Jump to content
  • advertisement_alt
  • advertisement_alt
  • advertisement_alt

Leaderboard


Popular Content

Showing content with the highest reputation on 06/09/2021 in Posts

  1. 3 points
    There are many reasons why JMU is the best football program by far in the CAA at this point and it's not close. It starts with facilities. They have a beautiful stadium that seats over 20,000, practice facilities, powerful alums with cash, etc. They are also the only thing that matters in a small town like Harrisonburg (until softball). Delaware was the king and they are attempting to get back there with a renovated stadium. They already had the indoor facility, the tradition, the fans (though old), etc. https://richmond.com/sports/college/schools/james-madison/as-jmu-and-w-m-are-establishing-cost-of-attendance-has-become-the-new-ante/article_1c9a7488-8ffa-5f62-81c4-27017de0c9eb.html#:~:text=Cost of attendance generally runs between %242%2C500 and %244%2C000 per scholarship recipient. At this point, we don't have those facilities outside the new outdoor practice field. We don't have an indoor practice facility or a football-only Field House. We are trying to work and renovate an outdated (yes it's been 20 years) spring sports facility with no weight room. Our weight room, while very good, is still located in the Towson Center. Why is there none in the Field House? Money. We wouldn't spend the extra cash when that was built along with the renovated stadium back in 2000. We also don't offer Cost of Attendance. That's the link above where Delaware and JMU along with a few other schools offer a stipend from 2,500-3,000+ for football players for the year. We do offer that in Men's and Women's basketball. So when some complain that we rely too much on transfers, I go back to the 2017 roster. In that year, we went 5-6 and a big reason was the fact we lost starting quarterback Morgan Mahalak in the first game of the year to a concussion and never saw him again. Mahalak, to those new to the board, was a dual-threat QB from Oregon with a decent arm and good size. Was a pretty good runner. But he just couldn't stay healthy. Ryan Stover, a r-freshman had to take over and he struggled as most of the offense did. Stover had a chance to be the guy, but never had IT. The defense did a solid job considering they were on the field a lot. When I looked back at the defensive transfers, the best was Kaniya Anderson from ODU. We had transfers from Dean College and Davidson. We had some good players who grew up in the system such as Diondre Wallace, Keon Paye, Monty Fenner and Lyrics Klugh. Paye and Klugh were three-star recruits. Paye had a solid if unspectacular career and Klugh showed promise early and fade away before transferring. The bottom line is that winning matters, but tradition and facilities mean more to getting more blue-chip players. So the transfer portal is getting nearly as crazy as basketball. Why not take a chance on players from FBS schools who needed a change of atmosphere. In 2019, we went 7-5 and we pretty much went for it with defensive transfers. DT Jesus Gibbs (South Carolina), DT Ron Johnson (Michigan), DE Marcus Bowman (juco), DE Quashon Alexander (Nebraska) were added to the defensive line and S Robert Topps III (Kansas) was supposed to make an impact. All were injured or nicked up. Add that to the season-ending or season-damaging injuries to starters: RB Shane Simpson, LB Ricky DeBerry, S Jamal Gay, CB Brandon Shuman, Johnson (ACL), WR Jabari Allen (knee cost him half the season), and OT Darrian Bryant (Temple transfer was hurt in camp) to name a few. So did we give up on transfers after that 7-5 injury-plagued season? An overtime loss to Villanova at home and home losses to Albany and Elon proved costly. Win just one of those games and you probably make the playoffs at 8-4 considering we played four non-conference games. I think, on paper, this is the best group of transfers we've ever gotten because they are a good mixture of players with experience and potential. Gibbs was a guy you could take a chance on. He came from South Carolina as a 4* OL and moved to DL. He didn't have the experience but at 6-4, 290 with athletic ability and four years, he was worth taking a shot on. Unfortunately, he had two separate injuries in 2019 that forced him to play about 1/3 of the snaps. He could be a star with all these big bodies around him, but he doesn't have to be. You add Darrien Reynolds (Gardner Webb), who had 128 tackles last season and Elorm Lumor started most of his career at Rutgers. That's an instant boost to the linebackers. Reynolds will be a tackling machine and has several huge DL up front including 6-7 Mason Cholewa from JMU/UCF. Again, Cholewa has some FBS experienced and played a lot at JMU last season. The point is that even if one player doesn't work out or we have several key injuries, we have bodies to replace them. Unlike in 2019, when CB Brandon Shuman went down, we were left with several young corners who