S3. Episode 5: Game One to the Dukes! Recap and Women's Basketball Roundtable

[Music] good evening and welcome to another episode of JMU SoundOff week one is in the books and the Bob chzn era is off to a 1 and0 start after a 30-7 win at Charlotte we're going to get into a breakdown of yesterday's game in the episode and also we have some members of our Women's Basketball team joining us but first I want to remind us to thank our sponsors Mont pillar Collective Skyline Financial Partners who will be joining us here in a bit for a new segment where's Woody Talent corpse purple nation and shoker Enterprises and with that I would like to bring on the team Steve Michael John gentlemen it's a good day to be one and0 after week one I will say uh we do not have Chandler producing today so I had to kick off the show so John can do some of the back of the hous work and I guess it's a new it's a new rule um if you miss week one uh which I did you are forced to open the show which you are um awkwardly able to do I will say I I had a very good reason to do so I I actually if John Butler and Elliot cols are listening I had booked our hotel I had tickets to the game um but the opportunity to go to the Aquabats which I'm sure very few people know but for those that do it's a band that's been around for 30 years they have uh as my kids love them I won't get into the details but I took my kids to their very first concert in Virginia Beach went and saw some family down there um my kids probably had one of the greatest nights of their lives so while there are very very few things that are worth missing a jamu football game for I I I took one uh for the team on that one and I have two very happy boys uh that were glad they got to see their first concert but with that let me uh let me kick it to Michael and Steve and John Michael first you were down there it was hot I heard but how was it oh man uh we were talking behind the scenes of like how there's just so many things to talk about from this past weekend it's literally one year since the end of last season right and all the things that we're looking forward to um but just want to kick things off with a huge shout out to like all the JMU fans that came and made the trip um I was talking to the the perties and M mercues Do's family and they were just so overwhelmed with the hospitality like JMU fans showed them they never seen anything like that before um and they're so excited for this upcoming weekend seeing what it looks like in Bridge for stadium um the ESPN announcers were very appreciative of how well we traveled and showed up in Charlotte's 15,000 person Stadium it it was amazing and it was overwhelming and awesome we got to see old friends and new friends and people we haven't seen since last fall um so it was great in terms of the game uh there's so much to talk about but I'm just want to call out our entire coaching staff and the second half adjustments that they made because it was just it was night and day we can we can watch the first half and talk about all the things that went wrong with 60 new players but coach Hill coach Kennedy coach chzn coach Kanan um the adjustments they made from a Personnel standpoint on off on the offense and um really what they were looking at from a scheme perspective on defense with Coach Hemphill I think Max Brown was more interested in showing how far he can throw the ball out of bounds versus actually throwing to his own receivers in the second half I football IQ was not high on the fourth down throws out of bounds was very his IQ his IQ wasn't High at all no is he trying to show off for maybe his third team next year I I don't know like maybe that's what's going on uh but that was interesting and also if you take that 41 yard away yard rush away from Charlotte when it was third and 25 we completely blew it let's call it what it was we actually held them underneath 100 yards rushing they would have been at 90 yards for the game so a lot of adjustments a lot of personnel changes but really shout out to the coaching staff on really reeling it in in the second half um when it looked pretty bleak there in the beginning not gonna lie well and Steve I was talking before the show um we had a nice little pre-show at the Marriott that I thought um again wasn't there but when I did tune in had a lot of people watching yourself in well I I I with Mickey I will always photosh myself in with Mickey but uh but Steve yeah talk about the uh the pre-show that we did and then also kind of some of your experience uh at the game on Saturday yeah the show we did at noon was fun um we took over the Y Club at the Marriot uh we took it over on Friday and didn't give it back until uh late like about 1:00 in the morning didn't they hire you Steve for a kitchen job you basically took over the the snacks and the the drinks basically in the behind the scenes I figured you were going to come out with an apron at some point I ran that entire Club when we ran out of stuff I went in the back and filled stuff up I we had a blast we took that thing over and did the show from the club um tailgating experiences it was had a little tailgating experience in there um it was good the other thing I want to shout out to that Michael put out there was um coach Novak and Matt Tru um it was clear last night who the more the better conditioned stronger uh our team could have gone another four quarters if they needed to those guys did not look gassed I'm sure they were tired it was hot but that team was in shape and it was very clear to me that the Charlotte team was done when they came out at halftime even Biff their their goofy ass coach um said I was surprised how lethargic we were coming coming out of halftime I want to say hey look in the mirror you fat well I'll leave it at that um because he annoys the hell out of me um that's why they're lethargic look at yourself um but at the end of the day I coach Novak had them in shape transo and the and the crew had them on time I mean it was it was a well-timed and everything that chzn put together everything chzn talked about um doing for the last nine months worked um everything we saw I this is exactly what I saw in practice and in scrimmage um a lot of it now obviously it's different because it's Charlotte but I can just tell you it was it was very pleasing to see that everything that they had practice everything they put in all the individual drills all that stuff um was great so I'll leave it at that awesome and John uh was it cold down there it was not it was it was uh it was it was wet wet in in a it was humid it was it just sticky it was is my you know me I'm I'm a northern guy I I prefer other end of the spectrum Michael and I walking up what we thought was a 50 yard walk to the Duke Club tailgate wind end up being like a half a mile and and getting back was uphill so we we definitely got our steps in um I'll just say I'm gonna keep my initial thoughts brief um starting off uh a night of Firsts so big shout out we put on uh all our social channels after the game uh congratulations to athletic director M ran um and his entire family on their first Victory coach Bob chesty and staff their first Victory um last night as as the head coach of JMU football uh and then a shout out to Charlie King uh his first win as a interim president of JMU so it's always great to see those those Monumental moments happen um early in the season because this sets this program up for tremendous success um obviously a big game this week against Gardner web um then we get a buy uh so we should continue to improve this roster continue to iron out some of the wrinkles that we saw early on in the game um but it was also just a really great celebration of the jamu fan base in that area um next week obviously will be a much bigger reunion but it was really great to see um so many people from all not only the Char area but so many people who came from uh all over the country to make sure that they were a part of this Open Season kickoff um had a lot of people come up to us and say they enjoy the show um had a chance as as Michael mentioned to interact with the families and I think that to me was some of the more meaningful uh engagements that we had this weekend was getting to talk to the parents um getting to see how much they have just embraced the JMU fan base but also just how much it meant to them that we've embraced them so much uh and I think that really speaks to the to the culture here um and is why we're going to be a program that is consistently going to be a a hot spot for recruits and and and transfers because they're going to want to be a part of this family these a lot of these football recruits all know each other um they know the High School coaches and the more of these types of uh feedback that gets back to them about what type of community this is um the the better it will help Bob chesse and the staff continue to take this culture to the next level that's what this is all about building upon the success of the past um and then one last shout out got to see benucci Harry O Kelly um Trey sharp number of other football alums in the stands uh that's always fun to see how they're now uh embracing continuing to come back and support this program uh and it was great to see um but yeah excited for this week as well uh because it's the ultimate homecoming week one at bridgeforce Stadium um 6m game another long tailgate uh so lots it probably won't be as comfortable as Marriott Lounge but we make do well I didn't think about it you guys me go ahead Steve I was say if denucci is listening and I hope you are make me that hat that says by the end of the year blah blah blah give me my hat I'll talk to Harry well I didn't think about it until you mentioned about uh you know there's 40 new players on this team plus players on this team that means 40 plus new family members that was their first time enjoying a jamu game experience not to mention Matt ran and his friends and family not to mention you know chzn and all those coaches and every I mean there are a lot of people that got their first taste of JMU game day but it won't be until next weekend at bridgeforth when they freely have the the true experience I I do got to mention before we move on the next segment one clarification and one shout out that I promise to make uh clarification number one Michael was telling everybody the Aquabats were The Wiggles I I I want to say this was not The Wiggles also most people you will know the Aquabats because in the late 90s they took a little known band named blink8 out on tour blink kicked they kicked their drummer off the tour mid tour they borrowed the Aquabats drummer Travis Barker Travis Barker is an original Aquabat so for all of you folks out there some of you know him as one of the kardashi he's married to a Kardashian I don't know but Travis Barker was an Aquabat so but number two outside of the concert uh ran into uh my man Stanley I don't remember his last name I'm so sorry 2015 grad uh he uh was down in Virginia Beach for Labor Day weekend told him about the podcast he said he had he said I have not been back for a game in two years and I looked at him I said so you haven't been back to a game since they've