JMU Sports News Podcast | JMU Football Gets To 1-0

[Music] welcome in to another edition of the JMU sports news podcast I'm Bennett conin joined by Jack Fitzpatrick and Jack the Dukes are one and0 your voice is also 0 and one because what a voice crack but really going back to Our Roots here recording only podcast only this week after the Dukes took down Charlotte uh kind of different I'm not used to just purely recording and going straight audio but we're here Dukes are to know what a game it was and that's going to be the primary focus of today's podcast kind of breaking down that game sharing our thoughts maybe a little preview of gardener web but like I don't think we got to talk too much about the Super Bowl yeah it's it's Super Bowl for both teams allegedly they should win this game by a million points Bob chzn has been saying the Super Bowl line a lot he's trying to keep him focused I suppose but uh I don't think Gardner webs very good they lost to wford in week one by one point yeah they blew a fourth quarter lead they lost a lot though they had a really good team last year and lost a lot from that team Trey lamb went to ETSU so like their star young head coach gets poached by an FBS program with him goes 24 transfers I believe jakai young being one of them or that defense was crazy that they had last year they sent a bunch of guys to like power fives yeah and g5s but so I mean that that team just just been pillaged so there's not a lot to dive into with that game so we'll focus mostly on the alonza Barnett era restarting in Charlotte North Carolina yeah I think a surprise to me a surprise indeed but before we dive into the alans of Barnet ER we got to let you guys know that bet online is the world's most trusted betting platform and your number one source for everything football bet online has every stat every matchup and even live odds and spreads to bet on during the games thank know your stuff get in on our $200,000 Mega contest and pick five games against the spread every week for your chance at weekly 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a surprise do you think it was a surprise alonza Barnett taking the field as qb1 for JMU against Charlotte on August 31st down in the Queen City I was a little surprised not surprised as surprised as last last year but still a little surprised and then through like most of the first half I was stunned what was happening I was having Bucknell flashbacks it was a a weird game but he found his footing looked pretty good he is very mobile his deep ball is incredible I think they just need a little more consistency moving forward on some of those like short to intermediate throws which seems like an easy thing to to find from him looking back though rewatching the game it really wasn't as bad I think as us sitting in the stands may have thought it was I think part of it was oh my goodness there's an interception which looking back on the tape kind of surprised he didn't get the offside call because off sides yeah he did jump but he didn't get the flag so he just threw it up against the greatest Corner in the American Athletic Conference who right made a good play on the ball so that one you see that happen but as a fan you're like oh no oh no buck nail Flash backs PTSD of it all his strip sack in the moment you're like oh my goodness he doesn't he can't read pressure then watching it on the the the ESPN plus broadcast you're like oh I see why he was strip sacked the the defensive end got into the back field in under a second and just clobbered him uh but yeah he he finished the game averaging around 20 yards per completion he went 10 for 18 two touchdowns that pick had a 73 yard pass to a Maran which wasy amazing George pedway I believe it was a 50 yardish pass to George pedway how long 33 I think oh it felt a lot longer because it was the back of the end zone thank thank you for making me sound not DB it was like a 50 yard it was actually 20 yards less than that uh but he he looked really solid and running wise he led the team I don't know if this is a good or a bad thing he led the team in rushing with 89 yards on nine attempts he gained 101 yards but with his two sacks that fact into the rushing game he finishes the game with 89 rush yards he had like negative -2 rushing yards in the first half and then he had six I think it was like six carries for 91 yards in the second half which is wild he was the explosive very much so yeah which is all right like we see the ceiling a little bit now with him I would agree that I was a little concerned about the rest of the running game yeah I do you want to talk about that now I don't know know I mean we could go there we could talk about the positives because they did win by 23 they did win by 23 but I think we're known for being the the negative people we'll we we'll focus on the positives the Run game is something though to keep an eye on if they struggle against Gardner web it's time to hit the Panic alarm Charlotte's front seven Charlotte specifically their defensive line were a bunch of dudes like ston handy was wreaking havoc I think in the trenches Charlotte honestly may have had the advantage and I think that's why we saw the Run game really struggle early they did start to find their Rhythm IO finished with 41 yards he did lose 10 yards in the game he gained 51 but his net was 41 I mean there were times he didn't even have an opportunity to hit the line of scrimmage that the guys were just in the back field so we'll see how that progresses you got Garder web a bye and then a bye and then UNC so you don't really have a big test coming for another three weeks so lot of is that good or is that bad I would have loved them to play like Ball State this weekend where it's like an FBS team a little bit better than Garder web maybe learn some more I feel like we're not going to know much going into Carolina I think I'm not really too bummed about this because I think this gives you a really good opportunity to find confidence and find a rhythm and if something really is wrong that Garder Webb can exploit then you know exactly what to focus on in the bye going into UNCC so I'm not too upset about it that's fair that's fair I will say reiterating what you said Charlotte's defensive front is awesome like that defense I think has a chance to be one of the better units in the American that defensive line might be one of the best in the group of five like those are big athletic dudes that are really disruptive so part of the reason I think Jamie's offensive line wasn't great is because they were going up against some some men some grown men according to Biff POI too I think of their like eight or nine starters that were injured and didn't play three of them were on the defensive line well that's going to be a frightening unit if they figure out anything offensively they'll be a they're going to be a I think this