Harrisonburg Alumni Breakfast

Wednesday morning, the Harrisonburg Alumni Chapter had a networking breakfast with guests JMU Football Head Coach Mickey Matthews, JMU Director of Athletics Jeff Bourne, and CAA Commissioner Tom Yeager. After a quick viewing of the club seats video for the stadium expansion, the guests answered a list of questions that were submitted. I tried to include as much information in the almost hour-long Q&A as I could, so I'm sorry if it's a little long (or really long).

The first round of questions were directed mainly towards Coach Mickey Matthews. He said regarding the QB situation that Drew Dudzik played "solid." Mickey also said that after looking at the tape, they didn't play Justin Thorpe enough. He was having a decent game, but because of penalties and field position he was at a disadvantage. They also noticed that at times Dudzik struggled in the second half, but that in the very competitive situation, Dudzik was handling the game better. Matthews also commented that they will continue to share playing time and didn't know who would "begin" the game (as opposed to "start", which commands too much attention in his opinion"). He also said that, "The worst thing coaches do is promise playing time."

Mickey said that they will utilize Mike Caussin a lot this year. He's a "big target" and is much improved as a blocker. He's also a great leader for the team. When asked why we didn't pass to some of our main wide receivers more, Mickey said that the QB's were throwing to open receivers as much as they could the whole game. The problem was that the protection started to break down in the second half and didn't give Drew enough time in the pocket. Two of the new offensive linemen were missing assignments because it was their first time playing significant time. Speaking of, Coach Matthews also said that this is the youngest team since '01. For half of the team, it was their first time playing a significant amount of time and they "made a lot of young errors." For those that saw the Dukes almost beat a decent Maryland team on Saturday, that's pretty impressive.

Coach Matthews also said that RB Jamal Sullivan is playing very well and runs great routes out of the backfield while also being a great blocker and runner. He also reiterated JMU defensive players' sentiments that tackling Jamal is like tackling a washing machine. But while Jamal is playing the best, he also wants to give the other guys more playing time against VMI. He named the wide receivers the best performing unit against Maryland because they blocked so well.

Mickey also pointed to the defensive linemen as performing great and putting lots of pressure on Turner, Maryland's QB. He also said that we probably have the best three defensive linemen in the nation. When asked about our tackling on Saturday, he said it was just okay. The main improvement on defense is our team speed. The best thing JMU did defensively was how fast all the players ran to the ball and really limited the number of big plays Maryland could run, which he saw as one of the most important stats to look at as a defense. Mickey also said Griff Yancey's play on Saturday was "okay" and that he "played good" after transferring in the off-season.

The best quote of the morning was when Mickey was talking about tackling, he said it was difficult for our players to take down the Maryland receivers because of how they big they were. After saying they could play defensive line for us, he commented that they were, "big enough to go bear hunting with a switch." He also talked a little bit about how the players moods were comparable to after the WVU game in 2004. The players were "extremely distraught" and there was no celebration after the game. Even at the team meeting the next day he said you could hear a pin drop. They were definitely not happy with the outcome. They thought they could win in preseason practice. They thought they could win before the game. They thought they could win during the game. It seems to me that this team is definitely not ready to settle for getting close to winning even against our hardest opponents.

The next round of questions were answered by a combination of Jeff Bourne and Tom Yeager. When asked about future games against FBS opponents, Bourne said that we will be playing again at UNC in 2011. He also said that UNC is seeking to continue scheduling games against us in the future, but that nothing had been worked out yet. In 2012, we have a game scheduled with Akron for $300,000 (a game that should be easily winnable for the Dukes). We were also working out a deal for a series with Ball State, but after they got beat by UNH, they said they wouldn't sign the contract.

When asked about a possible move to the FBS level, Bourne said that right now we're just trying to compete for National Championships and compete the best we can on our current level. Mickey also said that we don't want to lose the great rivalries that we have right now between our current opponents. These games draw more than playing someone like Arkansas State would. Bourne also commented that if they were to move up, a big consideration would be the conference, because expenses can skyrocket with conferences like Conference USA. Instead of taking a bus, a team and fans would have to fly to games, which cuts down on attendance and greatly increases costs. Bourne did say though that if the ACC called tomorrow and invited JMU to join their conference wouldn't turn it down.

Regarding Phase II of the stadium (which includes tearing down the student side of the stadium and mirroring the upcoming expansion to the home side), Bourne said that a timeline would be created based on demand and costs. If Phase I immediately starts selling out with more people waiting in line, it will happen a lot faster than if there's not much more demand than there is now. The costs for Phase II would also be closer to $80 million, which would take a lot longer to raise. When asked about getting a new scoreboard, Bourne said that it's being looked into, but the way technology progresses, they didn't want to get something that would be really expensive and then be out-of-date in six months. He did say though, that when Phase I is completed the current scoreboard would soon have to be moved over to the APC side. In addition, if you watch the club level video you will see a section of purple seats between the club seats and the field, the plan now is that these will take the place of the current chairback, or "M", section for larger donors.

Tom Yeager then answered some questions about the CAA. He said the atmosphere at ODU has been impressive for them just getting started and that it will be interesting to see how they progress over the next few years. ODU football will join the CAA in 2011, followed by Georgia State in 2012. Yeager also explained about how a tentative CAA schedule is created and then revised when schools need to work in an FBS team. Schools have an opportunity to do this until December of the year before. In fact, they just redid next year's schedule to accommodate another CAA school that scheduled a major FBS team.

Jeff Bourne also did a great job of explaining why we decided to schedule a four-game series with Liberty. He said we would love to schedule a big game like App State every year. The problem is that if we want to also schedule an FBS team, that is one likely loss. This only allows a maximum of two losses in our conference schedule to get to the eight wins it usually takes to make the playoffs. When you take into consideration that our CAA schedule usually includes at least three or four top-ten teams, it makes scheduling a team like App State very risky. When our goal is to reach the playoffs, we can't be too risky in choosing our FCS out-of-conference opponents. Liberty will also be a good game for the future because they are planning to expand to 30,000 seats and is a short drive compared to some other schools. He also believes it is only a matter of time before a rivalry starts with them. It's definitely not a game to overlook though, because we will be their super bowl going into their stadium. We will be the biggest opponent to go into their stadium this year.

Thanks again to Matthews, Bourne, and Yeager for their answers.