It was 9:45AM yesterday when I showed up at Frisco’s Dr. Pepper Park for the FCS National Championship game. It was only 24 degrees, but it was sunny with little wind. The tailgaters had gotten an early start because the parking lots were full. The James Madison crowd outnumbered the YSU crowd by about 3 to 1, but they out-partied them by about 10-1. I have heard all the excuses about early games at LSU dampening the crowd’s noise level due to not enough people drunk at 11AM. Well, Cajuns, the folks from Virginia may have us beat. I have never seen so much alcohol in a parking lot as I saw Saturday morning. One group of young people in their 20’s had 5 or 6 people in their group and I saw 6 cases of Milwaukee’s Best emptied on the ground. Obviously, they still had some iced, or just sitting in the cold temps, but that is being a little optimistic, in my opinion. Some took their shirts off to prove their manhood.
We had great seats right at the 40-45 yard line that was in the Madison section. YSU took the 50 yard line to the endzone on the East side, while JMU had from the 50 north on the East Side and the entire West section. There is construction everywhere on the north side of the stadium and in my opinion was really a detriment to the fans’ experience. The place was packed and fans stood around the tops of the bleachers, but the lines to the concession stand were at least 25 deep and highly under served for that many folks. They had two men’s bathrooms on the East side to serve 9,000 to 10,000 folks.
It was annoying that the JMU fans kept throwing streamers after every touchdown, but it made for an unreal atmosphere. There were so many drunks that they all did not make it into the stadium for the kickoff due to security checks, but I have to believe there were more than 20,000 at this game even though some seats in the construction zone were not used. Last season North Dakota State/JSU broke the record with nearly 22,000, but Frisco has being doing pretty well supporting this game. There were 20,586 in 2012 for Sam Houston State and North Dakota State. All of the posters on Any Given Saturday were predicting 10,000-12,000 for this game, but they did not know what they were talking about.
I saw 50-100 Bison fans decked out in their Green and Gold for this game, but the majority of the tickets for this game were sold prior to the season. I spoke with several fans who paid a premium price for tickets on the black market. One fan told me that he bought two tickets for $400. Next year the stadium will be complete and should be quite a showcase. I like the stadium being full most years, but it could really use a few more thousand seats so that tickets are available for all those who want to attend. In this day and age of so many folks relocating due to jobs, there are representatives from most schools living in Houston or Dallas. I followed three cars from Allen that were locals that had JMU stickers and had only 9 miles to drive to attend the game.
As to the game, I thought James Madison passed the eye test even prior to the game. They just had a better looking group than Youngstown State. One misconception fans have about football is that weight is the major factor in evaluating team size. I am sure YSU may have been heavier than JMU, but I look for length and range. The JMU offensive line was ideal size for a FCS program with 6’5 offensive tackles in the 290-300 range and their center and guards were in the 6’1 to 6’3 range and all under 300 lbs. No, they did not average 350 like Grambling or even the size of Southeastern Louisiana.
Their defensive line was very good. They had two lean, lanky 6’4 defensive ends who were around 225-240, and their inside people were 6’1 270 on average. The big difference I saw with them was their linebackers and secondary were taller than usual. By having 6′ to 6’2 defensive backs, the YSU taller receivers had no advantage. The linebackers were in the 6’1 range and 220 lbs. Of course, they are in the Maryland, New Jersey, Virginia, and Ohio recruiting zones.
There is little doubt that JMU was the best team in the country this year. YSU was more of a Cinderella team as they were beaten by North Dakota State and South Dakota State by 14-21 points, but they got hot in the playoffs. Even though the game score was not that close, Youngstown held JMU to 50% of their average outputs. In fact, Youngstown’s blocked punt, their poor punt that went sideways, and their blocked field goal were critical mistakes that a team cannot make. The final totals showed YSU outgaining JMU 293 yards to 253 yards, and having 23 first downs to 15. JMU had zero turnovers and few penalties. However, I had the sense that Youngstown did not have the ability to come from behind with that Big 10 offense. Madison was much more explosive considering they cracked 80 points twice and had over 60 points two or three times.