win will look better as the season goes on it reminds me a little bit of UVA last year where UVA was like three and nine but they were like way better than that three wins indicated I think Charlotte might have a tough year but they're I think a tougher out especially in Charlotte than most people maybe anticipated and that's going to be the most rockus atmosphere the 49ers have this season and it was a good one great atmosphere I mean that they they really made me sound smart I was very excited about that because I'd been hyping up that atmosphere hyping up that defense and both it it was it was funny because going into the game I was like that at it's going to be a tough game it's going to take him a while to Jael it's always tough on the road week one especially in a rockus atmosphere against a Ryan Osborne defense and then like the first play happens it wasn't a perfect touchdown and I was like well the season's over it's done and it's like why sober me and non fan in attendance me going into that game I was like okay it's gonna take some time it may be a slugfest it may not look pretty at times but a win is a win and then literally the first play I was like ah this is over we stink ston handy pile drove IO into the ground I was like this is over or George pedway whichever one it was yeah he pedway picked up and slammed it helped uh settle me in Temper my expectations after the first half that didn't go great I was like all right like they're still G like let's cool all the college football playoffs some Bel Championship dreams and like Let the Season unfold a little bit in the second half they played really well looked really good and I think fans should still be a little bit patient with it let's see what happens at Gardner web let's see how they develop in that game and then a bye yeah I think the Carolina game's winnable Carolina lost their starting quarterback they looked average against Minnesota I think Jamie's defense looked pretty good in week one um although I still don't totally know what exactly is there because they rotated like 84 bodies in but I think we'll learn more as the the season unfolds I do like the depth defensively and offensively yeah uh I want to touch on Dylan Morris and I want to go back to the platoon swaps the hockey STS we were seeing shout out Dylan Morris in the second half he apparently according to Bob Chesney called that play that was the Omarian doson touchdown the up and out or or the in and go what a you lose the qb1 job and then you're giving the QB who is starting over you the plays to win the game that's pretty cool that was cool man that's an unselfish thing to to sort of help out your teammate when you could have just hoped that maybe he struggled and you got the starting job yeah I mean very easily could have done that so I thought that was really cool and that was also that's another great throw I mean Barnett's deep ball is legit so I think finding ways to continue I mean he created some really just explosive plays right where he averaged 20 yards of completion and 10 yards a rush basically like good Lord I mean the talent is there obviously we got a flash of like oh here's why he wins every Camp battle he's ever in so if they can build that confidence that's huge and I do think Dylan Morris his experience could be a pretty big factor in alonsa maturing as a quarterback on the field off the field he already seems pretty mature with like his answers to things very very mature and you gotta think in theory if this run game gets going to even 70% of the level that we were expecting coming into the season yeah that's going to draw safeties in that's going to put more bodies into the box to slow down the Run game it's then becomes a pick your poison type of offense where if you stack the box to slow down the Run game you're GNA have one-on-one coverage on the outside that Alon Barnett can exploit if you decide to not stack the box and you want to defend the Deep ball play some cover two some to high then that's going to open up the Run game so if the Run game can get going I think that is the real and I I sound like a a you know a 1990s coach talking about you run to establish the pass but if they Mickey Matthews exactly who will be leading the go Dukes chant this Saturday as they honor the the 20 2004 National Championship team but if you can run it will unlock I think a lot of the potential that alonza Barnett has yes do we think they're going to be able to run or do we think how much of that was Charlotte being like really really good defensively how much of that was uh this offensive line hasn't really shown it as a like dominant run blocking group um I'm really worried kind of like PTSD from the Bucknell game that I was going through with alonza I'm kind of going through PTSD for last year felt like and I I kept saying it over the offseason until about August hit and then I changed my tune entirely and I was like this running game's gonna be so good I think we I think I'm really worried we we bought the the snake oil Charlotte had a lot of tackles for loss that's what worries me a lot of tackles for loss they had let me see let's do some math here as you drink your tee five six seven eight nine I think nine tackles for loss is crazy most of them coming in the first half though yeah they were getting after it chesny said they adjusted their blocks a little bit their scheme to create better blocking angle I guess ches is interesting because he doesn't like to give a lot of like schematic things of what they're doing so he's like we made a little tweak and I thought it was better and then he's like with kickoff coverage next week we do a little tweak I won't say what it is and we're GNA be great it's like all right guess I'll take your word for it on on your little tweaks kickoff coverage did worry me Delvin talked about it onto the house which you can find every Monday night in your podcast feeds and on YouTube but he was talking about how the kickoff coverage kind of worried him chzn interestingly told Dave rigard after the game he thought Charlotte was getting away with like massive holding penalties on of course of course he would so whether that's true or not I'd have to go back and and look but it sound like some of that he thought was maybe not their kickoff coverage and more so like missed Holdings but probably gonna see that chzn is a very good players coach because in his interview with Dave rigger 2 he was talking about like the slow start for Alonzo Barnett where he goes one for six he was like you know cam cam Ross I don't know if he actually said this specifically but he was like he only had one overthrow on the Strip sack he would have hit a guy for a huge game on the interception it was an off sides and he would have hit him for a touchdown if it wasn't an off and it's like wow we're really just like giving him the best possible outcome on these