#64 James Madison

Harrisonburg, VA

Bridgeforth Stadium/Zane Showker Field

September 2, 2023

James Madison 38 - Bucknell 3 (ESPN Recap)

Made the 1:40 drive from Lynchburg (Liberty game was G1 of double-header) to Harrisonburg in perfect timing to see a raging pre-game party scene at JMU. The first of a bunch of very impressive, non-football, things I will be calling out about JMU.

I couldn’t find non-permitted parking lots, so I parked illegally and for free in the gravel lot of the physics and science building that had a “No Football Parking” sign. Bought a 400-section ticket for $17 on the walk to the stadium on SeatGeek and sat 8th row with a seat back at the 41-yard line.

I highly recommend college football fans make the trip here for a game. They party like it’s a Big Ten school pregame with packed tailgates, drinking, games, and fun. They also have a massive stadium I was not expecting, fill the stadium up for a FCS opponent, and got very loud for all third-down plays. Caveats here are: 1) that this all applies to the first half only - at halftime of a competitive 17-3 game, 60% of the fans and 90% of the students left to go focus on their social lives; 2) they seem to only have one security gate for each side of the field, leading to the longest entrance line I have experienced (longer than SEC stadiums and 100k+ stadiums). It took 18 mins from when I got in line to when I got to my seat 30 seconds before kickoff, and there were thousands of fans behind me who definitely rolled in many minutes late into the game.

The fans that left at halftime didn’t miss much in the 2H as just like the first game I saw today, both teams aren’t good. JMU is supposed to be good and was favored by 47 but never was close to covering (up 3-0 end Q1 and 24-3 end Q3). JMU has a little bit of a QB crisis and switched QBs mid game because QB1 couldn’t throw the ball very well (3/11 for 15 yards and 0 TD/1Int…against a FCS opponent). QB2 came in and his stats were much better at 7/11 for 144 and 2TD/0Int, but he didn’t pass my eye test as being a sure fire QB1 at the FBS level. I think they are going to struggle on the offensive side of the ball this year. Bucknell played a nice 4-man offense of scrappy QB, a lightening quick WR with good hands who had half their receiving yards and targets, and two slow and strong RBs that were milking clock and holding onto TOP.

I lost a small 2H over 23.5 bet in the final seconds as the reserves and QB3 for JMU stalled out inside the 5 in the final minute. Can’t ask for more as they ran two real plays trying to score and get me the over. I had to be one of 5 or less people who had money riding on that last drive in the stadium since all other markets on the game were decided by that point already and it was only a 2H total decider.

There was a #PublicKillers in the 1H which is always appreciated.

I need to dedicate a section to the streamers.

I don’t know how much longer that tradition is going to last or where it came from, but it’s awesome and hilarious and probably should not last now that JMU is FBS. On every JMU touchdown, fans all over the stadium throw balls of wound-up purple, white, and yellow streamer across the stands. It looks like this.

The issues are (and they are all funny):

1) Not all fans know what is a touchdown and what is not a touchdown. For instance, sometimes the WR drops the ball on an incomplete pass…and streamers start flying. Sometimes the WR or runner was out of bounds or didn’t make it into the endzone…and streamers start flying. Sometimes there is an offensive penalty on the scoring play so it doesn’t count…and streamers start flying. You get the point, but it was hilarious and every time you would hear a ton of fans yelling “NOT A TOUCHDOWN!”

2) These wound rolls of streamers are just winging around the stadium drilling people in the head. They come from all directions. Impossible to avoid.

3) For a reason I do not understand, the fans also try to throw the streamers onto the field, sometimes succeeding and causing people to need to clean them up. Other times falling short and hitting…their own players with them.

4) Little kids.

There was a 7 or 8 year old kid two rows in front of me who was at this game for the streamers and only the streamers. Though when it was time to throw them, he thought it was time to tighten the rolls into a ball and throw them as hard as he could at someone rather than loft them to let them stream. He hit another little kid in my row next to me in the face with a fast ball (yes, he threw it as hard as he could at a little girl two rows behind him and hit her in the face). This was just in my little section. The stadium was packed. I assume this is not an isolated incident. They don’t hurt, but no one likes to be hit in the face with anything from a couple of feet away.

Students that go to this school have a great experience. I would put it tied for first of G5 schools for party/social/tailgate, and now that UCF is in the Big 12, I put JMU at #1 of what I have seen.

Met recently minted 21-year old Ben at Jack’s Beer & Burger Joint after the game. He took $5 off me live betting the Wyoming upset of TTU. Knows his CFB and we had a good chat. Nice kid.