#1 NDSU vs #4 James Madison Friday Night Semi-Final

[ALPHAGRIZ1]

Do you guys really see JMU scoring more than 14 points in this game? Seriously

I see them scoring 31. Did I stutter, motherfucker?

[BDKJMU]

South Dakota scored 21 on them. JMU should be able to do that at least.

Villanova held JMU to 20, NDSU should be able to do that at least.

With JMU playing their true freshman backup QB who was thrown into the game at the beginning of the 2nd quarter not even expecting to play this season. That was against the #1 Scoring and #1 Total defense in the nation (Villanova held SDSU to 10). The kid came into the game looking like a deer in headlights, throwing 2 picks in the 2nd quarter. Was better the 2nd half. If Schor doesn't go down early (he was 10 for 11 in the quarter he played) JMU easily scores over 30 vs VU..

[Gil Dobie]

Villanova held JMU to 20, NDSU should be able to do that at least.

With JMU playing their true freshman backup QB who was thrown into the game at the beginning of the 2nd quarter not even expecting to play this season. That was against the #1 Scoring and #1 Total defense in the nation (Villanova held SDSU to 10). The kid came into the game looking like a deer in headlights, throwing 2 picks in the 2nd quarter. Was better the 2nd half. If Schor doesn't go down early (he was 10 for 11 in the quarter he played) JMU easily scores over 30 vs VU..

So first one to 40 wins?

[BDKJMU]

With JMU playing their true freshman backup QB who was thrown into the game at the beginning of the 2nd quarter not even expecting to play this season. That was against the #1 Scoring and #1 Total defense in the nation (Villanova held SDSU to 10). The kid came into the game looking like a deer in headlights, throwing 2 picks in the 2nd quarter. Was better the 2nd half. If Schor doesn't go down early (he was 10 for 11 in the quarter he played) JMU easily scores over 30 vs VU..

So first one to 40 wins?

Well if some team scores 40, then they are going to win. I think it will take somewhere in the 30s to win..

[BDKJMU]

One big ? with JMU's veteran OL (3 rSr and 2 rJr) does JMU's All American/3 time All CAA RT Mitchell Kirsch #76 play? Was injured versus Elon (high ankle sprain). After the bye tried to play versus UNH & couldn't. Sat out SHSU. According to someone on the JMU board who spoke with the kids father he is going to play. This kid (6'6"/300) has a shot at playing on Sundays. The backup is an rFr who has played well in relief, but there is a bit of a drop off. I'd rather have Kirsch out there to deal with the noise and pressure than this still relatively inexperienced kid.

The only other injury for JMU is their 2nd leading rusher went out for the season about a month ago, and one of their starting corners hasn't played the last 2 games, not sure what his deal is. JMU has 5 corners that would be starting for most teams, so missing 1 isn't an issue, as obviously was the case against Soft Houston State

44 2 deep players, and as far as I know, JMU will only be missing between 1 and 3. Overall, JMU is about as healthy as one could expect a team to be at this point in the season.

[JohnStOnge]

I'm hoping the Dukes are the team to finally end the streak. They looked great on both sides of the ball and on special teams this weekend. It' s going to take a similar performance to dethrone those Bizen.

I'm kind of hoping it's JMU but remember that Jacksonville State was coming off beating Sam Houston State by 62-10 when they played and got pummeled by North Dakota State in last year's title game. They'd scored 41, 58, and 62 in their three playoff games then managed 10 against North Dakota State.

At this point I wouldn't mind being wrong in picking North Dakota State. North Dakota State does have some injury issues, I think. But history has shown that being real impressive against other opponents doesn't necessarily mean too much when the next opponent is the Bison.

[dal4018]

Should be a Whale of a Game.

I remember when the championship final was on friday night!!!!!!

[Gil Dobie]

JMU Duke Club has a charter flight flying up on Fri. Apparently they had to get 100 members to buy in.


As of yesterday JMU had sold to Duke Club members over 300 of their NCAA mandated allotment of 500 tickets. Whatever is unsold JMU atheltic department is apparently going to purchase & distribute. So should see upwards of 500 JMU fans at the game..

Sounds like Bison fans have been getting tickets from the JMU site. Looks like it was halted by JMU.

Bisonville Link

[Gil Dobie]

JMU gets a quick score and has a small lead at the half. Bison have a couple long drives in the second half to pull out the game in the fourth.

[BDKJMU]

NDSU obviously has what I think is the greatest homefield advantage in ALL of college football. As far as the TRAVEL portion of that for JMU I think that is negated by JMU having the extra day. Now NDSU still has the great dome noise advantage..

[89Hen]

South Dakota scored 21 on them. JMU should be able to do that at least.

Villanova held JMU to 20, NDSU should be able to do that at least.

