Topic: Jamare Edwards to JMU

[gochneaur645]

https://twitter.com/Mare_53/status/1486776628084678675

[mubowhunter]

Good

[whf]

https://twitter.com/Mare_53/status/1486776628084678675

I wish him well, but just wonder how in the world something like this happens; one does jump to difficulty with something in the program, otherwise why go from FBS in C-USA to FCS in your senior year?  Maybe he wants to play for a national championship, or help JMU make a statement in the SBC as a non-affiliated member.

[gochneaur645]

Maybe he wants to play for a national championship, or help JMU make a statement in the SBC as a non-affiliated member.

JMU won't be eligible for the FCS playoffs.

[whf]

JMU won't be eligible for the FCS playoffs.

Thanks, did not know that.

[banker]

Maybe he expected bigger opportunities and they didn?t happen, so he had to settle. The portal doesn?t work for everyone.

[BerkshireHerdFan]

Is he a Grad Transfer? Maybe he wants a degree from JMU, a well respected academic school. It is not always about Football

[2xBison]

Is he a Grad Transfer? Maybe he wants a degree from JMU, a well respected academic school. It is not always about Football

I had heard he had grade problems and that is why he entered portal before bowl game.

maybe he has some academic work to do before eligible, or maybe he never plays there...or maybe I received incorrect information.

[BerkshireHerdFan]

I had heard he had grade problems and that is why he entered portal before bowl game.

maybe he has some academic work to do before eligible, or maybe he never plays there...or maybe I received incorrect information.

Found this:

https://twitter.com/Mare_53/status/1468626831704215560

[goherd24]

Is he a Grad Transfer? Maybe he wants a degree from JMU, a well respected academic school. It is not always about Football

Lol that's not this kids goal. He thought he was going to oklahoma or something and it backfired. Good life lesson

[carolinaherdfan]

Good riddance!
Frigg him and JMU?.
It?s All About Our University! Marshall?!

[MCA23]

If all goes to plan JMU will be playing in the SBC next year along too. 

[chris88]

All I know is holes in roster seem alarming. Maybe someone more familiar can give a better overall picture.  Off top of my head:

Offense:
QB Wells gone. TT transfer seems like a good replacement. Backup situation almost scary
RB: Still lacks depth but a couple of signees from last year should help
OL: At least 3, maybe 4 starters were SRs
TE: Gaines, and the former QB turned TE gone.  I think Miller back
WR: Willie Johnson gone. One of worst units on team last year but had injury issues. Some recruits look good on paper
K: transfer portal
P: Not very good last year

Defense:
DL: PennSt transfer done, Edwards to JMU, Johnson not coming back. Porter back and some others in rotation.Not sure who we have in wings although I think we had a big DL transfer recently?
LB: Not sure but seems we have a good bit back in this group, although depth was an issue last year
DB: Pretty sure we had a couple SRs but could be wrong.

Coaches:
OC Cramsey to Memphis
DB Coach to Arkansas

So, overall, the offense will have a new QB, at least 3 OL, new TE, and likely at least 2 new WR plus a different OC. We will have a new K and need a new punter. The defensive line looks like it will have a major overhaul. Other than Ali, I don't see an all-conf caliber player on offense and not sure we'll have any on defense and we lack depth at nearly every position. We were picked to win division last year but lost at home to two best teams in our league that we played, lost bowl game, and have a HC who interviewed for another job less than one year after he was hired.

For love of humanity, someone please give me some reasons for optimism!

[bighat]

We have a new coach.