plays that didn't have good outcomes he is a big players coach but that that probably is a huge help for for overall confidence I think so I think like we got a chance to see what Barnett looked like with a coach backing him but I don't know how much of that was like cetti didn't back him and how much of that is like they play Garder web next week where last year they week two was UVA like you needed a quarterback to be ready to go so I don't really blame cetti last year for the decision that he made and I wrote a bit about this on jports news.com but I I will um I will blame him for how he handled like changing to McLoud from Barnett where like he kind of roasted Barnett I don't think that was valuable where I feel like chzn would never do that publicly which helps players confidence like if he moves on from somebody at position or if he rotates and you saw he rotated a lot of um what Joseph Simmons that left tackle for Jesse raml in the um in the second half he's not gonna go and like blast the play of a player in a postgame interview which is probably good yeah probably very good uh you mentioned the rotations the defensive side had some wild rotations I don't know if yeah you you noticed it but I don't know if as a listener if you go back and rewatch this game it was quite wild what I've never seen a coach do this full linebacker platoon swaps it would be Jacob dos and Trent Hendrick out there the quote unquote starting linebackers they'd come out for a play or two ganet Weathersby and torus Jones would come in and play some Ray Scott would come in and play some and then they would switch the cornerbacks early they didn't do it much in the second half but in the the first half Chanty Logan would be out there with Justin eagland the starting quarterbacks and then all of a sudden it would be Jordan Taylor and tan Spence and you're like what this is quarterback three and four but in Chesney's mind they're all starter level players and he's rotating them in and he said in the Dave riger interview that he's never had a team or the team said that they've never finished a game and felt like they could go out and play another quarter yeah he was talking about how he felt like they had a whole half left in him and I was just like oh I mean it it looked like it helped in the second half agre the second half they looked fresh and you could tell the running game really wasn't working all game and then in the fourth quarter they just kind of lean on the running game and score those last two touchdowns one of which Biff POI wasn't too happy about but they started to be able to lean we'll talk about that in a little bit they started to lean on Charlotte a lot more and you saw that conditioning and the fresh legs really come into play later in the game now I will say there were times that those platoon swaps may have hurt the team that huge run on Third and 25 happened when the backups or the quote unquote backups the second platoon was in Jacob dobs TR hendrik both off the field on that play right yes that didn't make a lot of sense to me where like you're probably getting off the field after that play and you're going to have a chance to run an offensive drive and they'll rest would you want your two best linebackers on the field so like there are times where I I totally didn't get it I also think they're going to need to be maybe a little more creative at times with like it felt like there were times where like Logan Kyle was on the field and it's like oh it's pass to tight end Logan Kyle who's pass catcher like I think they maybe need to switch that up where it's like oh Ganon Weathersby is in he's probably gonna end up covering like there was one where they're early in the game where they showed Blitz with taus Jones and genon Weathersby and I was like they're gonna Blitz Jones and drop Weathersby back because that's what they're good at and that's exactly what they did so I think mixing that up as the season goes on tendency breaking will be important but yeah like I was definitely skeptical of the rotating so many players the rotations they were using but uh shout out to chzn because that made a ton of sense given the heat humidity week one like they wore them down they did not play that well I didn't think but they hit explosives and they wore down a like an American Athletic Conference Team on the road in week one with all this roster turnover and won by 23 despite probably not playing that well like that was very much a JMU standard is the standard cliche stuff of just like yeah this is a good football program and they're just gonna Outlast you and it's a good way to use the depth that they brought in because they might not at some positions had the same high-end talent but they do have more bodies last year that are capable of contributing yeah that was really exciting to see another really interesting defensive wrinkle that we saw was on the two deep and on the two deep this week as well there are four three defense so you got four defensive linemen defensive end tackle tackle defensive end and then the three is the linebackers of course you got an outside linebacker your middle linebacker and an outside linebacker that's kind of like the old school typical way of doing defense what we've seen out of JMU under uh Bryant Haynes and and the defense of cetti was more a 42 five defense where you have four down linemen two linebackers five defensive backs in a 4-3 you only have four defensive backs you got two corners and two defense and two safeties there were times that they would show a 425 defense out there so you'd have you'd have four down linemen you'd have two linebackers and Five Guys in the secondary typically that fifth secondary guy was DJ barkdale who had a really really good game but then it was a really interesting wrinkle because then they'd have Kyrie mans who would be up he never got down at a three-point stance so it was almost like they were running a 335 and then they would either drop mans back into coverage or they'd Blitz mans and so that was just a really interesting wrinkle that Lyall Hempel utilized almost throughout the game I don't think I ever saw maybe one or two snaps but not a lot of plays where they ran that 4-3 defense it was a lot of plays where they were showing maybe a 425 type of play and then once the ball was snapped mans kind of did his own thing and turned it into a 335 type of play so just maybe a little too nerdy there but I I loved that that is a cool cool wrinkle that I don't think we ever really saw at of Kurt Signet and that's a wrinkle that I'm really excited to see as we move on now what Bennett said where when there's weathers be and Taurus Jones you know Taurus Jones is going to Blitz because weathers be is the better coverage guy I'm EXC exced to see how they start to do that and how they start to kind of change those wrinkles and even offensively when Logan