with all of their miss-steps...in defense of JMU athletic administration....we did get the neutral site game at Fedex, we have the stadium upgrade and plan to upgrade the remaining, we have the new convo project approved....a ton of improvement at JMU over the last 10 years.

Fed Ex Game - WVA championed the idea and Cinn negotaited a much better deal (VA Tech same month) despite bringing less fans than JMU

Stadium Expansion - 10yrs late and fundraising failure by all accounts

New Convo - botched timing and no announcement yet, convo is 200 yrs old.

We need to be very honest with ourselves.

(04-24-2013 10:53 AM)Longhorn Wrote:  

(04-24-2013 10:25 AM)JMU_71 Wrote:  That being said, Bourne may be complacent in King's decisions, but he does not make the final decision when money is involved. That includes coaches' contracts, NCAA bids, or whether or not to serve Coke, Pepsi or RC Cola.

I think you meant to say complicit ....unless you think JB doesn't care was CK does...and in that case "Bourne may be complacent about King's decisions"...but i agree with your larger point that CK is the decision maker when it comes to all $$ decisions

I think it is a group decision in most cases. The ultimate decision on a BIG or controversial issue would of course be Algers. I don't think CK just simply dictates to JB. That wouldn't last too long.

(04-24-2013 01:16 PM)jmusuperfan Wrote:  ....a ton of improvement at JMU over the last 10 years.

It's hard to imagine that there's an FCS/I-AA school that has made more sports infrastructure improvements over the last 5-10 years. And I'll never understand the criticism for expanding BFS in the way we did - asymmetrically but with an obvious means of expansion.

If there were 5,000-8,000 seats sitting empty every game, then I guess I'd agree that we took a risk in expanding it the way we did. But there was clearly a current demand for those extra seats - and can you imagine the criticism that the administration would be receiving right now if BFS had been expanded/rebuilt into a nice 20,000-ish FCS stadium that wasn't easily expandable?

I'm as impressed as the next guy with ODU's rapid ascension to FBS, but anyone who thinks that's it's clear sailing from here is kidding themselves, IMO. They have some very difficult and expensive decisions to make very quickly about their stadium.

(04-24-2013 01:43 PM)Dukeman Wrote:  Fed Ex Game - WVA championed the idea and Cinn negotaited a much better deal (VA Tech same month) despite bringing less fans than JMU

<snip>

We need to be very honest with ourselves.

How many FCS programs get neutral site games against big-conference schools to begin with? Sure, the game was scheduled because someone figured WVU would be a big enough draw, but the terms clearly expected us to have 10k plus fans attending as well. That's pretty significant for any FCS program 2 hours away from campus.

As for Cincinnati and VA Tech getting a better deal, well, they're from FBS conferences. It's why GA State will be able to command nearly twice what we get to travel to the same opponents, once they complete their move, despite a shadow of the fan support.

I don't buy the thought that 11 games is better than 12. I think we need to win 8 games to get into the playoffs regardless. 8-4 isn't much worse than 8-3, but going 7-4 will almost certain mean another season of not playing past Thanksgiving. I think only playing 11 games puts more pressure on the team to win now. A lot of uncertainty going into next season, I wouldn't be surprised if we go 9-2, 4-7 or anything in between.

(04-24-2013 02:44 PM)All Dukes_All Day Wrote:  I don't buy the thought that 11 games is better than 12. I think we need to win 8 games to get into the playoffs regardless. 8-4 isn't much worse than 8-3, but going 7-4 will almost certain mean another season of not playing past Thanksgiving. I think only playing 11 games puts more pressure on the team to win now. A lot of uncertainty going into next season, I wouldn't be surprised if we go 9-2, 4-7 or anything in between.

Playoffs expand to 24 teams this year. Combine that with ODU, GSU, & App St not being eligible I'd guess a 7-4 CAA team (w/ no D2s) is very nearly a lock for the playoffs.

(04-24-2013 02:48 PM)DooX Wrote:  

(04-24-2013 02:44 PM)All Dukes_All Day Wrote:  I don't buy the thought that 11 games is better than 12. I think we need to win 8 games to get into the playoffs regardless. 8-4 isn't much worse than 8-3, but going 7-4 will almost certain mean another season of not playing past Thanksgiving. I think only playing 11 games puts more pressure on the team to win now. A lot of uncertainty going into next season, I wouldn't be surprised if we go 9-2, 4-7 or anything in between.

Playoffs expand to 24 teams this year. Combine that with ODU, GSU, & App St not being eligible I'd guess a 7-4 CAA team (w/ no D2s) is very nearly a lock for the playoffs.

Ah I forgot about the expansion. I was just looking at the schedule again and I realized that we might struggle to win even 7 games.

@ Towson, @ Delaware, @Akron, @New Hampshire, @W&M...I'd be surprised if we won 2 of those and could see us potentially losing all of them.