I guess if you knock out their starting QB in the second quarter, that could work.

[BDKJMU]

GD double post...

[BDKJMU]

Villanova held JMU to 20, NDSU should be able to do that at least.

I guess if you knock out their starting QB in the second quarter, that could work.

Yeah. Schor gets knocked out on the 1st play of the 2nd quarter. Back (SC transfer) is hurt, so 3rd string true Fr Cole Johnson has redshirt yanked and replaces Schor.
Schor....1 quarter 10 of 11, 108 yards 0 TD/0 INT, 4 carries 20 yards.
Johnson 3 quarters 5 of 12, 43 yards, 0 TD/2 INT, 4 carries, 6 yards.

Schor doesn't go down instead of beating VU by 2 TDs JMU rolls them I think by 4 TDs. VU lost @ SDSU 10-7 in a game VU statistically dominated.

So yeah, if Schor goes down 1st half, Bison win by multiple TDs..

[BDKJMU]

JMU Duke Club has a charter flight flying up on Fri. Apparently they had to get 100 members to buy in.


As of yesterday JMU had sold to Duke Club members over 300 of their NCAA mandated allotment of 500 tickets. Whatever is unsold JMU atheltic department is apparently going to purchase & distribute. So should see upwards of 500 JMU fans at the game..

Sounds like Bison fans have been getting tickets from the JMU site. Looks like it was halted by JMU.

Bisonville Link

Word on the JMU board is that JMU sold out the entire 500 alotment..

[BDKJMU]

Post from the JMU board on trying to simulate the noise.

CoachComm makes a unit called TEMPO that is specifically designed to put noise on the field at field level. most off the SEC teams have it and it can simulate crowd noise unlike anything you've ever heard. JMU had one here last year to test and EW couldn't buy it at the time. you could hear it at BFS clearly and the test was set up on the practice field behind D-hub. Glad they can use the BFS PA system to simulate noise, I know for fact we don't even have it at 30% volume during game time because they get complaints from the neighborhoods close by BFS."

JMU practice with the pumped in noise:
https://mobile.twitter.com/JMUFootball/ ... 20/video/1

[Gil Dobie]

Villanova held JMU to 20, NDSU should be able to do that at least.

I guess if you knock out their starting QB in the second quarter, that could work.

I think they could do it without knocking out the starting QB. It will be tough, but it's hard for the offense to score when the Bison have the ball for a few 10 minute drives. Iowa put up back to back 40+ games before playing NDSU. That was a young Bison team at that time. There are only 9 or 10 Seniors on this team, 1 out with an injury and Tucker is questionable.

[Ivytalk]

Bison by a FG. Something like 27-24.

[BDKJMU]

I guess if you knock out their starting QB in the second quarter, that could work.

I think they could do it without knocking out the starting QB. It will be tough, but it's hard for the offense to score when the Bison have the ball for a few 10 minute drives. Iowa put up back to back 40+ games before playing NDSU. That was a young Bison team at that time. There are only 9 or 10 Seniors on this team, 1 out with an injury and Tucker is questionable.

I read somewhere there was 11 (counted 11)..

JMU has 15 which is about avg (last season the avg # of seniors listed on CAA rosters was 13+ per team) But 11 of JMU's are starters (10 of 22 + punter). Even with Schor back might be a little bit of a drop off next year.

[Gil Dobie]

I think they could do it without knocking out the starting QB. It will be tough, but it's hard for the offense to score when the Bison have the ball for a few 10 minute drives. Iowa put up back to back 40+ games before playing NDSU. That was a young Bison team at that time. There are only 9 or 10 Seniors on this team, 1 out with an injury and Tucker is questionable.

I read somewhere there was 11 (counted 11)..

JMU has 15 which is about avg (last season the avg # of seniors listed on CAA rosters was 13+ per team) But 11 of JMU's are starters (10 of 22 + punter). Even with Schor back might be a little bit of a drop off next year.

DeLuca is out, taking a medical redshirt and should be back next year. He was on the Butkus watch list until he was hurt. Tucker may or may not play, sprained knee. 8 starters, 9 if Tucker plays. Perkins is the Punt returner, but Sheppard played well when Perkins was out. O-Line takes a hit next year with 3 major contributors graduating.

[Mvemjsunpx]

I don't need to tell you that both of these teams had impressive victories last week. NDSU held SDSU under 200 yards, which makes one think—on the surface—that the Bison defense is totally impregnable. Before looking too far into that smothering, however, keep in mind the Jackrabbits also had less than 200 yards in their first-round win. That win came against Villanova, a team James Madison beat by double digits on the road with starting QB Bryan Schor mostly absent (he was 10/11 for 108 before leaving in the 2Q). The Dukes might be the best team NDSU faces all year, and I would probably pick them if this was a neutral field, but I think their run defense is too mediocre to get the job done in the Fargodome.

