http://www.sportsnetwork.com/fcs/FCS_Bracket.pdf For what it`s worth....

(10-07-2013 09:23 AM)Purple Reign Wrote:  http://www.sportsnetwork.com/fcs/FCS_Bracket.pdf For what it`s worth....

3 CAA teams?

I'd be shocked...but UD's blowout and UNH sucking certainly add fuel to the fire.

The thing ticking me off is that we can beat any team projected. I wouldn't spot any of them more than 7 points, most would be a toss-up, with a few, we would be favored.

Always feel like JMU is hated by the FCS community. Felt that way for years, how else can you explain some of the weird poll numbers, and so on?

Wow, that is a surprise. Can't say who but feel the CAA will get 4 at the end of the day. Towson is a lock, Maine looks solid. I think the other 2 are up for grabs.

maybe it's just me, but this doesn't surprise me at all.

been saying for a couple weeks now that 9-3 is going to be needed to feel secure. 8-4 is NO guarantee, especially if you are in 4th or 5th in the CAA with that record.

Half of the season yet to play. The CAA will have 4 (at a minimum) when the dust settles. Towson, Maine, and two others.

(10-07-2013 09:41 AM)Duke Dawg Wrote:  maybe it's just me, but this doesn't surprise me at all.

been saying for a couple weeks now that 9-3 is going to be needed to feel secure. 8-4 is NO guarantee, especially if you are in 4th or 5th in the CAA with that record.

There are 13 at-large bids. 8-4 from the CAA, MVFC or Big Sky will be a near lock.

Sagarin has jmu at #33 if you take out the transitioning teams...7 teams with .500 or sub .500 records above us

I will say our strength of schedule is pretty low, but this seems low to me. Will be interesting to see the coaches poll and SN poll later today

(10-07-2013 09:44 AM)Longhorn Wrote:  Half of the season yet to play. The CAA will have 4 (at a minimum) when the dust settles. Towson, Maine, and two others.

Yep. I didn't even look at the projection. Save your time and don't bother- less than 1/2 way through the season, anyone's playoff projection now is as worthless as tits on a bull.

Who have we beaten that would make us a playoff team?

(10-07-2013 10:59 AM)JMU_Newbill Wrote:  Who have we beaten that would make us a playoff team?

No one, and we haven't lost to anyone that had we beaten would've made us a playoff team either. We've gotten through the unremarkable part of our schedule with 2 losses, the difficult games are still to come.

(10-07-2013 10:59 AM)JMU_Newbill Wrote:  Who have we beaten that would make us a playoff team?

Charlotte beat Gardner Webb...

(10-07-2013 10:53 AM)BDKJMU Wrote:  

(10-07-2013 09:44 AM)Longhorn Wrote:  Half of the season yet to play. The CAA will have 4 (at a minimum) when the dust settles. Towson, Maine, and two others.

Yep. I didn't even look at the projection. Save your time and don't bother- less than 1/2 way through the season, anyone's playoff projection now is as worthless as tits on a bull.

Was waiting on this, almost preemptively posted it myself, but deferred. haha

I have seen every JMU game this season and have yet to see anything that makes me feel like we are playoff worthy. There have been good quarters played but not an entire four quarters. We seem to be a different team in the first quarter then we are in the second half. We make far too many mistakes (busted plays, penalties and special teams errors). There is talent but effort appears to wane at times.

If we lose this Saturday vs Ticks, I see no better than 6-6 this season and a bottom half of the CAA finish. I have absolutely no confidence in this team and coaching staff but hoping I am wrong.

Brown, Robertson, Steele and Abdullah has been impressive early on. DQ needs to be used more in the passing game. Dump off underneath after receivers have cleared and before the rush can get to Birdsong. Need more blitzes called. O line needs to block better. No more rugby kicks. Bench the kicker until he is fully healed.

What is with the look the sidelines thing on offense? What happened to the fast pace offense we saw at Akron? Why do other coaches make adjustments and our head coach makes excuses? This team plays soft. Does great when things are going well but struggles at the first sign of adversity.

UR game will tell us all we need to know. They just are not that good and are not a playoff team this year. If they beat us at home, time to go into "enjoy the tailgate" mode.

(10-07-2013 07:09 PM)JMUNation Wrote:  I have seen every JMU game this season and have yet to see anything that makes me feel like we are playoff worthy. There have been good quarters played but not an entire four quarters. We seem to be a different team in the first quarter then we are in the second half. We make far too many mistakes (busted plays, penalties and special teams errors). There is talent but effort appears to wane at times.

If we lose this Saturday vs Ticks, I see no better than 6-6 this season and a bottom half of the CAA finish. I have absolutely no confidence in this team and coaching staff but hoping I am wrong.

Brown, Robertson, Steele and Abdullah has been impressive early on. DQ needs to be used more in the passing game. Dump off underneath after receivers have cleared and before the rush can get to Birdsong. Need more blitzes called. O line needs to block better. No more rugby kicks. Bench the kicker until he is fully healed.