been FBS and he said no I said well listen up you look us up on social media you send us a DM you come to the best tailgate in Harrisonburg you come to a game this year we'll take care of you so Stanley I hope you're listening shoot us a DM we're going to hook you up when you come to Harrisonburg this year um all right with that I think it's time to introduce the newest segment that we're doing with our partners at Skyline Financial um we are going to be doing the player of the game every week um and we'd like to bring on Tim Nelson with Skyline Financial Partners right now to introduce this new segment what it is and um some treats that we're going to have later this year so Tim the floor is yours well first off if it was a dad of the week belt it'd be going to you so uh yeah I watched all your videos and I did not know actually that the Aquabots had Travis as the original drummer so I drove on vacation I took uh my wife's favorite band growing up was Blink 182 so we drove from Cedar Point Ohio over to Detroit to see them play so that's like that's kind of wild I had no idea that he was I saw Michael was rocking some blink when A2 in the car while he was taking pictures of uh the the jam big rig heading down to Charlotte so I knew there were some blink folks out there and could make that connection but again not The Wiggles but this is about player of the week this is about Skyline Financial Tim tell us about it all right well this is going to be a new segment that we're doing I think what really matters is looking at forward being forward focused right and player of the week is a big deal you know this week's player of the week um is going to is somebody who really turned it around right so I think the player of the week is something that's going to grow over time um we'll show you in a little bit we got a belt for the player that'll go from player to player um and I think we should just go ahead and jump right into it I think the focus should be on the player and that that's what matters so um you're probably going to guess who this is first off as a fan there were a lot of different players you know there was I looked at the sack there was multiple guys you know dos Hendrick Kyrie mans they were all getting after it last night and they really did a great job um but when we ended up looking at everything as a unit and deciding on the player of the week you know this individual started out one verse six with an interception right and I think that that the turnaround that came from this is really what defines the culture of JMU that's my my real opinion right like we were everybody felt that energy right we're all energy people at the end of the day that's why we love JMU right that's why we're on here on a you know at eight o'clock at night listening to this so um you could feel the energy and what he did was alono Barnett is the player of the week and what he did is he turned it around and he went 10 for 18 for 219 yards two touchdowns he ran the ball nine times for 89 yards and it was really impressive and I think you know I I it's it's an open open award every week so I'm hoping he comes back and he tries to win it again because it was the one play I want to see more of and I think that'll get him back on here I think it was in the third quarter um he he went he took it and it was a direct run but he kind of juked to the right before he went back left and that was that was Elite so I I hope we uh you know not to shame a little plug I hope we see more of that type of stuff in the next game when uh we're playing Gardner WB but and we actually he was in future episodes um we will have a lot of the players on the show that's the goal but Alonzo was really busy tonight he had stuff to do for school and you know we're always focusing on the player so if they need something you know if there's something they need to focus on like that has to do with school work we're always going to put that first so we do want we do have a video from him though so I think it would be really good to uh show that video of him uh receiving the belt and this is the first time ever so I think it's I think it's a pretty cool moment big shout out to the jamu sound off podcast for giving me the player of the week belt uh super honored you know that you guys chose me for this and appreciative of my teammates coaching staff and all the jamu nation can't wait to see you guys this weekend in bridgeworth packing it out first Garden of well go dudes now Tim I I I know uh some people that aren't watching the podcast they're listening tell us a little bit about what they just saw and tell us a little bit about that belt so I think it's funny to explain how the belt got there so it was a long journey so we were we talked to a bunch of different people we talked to Steven lorta and Matt transo and eventually the coach um but what we ended up getting the full green light on H Thursday of this week during the storms and they left it Friday at noon and I had a very busy Friday with client meetings I had a 9ine a 10 and an 11 so I looked my two business partners We were finishing up the day and we looked at each other and we said we got to go so we went and hand delivered the belt to uh Matt Tru who is The Keeper of the belt during the regular season um and delivered it on Thursday night which I thought was kind of funny U the storms didn't keep us down it slowed us down but it didn't it didn't keep us down but uh it was a pretty fun moment and then we gave it to him and and he'll keep it for the season and then uh hopefully in the future we'll have some players on the show so they can kind of talk about it and we can ask some players or some questions um but really excited for the segment I think uh I think he said it best you know we're all excited and I'll leave you all this um I'm I think we're all excited to get into bridgeforth this weekend you know I'm bringing my family um I'm ex I always bring my family to the first home game so I bring my parents I bring my son I bring my my wife um and we all go to the game so I'm I'm really excited for this weekend I I agree with him I think this is going to be a an awesome atmosphere and an awesome time well Tim thank you for joining us tonight and uh just a reminder we're going to have someone from Skyline Financial Partners on every every episode um we're hoping to do the player of the week every episode sometimes we'll be able to have the players on but just want to give one more shout out to Skyline Financial Partners there is a QR code if you're watching this on the screen it'll take you to a link uh highlighting their website and kind of what they do and just at the end of the day uh there's there's a lot of people you don't know what you don't know when it comes to financial planning so highly recommend giving these guys a shout out or giving them a look and uh checking them out online but Tim thank you very much for joining us tonight and we look forward to next week's player of the week sounds good go Dukes go dukes and with that I'm going to kick it back to the main man Jonathan as we get into this week's breakdown of the you J Charlotte game you're really test me because I now I'm on camera and I'm still getting people back on I did it okay and I switch screen so victory victory for myself I'm the player of the of the episode so far amen the biges yeah yeah I I did want to mention one thing because we're gonna start off with an offensive look um I I wanted to just reiterate something was said uh in Tim in the player of the week segment is is sometimes when you pick a player of the week it's about so much more than what happened in that individual game um and we plugged this interview uh once before on the show but if you haven't had a chance to go back and listen to uh the interviews that Alonzo Barnett gave at JMU football media day um where he highlighted uh what he had to go through last season after the first game um and his need as as a player to to grow and evolve from that moment uh learned a lot about himself uh there were a lot of kids that probably would have chose to leave JMU at that point who who wouldn't have embraced the moment uh like he did and to come out yesterday and to have some early struggles let's not sugarcoat it that the be beginning part of that game uh was a challenge for both him and his teammates um there's no you know when one player struggles it's typically because of other players as well it's it's a team aspect um but for him to be able to to bounce back from that moment and put on the performance that he did and show that confidence and Swagger uh just as a testament to his resiliency but also a testament to the confidence that this staff um showed in him and that that to me was the the maybe the lead off point that I wanted to make is it was great to see this staff um not panic uh early in the game when there were struggles uh and back their quarterback and the end result of that was something extremely positive for both him and the team um so great to see it could not be more of a fan of his journey and and excited for what uh will come in the future with Alonzo Barnett but a really really awesome personal story in that moment as well um I'm going to start with you Mike uh the offense uh if anybody was anywhere near a cell phone internet there was quite the bit of conversation online but there was quite the bit of conversation in the stands to uh the kindest way we could say is maybe a nervous energy uh as we all kind of went through the Journey that was the first half uh maybe your initial thoughts on what you saw from the offensive performance uh in the first half and how it transitioned uh to what we would see in the second half of play yeah I mean the first half was was was pretty rough and I think we were we're talking behind the scenes uh for the folks that watched it online or on TV um it looked 10 times better than it looked in person in person it was it was a little suspect and we also had terrible Sidelines to be honest on where we were Charlotte doesn't really have a very tall Stadium it's kind of low and wide so it's really hard to see on the field um but I but I think like at the end of the day the the coaches weren't afraid to make whether it was scheme adjustments or personal adjustments early and quickly um talking about the depth of the entire we played nine offensive linemen outside of special teams um on Saturday and so when you look at first off pat mcmurchy on the ride side I think it's the real deal I think he he looked like he belonged which was fantastic but shout out to Joseph Simmons Josh toner um Riley reel that all came in at various parts of the game to really spell the starters but also create matchups right like Charlotte was big they did a good job getting um top Echelon athletes that that gave us some struggles on the inside eventually figured it out like Steve said uh but we were able to match up better um as we like looked at different personnel and also shout out to Brett Davis came in very quickly when Tanner Morris went down um earned a scholarship this past Fall by the way coach chzn and the staff really celebrated that um so really cool to see our depth coming into play and the coaches