couldn't fit the bill. Now, we have Shuman back along with a plethora of talented FBS transfers (Makai Self, DJ Pratt, Robert Topps, Keyvone Bruton, Mark Collins Jr.) and a talented juco in Charles Peoples who has good size and length at 6-0, 185 with 4.52 speed. Then we added a 3* recruit in Shafeek Smith from PA, who is a big-time talent and may play some this season (can play 4 games before you lose your redshirt). I didn't mention the offense because it has few transfers because we were set on the OLine and pretty set at WR. The only thing we needed was a running back with some experience and we got one in Jordan Howard. Now, we need a change-of-pace back to help along with Kobe Young, who is talented, but has some injury concerns. Chris Ferguson isn't a glossy pick up. He's not Puma Pass. I wanted a guy who could run and throw. Apparently, Pass was inconsistent as a thrower so he didn't really live up to his name. We need Ferguson to make the right pass and hit the open receivers. He should have plenty of time to throw behind this monstrous line that averages around 325. We'll probably use the fullback more this season so establishing the run with Howard or Young or another back will be the focus. That means play-action should work and you have a bigger and healthier Jabari Allen to catch a few back shoulder throws from Ferguson (Fergie? CF3 if he takes Pass' number?). I'm not a predictor of Towson teams so I'm not going to predict a record. I like this defense but I know the history and it's been mediocre-at-best under Ambrose. There are no excuses. The defensive staff needs to use everybody that can make an impact and I think we have more impact players on D since we had Jordan Dangerfield, Tye Smith, Telvion Clark, Ryan Delaire and Monte Gaddis (and slightly underachieve). Lumor, Tramar Reece from Indiana, Cholwa, Ole Okombi and Gibbs. The possibilities are endless and it should continue as most will return in 2022. The talent is something we're not used to seeing on the defensive side. Barring ineptness on the offensive end, it should mean postseason and more for 2021. The bigger question is whether it will be enough to snag an upset over JMU, San Diego State or ND State.
  2. 2 points
    Hoping for a nice little pipeline....
  3. 2 points
    100% agree with your post. All of the kids that are transferring in to Towson would be/are impact players at their respective schools. The landscape of top tier FCS has changed. The portal will now become an even bigger part of creating the depth needed to compete for a national championship. Easily the most depth that Towson has ever had. I expect this team to challenge for the National Championship.
  4. 2 points
    Again, I do not know much about this team but from what I can see is a coaching staff that is committed to making a legitimate playoff run. It seems the approach chosen is to utilize the transfer portal talent to do so. I read some postings in which some thought that transfers are kids that weren’t going to start at their other schools, definitely not true. Due to COVID and getting the extra year, the transfer portal is at record numbers and there are many players who needed a change to revive their motivation, position coach left, wanted to try to go power 5, and or graduated and wanted a new challenge. My son would have started for sure but his position coach left and he felt he reached his highest potential with his past coaching staff. i can’t say for sure the approach this staff is using will be the answer for this team but I can say for sure that they raised the competition for spring and are raising the competition for fall camp. I have also seen where FBS transfers come in and compete but do not beat out current FCS starters. Simply, it looks like to me Coach is taking an educated gambling approach in which the odds are in favor of some great competition and all the players, transfers and current will need to bring their A game! I predict we will be strong contenders in the playoffs. Again, never even watched a CAA game, just a hunch😊
  5. 1 point
  6. 1 point
    https://saturdaytradition.com/indiana-football/towson-officially-welcomes-former-indiana-dl-to-program/
  7. 1 point
    Forgot about Folley. Hate to see Adrian go but, I understand. Definitely wish him the absolute best
  8. 1 point
    I’m sure we’ll add one more. Freshman Sabias Folley is another big back like Howard with some speed and agility. The rest from what I gather are walk ons.
  9. 1 point
  10. 1 point

Footer title

This content can be configured within your theme settings in your ACP. You can add any HTML including images, paragraphs and lists.

Footer title

This is an example of a list.

Footer title

This content can be configured within your theme settings in your ACP. You can add any HTML including images, paragraphs and lists.

Footer title

This content can be configured within your theme settings in your ACP. You can add any HTML including images, paragraphs and lists.

×