[miltonherdfan]

the players leaving weren't good enough to win even our division in the worst FBS conference in america . . . next man up

[whf]

I won't address everything one to one, but here are some reasons for optimism:

OL, strong experience from returning players, many young players played extensively
OL, better players waiting for full time playing than those who left
OL, incoming players more highly sought than those here now before they arrived

RB, Our second best RB was hurt and couldn't play last year Papillion
RB, Ali, potential third team all American
RB, Evans a worthy player if we through the ball to the RBs more often
RB, previous 5 star coming in
RB, several 3 stars coming in
RB, best pass catching cadre I remember in a while


TE, Cadre of TEs who have been in waiting
TE, Miller, best of those who played last year as a pure TE player, Gaines belonged on the Outside IMHO

WR, Three best return, maybe not that great of a comment, but Gammage can be a pro if he lets the coaches coach him up; and I can see him moving to TE, alla some of our greats of the past. He could get up to 240 without any problem, I"d bet.

QB, While I don't see anyone with more skill that Grant Wells on the list, I do see a new beginning where folks are listening and being coached up in order to get their chance. And I see some real competitors.

DL, I've got nothing positive here, sorry.....ugh

LB, With a bit of help on the way, and another spring and summer of coaching, I think our current roster can be pretty good here, maybe not all-conference, but highly competitive in stopping the run and covering TE routes by a couple players.

CB, I was watching the size of kids joining the program here from all sources, it looked improved for a while, then all of a sudden, the 5'10" kids started showing up again.  While I've seen all the recent posts on how good we apparently were, we need significant third down play in order to make an improvement in the results of this program.

Safetys.  Think we are strong here with the kids we've been grooming and a couple of incoming players.

[goherd24]

I won't address everything one to one, but here are some reasons for optimism:

OL, strong experience from returning players, many young players played extensively
OL, better players waiting for full time playing than those who left
OL, incoming players more highly sought than those here now before they arrived

RB, Our second best RB was hurt and couldn't play last year Papillion
RB, Ali, potential third team all American
RB, Evans a worthy player if we through the ball to the RBs more often
RB, previous 5 star coming in
RB, several 3 stars coming in
RB, best pass catching cadre I remember in a while


TE, Cadre of TEs who have been in waiting
TE, Miller, best of those who played last year as a pure TE player, Gaines belonged on the Outside IMHO

WR, Three best return, maybe not that great of a comment, but Gammage can be a pro if he lets the coaches coach him up; and I can see him moving to TE, alla some of our greats of the past. He could get up to 240 without any problem, I"d bet.

QB, While I don't see anyone with more skill that Grant Wells on the list, I do see a new beginning where folks are listening and being coached up in order to get their chance. And I see some real competitors.

DL, I've got nothing positive here, sorry.....ugh

LB, With a bit of help on the way, and another spring and summer of coaching, I think our current roster can be pretty good here, maybe not all-conference, but highly competitive in stopping the run and covering TE routes by a couple players.

CB, I was watching the size of kids joining the program here from all sources, it looked improved for a while, then all of a sudden, the 5'10" kids started showing up again.  While I've seen all the recent posts on how good we apparently were, we need significant third down play in order to make an improvement in the results of this program.

Safetys.  Think we are strong here with the kids we've been grooming and a couple of incoming players.

The average CB size in the NFL is 5'11"..... What do you want? Lol

[marshallz13]

Rb doesn't concern me. The FSU kid coming in and Papilon returning from injury should be a solid 3 pack with Ali leading the charge. And Evans is always reliable as a pass catcher and if needed he can step in.

[ed swain]

Maybe he did not like the two 300 hundred pounder coming and was afraid his playing time would be limited.

[whf]

The average CB size in the NFL is 5'11"..... What do you want? Lol

I write all that, and you make a comment about the size of NFL CBs. We don't have NFL skill level CBs, But hey, if you want 5'10" CBs playing against 6'3" receivers in our future, good for you. I'll take some size and strength so that they don't get knocked down at the line of scrimmage, or knocked off their coverage before the receivers even make their cuts.