making adjustments quickly um important fun fact to note um alono Barnett had 320 total yards does anyone know how that compares to Let's Pretend This is his actual real start like let's take the Bucknell game out of it does anyone else know how Canto or McLoud did in their first games just like total yardage off the top of their head not off the top my I don't personally Cento obviously had a record-breaking start against mil tenness Tennessee state but he had 397 total yards in his first game and Jordan McLoud against UVA had 256 so Lonzo Barnett let's call one half of production outside of a 33 yard ball to Pat Away In The End Zone had 320 total yards and I think he finished the game with mo more yards than the Charlotte offense at the end of the day so really like asteris is some of that Michael though he he slid on a couple of runs where he might have scored because he made a really intelligent play clock running and so that he could have even had more yeah no that that's that's a really good point and um I know Jake and I had a gentleman's bed and like what we would do on the the first run of the game like uh we started to spread it out a little bit we started attacking the edges um got out of some of the dive option stuff and I I think they really did a good job adjusting so I'm C either Michael or Steve whoever wants to take it uh there was a lot of talk going into uh this offseason about one of the strengths of this team was the running game uh because of the the depth that we have in that running backs room um there were some struggles in the first half uh again tied into a number of factors offensive line jelling trying to figure out what configuration worked best um Taylor I know I know you were really impressed over with what you saw uh especially from your Vantage Point on TV you had a little bit more of an advantage than we did uh because of our sight lines I'm curious what you saw from the running backs uh that's giving you so much hope for what this room can be uh in the weeks to come yeah and again I I only had the view from TV so probably like many of the people watching that didn't get down there um I was really impressed with what I saw from the running backs given what they had to work with um there were a couple plays there I mean the the one um touchdown from IO where he's I mean just busting through three or four guys there at the end and just the power and the acceleration the speed the agility you know we've all been playing college football uh 2025 a little bit and I'm thinking about the numbers I mean they just look like athletic and explosive bats and dare I say because it's only such a small sample size they were two of the more impressive backs that I've ever seen put on a jam uniform now having said that and this is where the box score doesn't tell the story if you didn't watch this game and you look at the box score after hearing all about our backfield you'd go man I I guess these guys just aren't living up to the hype and I mean I'm just gonna say it like it is the offensive line I I I was disappointed in the lack of production we had now there were a lot of reasons why I I I think that was the biggest one probably not being the fact that we've talked about in this era of 4 50 players on average being new to a team you know there is no preseason in college football and there is no you know well this team has been together for three four years I mean it's just it's a new coaching staff it's new schemes it's new players and these guys are getting to do this in real life in real time for the first time so my criticism of the offensive line production from what I saw not knowing the wise I don't necessarily have a fear of moving forward because what I did like to see I I did see was the second half of judgments I mean I think the player of the game not to give Alonzo is the coaching staff I mean just that that was a a game one where you saw even for the you know the average uh fan could see the coaching that went into how that game changed from oh my gosh we might not be any good this year to having one of the biggest victories in all the sunb Bel this weekend you know against the team as you guys have said um I I thought Charlotte did a really bad job at executing some of the stuff but from their athleticism I mean you can see why so many of these guys were at P5 schools um you know whether they're coachable whether they can execute what their season's going to look like I don't know but those were some good athletes on those team on that team yesterday and I would argue there's gonna be very few teams that you see that type of athleticism um I think you're gonna see some better teams overall but that athleticism it was the real deal and um I'll just say one other thing as it relates to the offense um I I had real first half Bucknell feelings La last night watching that game as I'm sure a lot of people did and at times you you you kind of saw this look in Alonzo's face where it was like it it just felt a little too Buck now the big difference is this coaching staff and the trust that they have in Alonzo and if you watch the Press game uh post conference you you kind of heard kind of about some of the conversations that were going on on the sideline during the time and if you read between the lines from the postgame press conference and some of the stuff that he did with Dave rigot earlier this year you can tell the actions I feel the coaches took and putting their faith and trust in him and leaving him in is the reason that we went on to excel as an offense in that second half and I talked to John and you guys before the show uh you know when alonza started kind of getting up and doing the the Bow and Arrow Archery thing and even obviously the very viral clip of him kind of rolling around on the ground I mean it just it showed me he was having fun it showed me he was confident and that was the first that's his third half of football you didn't see it in the first half of Bucknell you didn't really see it in the first half of last night but I did see it in the second half last night and I have full faith and confidence in being able to go and grow and progress as a team as a quarterback as an offense this year with what I saw in the second half yesterday yeah and I would agree embraced yeah yeah I was going to just say one little thing is the teammates embraced his Swagger and confidence which is a sign that they believe in their quarterback and I don't know who's saying it is but teams tend to pick their starting quarterbacks you tend to see they just know it and they feel it and I thought their engagement with him and the confidence they showed and the lack of panic on the sidelines because that's one thing about our bad vantage point is we were really close to the players um they they did not seem to panic in any way shape or form and they clearly embraced this quarterback in cam moss in the postgame he said you know well we're going to do we're going to go look at tape we're going to see what we can do better I'm going to ask Lonzo what do what do you need me to do and I'm going to do whatever he says and that's the kind of faith and trust that he has in his he's like what's that famous uh Terrell Owens uh postgame press conference's like that's my quarterback that's my you kind of got that feeling like it was just a very personal like that's our guy that's our leader and I loved it and Michael I know you had something to say yeah I was gonna say so when when you dig deeper into it so Charlotte's defensive coordinator Ryan Osborne comes from like the Baltimore Ravens type of pedigree so he did some work with them underneath that stuff so anyone who watches NFL knows the Ravens like big widebody defensive players they Blitz from every single angle you never know who's coming or who's going and they want to stop the run so not only from an athletic perspective like Taylor mentioned but from a schematic perspective that was a hell of a game one for an Alonzo Barnett and if folks didn't listen yet to the post game from coach chzn they were talking about the offensive line yes there were some struggles in the first half but they just Ed it incorrectly and they made the adjustment said okay these are guys to block now these are not the guys anymore right if this guy's coming this guy's going let this guy go free and that's like schematic coaching adjustments that you've got to do on the Fly and the fact that they they never had any tape on Charlotte this is a brand new Charlotte team and they did in the first half versus you know struggling throughout the entire game is really impressive from the coaching staff front Steve uh I know you watch the the offensive line play a lot and if you have a perspective on that I'd love to hear it but one thing I wanted to to get you to to comment on is there were some really impressive performances from the wide receiver group um yesterday as well obviously Marian dosson gets a lot of the attention for for his long touchdown pass George pedway out of the backfield um makes a 33 yard touchdown pass which shows that aspect of his game is really something we're going to exploit um cam Ross has some big moments Taylor Thompson gets two catches Brion Penney um yir Knight makes a catch Tyler pie makes a catch so you're starting to see the diversity of what this team has in terms of weapons uh as they maybe develop their roles and how they're going to fit into the game plan going forward uh what did you see from that aspect of the passing game uh and how do you see that translating into future success um deepest wide receiver room we've had in a long time um and with the tight ends we we didn't show a lot last night um for a variety of reasons um mainly probably Carolina um but we showed enough and so at the end of the day those guys all produced I love we were making hockey line changes um which was amazing to me how that we saw Zero let down um any anytime you put whoever you put in on the offensive line defensive line and the linebacker crew wherever it was wide receiver tight end uh the talent was there it's exactly what Chesney's been saying it's like I've been running two huddles for a reason people have been getting a ton of reps and you could see it last night um really impressed with the blocking of the wide receivers the tight ends and the running backs um unbelievable pickups on a lot of those um there's a lot of Talent on that Charlotte roster don't give me me wrong um they're they're good they're big um but once you figure out where you got to go and we did um we did just fine um we started dominating that I called that the tale of two quarters the first and the second quarter and the tail of two halves um and so at the end of the day I enjoyed what I saw in terms of the adjustments I was really happy for Zo um two weeks ago when I saw the scrimmage um he looked really good I couldn't say anything of course I wouldn't um and but so did Dylan so did CHC Evans um I can tell you the talent we have is is unbelievable on this team and the way they've come together I know we said it last week we didn't have a game to go off of um they are together and they were together I knew we were had an advantage during