Key CAA Game
Posted: October 6, 2012
HARRISONBURG — Last season, Towson won its first Colonial Athletic Association football championship, rolling through Villanova, Richmond, Old Dominion, William & Mary, Maine, New Hampshire (all ranked teams at the time) and Rhode Island en route to a 7-1 conference record and the Division I-AA playoffs. Its only loss was, 35-30, to Delaware.
But ... the Tigers didn’t play James Madison, one of the league’s powers.
If that bothered the Dukes — who are 17-5-1 all-time against Towson — they aren’t saying it.
“I wouldn’t say they need to play us, but it would have been good to get that chance to play them,” JMU senior strong safety Jamie Veney said. “They played CAA games just like we did, and they won theirs and we lost a few of ours, so they deserve what they got last year.”
Quarterback Justin Thorpe, granted a sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA this week, said Towson earned it.
“Hey, they won their CAA games. They beat ODU; we lost to ODU,” said Thorpe, a fifth-year junior who is coming off a career game against URI in which he threw for 340 yards and two touchdowns on 26-for-40 passing. “So I feel they deserve it.”
But this is this year, and today, JMU (3-1 overall, 1-0 in the CAA), ranked No. 5 in The Sports Network’s Division I-AA poll, gets its shot when it hosts the No. 12 Tigers (2-2, 1-0) at 1 p.m. at sold-out Bridgeforth Stadium.
The game pairs two of the CAA’s best teams in the conference’s top matchup this weekend — one that will be aired nationally on cable on the NBC Sports Network.
“We’re all excited to play them,” said Towson senior quarterback Grant Enders, a major reason for the Tigers’ turnaround last season. “... We didn’t play them last year, and they’re a great team.”
The matchup features the Colonial’s top two defenses — Towson is No. 1 and JMU is No. 2 by less than a yard, 288.5 to 289.2 — and two teams undefeated in I-AA competition. The winner of the game will have a huge advantage going forward and the tiebreaker edge if both teams finish with one league loss.
“This could be the deciding factor in the conference championship,” Thorpe said. “And we really want to bring that back to Harrisonburg.”
The Dukes’ only loss was to a major-college power, West Virginia. Towson’s losses also were to I-A teams: Kent State and national-title contender LSU — games it got more than $800,000 to play, said coach Rob Ambrose.
The Tigers are coming off the LSU game, a surprisingly competitive 38-22 loss. Ambrose said his team is healthy despite playing a Top 5 I-A team.
Conversely, against WVU, JMU lost one of its top wide receivers (Daniel Brown) for the season and several other players sustained minor injuries that forced them to miss time. Two of them, sophomore strong safety Titus Till and sophomore cornerback Jeremiah Wilson, are still out, even after having a bye last week.
But it’s possible the Dukes will get back star tailback Dae’Quan Scott, who has missed the last two games with a high-ankle sprain. JMU coach Mickey Matthews said the junior was “probable” for today’s game, which features two run-first, pounding offenses.
The Dukes are third in the CAA in rushing, averaging 235.5 yards per game, and Towson is fourth at 191.8, led by star tailback Terrance West. Overall, JMU’s offense ranks third at 454 yards per game (No. 13 in I-AA), and the Tigers are seventh at 367.5 yards per game.
“That’s what they do: They run the ball and they run the ball,” Matthews said of Towson. “And West gets tired and they throw it a couple times, and then they start running it again.”
Perhaps Madison’s toughest task today when it plays Towson for the first time since 2010 (JMU won 17-13 and hasn’t lost to the Tigers since 1992, a span of seven games) will be to stop West, a former Clemson recruit who walked on at Towson after a year on Fork Union’s post-graduate team.
West leads the CAA with seven rushing touchdowns and is averaging 81.2 yards per game after averaging 117.6 a game and 6.7 a carry in 2011. He scored 29 touchdowns last season en route to winning the Jerry Rice Award, given to I-AA’s top rookie.
“He broke some tackles against LSU,” said Matthews, who would get his 100th career win with a victory today. “He’s a good player. Once again, I know more about him because I knew him when he was at Fork Union. You walk in over there and all the ACC schools are … talking to him.”
Considering its generally lackluster history — just two winning seasons since joining the CAA in 2004 (it was the Atlantic 10 before that) — the Tigers still might have something to prove. They want to show they aren’t a fluke. They want to show they have staying power in I-AA’s toughest conference.
“I think we’re building to that,” said Ambrose, in his fourth season as the head coach at his alma mater. “I think we snuck up on everybody as [last] year went on. People still didn’t believe we were any good. I think that kind of gave us a one-card advantage. … We’re behind a lot of these schools historically that have been doing it right forever, and we’re behind. But we’re building to that.”
The Tigers — who moved up to I-AA in 1987 and are powered by a veteran offensive line and several impact transfers, notably Enders (Holy Cross/Lackawanna, a junior college) and All-CAA free safety Jordan Dangerfield (Hofstra) — were voted the preseason CAA favorite by the coaches. JMU was third behind Old Dominion, which is ineligible for the conference championship because of its impending leap to I-A in 2013.