[HerdEcon]

All I know is holes in roster seem alarming. Maybe someone more familiar can give a better overall picture.  Off top of my head:

Offense:
QB Wells gone. TT transfer seems like a good replacement. Backup situation almost scary
RB: Still lacks depth but a couple of signees from last year should help
OL: At least 3, maybe 4 starters were SRs
TE: Gaines, and the former QB turned TE gone.  I think Miller back
WR: Willie Johnson gone. One of worst units on team last year but had injury issues. Some recruits look good on paper
K: transfer portal
P: Not very good last year

Defense:
DL: PennSt transfer done, Edwards to JMU, Johnson not coming back. Porter back and some others in rotation.Not sure who we have in wings although I think we had a big DL transfer recently?
LB: Not sure but seems we have a good bit back in this group, although depth was an issue last year
DB: Pretty sure we had a couple SRs but could be wrong.

Coaches:
OC Cramsey to Memphis
DB Coach to Arkansas

So, overall, the offense will have a new QB, at least 3 OL, new TE, and likely at least 2 new WR plus a different OC. We will have a new K and need a new punter. The defensive line looks like it will have a major overhaul. Other than Ali, I don't see an all-conf caliber player on offense and not sure we'll have any on defense and we lack depth at nearly every position. We were picked to win division last year but lost at home to two best teams in our league that we played, lost bowl game, and have a HC who interviewed for another job less than one year after he was hired.

For love of humanity, someone please give me some reasons for optimism!

Positive: Players got an extra year of eligibility and players at several positions took advantage of the extra year.  So maybe we will be better than we think at some positions.

Positive:  The LB and S position made a lot of tackles last season.  So we have something to build off of at those positions.


QB:  If the TT transfer doesn't work out or we have to rely on our back up for any reason then we are in for a long season.
RB:  The FSU transfer should help the depth issue at this position.  Hope he can push Ali.
OL:  Seemed like we used a lot of substitutes on both lines this past season.  Maybe it just seemed like we did.  If we did then hopefully that playing time will help.  This group gave up 19 sacks and we averaged 4.7 yards rushing.  Wasn't good in short yardage situations. 
TE:  ???
WR:  We need serious help here.  We may have some players return but they weren't that good last year.  Hope the TT QB can make this group look better than they really are.  Our top receiver didn't break 900 yards receiving and we only had 2 WRs break 500 yards.  We didn't have a single WR with more than 3 TDs all season.  We don't have a "go to" WR.
K & P:  Anyone's guess.

DL:  Not a very good unit as a whole.
LB:  We had some good individual LB play at times last season.  Not sure how deep we are.
DB:  Another position that didn't set the world on fire.  Depth is a concern simply because no one could beat out any of the starters.  I would call this group more "lucky" than "good".  Seemed like the long pass was open several times, especially late in the season, but the opposing QBs couldn't hit the open WRs or the WRs had butter fingers.

Defense as a whole:  It says a lot about a defense when the top 7 tacklers were either LBs or S.  That's not a good thing.  4 of the top 7 tacklers are S.  The S position recorded 1.5 sacks all season so we can't say there were a lot of safety blitzes.  DBs recorded 2 sacks so the S were not covering for blitzing DBs.  S is a long way from the line of scrimmage to have 4 of the top 7 tacklers. 

[Thundering In MD]

Edwards had a good career here playing for Doc and JC.  Now it?s time for some 300lb guys to play for Huff and Street.

[goherd24]

I write all that, and you make a comment about the size of NFL CBs. We don't have NFL skill level CBs, But hey, if you want 5'10" CBs playing against 6'3" receivers in our future, good for you. I'll take some size and strength so that they don't get knocked down at the line of scrimmage, or knocked off their coverage before the receivers even make their cuts.

Average nfl receiver is 6'1. We playing teams with momster WR every week? Get out of here and come back to Earth. If the NFL defenss those guys with 5'11 players we'll be fine with 5'10". Don't get hung up on size and look at ability instead.

Let's hope we can replace the DB coach with one at least as good

[herdfan129]

I agree, size doesn?t matter across the board but it could matter depending on what we are asking them to do. If we are asking them to play press man cover 0 most of the time then we need some bigger guys. Outside of that, I?ll take skill, football IQ, and desire over size.