warm-ups when I was watching us warm up versus them warming up it was night and day um they Charlotte was warming up like I would if I could find a place to hide on the field I would hide and that's what some of those guys were doing I mean you could kind of loaf through some of it which was kind of very disorganized on their not used to seeing in a college game really odd it was kind of like you know do it was like montor warm-up do whatever you want that makes you feel good I mean this is kind of this bizarre warm-up um but you know they're talented that's a talented team they will give Carolina fits um in some places now the problem is I'm not sure they can score um but they will give Carol line of fits on defense they've got a good defense they got a really good defensive line they've got a really good end ston hand is a great end um the problem is he can't keep out of his own way you know when you lift a guy up and try to drop him on your head on his head that's stupid you know you know better but you know at the end of the day when you're that big and you can do it I'm not going to tell him he can't do it but I can run I probably can't run faster than him um so I loved what I saw on the offense love the adjustments um knew in the second quarter we were okay um once we started moving would have loved to seen zo pull the ball a little more on the read option um it was you know you saw a couple times where if he would have taken the ball he'd have gotten 10 15 yards um that comes with time and so it's his first game it's everybody's first game so really happy with them and very happy with um with the way it all went down I didn't feel that we were in trouble I know a lot of people did I didn't like what I was seeing but I knew why we were going in the middle I knew he was softening those guys up for the second half I knew they didn't have the conditioning um so when everybody's like don't run it up the middle well there's a reason you run it up the middle so you know at the end of the day those guys were gassed um and Biff even Biff POI admitted it in his press conference that they were basically gassed um in the second half and we own them in the third and fourth quarter awesome well guys we're going to come back in a few minutes we're going to talk defense uh but before we get to defense we have a really important segment because there's another program on campus uh that is getting ready for another big season of James Madison University women's basketball so we're going to do our mpar Collective athlete spotlights we'll come back to you guys in a few minutes and now we're really going to test my producing skills because can I minimize and get them on at the same time so uh bear with me for those who are not watching but uh it's time for a Millar Collective uh athlete Spotlight again highlighting um all of the programs on campus this season that are continuing uh to bring excitement and energy to James Madison University athletics and with that it is time for our M peer Collective athlet spotlight [Music] and with that we are back with our M Collective athletes Spotlight want to welcome members of the James Madison University women's basketball team jimia Hazel pton McDaniel and Analisa Goodman guys thank you for taking part of your Sunday night I know there's nothing going on on campus that that you'd love to spend some time with us on a Sunday um wanted to give you each a chance uh to first of all introduce your jam story um all of you uh have Rich backgrounds before you came to Harrisonburg uh and part of our focus with the m Collective athlet Spotlight is to to really focus on the person and the people who make our Athletics program so special so I'm going to start with you uh Jamia introduce yourself your position uh and a little bit about what brought you to harrisberg um my name is Jim Hazel from Raley North Carolina I'm a guard um what really brought me to JM was the family environment um coacho he's a really genuine guy and he he's honest he tells the truth um Jamie my recruiting process they stayed consistent and you know it kept like I said before like that family environment that went in program what kept my eye on them and I chose to come to Great education great basketball so it was a win-win awesome andisa hi everyone I'm analisia um I'm from newa News Virginia um JMU just made the most sense for me I wanted to stay close to home I had a really good relationship with the team and the um coaches um everything just kind of felt right as soon as I stepped on campus it was a very like family environment I felt like including everything I did on my visit and it was just it just made the most sense to just come to JMU and last but not least pton um I'm pton McDaniel I'm from Birdsboro Pennsylvania I'm a guard and JMU really stood out to me because of the people kind of like Jamia said um not only coacho but the players were just super welcoming on my visit um so that kind of is why it stood out so I want I want to ask all of you to to take fans behind the scenes a little bit to what your uh preseason preparations have been like you guys get on campus uh much before the other students do uh and a lot goes into getting you ready for uh those tuneups that you have and then obviously the first games that people will see both on the road and the at the Atlantic Union Bank Center um so from each your perspective walk walk us through what a day in the life is like uh for you all as student athletes uh as you go through that offseason prep and how does it change now that you're back on campus uh with all of the stresses and things that come as being a student like everyone else is now with classes and the other things that kind of pull you in different directions I'll start with you J um well over the summer uh if you were taking summer classes you had those um we practice from like Monday through Friday we have off like on weekends we lift every day we do individuals um and then coming back from Summer like with classes and stuff see me me and P we have to get used to the grad school classes that's the big adjustment from the 545 to 8:15 is kind of killing but that's just a big adjustment for us um we're just right now we're just practicing we're still in the preseason Groove we start first practice in a couple weeks so getting ready for that Alis what about your perspective on it it maybe take us into something the fans might not know uh about how o Coach O runs uh these preseason workouts and and maybe what separates his approach uh to maybe some of your other coaches that you've had in the past well I think um during during the summertime especially I feel like the coaches are very like Hands-On um we do a lot of individual workouts for our coaches if you want some extra work people get in and get extra shots up but I feel like a lot of stuff that we do during summer is very helpful and we could roll it over to when the season starts or when preseason comes around but just in the summertime it's just a lot of like lifting playing basketball just kind of getting your like feet under you and then when right now during the preseason it's kind of the same but classes have kind of started and then like for us like we um go to class at night time now so it's like we have the whole day to kind of just focus on school basketball LIF and do and then go to school at night so it's kind of like a good situation because it's like we got the day and then we just go to class but I'm enjoying the like process it's different I'm getting used to like having like grad school classes and then doing everything like during the day but I like the process my schedule have been very easy I do like individual workouts and then we have left and then we're getting into team workouts this week so I feel like that would be exciting too and pton in the era of transfer portal and and so many new faces and and not just of JMU but programs across the country um why is this portion of of the preseason so important as you all try to build chemistry uh and just kind of familiarity both on the court but also the relationships are so critical to your success off the court um speak to that aspect of of how Co Coach O and the staff has really helped you all come together as a team yeah we do a lot of stuff that kind of focuses on our team chemistry especially over the summer with the extra time that we have um because we do our eight weeks kind of early starting in May and so there are a lot of teams that aren't back on campus yet so it's just kind of us so we do some stuff together team building go hang out at the pool just kind of get to know each other outside of basketball because a lot of our time does like revolve around being on the Court um but in terms of like basketball stuff we do get to do a lot of pickup and like like Anna said individual development which is really cool because you can see um kind of what the new players are working on and what other people are working on and then you can see that translate into pickup when we go and play like okay like Jimmy is trying this move I know like I can look for a here or susha is really working on her outside game this offseason so knowing like hey she's going to pick and pop like let's work on that so uh one thing that came out this week was a pretty incredible schedule uh that you will have to go through this season some exciting matchups both at home and on the road uh I was going to ask you all uh is there a game on the schedule and if you haven't seen it fans watching this or listening to the program um jmusports.com as well as the JMU women's basketball social media accounts s j and JIA what is a game that's on the schedule uh that you're looking forward to uh and maybe a little bit about why I know that you guys all have relationships you come from some of these places from your hometowns uh what's the game that you're circling um maybe at home and on the way uh for this 24 25 schedule um mine is NC State because I'm from Raleigh North Carolina group I live 10 minutes away from there it's for all my family all my friends to come and plus like SN rivers that place where there like we played a together we grew up with each other we played for the same a program so I think it would be very exciting game awesome Elisa what about you I would have to say Kent State um it's our first game and it's away and we haven't played well none of us have played in a away game for our first home game so I'm really excited about that and they're like a tough team so I'm excited to go down there for our first home game all right Payton what about you I'm excited for villain NOA um I grew up like an hour from there so that's one of the closest games um that like my family and friends will be able to come to so I'm excited for that yeah lots of of big opponents for an SEC team on the schedule lots to look forward to so again to fans um check it out jamus sports.com the jamu women's basketball social media accounts um last question to all three of you um a lot of energy uh around this program right now fans getting their tickets making sure they're ready for the season um just from your perspective why is fan support uh and fan investment uh in things like the