Horribly coached game.

[p0nyfan]

It reminds me a lot of when Bennett installed his defense from Kansas State his first year(s). Both put a lot of stress on the secondary. Bennet's style probably fit a little better at the time given that offenses used more tight ends and didn't spread the field as much. Maybe its a big 12 ego thing but the bend, don't break, keep everything in front of you defense of the Cavan era might be a better fit at the moment until they can bring in the talent to be more aggressive.

[couch 'em]

It reminds me a lot of when Bennett installed his defense from Kansas State his first year(s). Both put a lot of stress on the secondary. Bennet's style probably fit a little better at the time given that offenses used more tight ends and didn't spread the field as much. Maybe its a big 12 ego thing but the bend, don't break, keep everything in front of you defense of the Cavan era might be a better fit at the moment until they can bring in the talent to be more aggressive.

I hope it isn't anything like that situation - Defense was Bennett's downfall. June's offense was not a upgrade over Bennett's but Mason's D far outperformed anything under the Bennett regime

[Charleston Pony]

They had good talent. Like beside, they need about 3 good recruiting classes.

They have good talent? No they don't.. they're a frickin' FCS team

JMU is a top 10 FCS team. If you followed college football more closely, you would know that plenty of FBS schools with much better football programs than ours have lost to top 10 FCS schools. They were better than us. JMU is a public university in Virginia that is 3 times the size of SMU and the way things are trending, don't be surprised if they move up to FBS if an opportunity presents itself in the next couple of years.

[JasonB]

They had good talent. Like beside, they need about 3 good recruiting classes.

They have good talent? No they don't.. they're a frickin' FCS team

JMU is a top 10 FCS team. If you followed college football more closely, you would know that plenty of FBS schools with much better football programs than ours have lost to top 10 FCS schools. They were better than us. JMU is a public university in Virginia that is 3 times the size of SMU and the way things are trending, don't be surprised if they move up to FBS if an opportunity presents itself in the next couple of years.

Usually though a lot of the FCS teams get their players as transfers from FBS. JMU surprised me because they only have the one transfer at QB.

[JasonB]

It reminds me a lot of when Bennett installed his defense from Kansas State his first year(s). Both put a lot of stress on the secondary. Bennet's style probably fit a little better at the time given that offenses used more tight ends and didn't spread the field as much. Maybe its a big 12 ego thing but the bend, don't break, keep everything in front of you defense of the Cavan era might be a better fit at the moment until they can bring in the talent to be more aggressive.

I hope it isn't anything like that situation - Defense was Bennett's downfall. June's offense was not a upgrade over Bennett's but Mason's D far outperformed anything under the Bennett regime

When Bennett was here, we saw a ton of blown coverages and lack of adjustment - remember the 7 TD game? Under Mason we didn't al agree with his schemes, but at least there weren't a lot of missed assignments. Those are starting to crop up again - I hope it is just a matter of everyone getting used to the new scheme and a bunch of first time players.

[UPTEMPODAL]

Can someone tell me why we didn't have Richardson in at CB the whole game? Our Secondary was getting torn apart I would think he could of helped a little??? Plus not having Wood in there?? He better be hurt or something!

[mrydel]

I believe the coaches are trying to accomplish 2 things this year. One, play as many players as possible in order to evaluate the talent they have, and secondly to develop depth. I really believe winning is not the first priority although the effort to win is there. We are playing a lot of people and substituting early and often. In the overall scheme this is good and as new recruits are brought in over the next few years they will be placed accordingly based on talent level. It is frustrating to watch but I do not think they have an option based on the talent they were given.

I for one am fine with this. Jones used the nonconference as preseason. Morris is doing much the same but as a talent evaluation as opposed to getting them in game condition.

[Junior]

Malone is a perfect match for this defense, both terrible.

that was pretty funny.

[AustinPerson]

Phil Bennett is a defensive specialist. The guys at Lehman Brothers were financial specialists.

[RGV Pony]

Too big to fail

[EastStang]

Because I live in Virginia and see JMU in person and on TV more often, I knew this was a trap game for us. JMU is not some crappy FCS team. They are historically one of the top 15 in the country. Remember if you're at Alabama and don't want to sit a year, you go to an FCS school for a year and then transfer into an FBS school. JMU has no academic restrictions to speak of. When Left Driesell went to JMU it was predicted that he'd do great things because he could get anyone admitted. This game resembled just about every FCS game I've seen, all offense, no defense. With two minutes to go we were leading. All our defense had to do was stop JMU. It couldn't and didn't. We lost.