Editor’s Note – Mike Barber, the assistant sports editor of the Daily News Record in Harrisonburg, will be offering a weekly look around the CAA to readers of Virginia Sports Now. Keep up with Mike’s great work daily at the paper’s site - www.dnronline.com – and look for a notebook and James Madison University story here weekly.
HARRISONBURG – Richmond narrowly escaped Saturday with its second win over a CAA South Division opponent, squeaking by James Madison with a 21-17 victory when the Dukes’ quarterback fumbled the ball with JMU poised to go in for the game-winning touchdown.
Earlier this year, the Spiders beat Delaware 16-15 by blocking a chip-shot field goal with 38 seconds to go.
Better to be lucky than good? Well, maybe not, but CAA coaches say to go undefeated, you better be both.
“You’ve got to have a little luck going for you and you have to be able to make some things happen,” said Villanova coach Andy Talley, whose team went 7-1 in the league last year, losing on a final-play Hail Mary touchdown pass against JMU. “They could have two losses right now, you know? Coulda, woulda, shoulda, but they don’t. You need to have those kind of things happen for you to run the table.”
Just six weeks into the season, only two CAA teams are still undefeated in the conference – No. 1 Richmond and No. 4 New Hampshire. Those two don’t play this season. Still, both clubs have anything but smooth sailing the rest of the way.
Richmond’s three toughest remaining games – Massachusetts, William & Mary and Villanova – are all at home, but the Spiders do make the always-tough trip Maine this weekend.
“A football game is hard to win in any way,” UR coach Mike London said. “It always comes down to a couple of plays during the course of a game. Luckily, or whatever you want to say, we’ve been on the positive end of two last-minute situations that have allowed us to win. Because you’re right, we very well could have two losses at this point.”
The New Hampshire Wildcats have to play at Massachusetts on Saturday and at William & Mary on Nov. 14. Can they run the CAA table?
“You’re way ahead of yourself and way head of us,” UNH coach Sean McDonnell said. “With everything that’s going on around here and everything in this league, the next one is the toughest one and the best one and the most important one.”
Last year, JMU went 8-0 in the CAA. Did the Dukes simply roll over all comers? Not quite. They beat Richmond on a 69-yard punt return for a touchdown and nipped Villanova on that Hail Mary pass.
Can Richmond and New Hampshire combine good football and good fortune to match Madison’s accomplishment. Sure they can.
But in the end, fingertips – like those of Kevin Grayson, who blocked the 23-yard Delaware field goal or Justin Thorpe, who dropped the ball for JMU inside the 6-yard line – may ultimately decide it.
A different home-field advantage up north: While traveling to places like Delaware and James Madison, with large, boisterous crowds, obviously presents an imposing challenge, making trips up north – where crowds are sparse and facilities are poor – is no easy task either, CAA coaches say.
Convincing players that lousy crowds don’t equal lousy teams is a challenge. Some of that may account for William & Mary’s slow start at Northeastern on Saturday. The Tribe trailed 7-6 at halftime at Parson’s Field – a glorified high school venue – before pulling away for a 34-14 win.
“You go in there and there’s not a whole lot of people at the game,” W&M coach Jimmye Laycock said. “I think we had more than they did. Obviously getting dressed and being able to talk to your players and have things in the locker room, you’re a little bit at a disadvantage there. That’s a tough environment there.”
JMU quarterback battle over, for better or worse: When junior Drew Dudzik suffered a broken left foot in the third quarter of James Madison’s loss to Richmond on Saturday, it finally ended the team’s quarterback controversy. Redshirt freshman Justin Thorpe, who had been splitting time with Dudzik, will now have the team’s slim playoff hopes in his hands the rest of the way.
JMU coach Mickey Matthews had named Thorpe the starter for the UR game last Tuesday.
But Saturday, it was Dudzik who led the Dukes to their only offensive touchdown, energizing the team when he entered in the second quarter with JMU down 14-3. He hit Rockeed McCarter with a 38-yard touchdown pass, lofted perfectly into the corner of the end zone. After Dudzik left the injury, the offense scored no more points.
Monday, Dudzik had surgery to insert a screw in his foot, a procedure that will likely cost him the rest of the season.
R.J. an M.D.?: No, New Hampshire quarterback R.J. Toman is no doctor. But his opinion was as important as anyone’s as McDonnell decided how to handle Toman’s turf toe injury the past two games.
“I asked him to do two things in the past couple of weeks,” McDonnell said. “I asked him to be honest and smart. Before the Towson game he did both.”
For that contest, Toman told McDonnell he could be available in an emergency, but wasn’t 100 percent. The Wildcats played Kevin Decker and blew out Towson, one of the league’s few weak links, 57-7.
That extra rest allowed Toman to practice all week going into Saturday’s showdown with Villanova. He threw for 292 yards and a touchdown in the 28-24 win.
“We need those kids to be honest with us,” McDonnell said. “They have to put their ego and their heart aside and hopefully make the right decisions.”
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