Kyle's in you know it's going to be a pass to Logan Kyle when it's Logan Kyle and Taylor Thompson you know for a fact it's gonna be a pass because Taylor Thompson and Logan Kyle are more wide receivers than they are anything else but we saw a lot of interesting wrinkles from the defense being a 4-3 on paper showing 425 at times and then once the snap happens going to a 335 I think that's going to really spin some quarterback's heads in the summer belt but that was a really cool wrinkle sometimes Logan Kyle was lining up more as a wide receiver so as Taylor Thompson that's a really cool wrinkle it will be interesting to see now how do they start to break the tendencies that they've already created through the Charlotte game I think North Carolina is going to have a brutal time on tape given the rotations like they're going to be looking at a lot of different players I'll give you a guess here how many guys on Jamie's team do you think had a tackle on Saturday against Charlotte 15 27 what including like specials but 27 is crazy and my guy Eric O'Neal didn't even have a tackle 27 tackles my guy my guy wasn't there my defensive end pick he was looking good though I know at times you were like he doesn't have a tackle what are we doing come on Eric oal he was pushing the pocket he was getting Max Brown out of there he started to make a bigger impact as the game went on which I think is probably due to him being fresh but that was crazy to think of you know that's a lot of people with tackles 27 he play like the most snaps out of everyone I thought he did yeah he played a lot of defensive snaps but their their box score is different than the initial box score I saw too where like jam you saying mans had six tackles I thought I saw that he had eight after the game but maybe not I thought he had eight too I mean mainly because that's what you told me well there you go but they got a lot of depth it's going to make it hard for UNC to prepare because I don't think that Jam's going to show against Gardner web I also do want to shout out Jacob Thomas he he looked very good yeah highest rated group of five safety according to PFF from this last week yeah I I was a little worried about Jacob Thomas coming into this season but he shut me up very quickly uh six total tackles one and a half tfls he had a quarterback hurry on that touchdown pass if Max Brown held on to that pass for a beat longer he was getting strip sacked because Jacob Thomas came flying in off the edge uh just half a step behind where Max Brown was that would have been fun that would have been a because he clobbered Max Brown he really did yeah I was impressed with Thomas I was impressed with a lot of the guys they forced three turnovers as a team which I think was the most they did in any game last year did that a couple times so that Lyall Hill defense I think they're going to rotate a lot I think they're going to make some some plays are probably going to give up more like yards for carry because they're going to be like a normal defense this year but they're uh they were good I thought they were really good across the board they might not have the same like get off the bus oh my God look at how big they are that charlot had defensively but a few of the guys looked AP part on the defensive line I thought Lloyd Summerall was like oh that guy's got to be on the field more was my initial take away he clearly looks like a guy who been a few years at Florida he's a large dude and was impactful he's so he's gonna be very good yes he's a he's a good player and then Mans to see him play the way that he did I think he was their highest graded Defender was awesome kite Holmes I thought did some nice things dobs dobs didn't even have a huge game but he was kind of around chony Logan there chony Logan I thought was all right some people were maybe concerned that he was getting picked on in the second half a little bit but they were trying to keep everything in front of them so I thought he did well too they just have so many bodies and guys who can contribute I wonder if they're going to slim down the rotation at some point but hey they've got a lot of guys who can play at a really high level which is good I I was talking about this when you froze I don't know if you heard it where I was saying they are running they have the 4-3 defense and then they were running more of a 425 type of defense that was more of a 335 defense yeah but not to get back into those weeds but DJ Barksdale was that fifth guy in the secondary they brought in DJ barkdale was second on the team with 68 snaps barkdale also hits very hard like I didn't realize how where do they list him at he's like 59 175 he's very good he's athletic and can hit so he's a fun one that they can do some stuff with and then you just have guys who are like very experienced with Chris Sheeran and um Ray Williams from Howard like they've got a lot of experience in that back and I think jakai Young got a few snaps so they've they've definitely got some guys who can make plays jakai young according to PFF got One Snap not to correct you live but I thought he was in there more but I must have just seen 19 once and like there he is and assumed he played more but all right they got him in there he's like the nickel kind of but I guess he's competing with barkdale a little bit so barkdale might be might kind of have the edge on him there bark yeah KJ Flo got in for nine snaps as well later on the game I'm just looking at some of the guys that recorded snaps 28 different players recorded a defensive snap that's crazy that's a lot of players of that 20 22 players recorded at least double digit snaps yeah they were I mean they were really using different guys of that 18 recorded 20 or more snaps it's a lot that is it's a different look than last year it's a different strategy there's a lot of things that chzn does that are different than cetti and it's not that either one is necessarily better or worse but I'm interested to see how how Chesney's style translates over the course of his season his fourth down aggressiveness I thought was phenomenal oh let's talk about it they go for it twice on Fourth and goal didn't score either time but I like the decision making they had another fourth down where they drew an off sides and then hit cam Ross for like a 40 yard pass so they were one for three on fourth down but going for it on like fourth and goal from the four is something cetti never would have done like or at least rarely he typically would take the three points there also analytically speaking like that is the right play to make and especially especially if you're inside the five so it's almost like a two-point conversion which the idea is right that you're going to get 50% of those right so then if you yeah if you convert at a 50% rate you're actually putting an extra point on the board assuming the extra point doesn't Blast