Without doing any research, I have been anticipating this season with the belief that JMU will win 7 games, but I honestly don't know what to expect going into this season. Our team returns a decent amount of talent, but we aren't being ranked highly in national or CAA preseason lists. It's strange seeing fans of other teams say things like Stony Brook is lucky because they play "URI, Maine and JMU on the road." I know next to nothing about Albany and Stony Brook, other than that the latter was very good last year and that they lost a key linemen a few weeks ago.

Preseason polls don't mean much, but it seems JMU is being looked over due to uncertainty following the disappointing season last year and coaching/player turnover during the offseason. I expect Villanova, Towson and UNH to be good again this year as well which may also be contributing to how others are viewing JMU going into the season.

What are realistic expectations for this season?

8/31: Central Connecticut State 6p - W
9/7: @Akron 6p - W
9/14: St. Francis 6p - W
9/28: @Delaware 6p - W
10/5: Albany (Family Weekend) 1:30p - W
10/12: Richmond 3p - W
10/26: @William & Mary 3p - W
11/2: Villanova (Homecoming) 3:30p - W
11/9: @New Hampshire 12p - W
11/16: Stony Brook 3p - W
11/23: @Towson 3:30p - W

flawless victory

GFY if you disagree

As much as I hate to say it because of the off-the-field issues, I wish we had Justin Thorpe for his final season. His stats from last year were not that bad... He was probably a 10% completion percentage better than Birdsong and made some great plays with his running ability.

Hopefully the new passing offense actually works and we won't wish for what has worked pretty well for JMU the past few seasons

(07-16-2013 02:28 PM)bridgeforthduke Wrote:  Without doing any research, I have been anticipating this season with the belief that JMU will win 7 games, but I honestly don't know what to expect going into this season. Our team returns a decent amount of talent, but we aren't being ranked highly in national or CAA preseason lists. It's strange seeing fans of other teams say things like Stony Brook is lucky because they play "URI, Maine and JMU on the road." I know next to nothing about Albany and Stony Brook, other than that the latter was very good last year and that they lost a key linemen a few weeks ago.

Preseason polls don't mean much, but it seems JMU is being looked over due to uncertainty following the disappointing season last year and coaching/player turnover during the offseason. I expect Villanova, Towson and UNH to be good again this year as well which may also be contributing to how others are viewing JMU going into the season.

What are realistic expectations for this season?

I'd expect 6 or 7 wins. Probably not a playoff team this year. Obviously, I'd love to be wrong. Just so I'm not waffling, I'll say we go 6-5.

(07-16-2013 02:43 PM)Centdukesfan Wrote:  8/31: Central Connecticut State 6p - W
9/7: @Akron 6p - W
9/14: St. Francis 6p - W
9/28: @Delaware 6p - W
10/5: Albany (Family Weekend) 1:30p - W
10/12: Richmond 3p - W
10/26: @William & Mary 3p - W
11/2: Villanova (Homecoming) 3:30p - W
11/9: @New Hampshire 12p - W
11/16: Stony Brook 3p - W
11/23: @Towson 3:30p - W

flawless victory

GFY if you disagree

This guy roooots!

Don't know what to expect either but we have some pretty damn good players particularly on defense.

Robertson
Marlowe
Till
Mosley
Reynolds (I hope)

The first four could be all conference players. There are definitely some question marks at other positions especially after losing a starter in Davis. The OL is a question mark to me and the big obvious is Birdsong's play. Most difficult year to predict in quite awhile IMO. One thing I do know is that it's the first year that the #1 rated recruiting class will get a chance to play (after their redshirt years) so I hope some guys will really pop out that we don't know much about at this point.

(07-16-2013 02:43 PM)jmu-fan-1981 Wrote:  As much as I hate to say it because of the off-the-field issues, I wish we had Justin Thorpe for his final season. His stats from last year were not that bad... He was probably a 10% completion percentage better than Birdsong and made some great plays with his running ability.