Duke club uh things like the moner collective I'm so important as you all work to make this season uh the most successful possible that you can uh both on the sun Bel uh Championship side but then potentially getting into the Ana tournament um play talk about the role of the fans and why having a full Atlantic Union Bank Center is so important to your success J I feel like having a full Stadium really helps like if you're down by like five 10 like that for cour it gives you that boost to like make sure the fans like get their full experience there um fans really mean a lot to us and they the main reason why that helped us win and then Alisa uh it's not just the fan support in the building when you all are on the road it's social posts it's people you know uh making a trip to see you and you know maybe you're they're a dukes that are in uh these areas where you're going to travel seeing a sea of purple uh when you're on the the road is also a big factor in seeing that there's a big Community behind you all whether it's in Harrisonburg or wherever you are on the country U maybe your perspective on that uh as somebody uh who will now get to see so many fans as you go on the road this season as well as back in Harrisburg I think having fans is really important and it contributes to our success just like in Pensacola when our fans come down it really means a lot to us to see some people in purple in the stands I know for example like one of our health professors came to one of our games at Marshall and just seeing her there and seeing people really come out to support us in traveling to these different places it means a lot and it makes us want to play for them even more and then we've already seen here in the chat today we've got Brooke Boyd she's stuck at the Charlotte Airport she's already excited uh for the upcoming season um pton maybe your message to fans uh as we get closer and closer to game one uh both in Harrisburg and the games we'll see on the road yeah um the fan support like they both said is like a big part of our success it's awesome to go to away games and even see like at some games we have more JMU fans than the home team does so I think like that's pretty awesome and I think also with that just our band being able to travel to some of these games especially in Pensacola like they make a huge difference for us um when we're playing awesome well ladies uh thank you again uh not only for what you're going to do this season what you've done in the past um the sacrifices you make off the court um it takes a lot to get you ready for game days we know you miss out on some of the things that the average student gets to do um day in and day out on campus and we're just appreciative uh for all you give to the jamu community because you give us something to talk about you give us something to experience uh and our in inspiration for um kids of all ages uh in the community who come to watch you play uh and we're excited for this season we're going to be watching you and we continue to highlight what you all are doing as we go throughout uh not only the fall and the winter but as we head towards tournament time um to fans watching this now is the time that you can make an impact on the success of not only the JMU women's basketball program but all of our programs on campus um you can make targeted gifts to The Mont Pilar Collective that mpil collective.com invest in this program uh that more athletes can see the benefits of the Miller Collective investing in what they do on the court is the best way to help sustain uh success and momentum for this program so again monp collective.com we be continuing to share stories from the athletes that we have on this broadcast as well as many others on campus uh to see directly how your investment in these programs uh is making an impact so with that ladies I will'll let you get back to your Sunday night uh all the best in your preseason preparations we look forward to seeing you at the Atlantic Union Bank Center uh and on the road as we go this through this fall and into the winter thank you thank you and with that we will get back to a little bit more Football chat uh we'll bring on the rest of the guys Taylor Steve and Michael back uh first of all awesome discussion uh they are the uh inspiration for why a lot of us are so involved and so passionate uh in our support of the collective because we get to meet these uh student athletes uh and get to see what makes them thick and get an understanding about the personal side of what makes these athletes uh such a unique and important part of the J community and the more of these types of conversations that we have uh we really believe at least in this program is going to be uh so important as we move into the future uh guys great discussion on the offensive side I I do want to shift because we saw a lot on defense as well there were a lot of new faces that that all of us wonder how they would yell on the defensive side um any game where you only give up seven points means you probably did some really good things on the Michael uh in your rewatch and what you saw on the field maybe some of your initial thoughts on what we saw for the defense on Saturday yeah just starting in the first half I I think the biggest change or adjustment that we all noticed was the hockey line like shifts on defense and we knew that coach Chesney said we've got depth we're two to three deep in every position he runs multiple huddles but to see it live when the bullets are firing and maybe you're not executing great was really interesting to watch and in the first half it was a lot of like literally eight or nine guys coming off the field and going back on they were communicating back and forth and I've never seen anything like that ever you know watching football so the the hockey line shifts were interesting but at the end of the day call it what it was it worked and when you looked in the second half the the players were in a better shape they were not Gass um they were comfortable in the scheme I think in the second half they they did less like full team shifts and more positional shifts like two linebackers would come off two linebackers would go on that was really interesting and I like I like to think it's it's coach Hempel and the and the staff really trying to figure it out um they were played variety of different players they were switching between like a 425 and a 43 they had some three three man fronts they had different guys in different positions they had O'Neal on one side and they would switch him to the other side they would stand up certain guys and they would put their hands down so it was a lot of different pieces and I think John you mentioned it I think they looked at the Charlotte game and go okay like we can take we can try to figure out what we have Personnel wise and similar to what they did with the running backs in the second half where they settled in with pedway um and ADI I think we're gonna start seeing the defense sort of settle in and everyone find their niches and their roles at the same time so I think that that was really cool to see um and I think like shout out to the defensive line um and and our favorite one of our favorites number 97 um fald chunky but with his first interception off of Chanty Logan he attacked that ball in the air which was fantastic shout out to like oh we're 10 Deep fit real quick though Fitz not only makes the interception has a huge pass deflection uh which at a moment which could have really been a momentum shift if if that pass goes into the end zone which it looks like it was going to possibly be a touchdown pass Fitz gets its hands up and what I loved about that moment is his teammates I've rallied around him in a big way we humped him up in the offseason because we saw what how he was being embraced in the locker room uh the kind of jovial really fun uh personality that he has and I don't know maybe other than Jacob dobs you're gonna find anyone on that roster that is as excited to be a Duke as much as Fitz F and he mentions it every chance he get he said in the postgame that uh he was not used to um seeing so many fans on the road you know as the J mtion traveled big uh to Charlotte he was getting at at Youngstown and you could see just how much it means to him and that's the type of thing that I think is just going to continue to fuel him and you could see his excitement to what he's going to experience this Saturday in Harrisburg and potentially even more Dukes when you go down to North Carolina in a couple weeks so um I just thought you should awesome moment well you you should have seen the faces of the entire team when they came out so when they first ran on the field and they heard us well actually when they came off from warm-ups and we were going nuts in the stands the looks on their faces were like oh my God and they went back and then when they came out and we were louder than the home crowd the looks on those kids on all their faces were like Jesus Christ where did all these people come from I mean they were like they had these looks of just amazement and I told the parents in the hotel I said you wait till next week you show up in BR when you come to bridgforth you won't be able to hear a thing and I said this is it's going to be CRA and these kids were so excited that we had so much fan support it was amazing I I Michael I want you to give an anecdote real quick before we get to Taylor because there was another moment that happened uh is we were walking down towards the stadium and you ran into uh one of the parents that were coming out of the parking deck uh and you actually gave them a shout out and said hey and the mom the look on her face was like oh my God you know who my son is and I thought that that was a moment that was happened a couple of times this weekend but I just thought it was a really cool moment that you got to have and again was just another example of what we meant to these families seeing how much we're embracing their their young men well add to that yeah yeah yeah it was it was am Mario dollison's uh father and mother and I walked up there I was like Mr and Mrs doson we we love your son like we're excited to see him and and his mom literally goes what like she was like you know my name I'm like yeah we're big fans and of course he scores a long touchdown um which I'm sure they were super proud of uh but yeah exactly right like we were talking with the Holy Cross families and they couldn't believe it and we talked about a lot of the support some of freshman are getting and let me just finish the last Point here right like I think defensively the defensive line was eating in the second half and I think the we talked about the the discipline and the conditioning and the depth you would really see it we started getting to Max Brown and you could tell coach chzn he's not afraid to play the best guys he played three true freshman last night they had KJ Flo in the slot made a lot of plays in the second half Chase rean who down the punt on the one yard line hell of a play showing off off that 43 speed by the way coming out of high school dad mentioned him his dad mentioned that he was going to be a big impact on