Off the upright but yeah exactly no way ruell is for having the biggest hit I he had that big hit on the kickoff return but you mentioned it Tim Emery also texted me this I hope it was because he hit the crossbar so hard I think it was so that's ch's got these weekly Awards and the hardest hit went to no way the kicker and I was like oh my God was that the uh the extra point that he missed off the upright chzn was like glowing about him in a press conference about the actual tackle so it he said that he blew through a lead blocker and then knocked the guy down and that led to the tackle and if that didn't happen he thought it the kickoff could have went for a touchdown so that's it wasn't the extra point which is disappointing to here yeah sure it wasn't publicly he has his kicker closed doors nice one no way exactly but no I mean like the fourth down aggressiveness I thought was smart I think it makes sense he said that it shows trust in the offense which is cool but I I like the idea of being aggressive in certain spots and trying to score touchdowns instead of field goals and it's not always going to work out right the results won't always be perfect but I think the process there makes a lot of sense especially in like modern football so I think chzn is Maybe little more analytically driven than cetti which I think at times hurt Jamie the last couple years yeah didn't really necessarily hurt them in terms of like wins and losses right but kind of like would hurt their overall like Point like they could have scored so many more points under Kurt Signet if they were just a a smidge more aggressive yeah I mean and the play calls were good like granted the first fourth down that they had inside the five probably shouldn't have gotten to a fourth down like you got to punch that in you had three running plays with a bowling ball back there in Iowa Dei you got to hope that one of those gets in so you don't want to get to fourth down but they did it was a good George pedway was open unfortunately that was early on in the game Barnett was still getting his C legs and I think he just completely stared down George pedway yeah a a swatted ball defensive lineman track that a little bit so I I think there was another one where Barnett just like stared down his receiver the entire way and it got batted and it's like okay we can that's something to work on maybe look off guys but that you know that's that's nitpicky he looked good overall uh but that one was a good play call and then like the the like wheel route to Logan Kyle at the The Far Side pylon or in his hands I guess it was the near side on the broadcast the near side pylon great play call if he makes that catch great play perfectly placed ball just yeah couldn't come down with the ball yeah so I don't I don't hate either of those decisions maybe that's the watching a lot of Dan Campbell but I like it when when coaches are aggressive on fourth down so I I like that a lot from chzn I think that's a good sign moving forward and yeah I think they got to execute better on those plays but the idea of going forward on Fourth trying to score touchdowns is a good thing and I think it'll pay off too when they play games or play teams like North Carolina where you don't really have a ton to lose in that game so I think they'll be very aggressive against the tar heals um can I bring up have something to you that we've talked about but I just want to get it out there on the podcast yeah why did it feel like they couldn't sustain drives I don't know because they had a few drives that ended up being kind of I think it's because it was more so instead of like so they would have a drive that was like seven plays 59 yards and it wasn't like eight yards 12 yards seven yards six yards it was like 42 yards three yards four yards like they were hitting a ton of Chunk plays okay so I'm not crazy and thinking like that is something want to see out of the Gardner web game less chunk here this is also very nitpicky and like they won the game by 23 points clearly what they did worked they wore down Charlotte their game plan looked like it it came to fruition and now this is me being nitpicky but against Gardner web I'd like to see more sustained drives of like five yards six yards two yards 10 yards something a little bit more sustain not like chunk No Gain No Gain chunk No Gain No Gain chunk which it felt like it was at times also I just like to see more diverse play calling because especially early on in the first half I don't know it was if it was the game plan to slowly get alonza acclimated to the game but it felt like it was a lot of run run Pass Run Run pass Pass Run Run yeah I thought that the play calling got better as the day went on for sure much better so they weren't actually that successful like their success rate wasn't the best now we're really getting into our nerdy stuff but they um what they were successful on 39% of their offensive plays 40th percentile so not good below average below average yards per play they were Elite yards per drop back they were Elite 95th percentile there explosive play rate 85th percentile so they're really explosive but they um and they did pretty well defensively to keep Charlotte from doing much of anything but yeah sustained drives would be cool yeah defensively they were great they held Charlotte to negative .23 EPA per play which is bottom quarter percentile just not allowing them to do anything they held Charlotte to just a 29% success rate they held Charlotte to just 4.24 yards per play that's 11th percentile in week one I mean they did exactly what they needed to do defensively against Charlotte which is seemed to be the mo for JMU all of these years that defense defense defense typically the offense plays a little bit better it is week one it is a completely new coaching staff it is a completely new team it wasn't a rockish place it was against a Good Charlotte defense so it's really promising that their yards per play were so good their yards per drop back the I think the issue is they lacked any sort of Run game 03 EPA per rush and that just really constrained the offense to where they had to rely on these chunk plays they had to rely on a 12% explosive play rate which is astronomically High one one of every nine plays was a explosive play which is a play that gains more than 20 yards they were putting up some some huge chunk plays so if they can have some more sustained drives get the running game going that'll be huge and then Charlotte's defense I really think is is legit so I think we're going to look back on that and be like you know what that was a pretty solid week one performance stop rate jmu's stop rate against Charlotte was a 78% stop rate that's impress which just means like how often did you just completely destroy them yeah charlot was um not able to do much of anything on offense which is a great sign here's where