Hopefully the new passing offense actually works and we won't wish for what has worked pretty well for JMU the past few seasons

If Justin had run plays as he was told to instead of just winging it, he could have been great. But He wanted to be the super star, and never ran what he was told to do. This was his biggest problem. Most of the plays never developed right because he just wouldn't option, or throw the damned ball. Birdsong's ablility to do what he's told will be the key. He definately has the atheletic abilty.

(07-16-2013 02:43 PM)jmu-fan-1981 Wrote:  As much as I hate to say it because of the off-the-field issues, I wish we had Justin Thorpe for his final season. His stats from last year were not that bad... He was probably a 10% completion percentage better than Birdsong and made some great plays with his running ability.

Hopefully the new passing offense actually works and we won't wish for what has worked pretty well for JMU the past few seasons

I think we're very much in the minority but I agree with you. I think Thorpe had his shortcomings but he was also done a disservice by having a guy coaching him who wasn't a QB coach and told him if the first read was covered, run.

Im looking forward going into this year not knowing what to expect. Last year I felt like anything other than making the national semi's would be a let down....so I was comically disappointed. We obviously have the talent to be a top tier team, we just have a question mark at the most important position. One thing is for sure though MB is 6'5" with a cannon for an arm. I'd rather have that than a 6'1" run first QB who almost always goes down on first contact.

6-5 season, and Birdsong starts to look like a real good QB during the last third of the season, and he has a 4 TD day on National Television.

6-5 would be a huge disappointment considering the first 2 games should be like exhibition games and really, the third one needs to be a 'W'.

(07-16-2013 03:19 PM)DoubleDDuke Wrote:  6-5 would be a huge disappointment considering the first 2 games should be like exhibition games and really, the third one needs to be a 'W'.

I don't think CCSU or Akron will be an exhibition (although St. Francis probalby will be). CCSU has a good QB and a good Q can keep even undermatched teams in a game where his team is outmatched.

I think the new CAA participants are going to be better than expected. Just a hunch.

7-4 or 6-5.

As the OL and Birdsong go, so goes the season.

I'm looking forward to watching some of the early games this year for a change. We cannot afford to play with a condensed playbook under the first year of a new offense and Birdsong needing to get some passing in and confidence.
I expect this year to be at least an 8-3 season. I think anything less and Mickey will be having to look elsewhere for a job. More importantly, I think he knows it and I believe we'll see this team play hard all year long.
This year is a statement year for not just Mickey, but JMU football.

We saw enough of Justin Thorpe. All the best to him in his future endeavors! Glad we are moving forward and cautiously optimistic that we will actually pass more. Still, defense will be the key. Eight wins would be an excellent season. Go Dukes!

7-4

Passing more is not the solution. If we could run the ball every down and win the game like we did against W&M a couple years ago, GREAT! Nothing beats a dominant rushing game with a defense to back it up. However, having the threat and using the threat enough to be balanced is what I want to see. Also, I would like to see a shift from dink and dunk passing to home runs. I want 7-10 pass attempts for 150 yards per game + 30+ rushing attempts for 300-350 yards. That is a winning formula that should net 30+ points per game. No reason to do worse than 9-2 with those stats unless our D is Swiss Cheese, which we know will not be the case.

(07-16-2013 03:19 PM)DoubleDDuke Wrote:  6-5 would be a huge disappointment considering the first 2 games should be like exhibition games and really, the third one needs to be a 'W'.

The Akron game is an exhibition to you?

(07-16-2013 03:02 PM)DoubleDDuke Wrote:  Don't know what to expect either but we have some pretty damn good players particularly on defense.

Robertson
Marlowe
Till
Mosley
Reynolds (I hope)

The first four could be all conference players. There are definitely some question marks at other positions especially after losing a starter in Davis. The OL is a question mark to me and the big obvious is Birdsong's play. Most difficult year to predict in quite awhile IMO. One thing I do know is that it's the first year that the #1 rated recruiting class will get a chance to play (after their redshirt years) so I hope some guys will really pop out that we don't know much about at this point.

You left off the one DL who made All CAA last season....