special teams when we saw him before the game too yeah Mike Gan I'm sure you're super proud of your son right now but he he had a hell of a play and Tyler Brown the Lynchberg kid um coming out on special teams I think there's a lot to be said about the kickoff coverage but the fact that he's on there means a lot about who he is as a player and as a person um he was a late pickup on the recruit on the recruiting Trail so it was cool to see he's not afraid to play the best players no matter you know what class they are so Taylor over to you I know he cut you off there no I I cut you off but I I was just going to add to that you know I know you guys have watched the game by now but for me when I was watching you know the ESPN guys had to put up a graphic of just all the success that jmu's had to kind of like you know they kept shooting to the crowd and saying well if you're wondering why there are so many JMU fans here and it's not at in Harrisonburg and you know again to the National audience this is really only their second or third year kind of getting to know JMU so the announcers almost had to give like an explanation and put a graphic up of here's their success and that's why you're seeing so much purple in the stands um so yeah I'm sure for a lot of our guys it was uh it was a pretty neat experience and not one that they've been used to for some of the other teams they've been on I I wanted to highlight one player and Steve I'm curious your perspective on what Jacob Thomas did uh yesterday I think the moment for me that really stood out uh was we had backed uh Charlotte up to Third and 25 um we took our linebackers out and they busted a long run that really could have been a game-changing moment if he takes that to the house and and I I think the announcer said if if jacobs's only six foot tall he's not able to make that dive and I thought Bob chesse in his post Games reaction was even funny he's like when he made the dive I didn't know if he was going to get there uh but he did and he saved the touchdown uh in a game that that could have really shifted things in terms of momentum uh I'm curious on his performance because he seemed to be uh involved in almost every play as we went throughout the night uh and I thought it was really impressive to see as we had questions about what the safety unit would look like this year uh but he performed uh admirably and had some really big moments and some player that I'm really excited to see his progression as we go throughout the rest of the year he had a great night and the thing that you know from my standpoint his best play and I know the tackle was huge was when he hit that QB uh there was a play where he hit the QB the QB threw the ball somewhere in the stands I don't know where it went um um but Jacob hit him and when I think Michael and I were on the sidelines when he hit him and I saw that kid get up and he had that look in his eye like I really don't want to get hit like this anymore well he also hit him if you remember he hit him on the touchdown pass uh as well and and I I actually thought from Jacob's postgame comments um he said you know what obviously it the play didn't result in the way we wanted it we gave up a touchdown but he's like you're going to give up scores in the course of a game but he said anytime you can get a hit on a quarterback it's it's can make an impact on the game is that I I really liked how even in a moment which was could be a downer for this team he said hey you know we learned from it they didn't use that pressure uh as they went throughout the rest of the afternoon but it was a learning moment for him uh and he was at least looking for positives in the moment like hey we were able to make a play uh you know maybe a step behind and and we will grow from this is that the positive aspect of this team and trying to look to what comes next which is something that chesy and his staff has really preached from day one that message has clearly been uh received by this lineup and I thought that was one moment uh in time in his comments that really em was emblematic of that new culture and that new Focus yeah and I like the way that he and dos called the game um dobs was getting the stuff out JT has to make sure it it gets in the secondary and in the back end and I thought they did a nice job with the way they were able to switch up coverages switch up presses I mean there was a lot of stuff they were switching and JT did a nice job making sure people where they needed to be we played a lot of Zone in the back end we're keeping a lot of stuff in front of us um I know people are like I can't believe we let them catch that eight- yard pass well they got some really good players and sometimes you keep those guys in front of you you bend a little bit and you don't break and eventually your line gets to that guy we were rocking that quarterback I mean that kid and even their Co their their coach said he was running for his life well he was um and he was good I mean they rolled him out they did what they needed to do but JT did a nice job I thought the Lineback I think everybody did a great job so I'm going to miss somebody and somebody's gonna get mad but just focusing on JT alone I was really impressed with what he did last night and how he kind of ran that secondary back there so it was an impressive it was impressive all the way around I mean I I liked what they did I like the calls that they made the back ends improved a lot um I like the way they moved teren Spence around they moved guys around um a lot of ways you know the switches were good so I'm I'm with Michael I agree on the hockey I don't know how you defend us I don't know how you prepare for um I think it's hard because we're so deep and have so many guys we got 10 or 11 guys on the defensive line alone that could start anywhere else Fitzpatrick said that that was it's it's so refreshing he said for him to know that he can come out of the game get AR rest and not have to pace himself and I thought that was a really uh you know comment that may have gotten lost in all of that was talked about last night but but from his appreciation of the fact that that allows them to get a breath and every time they come into the game their maximum effort and they're able to really you know maximize their ability to make an impact on the play well if you remember in the first half they they were killing us on like that over the-middle tight end pop pass like he would boot right throw it back to the middle you didn't see that one time in the second half all he had was that five yard out and he could only throw the ball to the right side of the field or out of bounds and that that's a coaching adjustment they did something and you got to watch the tape or whatnot where they brought a safety down and cover the ti end or they they told the linebackers to sink deeper in their curl Flats like who knows but that is an very evident like coaching adjustment they took that play completely out of Charlotte in the second half which was phenomenal Taylor I wanted to ask you maybe bigger picture um if I can on something that that we saw yesterday is that you know we talked earlier in our conversation about our struggles in the first half but Jam struggles were were not unique to what we' seen across the country AB Liberty Liberty struggle with Campbell at home we had um sou Carolina OD uh Virginia Tech struggling with I was struggling losing to Vander we can hover on that for a minute um but no I mean you you look around the country in the era of the transfer portal there were a lot of results and you said this last week I thought you were really uh smart to point out that the lines um were off in week zero um there was a lot of frustration in the first half but we wanted to really point that out because it's important to know where are performers sat in the context of everything that's changing in college football I'm just curious on your perspective on that because it was something you brought up last week and I think it was really important uh and when we saw the the series of results that happened um particularly across a group of five where there were a lot of interesting outcomes well shout out to Rob Neil because I think he was he was texting with us earlier today and he he made the point that JMU is currently the only team in Virginia with an FBS win uh and so you know and as you do look around I think it was Drew Richard in another text that was pointing out some of the uh the other games and results I mean UVA Richmond appstate East Tennessee State uh Liberty Campbell I mean you know there there was a lot of there there were not a lot of runaway games and and The Runaway games that you did see some of them were fairly predictable but there weren't there just weren't a lot of them and there and and you've continued to see in week zero and week one um a lot of results I think you're just in in my opinion it's this it's a new New Era of college football and I don't just mean from the transfer portal side because you also got to think this was the first game all those players both with was it Jacob dobs who had the green helmet on defense and and Alonzo bar Barnett who had the green helmet on offense I mean that's the first time you're even communicating in a game situation like you've never had to do before in addition to still receiving signals from the side so I mean there's you're you're playing a different brand of football you're playing it with teams all across the country that are a Melting Pot of teams they weren't the year before um I think you and I have even talked about you know we used to follow recruiting classes and used to be able to look through the last year or two of a progression of a team and really kind of get a feel for what you're going to see this year and I think the charlott's example is is a great example of of you just didn't know and I think coach chesy and his staff kind of talked in preparing for this game you know it's like we have tape individual tape from some of these players a lot of these players we don't have tape from period because they hadn't played and then we have tape from what the coaching staff did with players kind of like them but maybe sort of and then we're putting in an entire new system with us a new coaching staff and considering we had arguably you know the best result in the Sun Belt and I'm not saying that because it was some Grand feature but we just we did not feel good in the first half we obviously felt great in the second half but even the second half if you went on JMU Twitter you know after the game was over you still have people well I mean 10 for 18 that's not a good passing staff and uh well the defense they would have given up more scores but Charlotte just shot themselves in the foot and they really did more to harmed themselves than we did to impact them you know there's still a lot of JMU doubt and I and I will give some grace to the JMU fan base we haven't had a losing season in 21 years we went from making I don't know how many F you know what was it six seven straight FCS playoffs into two years of FBS in the top 25 I mean I don't even want to put the blame on JMU fans you're just used to a