the game was one for JMU though have you ever heard of the middle eight Yes chzn actually I thought you would appreciate this mentioned the middle eight in like a postgame interview I think it was with rigert that's amazing because their middle eight was phenomenal during the middle eight which is the final four minutes of the second quarter and the first four minutes of the third quarter JMU ran seven plays with a 4.02 total EPA 0.57 EPA per play which is 0.58 more than their average for the entire game they ran three passes four rushes two successful passes no successful runs but that's besides the point mainly the reason that looks so good is because of that huge pass to doson on the first pass play of the thir third quarter but offensively they did what they needed to do defensively Charlotte ran 12 plays in the middle eight Jam defense held them to negative .12 EPA per play yeah I think pedway was in right his touchdown I think was in the middle eight to at the end of the first half yes yes so they they end the first half with a touchdown to pedway start the second half with a touchdown to doson they won the coin toss deferred so I think all of that was like strategic worked well they executed and they kind of took control of the game there and then you add in the Jacob dobs shoest string tackle or sorry Jacob Thomas on the third and 25 where dobs was off the field and Hendrick was off the field to prevent a touchdown and let the defense sort of settle in again was huge was was really huge so I thought it was a it was a pretty solid week one performance I know we're you know we're the negative guys but it was there's a lot to like a lot to build off of and I do think they should be able to make some some decent improvements here with Gardner web and then a bye they should be able to find some areas where they want to get better and get better going into Carolina yeah I'm excited for that North Carolina game because I think they have a legit chance to win that game I do as well and I think Charlotte playing North Carolina will lead to some some interesting film here this week for the Dukes to dive into during nearby so I'm trying to find North Carolina in Phil Steels backup quarterback now here we see how that goes this is great podcast casting they're's like an I think they're a a solid ACC team but they're certainly beatable the change at quarterback changes a lot Jam you should be really healthy going into that one the one bummer is that uh UNCC will also be coming off of a byee heading into that game they got an FCS game right andc Central yeah so they're kind of just going through the motion and Charlotte before that charlott's defense man I'm interested to see if they can mess with the backup quarterback I'll be interested to see if they can slow down hand or if they can um move the ball even a little bit yeah um but I think if you were worried watching that game that's very valid yeah I do recommend going back and rewatching the broadcast if you're that much of a sicko and you want to do that because that's what Bennett and I both did and we left being like oh we're fine it it was first week Jitters and you tweeted something out too the other Sun Bel coaches who are in their first year all did not suffer the same fate of winning a lot of them lost very hard like Troy lost to Nevada and might just be bad without Summerall which is like hard man like Troy was the right toward the class of the sunbell yeah really really good sunbell team playing great the last few years with with John somra leading the program he leaves to Tain and then Troy seems to have taken a bit of a step back where Jammu maybe they're taking a step back but chesy seems like he has them ready to go playing at a high level so so a lot of positives to take from it there's a couple injuries that I think will be helpful if they can get those guys healthy taan Wyatt at left tackle would be huge if he's available for North Carolina not listed on the two deep this week against Gardner web and then taji Hudson did not play a receiver against Charlotte would be nice to get him healthy here soon whether he goes against garer Weber Carolina he's he's one that they've said a lot of nice things about can I say something that that might be mean yeah Bob chzn does not respect the two deep yeah he's just out there he justes they didn't run a 4-3 defense that was not their base defense that's what he's showing on the D just saying screw it to that and then taji was injured but Dylan Williams was on there as cam Ross's backup we never saw Dylan Williams you just said screw it Brandon Brandon F excuse I got to check the pronunciation gu on that he's listened as the backup to Jacob dos he only had like five snaps yeah they really with those they got that group of like five linebackers and and he's definitely the sixth based on the rotation that's all I mean I respect it all this quote unquote gamesmanship and stuff but he doesn't even respect his own too deep yeah it was it's definitely a loose guide with Bob shocked that we didn't just have 22 ores still some ores right or at least one or they had O'Neal and Sall as an or yeah going into this week yeah were you shocked that Terry lock it only had 11 snaps no it seems like some of the other defensive tackles have maybe made a little bit of a bigger name but he'll he'll play a role I think yeah all right you ready for your favorite segment let's do it before we get to listener questions we got news or snooze presented by Cinnamon Bear check them out C Bear shout out Cinnamon Bear check him out right across the street from the Atlantic Union Bank center right there next to Costco the sheets area you know where I'm talking about fantastic Place go check out Cinnamon Bear the next time you're in Harrisonburg let's get to some newsers news okay no quotes this week I'll have quotes next week this week I'm going to give you three statements and I want you to tell me whether you think it's newsworthy or newsworthy first one kickoffs we talked about the coverage they also rotated who was doing kickoffs so they had no way and then Cristiano Rosa do some as well newsworthy or newsworthy that they were not only rotating on defense and offense but they're rotating kickoff specialist again chzn no respect to the two deep because there was no or there how was I supposed to expect that Roso was going to be doing kickoff duties neither one of them made it to the end zone and no way has a leg so I'm very curious if that's by Design to not allow them to take the Touchback and take it to the 25 where you have enough faith in your kickoff coverage unit to tackle them before the 25 which seems like a very chesny analytically driven type of decision with that being said no way limped off the field after his big hit so I was wondering if they may have just saved why but yeah that would make sense he also said that um chzn