I really hate that Sam Houston saved their worst for a Friday Night game with 25 degree temps. They certainly have the talent to play with James Madison, and a quarterback who is superior to both the guys on the field on Saturday. I would say that Sam Houston had better skill people overall, but when you go 17-57 in the spread offense, you will be playing defense all night. JMU went 14-0 against FCS competition and lost only to North Carolina at Chapel Hill. They are well deserving. Anyone who can beat North Dakota State on the road deserves the title just on that fact alone. LOL
Back in 2000 when Nick Saban took over at LSU, I will never forget his evaluation of the talent at LSU. I had spotted the problem 15 years earlier as LSU hit the dark days of the 1980’s and 1990’s when they were not the national power they are today. I noticed the number of players from Louisiana that they were signing and the level of player they were dipping down to sign. I can name a dozen of locals including 5’9 170 linebackers and 5’10 210 linebackers. The point Saban made is that the LSU formula should not be signing 25 of the Top 30 in Louisiana (LSU used to have 95 scholarships and before that an unlimited number). The point Nick was making was to go get 10 of the Dirty Dozen, and then don’t drop to a 3-star or 2-star to build a roster.
Both Nick Saban and Bobby Keasler came into our lives around the same time and they both took a new approach to recruiting. I had many conversations with the Jackson staff over recruiting. They did not believe in challenging programs like Tech, USL, or Tulane on players. They were used to a lower level of recruit while at Nicholls. The era of DiNardo, Stovall, and Hallman were not great recruiters, and Charlie Mac had grown stale in spending most of his time in Louisiana. Mac once came to Barbe , LaGrange, LCHS, and Sulphur High School and served up double digits of football signees. I know because we signed three off our Barbe team 1975.
The point I am making is that LSU is enrolling six players next week for spring semester. All six are December graduates. Lowell Narcisse is the only Louisiana native. Austin Deculus of Cy-Fair in Houston is a great offensive lineman with Lake Charles ties. Jacoby Stevens is from Tennessee; Grant Delpit played at IMG Academy in Florida, but was recruited from Houston. Justin Thomas is from Alabama and Mannie Netherly is from over in Crosby, Texas. All of these players would be rated higher than Louisiana players who fall in the 13-30 range in recruiting.
The moral to the story is that there are no boundaries in 2017 with the Internet. Jeffery Okudah of Grand Prairie, Texas is the #1 CB in the country. He is a 5-star player. He was recruited by all SEC teams, but committed to Ohio State on Saturday. He was recruited by Tim Beck of Ohio State, but Tom Herman hoped hiring Beck on Friday would curb his appeal. It did not work. Ohio State is all over Texas and Florida looking for talent. When LSU plays Ohio State, it is no longer Louisiana boys vs those Ohio boys. It may have been like that when Woody Hayes was there, or Charlie Mac was at LSU, but those days are long gone. The days of LSU finding 6-10 players in Southwest Louisiana are long gone as well. McNeese must also adopt this philosophy, in my opinion.
McNeese basketball played awful last night in Houston. I watched the first half on the HBU network and the shooting and rebounding are just bad, Enough said! Congrats to the women for beating HBU at Burton on Saturday. I apologize for not mentioning that home game in Saturday’s article, but I was rushing to get to Frisco and just forgot it.
I have my reservations for Spring Training in March in Arizona. I have had my heart set on going to Mesa to see the Cubs play, or to catch the Cubs at the Rangers Park. Mesa seats 13,500 and the atmosphere rivals that of Wrigley Field. It is the best in all of baseball. The tickets went on sale on January 7 at 11AM. I totally forgot and just thought about it this morning. In less than 18 hours, all games have been sold out. This includes sitting on the “Berm”(grass in outfield) for the entire week I will be there. I never thought Surprise Stadium would sell out two months ahead of time, but they have sold over 10,000 tickets at a price that is $5 above all other games. Isn’t Free Enterprise wonderful? Those lovable Cubs have more bandwagon fans now than even the Patriots.
Zem's Gems 