Add in what appears to be a rejuvinated Richmond and Villanova, as well as Stony Brook (who would've probably been third in the CAA last year) and I could see us losing six times

(04-24-2013 02:54 PM)All Dukes_All Day Wrote:  

(04-24-2013 02:48 PM)DooX Wrote:  

(04-24-2013 02:44 PM)All Dukes_All Day Wrote:  I don't buy the thought that 11 games is better than 12. I think we need to win 8 games to get into the playoffs regardless. 8-4 isn't much worse than 8-3, but going 7-4 will almost certain mean another season of not playing past Thanksgiving. I think only playing 11 games puts more pressure on the team to win now. A lot of uncertainty going into next season, I wouldn't be surprised if we go 9-2, 4-7 or anything in between.

Playoffs expand to 24 teams this year. Combine that with ODU, GSU, & App St not being eligible I'd guess a 7-4 CAA team (w/ no D2s) is very nearly a lock for the playoffs.

Ah I forgot about the expansion. I was just looking at the schedule again and I realized that we might struggle to win even 7 games.

@ Towson, @ Delaware, @Akron, @New Hampshire, @W&M...I'd be surprised if we won 2 of those and could see us potentially losing all of them.

Add in what appears to be a rejuvinated Richmond and Villanova, as well as Stony Brook (who would've probably been third in the CAA last year) and I could see us losing six times

You certainly don't have much faith in us!

We were sixth in what was widely regarded as the sixth best FCS conference last year...and lucky to be there as well.

All of our losses we got punched in the mouth for (ODU, Villanova, WVU and Richmond) and we had two games we were lucky to win (W&M, Towson). Also, only beating an atrocious Georgia State team at home by 7 was a little unsettling.

Hard to be optimistic right now about the team. This team has a lot of question marks going into the 2013 season and the CAA almost certainly will improve after last year's down season.

(04-24-2013 03:18 PM)All Dukes_All Day Wrote:  We were sixth in what was widely regarded as the sixth best FCS conference last year...and lucky to be there as well.

All of our losses we got punched in the mouth for (ODU, Villanova, WVU and Richmond) and we had two games we were lucky to win (W&M, Towson). Also, only beating an atrocious Georgia State team at home by 7 was a little unsettling.

Hard to be optimistic right now about the team. This team has a lot of question marks going into the 2013 season and the CAA almost certainly will improve after last year's down season.

Why are JMU fans in general so negative? We were lucky to beat W&M and Towson but Richmond wasn't lucky to beat us?

Not just that but everything Matthews does gets bitched about here. People complain about his depth chart, his spring game, his words, what color pants he wears, and everything else. People complain about Alger, King, and Bourne relentlessly. People complain about our schedule non-stop. Why do people actually like JMU sports if it's always so miserable? I don't get it.

(04-24-2013 07:11 PM)JMUDuke25 Wrote:  

(04-24-2013 03:18 PM)All Dukes_All Day Wrote:  We were sixth in what was widely regarded as the sixth best FCS conference last year...and lucky to be there as well.

All of our losses we got punched in the mouth for (ODU, Villanova, WVU and Richmond) and we had two games we were lucky to win (W&M, Towson). Also, only beating an atrocious Georgia State team at home by 7 was a little unsettling.

Hard to be optimistic right now about the team. This team has a lot of question marks going into the 2013 season and the CAA almost certainly will improve after last year's down season.

Why are JMU fans in general so negative? We were lucky to beat W&M and Towson but Richmond wasn't lucky to beat us?

Not just that but everything Matthews does gets bitched about here. People complain about his depth chart, his spring game, his words, what color pants he wears, and everything else. People complain about Alger, King, and Bourne relentlessly. People complain about our schedule non-stop. Why do people actually like JMU sports if it's always so miserable? I don't get it.

This

You forgot to mention Mickey's visor- it makes me so angry I want to punch a fetus.

(04-24-2013 07:41 PM)JMad03 Wrote:  You forgot to mention Mickey's visor- it makes me so angry I want to punch a fetus.

+1

This board sucks the same way as the last board.

There's about ten of you that will only engage in conversation with each other. There's 50 of you that bring up the same bull**** points even in completely unrelated threads. There's five of you that always claim to have "inside sources" and act condescending towards everyone else. But there's a only handful of you that actually research statistics/facts/interesting talking points and engage in good conversation.

Why the hell are we talking about failed playoff bids in a thread about the 2013 schedule?

DukesAllDay took the time to look up the OOC opponents since 2008. I took the time to extend that list back to 2000. Just from that, we could have had a lot of interesting conversation around who we thought the best OOC opponent in the last 13 years has been, which ones don't really fit in, who we think would be realistic replacements for those that don't fit in, who we'd like to see in the future (either CAA or FBS), who we consider "rivals" or who we'd like to begin a rivalry with (now that ODU is gone), what our peer schools are doing in terms of OOC schedulling, or a plethora of topics.