in one postgame interview I can't remember exactly where it was that Rosa should be handling those and should be putting them through the end zone was like What He implied he was like yeah we just need Cristiano to execute and we'll get some touchbacks and I was like what all right so I'm I'm very interested to see what they do with uh yeah because Ruel is still the starting kickoff specialist on the 2D it's confusing I was confused by what happened both of them should be able to kick it through the back of the end zone which is why I assumed it was like by which maybe it was he just doesn't want to say it but who knows okay number two so that's that's that's newsworthy all right taji Hudson not playing week one I'm gonna say newsworthy this is a guy who came into the year with nine career catches was never really fully healthy last year kind of coming into this year Health was a question mark around the quote unquote wide receiver one yeah he misses the first game because he wasn't feeling 100% during warm-ups which tells me he was either sick or he suffered an injury during game week that he tried to work through during warm-ups and felt like he couldn't go reason I think it's more so the ladder right there he had a huge brace on his knee it was large yeah so that worries me a lot so that makes this snooze worthy I do kind of have a little bit of Snooze worthy creeping in here as well though because Barnett has a connection with doson that is the connection that I thought McLoud and doson was gonna have last season me too right former teammates yeah for yeah uh but that never came to fruition but it seems like Barnett and him and that's a match made in heaven one of the best deep balls I've ever seen in person to one of the fastest receivers in the Sun Belt that's going to cause some headaches cam Ross looked really good Brion Penny had a catch you got to expect Dylan Williams will get in there as well Logan Kyle Taylor Thompson they have an embarrassment of riches at the pass catching position so it is newsworthy that tshi Hudson did not play and we did not hear anything about it in pregame or postgame we heard about at the sunbell coaches call that's newsworthy but I'm not too worried if he misses a few weeks I think that's fair all right last one here taan Wyatt not appearing on the two deep again newsworthy or snooze worthy snooze worthy I think it's kind of expected um I talked with him at JMU football media day and he was just mentioning I mean he had a really bad injury I mean that was a if you if you got our Jamie football Master guide you you can listen to the Entre ire taon Wyatt interview over at byme at coffee.com jports newws but kind of given a uh a peak behind the curtain on that interview he said he had to work back to get quad function he had to just make sure that his quad worked so I mean it was a gruesome injury happened late in the season last year around Halloween and so what a nine month-ish recovery period he's right up on that now so not only do you have to come back from that you have to get back into football shape you have to be ready to start a full FBS game at left tackle so if he's not there for the UNC game because that's about three weeks away I'd be a little worried but as of right now it's newsworthy do you think he will be ready for UNCC yes I think so too I feel like that's probably what they targeted coming into the year yeah all right couple newses couple snoozes I like it and uh before we wrap up here before we wrap up the jam sports news podcast presented by bet online we're going to go to some quick listener questions not a lot of them but yeah got to got to hit the old old listener questions thank you to everyone who put in a listener question you can follow us at jmusports newws onx formally Twitter Twitter if you still call it Twitter uh we we post before every podcast recording any questions drop them below so uh be sure to follow along over there on X Twitter if you want to get your questions in so we have about nine questions wow which is a lot considering this morning we woke up to three nine questions good job everyone uh JMU Dukes 0608 who impressed the most on defense other than dos I'm gonna say I don't think dos really like dos was good but I didn't leave the game going wow Jacob dobs performance was out of this world me neither I'll I'll steal yours from earlier and say Jacob Thomas I thought was really good copycat man I know copy cat I also did not expect mans to be that disruptive in game one I'm gonna say man because mans's ability to not only Blitz off the edge but then drop into coverage and really disguise stuff he didn't look necessarily the most comfortable in kind of Omar Thomas also did this a lot so him and Omar Thomas both kind of had this role yeah as mans develops and figures out more and more like the vibe of the ly Hill defense I think he might be scary good me too hard-hitting question from Joey Needum does Barnett have Aura he might man that flop was fun his flop that went viral was very fun he had some confidence he was holding some like first down celebration poses for a very long time he's got some some confidence to him it's cool to see him have a chance to actually show it this year would you say he has Riz sure uh yeah the first down he pointed at was like held so long yeah but maybe I'm overthinking the whole flop thing but that just shows like where he is at mentally to have that much fun on the football field 300 less than 365 days from being benched and going through maybe one of the hardest times of his young life to then a year later on the football field just completely flop around and have fun and just like know that he's the guy that that was cool to see yeah he's he's going to be a fun one I think Jamie fans are going to quickly fall in love with game if they have not already yeah uh Austin Logan when will will we ever get the black Unis in college football 25 man I sure as hell hope so they're playing every game in their black uniforms that's right especially against teams who have black as their primary color you see the uh Western Kentucky eastern Kentucky Uniform beef yeah very weird it's so good in case you haven't seen it uh Western Kentucky wanted to wear their white jerseys for their home opener and do a full white out but Eastern Kentucky went into the NCAA uniform rule book and exercised their right as the visiting team to wear white normally ruining the white out right ruining the white out normally the visiting team will accept it like JMU wouldn't have been able to wear white against Charlotte for their Gold Rush game right because it's too close to Gold but JMU was like okay we'll wear our purples typically that's how it goes you kind of give the home team the choice Western Kentucky was hoping to get that same sort of respect from Eastern Kentucky and Eastern Kentucky you know in this rivalry decided