Posted:
#1
35-36
The pick:
ECU -1 over JMU
This line opened up at JMU -4.5 but then disappeared. All the value is gone right? Wrong. We have been well compensated.
The reason is clear. And it's worth every point we give up:
1. JMU suspended 6 players including their top WR and their top Tight End.
The top 3 receivers from last year? Rashard Davis, Domo Taylor and Brandon Revenel.
ALL have graduated.
That leaves Terrance Alls as the leader at WR and the top returner with 39 receptions and 575 yards.
Now he's suspended for 4 games.
Jonathan Kloosterman at TE is also suspended for two games. Although his number isn't called often (24 receptions) last year, when it is, he is TD machine as 7 of the 24 catches were for scores, their default go-to option in the red zone.
Now he is gone too.
2. The line
It's -1 ECU on 5 Dimes but JMU has been favored for the overwhelming majority of time the line has been up.
The JMU coach is playing coy as clearly the players have gotten wind of it and don't want it to be a motivator:
"James Madison, the defending FCS champion, is viewed as the favorite by some handicappers in its season-opener Saturday at East Carolina (6 p.m., ESPN3), an FBS member. The Pirates are projected as the fifth-place finisher in the six-team American Athletic Conference.
“I don’t know how in the world we’d be favored in this ballgame,” said JMU coach Mike Houston. “You’re playing a team that has 85 scholarships. We have 63. They have a budget that dwarfs ours. The resources they have, it’s no comparison. So I don’t understand exactly how somebody would say we’re favored."
Scottie Montgomery sounded somewhat perturbed about it in saying: "They are favored and it is what it is. I don't pay attention to it."
For what it is, I like how the line, in favoring the red headed step-child in the FCS to the FBS, could provide outside psychological motivation to the players in the social media era.
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