Here's my assessment of the matchups & my pick for the game:

• • • Quarterbacks -- James Madison
      
      Running Backs - North Dakota St.
      
      Receivers/TEs - James Madison
      
      Offensive Line - North Dakota St.
      
      
      Defensive Line - North Dakota St.
      
      Linebackers --- North Dakota St.
      
      Secondary ---- James Madison
      
      
      Kicking ------ North Dakota St.
      
      Punting ------ James Madison
      
      Return Teams - James Madison
      
      Kickoffs ------ (push)
      
      
      
      
      
      • James Madison 31-35 North Dakota St.

[Gil Dobie]

#1 defense vs #1 returner. I would still go with NDSU punting, at least until some team returns a punt against them for positive yards. So far this year, they have had 3 punts returned for a total of 0 yards. The punter doesn't get the distance you would normally expect, but his hang-time allows the defense to cover the returner. James Madison punt return defense is #47. NDSU finally has their punt returner healthy and are still ranked #16, and James Madison leads the nation in punt returns, so it should be an interesting matchup.

NCAA Link

NDSU finally has their Kick returner back and healthy. Bruce Anderson returned 2 kicks for TD's, during the 2015 playoffs.

[Mvemjsunpx]

#1 defense vs #1 returner. I would still go with NDSU punting, at least until some team returns a punt against them for positive yards. So far this year, they have had 3 punts returned for a total of 0 yards. The punter doesn't get the distance you would normally expect, but his hang-time allows the defense to cover the returner. James Madison punt return defense is #47. NDSU finally has their punt returner healthy and are still ranked #16, and James Madison leads the nation in punt returns, so it should be an interesting matchup.

Except the Bison punter is crap. NDSU's gross punt average is lower than JMU's net.

[Gil Dobie]

#1 defense vs #1 returner. I would still go with NDSU punting, at least until some team returns a punt against them for positive yards. So far this year, they have had 3 punts returned for a total of 0 yards. The punter doesn't get the distance you would normally expect, but his hang-time allows the defense to cover the returner. James Madison punt return defense is #47. NDSU finally has their punt returner healthy and are still ranked #16, and James Madison leads the nation in punt returns, so it should be an interesting matchup.

Except the Bison punter is crap. NDSU's gross punt average is lower than JMU's net average.

I thought that at first too, but he reduces the chance of a big return.

[Bluehen95]

I'm hoping the Dukes are the team to finally end the streak. They looked great on both sides of the ball and on special teams this weekend. It' s going to take a similar performance to dethrone those Bizen.

I'm kind of hoping it's JMU but remember that Jacksonville State was coming off beating Sam Houston State by 62-10 when they played and got pummeled by North Dakota State in last year's title game. They'd scored 41, 58, and 62 in their three playoff games then managed 10 against North Dakota State.

At this point I wouldn't mind being wrong in picking North Dakota State. North Dakota State does have some injury issues, I think. But history has shown that being real impressive against other opponents doesn't necessarily mean too much when the next opponent is the Bison.

easton stick is good, but he is no carson Wentz......JMU is loaded with speed both on offense and defense. It will be a great game! JMU will win by 10 and we will be done with NDSU.

[Bluehen95]

I don't need to tell you that both of these teams had impressive victories last week. NDSU held SDSU under 200 yards, which makes one think—on the surface—that the Bison defense is totally impregnable. Before looking too far into that smothering, however, keep in mind the Jackrabbits also had less than 200 yards in their first-round win. That win came against Villanova, a team James Madison beat by double digits on the road with starting QB Bryan Schor mostly absent (he was 10/11 for 108 before leaving in the 2Q). The Dukes might be the best team NDSU faces all year, and I would probably pick them if this was a neutral field, but I think their run defense is too mediocre to get the job done in the Fargodome.

Here's my assessment of the matchups & my pick for the game:

• • • Quarterbacks -- James Madison
      
      Running Backs - North Dakota St.
      
      Receivers/TEs - James Madison
      
      Offensive Line - North Dakota St.
      
      
      Defensive Line - North Dakota St.
      
      Linebackers --- North Dakota St.
      
      Secondary ---- James Madison
      
      
      Kicking ------ North Dakota St.
      
      Punting ------ James Madison
      
      Return Teams - James Madison
      
      Kickoffs ------ (push)
      
      
      
      
      
      • James Madison 31-35 North Dakota St.

I think you are WAAAYYYYYYY underestimating abdullah for JMU. He is the American Sports Network FCS Player of the Year and a finalist for the Payton. At best I put RBs at a push. This will be a good game and will not be decided until late.