certain level of football that you know I don't want to say miraculously but we we've maintained the last two years if you go back to the first SoundOff episodes when we were at Twitter space it was a lot of like hey guys let's just you know kind of you know think about what expectations should be saying we'd be happy with six wins right you know and now we've gotten into where we're in you were in year three we're coming off of two years in the top 25 19 and five record now 20 and five record in FBS we're coming off of two years we've won the Eastern Division and it's kind of like yeah I mean we won 30 to7 but it was just Charlotte I'm like my gosh it's a 23-point victory you know so I I that's not me talking down to the Jamie fans and I will say there are a lot of legitimate criticisms and concerns out there that I hope to see cleaned up in Garner web but I think Steve has brought this up a couple of times our getting through this game was such a big deal it was aad game it was a road game against an out-of-conference G5 team you know if we can just get through this we're going to have a lot more flexibility don't write off Gardner web I mean they they took wford which is a good FCS team down to the wire but you know Gardner web is a different type of caliber that you're going to play then you're going to have that bye and you're going into a UNCC game they've lost their quarterback we get to see UNCC game footage from Charlotte I mean we're just going to have a lot of competitive advantages and you know at the end of September just by winning this game alone we're in a really good place come the end of September Win Lose or Draw that that Carolina game so that's a lot of my thoughts some I wantan to I want to throw something out there to the group though because uh this week is also a really special week uh in the JMU football world uh we had a chance to uh interact with Mickey Matthews uh on Saturday in Charlotte but this is the uh Hall of Fame week uh where this 2004 National Championship team will be inducted uh many of those members will be making the trip to Harrisonburg we've uh focused on this team a lot this offseason because of how special um they are uh and how important they are to the foundation of the success of this program um I'll go with you Steve just uh what this week is going to mean to you as we lead up uh towards the Hall of Fame uh ceremony on Friday night um we spent some time with Kay too so Kay was K Matthews was there last night too with Mickey um it's a huge deal um for a lot of the fans that haven't lived through 2004 you know it's 20 years ago we've talked about it being the spring board for this program which it is um it's a big deal for the for the men that can get here um there's some that can't um you heard when we had the show that you know the lazat can't get here they're coaching Friday night um but it's a huge deal to get them into the Hall of Fame it's a huge deal that the Hall of Fame is is sold out um if you can't get to the Hall of Fame come over to the Duke Club Millar Collective um uh the deal we have that night that that happy hour we have that night over at Madison Hotel but for those those men that all the all the staff everybody that worked for in that program in 2004 and all the fans I'm honoring them is has been a long time coming I'm glad we're doing it on the 20th I wish we'd have done it on the 10th year um but I'm not looking back I'm on looking forward and I think they're all excited to be coming to town to celebrate it they'll then all be at the game um those that can attend and I think we will um we'll do quite well on Saturday not overlooking Gardener web whatsoever um but you know it's all about us and I have a feeling there's going to be quite a few people playing it's very possible that Evangelista and I can get in for one more play there's gonna be that many people playing um on Saturday so I can't can't wait for it uh Michael any uh the final thoughts just as you have as we we kind of wrap this episode just um what you're looking forward to seeing in this game uh as we you know again take the next step in the progression of this lineup um towards uh what is going to be a gauntlet uh as we through the rest of the season is both our our our P4 game and then looking forward to our Sun Belt schedule uh where there's now some interesting matchups that this team is going to have to se to prepare for uh and this seems like the perfect opportunity to really build upon what we saw yesterday yeah you know I I I would be lying if I said I was I've been watching Gardner web or know much about them right now I know they lost a lot of players you know you will though it's early in the week I'll probably do that a couple times I'll probably watch the Charlotte game two or three more times to be completely honest um but I'm excited for us to really hone in like what we find are our real our true strengths right there's a lot of things we did on Saturday that we can carry on week over week there's probably some things that they're probably like let's just scratch that play out it's maybe not what we want to do going forward so let's let's learn to execute so um I'm excited to see just be crisp more crisp with our communication a lot of the players in their post games mentioned you know the first half there was a lot of communication breakdown which led to like timeouts and maybe the wrong Personnel on the field let's clean that up on Saturday so I'm really excited about that um I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the the Biff pogy POI whatever you how you ever pronounce his name his postgame conference um I just want to shout out to to our coaching staff how fortunate we are that we don't have someone with complete lack of self-awareness borderline narcissistic tendencies in that man the stuff that comes out of his mouth and also by the way when we were in Charlotte it was brought to my attention indirectly or directly that they actually went good on good full pads um to tackled to the ground the week of you know game one which led to those injuries on Saturday little birdie mentioned that to us so that is just fascinating to me that a person making by the way has no head coaching experience was a investment fund Banker or something along along those lines becomes a head coach and tells the media that number one his team is than last year number two they were better than JMU number three they should have what Steamboat us I forgot the exact racist I can give you a good impression of these clown we would have boat RAC them I'm so exactly did put on sleeves yesterday though he did put on sleeves he did have shorts on Saturday but but the audacity said and then he goes outside of four big plays by JMU we had them and when you think about like the the the coach talk football is a game of inches you know one play at a time all that stuff it's just such like a a lack of any awareness and I kind of feel bad for Charlotte but not really that this is their CEO but then I'm just kind of like whatever like you're Charlotte you don't you have 15,000 people in your Stadium like no one goes through your games like you had a BOGO night for game one of the season but it's just like what a contrast in programs and what a contrast in staffs right like and they were just talking all season about all these SEC guys they got Luke Keeley to talk to them they have Steve wils Dre blly they have all these NFL people for what that was the most undisciplined unorganized and they they were dapping up fans during the warm-ups and Biff POI goes I don't think we warm up enough in the second half I think I'm gonna bring him out two minutes earlier you're a head coach of an FBS team and you're fig realiz yeah it's it's unreal so shout out to coach chzn keeping it high and tight with that long sleeve JMU shirt I want one of those looking good on the sidelines swag swaggy all day so frir to look sharp Billy Atkins too by the way number 11 he had a fresh cut on the sideline I want to give a shout out to Billy as well he did Taylor uh anything on your mind for your final thoughts just uh as we get forward uh towards either the Hall of Fame ceremony or game one and Bridge fourth well I I I don't want to dwell too much on the 20 for team because if you if you saw the episode we did a couple episodes ago with that team I mean I just kind of poured my heart out to the point where I was almost in tears of just how much that team means to me my family my career my fandom everything so I don't need to do it again tell really quickly Mickey got to hear the anecdote of Matt lazat uh with the speeches in the locker room and he thought he said oh man that must mean him old but he said it's great to know that his stories are going to live on through Matt he said it was great to hear we might just need to do a a new a new short series of YouTube s of just Mickey telling stories of his locker room speeches but or impressions of Mickey's uh Davis quotes so yeah the the 2014 it's going to be celebrated I could go on for another 15 minutes I won't if you really want to hear me go back a couple episodes listen to that I I do want to compound kind of what I was just ending on about the team and where they are and kind of a look back to last year if we you know it it's one thing to look on last year so favorably because you know how it ended but take you back to that first week lot of people didn't feel good about Bucknell we didn't know who our quarterback was it was buck wasn't even a good FCS team and it was just no one felt good about that then we went to UVA and I get it the history it's UVA the history to but coming out of that game with a one-point win and really having to claw back I mean that was kind of one of people's knock against JMU of well even if you were eligible you still wouldn't have been good because you you couldn't even beat one of the worst ACC teams so now we're two and0 and you're still feeling like I mean this team just might not be as good we go down to Troy Troy was the first taste of where I really started to think okay we went in their house it's a top Sun Belt team but we still just scraped by Troy it wasn't because of an offensive like you know showcase it was really the defense stepping up and really getting us to that point in that game and then you remember the Utah State game first half blowing them out then they come so I mean you get through the first month of September last year and you're kind of like h i just maybe we don't have it again this year and then of course ends up being arguably one of the best seasons in jamu history and that's out how we remember it because we remember how it ended not how it began I would say a 30 to7 win on the road against a team like Charlotte that may or may not finish near the bottom of the AAC is just we're we're already in a better place than we were I would argue the last two years I don't know what the rest of the season's going to come I don't know I mean there there still are so many question marks and as Steve said you know we weren't putting the whole playbook out there because we knew we had to get by Charlotte we have Gardner web next week and really that UNCC game is one of those