to say no we want to wear our we love our white jues that much we want to wear them against you objectively very funny very very funny uh but will we ever get black uniforms maybe streamers might be coming soon too who knows they they're they're releasing updates almost every week I think two weeks ago they released the roster update to include George pedway and boy is he good they got his year wrong so you have him oh we like that very much so uh Caleb does JMU give Dylan Morris reps if a blowout starts to form against Gardener web that's a great question I don't know if they do because I don't know if they want the uh the chatter I would if you're blowing him out I would give Dylan Assuming he's like fully healthy and ready to go I would give him some reps but I wonder if they uh I don't know I assume that a backup will play I just don't know if it'll be Dylan or Billy or Griffith or yeah Kendall right we'll see or I guess you could play Evans if you wanted to that's true oh he did mention JC Evans kind of in passing Bob Chesney one of the postgame interviews I think JC Evans might be quarterback three he's got some game we'll see so yeah we'll see uh 2025 basketball class recap Spradlin is on fire yeah what the what what is this man doing JMU got Preston Fowler a fourstar recruit he is becoming he has become now with his commitment the highest ranked JMU men's basketball recruit in program history yeah and then what did they do to back it up oh they got another small forward a six8 small forward out of Tennessee Christian Brown a three- star Prospect who's the highest rated recruit in the state of Tennessee both really really good players really talented he's got some other like four stars that are looking at the program I don't know how he's doing it I imagine the collective is helping I imagine Preston Spradlin I think Preston Spradlin is a very good recruiter yeah it's crazy man they went from being like a dumpster fire of a program to a 30 plus win season and NCA tournament win and now like just absurd recruiting growth and then oh by the way their transfer recruits for this season because Christian Brown and Preston Fowler won't be here until next November 2025 yeah oh by the way they just landed one of the top recruits transfer recruits from like the mid- major ranks in Mark Freeman oh by the way AJ Smith and ovc like first team player right yeah oh by the way Ebenezer danana oh by the way Elijah Hutchins Everett two seven-footers that that come from P5 programs or like high major programs oh by the way Xavier Browns back oh by the way they got uh the Syracuse transfer Taylor Justin tlor some other guys man D2 allame they got some that's a loaded roster and they're doing some great stuff in the high school ranks too insane um this is from at toofus zero up what is your dream a what is your a dream and B realistic ceiling for Alonzo Barnett if he stays at JMU his whole career given that he's a red shirt sophomore huh I think I think your take from last year still applies that like the people who are starting at his age or like he would be a generationally great Jamie quarterback yeah I think that's the realistic is that he like if he stays his whole career he should set records because he would have what is that three starting Seasons he would start he would set like every record in the record book you think there' be some records set and then like dream is like that the dude like wins the Heisman or is like a fringe Heisman Contender that's the dream I think I think realistic is that he just becomes a very good quarterback and like sets some records if he is committed to staying too and has like a great season becomes a lot easier to recruit in the portal and high school especially the portal though where it's like hey we have a dude at quarterback where like our floor is much much higher just because we're great at that most important position on the field so if you can start that to add guys around him it againsts pretty pretty intense quickly which they're going to have to do because a lot large portion of this roster are seniors uh but you saw what happen with AB State they didn't lose a lot of transfers in this offseason because they kept Joey agular and their head coach but I mean they kept a Sun Belt preseason offensive player of the year mainly because I think that the Sun Belt just kind of forgot Jordan McLoud was still there over in Texas state that doesn't make any sense I think that's besides dude got snubbed I think they forgot he was there silly whatever but I mean yeah dream Heisman realistic very very good if he's the starter realistic ceiling starter for three seasons sets him records yeah mainly because of just pure volume right uh Jamie underscore 71 will we see Dylan Morris in the second half will we see Billy at all I honestly think it's I know we talked about this five minutes ago I think it's more likely we see Billy than Dylan Morris yeah uh j71 also said I know it's football season and I'm a former player but y'all have to talk about the two recruiting wins bradin had this week we just talked about dog dog dogs like you're you're right jamore 71 that is something that it's not often that in the middle of football season or at the beginning of football season we're talking about recruiting wins in the high school ranks for men's basketball for the class of the following year fantastic stuff from Preston bradlin he's good at recruiting and I think developing a team and coaching yeah that that part too he's good at all of it because Penny Hardway is a really good recruiter but uh has not been able to put it together no he's a violation machine he's a violation machine and he's losing like all of his coaches uh Thomas at dookie 95 best viral Moment The Zo flop also can we talk how does alonza become zo I don't know because a very weird zof flop or Sig phone I think it's the zo flop that went more viral it went across more timelines Twitter timelines Instagram timelines I think the cetti phone was really funny for us and maybe some of the college football sickos out there but it didn't seem to get the same amount of run as this Alona Barnett flop so I'm gonna go alans Barnett uh Bennett froze out of here we're not going to wait for him to come back we're just gonna end this episode thank you guys so much for tuning in to the JMU sports news podcast presented by bet online we'll be back next week around Wednesday or Thursday we got to iron out some of the uh the scheduling details for next week but in the meantime you can follow us at JMU Sports newws on Twitter Instagram and Facebook and YouTube and you can check out our home on the web www. jmusports news.com all of those links are down in our episode description hopefully we'll be back next next week with a live stream as well uh thank you guys so much for tuning in we'll see you next week with the jam sports news podcast [Music]