has happened for 2 straight games now but it needs to be fixed

Brian

This is true, but I feel like the coaching staff has to see "they've figured out our offense and can stop us." and come up with/deploy Plan B.

Everyone involved blew it, though. This was a pretty serious reality check.

(10-30-2026 08:21 AM)JMU2004 Wrote:  Napier has pointed out poor execution in multiple games, commonly saying "meat left on the bone" and "gotta get it cleaned up" since Liberty.

At some point (it was awhile ago) you are the team you put on tape.

And you have to ask, after 9 games, who's responsible for the meat being left on the bone? The coach's job is to get the players ready to do the job, and while there's plenty of blame to go around, I don't think this is all on the players.

We’ve had delusions of grandeur of late as fans.

We’re still a Sun Belt team with Sun Belt talent.

We’ll be a better team in the American with American money, because more money equals more talent.

Yes, we’re a very attractive program, but the CFP was always a long shot, especially when Boise, an established national brand for a couple of decades now, was in the driver’s seat.

In Chesney’s first year, we were 7-2 at one point and had lost to freaking ULM. Read that again: ULM.

(We also had a two QB situation with Chesney as well.)

Just stop believing our poop doesn’t stink, that we’re UCLA or Indiana just because our old coaches are there, and you’ll be much happier. And far less delusional.

I agree with some of that, but we lost two very winnable games. We should’ve been on our way to running the table with this schedule. I know it’s rare here to tip your hat to an opponent when they take a game from us, but I feel the past two were absolutely given away, especially Troy who couldn’t do anything if not for our miscues and untimely penalties.

Also, “We’ll be a better team in the American with American money, because more money equals more talent.” Where’s that money coming from? It’ll still be us CAA fans being asked to kick in even more than we did when we went SBC because the cost of doing AAC business just got more expensive. We’ve always been told that if you like your school to donate accordingly…if you like your team donate accordingly…then it became if you like your players then also donate to them accordingly. There’s only so much you can kick in when these mercenaries come in and are gone by the end of the semester despite just barely getting to know their names.

A whole lot of factors here, but the coaching/clock management/decision making/discipline mistakes always frustrate me way more than physical mistakes like a bad throw, a dropped pass, or plain poor execution though. They aren't robots so you'll never eliminate the physical mistakes, gotta give yourself more room for error by minimizing the mental errors. That's why the insane game management towards the end was the most frustrating and inexcusable to me, but plenty of blame to go around.

I think the biggest factor is line play. We aren't getting enough time for the QB or positive plays on the ground consistently while on defense we allow way too many solid runs or plays where the QB has all day. Improvement there would change everything, and I don't get why our lines have gone downhill so badly but I sure hope the coaches have some idea of why. We're used to watching JMU lines bully the hell out of other G6 lines, it's weird watching games where it feels like a weakness instead of a strength at times.

I'm torn on the two-QB stuff, I think the Barnett/Sluka results have a lot of JMU fans seeing it as a universal rule that it's a bad idea while in reality it does work really well for some even if it's not often. I do think it's usually a bad idea, but there are exceptions to every rule and I think it's worked pretty well for most of this year. The past couple games though we've had a lot of timing issues in the passing game and I do wonder if one guy getting consistent first-team reps would make a big difference there. It's also much easier to keep it from dividing a locker room when you're 7-0 than when you've lost two in a row.

At the end of the day though, I'm very disappointed we won't be going undefeated and contending for a CFP spot and at the same time I'm very thankful that this program is one where we should feel disappointed to be 7-2. I'll always love all of our Dukes and enjoy the hell out of football season whether we're undefeated national champions or 0-12, but it sure is a lot more fun when a good season means undefeated or one loss with a possible CFP spot and a disappointing season still has 8, 9, 10+ wins than when a good season means bowl eligibility and a disappointing season means a bottom 40 team. Some of our fans definitely do not know how to lose and act absolutely ridiculous, especially towards our own.

(11-01-2026 03:59 PM)Polish Hammer Wrote:  I agree with some of that, but we lost two very winnable games. We should’ve been on our way to running the table with this schedule. I know it’s rare here to tip your hat to an opponent when they take a game from us, but I feel the past two were absolutely given away, especially Troy who couldn’t do anything if not for our miscues and untimely penalties.

Also, “We’ll be a better team in the American with American money, because more money equals more talent.” Where’s that money coming from? It’ll still be us CAA fans being asked to kick in even more than we did when we went SBC because the cost of doing AAC business just got more expensive. We’ve always been told that if you like your school to donate accordingly…if you like your team donate accordingly…then it because if you like your players then also donate to them accordingly. There’s only so much you can kick in when these mercenaries come in and are gone by the end of the semester and you barely got to even know their names.

THIS!

It's like the booing....you are now being paid, you are expected to play like you should and coach like you should to win regardless if a bye week is at the end of schedule.

(11-01-2026 05:24 PM)hburg Wrote:  It's like the booing....you are now being paid, you are expected to play like you should and coach like you should to win regardless if a bye week is at the end of schedule.

To me this mindset is like people that don't use manners when interacting with a cashier, server, etc. and justify it with the fact that the person is being paid and they don't feel the need to thank someone for doing their job. You can still be polite, and understanding if they make a mistake, just like you can still love and cheer on your team. Even more so with sports, when you go out to eat there isn't someone else whose entire job is to keep your server from doing a good job.

You should never boo the home team. I said it, fight me.

Why can't I be delusional?

Actually, I'm not at all. Since the first game against Liberty, we clearly showed up unimpressive. I wasn't impressed against Wagner either, we simply did what was expected. The only game we've played a complete game and kept our foot on the pedal was GA State. Sure anyone would have looked at our record and game scores and come away with JMU has their shi! together. Anyone who knows football at all, would have simply said there's a lot to work on. I kept hoping the coaches could get it together and thought we had, but nope. We are simply better than average and can win any game, but also can lose any game.

(11-01-2026 05:46 PM)jmu007 Wrote:  You should never boo the home team. I said it, fight me.

This, 1000%

All of the factors from coaches to players earned that loss, but Thursday's loss falls equally on the crowd. The students filing out in the 2nd Quarter was shameful and you could feel the air come out of the stadium. We are a spoiled and still developing fanbase (I understand I am preaching to the choir here). We are far from the only school to deal with this issue, but we can't puff our chest out until we start to change that culture. It would have helped me if I was a Troy player to see a crowd bail before halftime.

There won't be just one fix, but having the students scan on their way out in the 4th Quarter or after the alma mater should earn them priority points for tickets. Same for attendance of other teams etc. Try to encourage the most passionate and the rest will follow. We have gotten better with the late arriving crowds, no reason we can't make progress here too.