out-of-conference games that's going to be in a position at the end of the year when you're talking about bowls when you're talking about any other sort of postseason opportunities it's GNA be that Charlotte and UNC games of how you measure up outside of your conference so there's a lot to be said I would say for all the criticism and concerns that again are valid give the Dukes and the coaching staff and the players to the end of the month to really re-evaluate what this this team is going to look like come November and I would say to any Jamie fan on the fence if you're on the fence I don't know who you are I I don't think I've met a Jamie fan that's on the fence at this point but I'm sure there's some out there get out to bridgeforth get out and support this team it's going to be a hell of a year Steve yeah I mean the other thing I was going to go with what Taylor said is people also forget at Troy they had a we had a massive thunderstorm and it rained three Ines in an hour and so they're sold out state ium became less than 5,000 people went to that game and so it was supposed to be this huge game on NFL Network with a loaded Stadium the most people they had in a section was the band that was it it was the quietest Stadium I've ever been in that it's a beautiful Stadium don't get me wrong and they've got great fans but nobody was going to go that game and they didn't and it was family weekend um so you know they expected to have a full stadium so if you look at to go with what Taylor said look at how it all broke you know UVA we have the storm I know we talked about it but you know but for the storm we probably don't win that game or it's going to be hard um Troy we basically you know we we pulled that out that was a good win Utah State we almost blew so there's a then we came home and South Alabama is when it took off and that's when we started to control things but remember you know Jordan didn't Jordan won running blew that game we we stopped throwing the second half at South Alabama remember that he almost blew the game but you know but we at least looked better then than Georgia Southern then we started stacking winds Jordan then got his feet under him um he's you know it all took off and it worked and you know kudos to all those players kudos to the coaching staff that's all in the past um what I'm seeing now is what we were telling you we were seeing it's all the stuff we've been seeing that they've been doing on the on the inside all the stuff that Chesney's been talking about it now shows me that it works you know until last night all we had was a lot of really good stuff that we saw um a really good you know stuff about how close we are and how connected we are they are there was nothing in that first half where anybody was pointing a finger there was nothing on the sidelines where people were throwing helmets there was nothing where people were getting in each other's faces there was nothing and it it was the opposite when alonza came off or a defensive linan you know somebody came off that made a mistake you know chzn got him or somebody got him it was a very calm you know here's what I'm seeing here's what you need to do um it was really nice to see so I you know I was panicked on the sideline we all were panicked you know we're doing our usual stuff but they were together as they've practiced everything that he has installed is working um now we'll see we're one game in but I'm to Taylor's point we we went to a G5 school on the road to open the season and a G5 school with a lot of P4 Talent um those are talented guys you know whether they all get it together or not and come together I don't know um but if they decide to they can they can make some noise they made noise last year um so you know that is a talented team so everybody can say oh you beat them 30 to seven how talented could they be they're a talented team so that's a great win coming off the first week you get to come home now to Gardener web I'm not overlooking them but if you think about it and I'm not going to call it a anyby because it's not but you know we've got kind of a scrimmage we're going to do well in that game a lot of are going to play you can rest some guys but I think we're probably going to run most of those guys for three quarters the starters at least um and then you got a week off and you know Taylor's Point again you get multiple tape you know what Carol you got the Minnesota game for Carolina you'll have the Charlotte game and then they play Inc Central North Carolina Central before they play us we'll have three weeks of tape on the new quarterback and I think we've you know got a shot going into Chapel Hill and I was talking to a guy at the bar we spent a lot of time at the bar at the at the Marriott um and he's a Carolina fan and the first thing he said to me is I'm pissed off that George pedway left um so I was happy about that and and ped's dad was sitting there and his mom and then he said you know I'm concerned about you guys coming to Chapel Hill he said this has concerned me since I saw it it concerned me when you guys came a couple years ago a couple years ago we had NFL Talent um I don't know what we have and at the end of the day that that's the one that scares me the most so you know we got a lot of stuff we got a lot of things to go on the SC schedule looking forward to the season love what we saw last night um and love what the coaching staff is doing and what the guys are doing together um they really are together it's not just a cliche at all um that is a close-nit group so looking forward to Saturday looking forward to seeing you guys on Saturday um looking forward to having a great time I'll say my final thought is if if your fan base is panicking after a 30 to7 win over an American Conference team we're pretty good shape it can be frustrating at times you're like you need a little bit of a dose of reality and some perspective but uh man we are we are fortunate we are lucky uh we have been able to see probably an unprecedented era of success it seems to continue to go um one last thing it was I I we talked about the faces of the players it was also pretty cool to see the faces of the coaching staff um again our new athletic director uh who had some butterflies uh self-proclaimed butterflies when he walked onto the field um but another moment that I wanted to to bring people's attention to was getting to see uh Jeff Bourne the fan uh in the stands who said hey it's a little it's a lot easier to be where I'm sitting right now uh with his wife as opposed to uh to being on the field with with the pass on as the athletic director uh but there was just so much positive energy in that stands yesterday um between Mickey being there our new athletic director old athletic director um so many faces from from different generations of fandom that uh were all there at one point in time and it just shows we have a very healthy healthy program and I wanted to point out one last thing is Jacob Do's dad said to us uh at the hotel he said they were just amazed he's like there was no JMU sound off there was no JMU sports blog there was no Sports at Holy Cross and he said just how many people are talking about this program um and how many people care and that's the thing that I think real resonate not only with the current players that are on this roster but again all of these recruits whose families are hearing from other football players in this roster this is the place where need to be and when you have a guy like Bob Chesney who as I rewatched the game one thing you couldn't see from our vantage point but was very clear in the broadcast every single time a player made a mistake it's like the camera caught Chesney and he wasn't yelling at him he was giving him a thumbs up or he was giving him like Hey I got you and when you contrast that to when one of the players for Charlotte made a massive mistake and the coach was eviscerating him to the point where Biff had to say I'll fire your ass in game which again another moment in many moments you just go Jesus that happened too that's why the Jacob dos of the world I'm only going to play for him the pities the Giants offensive line coach who comes to harrisberg says I only want to play for this guy I only want to coach for this guy for the rest of my career I think a lot of us thought is this for real and then when you see it now action and then maybe one last moment a Charlotte player goes down and Bob chestney goes over to check on him and the announcer said what a moment of sportsmanship all of these things are connected and you judge people by their actions not just what they say and for me the actions were demonstrated in a big big way on Saturday and that has me incredibly excited uh for what's to come and and again um one last Point thank you to everyone who came up to us um on Saturday it was It was kind of overwhelming times how many people uh listen to the show how many people value what we do uh especially when we're just four guys uh who are fans just like you who were doing this again for the sole purpose of advancing this program into the future um and and to give back to the student athletes that we have on this program um just know it means a lot to us when you come up to us because it's the energy that that helps us uh get get in front of cameras like this on a Sunday night after um all of us traveled back to Harrisonburg whether it was from or back to Richmond and Points West and North um after we were on the road whether it was for a game or or a concert um it's because of you guys we're going to keep doing this and and we look forward to this weekend where we have a feeling we're going to see many many more faces uh who make this show what it is uh and with that uh guys uh we'll see you on Saturday and and many many more uh in Harrisonburg safe travels uh and we're excited for another season of J football our first home game inside the confines at Bridge for stadium get your tickets if you can't get there um sell your tickets give your tickets make sure they're going to a Duke um so that the new players uh on this program the old players get to experience a full house uh it's important it matters and it's the type of energy that will fuel this program's future success and let's show Bob Chesney what a full Bridge forth is like because he's already saying it needs to be loud uh let's get kick it off in a big way let's show the students what the experience is like uh and we'll have a great opening weekend in Harrisonburg the weather looks awesome if you haven't checked ahead so um make your tailgates long remember that it's a night game too yeah put the the hydration packets the Gatorade in the bottles as well and and uh get your bottle of Champions drive if you can we saw a lot of that on Saturday and show it as well shout out to Joe shoker managed to get out without being in handcuffed so that was a plus uh as we did our little illegal tasting inside of the Marriott but uh guys again talk to you soon and as always go Dukes uh Jam you sound off another season we're excited to be with you guys all season long we'll see you Saturday from harrisberg bridge for stadium 6m against Garder Webb go Dukes [Music] he [Music]