What is with the look the sidelines thing on offense? What happened to the fast pace offense we saw at Akron? Why do other coaches make adjustments and our head coach makes excuses? This team plays soft. Does great when things are going well but struggles at the first sign of adversity.

UR game will tell us all we need to know. They just are not that good and are not a playoff team this year. If they beat us at home, time to go into "enjoy the tailgate" mode.

This guy a couple of weeks ago had a CAA team not in the top 25 in the playoffs and another CAA in the top ten not in the playoffs.

It's just one guys opinion, and I believe he likes to be edgy with his selections to get reactions from fans, although I don't really see anything wrong with not including us at this point.

(10-07-2013 07:09 PM)JMUNation Wrote:  I have seen every JMU game this season and have yet to see anything that makes me feel like we are playoff worthy. There have been good quarters played but not an entire four quarters. We seem to be a different team in the first quarter then we are in the second half. We make far too many mistakes (busted plays, penalties and special teams errors). There is talent but effort appears to wane at times.

If we lose this Saturday vs Ticks, I see no better than 6-6 this season and a bottom half of the CAA finish. I have absolutely no confidence in this team and coaching staff but hoping I am wrong.

Brown, Robertson, Steele and Abdullah has been impressive early on. DQ needs to be used more in the passing game. Dump off underneath after receivers have cleared and before the rush can get to Birdsong. Need more blitzes called. O line needs to block better. No more rugby kicks. Bench the kicker until he is fully healed.

What is with the look the sidelines thing on offense? What happened to the fast pace offense we saw at Akron? Why do other coaches make adjustments and our head coach makes excuses? This team plays soft. Does great when things are going well but struggles at the first sign of adversity.

UR game will tell us all we need to know. They just are not that good and are not a playoff team this year. If they beat us at home, time to go into "enjoy the tailgate" mode.

Yep. As fatalistic as you make it sound, it is down right true. We have talent, but we seem to lack chemistry or that winning attitude that puts you over the top in tough situations. We are almost there, but just not quite... I hope this game vs. Richmond proves me wrong. We are only a couple plays/coaching calls from 5-0 at this point, but that is football.

(10-07-2013 07:09 PM)JMUNation Wrote:  I have seen every JMU game this season and have yet to see anything that makes me feel like we are playoff worthy. There have been good quarters played but not an entire four quarters. We seem to be a different team in the first quarter then we are in the second half. We make far too many mistakes (busted plays, penalties and special teams errors). There is talent but effort appears to wane at times.

If we lose this Saturday vs Ticks, I see no better than 6-6 this season and a bottom half of the CAA finish. I have absolutely no confidence in this team and coaching staff but hoping I am wrong.

Brown, Robertson, Steele and Abdullah has been impressive early on. DQ needs to be used more in the passing game. Dump off underneath after receivers have cleared and before the rush can get to Birdsong. Need more blitzes called. O line needs to block better. No more rugby kicks. Bench the kicker until he is fully healed.

What is with the look the sidelines thing on offense? What happened to the fast pace offense we saw at Akron? Why do other coaches make adjustments and our head coach makes excuses? This team plays soft. Does great when things are going well but struggles at the first sign of adversity.

UR game will tell us all we need to know. They just are not that good and are not a playoff team this year. If they beat us at home, time to go into "enjoy the tailgate" mode.

You could probably say that about all but about 8-10 or so teams in the country under the old 16 team definition of playoff worthy. JMU hasn't appeared playoff worthy for a 16 team field. Maybe for a 24 team field.

I've said it from the beginning of the season....this does not appear to be a playoff team. Can they get better? Certainly. Dukes will have to win at least four of next six to get consideration for at-large berth. That's a tall order. Corners are very vulnerable; d-line while experienced is hardly dominant and same can be said of offensive line; Dae-Quan looks a step slow and does not break tackles typically; and kicking game has been a disaster. Team has also had issues with penalties and turnovers. Tight end has also been a weak spot. And, most importantly, Birdsong has yet to develop into a top-notch QB. His growth and development down the stretch is perhaps the single biggest key to the team, along with cleaning up the mistakes. Integration of Daniel Brown back into the offense and play of Khalid Abdullah have been positives.

Poster in another thread made a valid point with respect to JMU's recruiting strategy. Oftentimes, Dukes are recruiting QBs at the high school level and asking them to play different positions at the next level. That doesn't always work and requires great patience -- see Taylor Reynolds as an example. Matthews has said he puts his best athletes on defense. It would have been interesting to see how Reynolds would have done as a receiver. Needs a lot of work with his ball skills on the defensive side of the ball.

Our performance thus far does not indicate that we are a playoff team. Far from it. At the risk of sounding like a hopeless pessimist.... I don't see another win on our schedule, POSSIBLY Stony Stream, and if we catch another team on our schedule sleeping we may squeak out another victory. We have some outstanding individual talent throughout a pretty young team. The problem is at the top. In years past we probably could have gotten into the playoffs with this team. Not this year. Too many talented teams in the CAA. I apologize for the reality check.