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Tide-Turners: Big plays sparked JMU
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Published: September 22, 2008
HARRISONBURG, Va.
Appalachian State had a firm hold on its No. 1 ranking in the NCAA's Football Championship Subdivision in the first half of Saturday night's showdown against James Madison.
But the Mountaineers lost the handle in the second half.
James Madison roared back from a three-touchdown deficit and stunned the Mountaineers 35-32, at least temporarily ending the Mountaineers' run as the top team in the FCS.
It was indeed a tale of two halves.
The Mountaineers rolled up a 223-66 advantage in yardage in the first half and led 21-0. But the Dukes racked up 236 yards and scored 35 points in the second half.
It must have been a whale of a halftime speech in the James Madison locker room.
"I was a little upset," Coach Mickey Matthews of the No. 5 Dukes said, and players around him in the post-game press conference nodded in agreement with that. "I was embarrassed for all of us."
The Mountaineers seemingly had things well in hand at halftime.
Coach Jerry Moore said that he complimented his team during the halftime break. In retrospect, he said he wished he had issued more of a warning about the second half.
"In hindsight, you just go challenge the dickens out of them," Moore said. "I didn't want to take away anything from what they had done.… I really didn't challenge them enough for the second half."
And the Mountaineers got hit with a quick one-two punch that sent them reeling. Back-to-back big plays in the first 2:17 of the second half shifted the momentum dramatically.
Scotty McGee, a speedy junior who has returned three kickoffs for touchdowns in his college career, got the Dukes rolling with a 99-yard return on the opening kickoff of the second half. Then Rodney Landers, the Dukes' senior quarterback, got more than half of his rushing yards on the Dukes' first play from scrimmage -- getting the Mountaineers to bite on the counter flow of a fake handoff and running 62 yards for a touchdown.
"Those two things really turned the momentum," Moore said.
Matthews said that he was surprised that the Mountaineers kicked to McGee at all. Moore said his team got the kick he wanted.
"We knew a lot about him," Moore said of McGee. "We thought if we kicked it over in the corner we'd have good coverage.… We just did a poor job of covering it."
From there, it was a race to the finish. And the Mountaineers, trailing 28-24, nearly turned the corner with little more than eight minutes left. But a drive for a go-ahead score ended when Jamie Veney of the Dukes stripped the ball from Robert Welton after an 11-yard gain.
The Dukes recovered at the 13-yard line and went on from there for what was essentially the clinching touchdown.
Field position turned out to be a key factor. The Mountaineers had it in the first half. The Dukes had it in the second.
"We kept having five-yard penalties," said Moore, whose team was hampered on offense by a barrage of illegal-procedure, false-start and holding miscues. "We kept putting ourselves in long situations. It's hard when you're facing first and 15."
And he was impressed with the Dukes' defensive front, which did an adequate job of keeping quarterback Armanti Edwards -- a workhorse with 26 carries -- in check.
"They put a lot of pressure on us." Moore said. "They played us a lot like LSU, in terms of alignment and things they did. We didn't do a very good job of blocking their front four. I think if we had done a little better job of that we'd probably have thrown the ball a little bit better. But they got good pressure on us."
Mark LeGree, a Mountaineers safety, said that the Dukes also did a good job on offense in the second half, playing with a much faster tempo than they did in the first half.
"They were coming out a lot faster with their plays," said LeGree, who had an interception and a sack in the first half. "We didn't have much time to check to what they were doing. On one of their touchdowns, I was confused and just didn't have enough time and got beat on it."
On the upside, Moore said that he liked the fight his team showed after falling behind in the second half.
"They'll weather the storm," Moore said. "I wouldn't trade this team for anything. It's a great bunch. This was a very good team we just played. (James Madison) left our place last year feeling a lot like we do right now. They're a good football team. We're a good football team. We just simply made too many mistakes to win a game like this."
Edwards said: "We learned we can't put ourselves in a bind. We learned we can't keep putting ourselves in third-and-long."
The Mountaineers fell to 1-2 heading into their final nonconference game on Saturday against Presbyterian. After that, they'll play eight straight Southern Conference opponents -- a stretch that will determine their status for defense of three straight FCS national titles.
"Last year, everybody was patting us on the back because we had beaten Michigan," Moore said. "We turn right around and lose two conference ballgames.… We've got to go win our conference."
For now, highly-ranked Richmond, Montana or James Madison will take over the No. 1 spot in FCS polls. Moore said that, after what he saw in the second half Saturday, James Madison would be a good choice.
"They beat UMass and they were No. 3," Moore said. "And they beat us, too. They've got my vote."
Note: Devon Moore, the Mountaineers' starting running back, and Tony Robertson, the starter at right defensive end, both are expected to be out at least six weeks as result of injuries suffered against JMU. Moore injured an ankle, Robertson a foot.
■ Tommy Bowman can be reached at 727-7320 or at tbowman@wsjournal.com.
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