But ... the Tigers didn’t play James Madison, one of the league’s powers.
If that bothered the Dukes — who are 17-5-1 all-time against Towson — they aren’t saying it.
“I wouldn’t say they need to play us, but it would have been good to get that chance to play them,” JMU senior strong safety Jamie Veney said. “They played CAA games just like we did, and they won theirs and we lost a few of ours, so they deserve what they got last year.”
Quarterback Justin Thorpe, granted a sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA this week, said Towson earned it.
“Hey, they won their CAA games. They beat ODU; we lost to ODU,” said Thorpe, a fifth-year junior who is coming off a career game against URI in which he threw for 340 yards and two touchdowns on 26-for-40 passing. “So I feel they deserve it.”
But this is this year, and today, JMU (3-1 overall, 1-0 in the CAA), ranked No. 5 in The Sports Network’s Division I-AA poll, gets its shot when it hosts the No. 12 Tigers (2-2, 1-0) at 1 p.m. at sold-out Bridgeforth Stadium.
The game pairs two of the CAA’s best teams in the conference’s top matchup this weekend — one that will be aired nationally on cable on the NBC Sports Network.
“We’re all excited to play them,” said Towson senior quarterback Grant Enders, a major reason for the Tigers’ turnaround last season. “... We didn’t play them last year, and they’re a great team.”
The matchup features the Colonial’s top two defenses — Towson is No. 1 and JMU is No. 2 by less than a yard, 288.5 to 289.2 — and two teams undefeated in I-AA competition. The winner of the game will have a huge advantage going forward and the tiebreaker edge if both teams finish with one league loss.
“This could be the deciding factor in the conference championship,” Thorpe said. “And we really want to bring that back to Harrisonburg.”
The Dukes’ only loss was to a major-college power, West Virginia. Towson’s losses also were to I-A teams: Kent State and national-title contender LSU — games it got more than $800,000 to play, said coach Rob Ambrose.
The Tigers are coming off the LSU game, a surprisingly competitive 38-22 loss. Ambrose said his team is healthy despite playing a Top 5 I-A team.
Conversely, against WVU, JMU lost one of its top wide receivers (Daniel Brown) for the season and several other players sustained minor injuries that forced them to miss time. Two of them, sophomore strong safety Titus Till and sophomore cornerback Jeremiah Wilson, are still out, even after having a bye last week.
But it’s possible the Dukes will get back star tailback Dae’Quan Scott, who has missed the last two games with a high-ankle sprain. JMU coach Mickey Matthews said the junior was “probable” for today’s game, which features two run-first, pounding offenses.
The Dukes are third in the CAA in rushing, averaging 235.5 yards per game, and Towson is fourth at 191.8, led by star tailback Terrance West. Overall, JMU’s offense ranks third at 454 yards per game (No. 13 in I-AA), and the Tigers are seventh at 367.5 yards per game.
“That’s what they do: They run the ball and they run the ball,” Matthews said of Towson. “And West gets tired and they throw it a couple times, and then they start running it again.”
Perhaps Madison’s toughest task today when it plays Towson for the first time since 2010 (JMU won 17-13 and hasn’t lost to the Tigers since 1992, a span of seven games) will be to stop West, a former Clemson recruit who walked on at Towson after a year on Fork Union’s post-graduate team.
West leads the CAA with seven rushing touchdowns and is averaging 81.2 yards per game after averaging 117.6 a game and 6.7 a carry in 2011. He scored 29 touchdowns last season en route to winning the Jerry Rice Award, given to I-AA’s top rookie.
“He broke some tackles against LSU,” said Matthews, who would get his 100th career win with a victory today. “He’s a good player. Once again, I know more about him because I knew him when he was at Fork Union. You walk in over there and all the ACC schools are … talking to him.”
Considering its generally lackluster history — just two winning seasons since joining the CAA in 2004 (it was the Atlantic 10 before that) — the Tigers still might have something to prove. They want to show they aren’t a fluke. They want to show they have staying power in I-AA’s toughest conference.
“I think we’re building to that,” said Ambrose, in his fourth season as the head coach at his alma mater. “I think we snuck up on everybody as [last] year went on. People still didn’t believe we were any good. I think that kind of gave us a one-card advantage. … We’re behind a lot of these schools historically that have been doing it right forever, and we’re behind. But we’re building to that.”
The Tigers — who moved up to I-AA in 1987 and are powered by a veteran offensive line and several impact transfers, notably Enders (Holy Cross/Lackawanna, a junior college) and All-CAA free safety Jordan Dangerfield (Hofstra) — were voted the preseason CAA favorite by the coaches. JMU was third behind Old Dominion, which is ineligible for the conference championship because of its impending leap to I-A in 2013.