Dukes go to Delaware. The Hot Corner

Football team must get past trying stretch in coming weeks

James Irwin/senior writer

Welcome back to the shadow of doubt.

As JMU football bulldozed toward the halfway point of its 2005 season, the early reviews held the Dukes in high esteem. JMU outscored its first five opponents by a combined score of 228 to 50, and there were some who claimed the Dukes were more impressive than in their championship-winning 2004 campaign — even after that little hiccup at Coastal Carolina.

But after stumbling its way through the muck in Saturday’s 10-7 loss to now No. 8 Massachusetts, No. 11 JMU — the consensus No. 1 team in the country at the beginning of the season — faces a daunting task. And while the Dukes (4-2 overall, 2-1 in conference) still have command of their own destiny, the path has enough pitfalls to make the defending champs slip. And that might be all it takes.

For the last two years, JMU coach Mickey Matthews has called the A-10 the best conference in I-AA football. Four A-10 teams made the 16-team I-AA playoff field last season, and of the four, only New Hampshire had two conference losses. The other three, JMU, Delaware and William & Mary, each had one loss, which they earned by beating up each other in the second half of the season.

If you’re having trouble we can simplify this. Two conference losses might leave you out in the cold come Selection Sunday. Three will end your season by Thanksgiving.

So las So last weekend, when JMU began its toughest stretch of the year — three conference road games in four weeks — those of you who dismissed the game as an early-season A-10 clash might have missed the undercurrent. The winner had the inside track to the conference’s automatic bid to the playoffs; the loser got sucked back into the vortex known as everyone else.

Now I don’t mean to be a little black rain cloud, but…

Five A-10 teams have one conference loss. Six A-10 teams have at least a 4-2 overall record. In the next five weeks, the Dukes will play three teams that meet either one or both criteria, and that doesn’t even count this weekend’s game at Delaware.

You remember Delaware ,right? The four incomplete passes, the goal-line stand, everyone stormed the field? Well this year if anyone’s storming a field, it’s going to be at Delaware Stadium, where the Dukes haven’t won since 1994. Think the Blue Hens aren’t sore about not making this week’s top-25 poll for the first time since 2002? Think they won’t be geared up for the team that dethroned them last season? Think again.

All things aside, the Blue Hens are 0-3 in the conference and don’t possess the manpower the Dukes have. But things don’t get any easier when JMU hosts Richmond — and the conference’s most mobile quarterback Stacy Tutt — next weekend, and if the Dukes relax after that, they’ll wake up in Williamsburg in two weeks facing a William & Mary team itching for some payback.

So while the Dukes still have control over their playoff fate, they’ll need to go at least 4-1 the rest of the way to get there. Anything less could turn a hiccup and a stumble into the beginning of a long offseason.

James Irwin is a senior SMAD major.