Instead, there's now 4 additional pages of bull**** about the failed playoff bid. Are you kidding me guys? You aren't the people I went to JMU with.

(04-24-2013 07:11 PM)JMUDuke25 Wrote:  

(04-24-2013 03:18 PM)All Dukes_All Day Wrote:  We were sixth in what was widely regarded as the sixth best FCS conference last year...and lucky to be there as well.

All of our losses we got punched in the mouth for (ODU, Villanova, WVU and Richmond) and we had two games we were lucky to win (W&M, Towson). Also, only beating an atrocious Georgia State team at home by 7 was a little unsettling.

Hard to be optimistic right now about the team. This team has a lot of question marks going into the 2013 season and the CAA almost certainly will improve after last year's down season.

Why are JMU fans in general so negative? We were lucky to beat W&M and Towson but Richmond wasn't lucky to beat us?

Not just that but everything Matthews does gets bitched about here. People complain about his depth chart, his spring game, his words, what color pants he wears, and everything else. People complain about Alger, King, and Bourne relentlessly. People complain about our schedule non-stop. Why do people actually like JMU sports if it's always so miserable? I don't get it.

I thought last year's team just wasn't that good...I also thought the 2010 team saw a tremendous amount of bad luck (outside the Tech game).

Why does pointing out that we had a disappointing year last year (and we did considering many of us were hoping for 9-10 wins) continue to feed into the negativity?

Call a spade a spade...the Dukes have underperformed since 2008. I'm not saying that can't change this season, I just don't have the same blind optimisim in the Dukes I once did.

(04-25-2013 07:11 AM)JMU_Newbill Wrote:  This board sucks the same way as the last board.

There's about ten of you that will only engage in conversation with each other. There's 50 of you that bring up the same bull**** points even in completely unrelated threads. There's five of you that always claim to have "inside sources" and act condescending towards everyone else. But there's a only handful of you that actually research statistics/facts/interesting talking points and engage in good conversation.

Why the hell are we talking about failed playoff bids in a thread about the 2013 schedule?

DukesAllDay took the time to look up the OOC opponents since 2008. I took the time to extend that list back to 2000. Just from that, we could have had a lot of interesting conversation around who we thought the best OOC opponent in the last 13 years has been, which ones don't really fit in, who we think would be realistic replacements for those that don't fit in, who we'd like to see in the future (either CAA or FBS), who we consider "rivals" or who we'd like to begin a rivalry with (now that ODU is gone), what our peer schools are doing in terms of OOC schedulling, or a plethora of topics.

Instead, there's now 4 additional pages of bull**** about the failed playoff bid. Are you kidding me guys? You aren't the people I went to JMU with.

I like the future Lehigh series...that should be interesting. It will also be nice to play Maryland again after the narrow loss a few years ago. 2014 looks to be very nice from an OOC perspective.

(04-25-2013 08:18 AM)All Dukes_All Day Wrote:  I like the future Lehigh series...that should be interesting. It will also be nice to play Maryland again after the narrow loss a few years ago. 2014 looks to be very nice from an OOC perspective.

So, we are playing Lehigh and Maryland in 2014? Yeah, that's good if true. I said a few pages back, and no one seemed to care, that I think we should schedule more Southern Conference schools. I never understood why we don't play Wofford, El Cid, or Furman more.

One of the reasons we were not successful the last 3 of 4 seasons is that we have been running a Rodney Landers centered offense without Rodney Landers. That being said, I don't necessarily think that the O'Cain offense will be our saving grace, but at least we are trying something different that will hopefully work off our QB's strengths.

(04-25-2013 08:35 AM)JMU_71 Wrote:  

(04-25-2013 08:18 AM)All Dukes_All Day Wrote:  I like the future Lehigh series...that should be interesting. It will also be nice to play Maryland again after the narrow loss a few years ago. 2014 looks to be very nice from an OOC perspective.

So, we are playing Lehigh and Maryland in 2014? Yeah, that's good if true. I said a few pages back, and no one seemed to care, that I think we should schedule more Southern Conference schools. I never understood why we don't play Wofford, El Cid, or Furman more.

Agreed regarding playing SoCon teams. A 1-for-1 series requires minimal travel (readily accessible by bus) and a good chance to have playoff caliber teams on your schedule. While I agree that Wofford/Furman aren't going to draw what an App St/ODU/FBS opponent would, it would certainly be more interesting, enjoyable, and productive than destroying a St. Francis.

Also, do we have VMI on the schedule again any time soon? While VMI obviously isn't a peer in football, its still a D1 win and carries a very high level of interest within the state. If we are going to put "easy wins" on our schedule, let's atleast do it against an in-state opponent that's nearby and would attract fans.