Yikes. 

JMU football suffered an ugly 24-21 home overtime loss to Troy on Thursday night. 

“That’s not winning football,” coach Billy Napier said. “That’s not the standard.”

Here are five takeaways (not three this week) in honor of the five-turnover debacle. 

Atrocious late-game clock management

I hate to do this, but we’re dedicating an entire section to putting Napier on blast for his handling of the final 40 seconds of regulation. It was that egregious.

Let’s set the scene. 

The Dukes ran the ball for 5 yards to set up a first-and-10 at the Troy 37 with 37 seconds left and two timeouts. The game was tied at 21. Kicker Morgan Suarez has missed four of his last five field goals, and the TV broadcast said he was erratic in warmups. 

In theory, the Dukes should want to get inside the Troy 23, giving Suarez a kick under 40 yards. In his JMU career, Suarez is 19-for-19 on field goals under 40 yards. He’s 8-for-18 (44.4%) from 40 or longer. 

Well, that was not Napier’s plan. 

“The kick line was the 33,” Napier said. “We were on the 37.” 

Uh oh.

Getting to the 33 sets up a kick from about 50 yards. History says Suarez is automatic inside 40 and a coin flip over 40. Yet Napier felt anything inside 50 was doable. That’s questionable logic.

JMU ran the ball on first down for about 2 yards. The play ended with 32 seconds left. JMU called a timeout at 26 seconds. 

On second down, JMU lost a yard. The play ended with about 22 seconds on the clock. JMU called a timeout with 13 seconds left. 

“The two runs on first and second down weren’t efficient,” Napier said. 

Even if they were, would they have gotten Suarez within 40 yards? If JMU planned to put its inconsistent kicker in position to kick from 45 yards, it’s borderline coaching malpractice. 

The Dukes took a deep shot on third down that nearly resulted in a game-winning touchdown. The fourth-down Hail Mary was also nearly caught. 

In the end, both fell incomplete and the Dukes lost in overtime. 

The management of the clock on the final drive of regulation was also concerning. The Dukes burned about 15 seconds unnecessarily before calling the two timeouts. Napier likely wanted to ensure JMU had the final offensive play of the game, which is OK reasoning. But were you really scared of giving Troy’s offense 10-15 seconds? 

It feels overly conservative. The Dukes seemed fearful of committing a sixth turnover, so they’d rather run the ball up the gut and set up a lengthy kick or Hail Mary on the game’s final play than aggressively push the ball through the air to set up a short kick or even score the game-winning touchdown.

JMU’s coaches often praise the Dukes’ quarterbacks, Camden Coleman and JC Evans. Napier says he trusts both to play winning football. Between the end of the first half at App State and the end of regulation Thursday, their actions tell a much different story about their trust in the QBs in two-minute situations.

The end-of-game sequence was baffling. The only explanation is that Napier didn’t trust his offense after its turnover woes, and he hoped Cromwell would break one or two decent runs to set up a kick from 40-50 yards. That’s not a good enough plan from a head coach leading a team in his 106th game. 

Turnover woes

Memphis is one of the best teams in the American Conference. I was shocked earlier this year when the Tigers lost to a middling Tulane team by two scores.

A quick check of the box score reveals 6 Memphis turnovers in the loss.

If you give the ball up a handful of times in a game, it doesn’t matter who you’re playing — a loss becomes feasible.

The Dukes turned the ball over five times, and one of the interceptions was returned for a touchdown. JMU allowed just 14 offensive points in regulation. That’s a plenty good enough defensive showing to leave Thursday with a victory.

JMU needed an abysmal offensive showing to lose. Well …

QB rotation backfires

JMU scored touchdowns on its first three offensive drives.

The next 13 drives? Five turnovers. Six punts. Two turnovers on downs.

What happened??

On those 13 drives, nine came in the second half. The Dukes never used the same QB to start a drive on more than two consecutive second-half possessions. They even switched out QBs during the one overtime possession.

It was a maddening rotation for an offense unable to muster any second-half rhythm. Napier said postgame they’ll continue to evaluate the room and that he trusts both guys. 

That’s understandable, as they have both played well in stretches. But the system backfired Thursday. JMU had no offensive rhythm, and rotating the quarterbacks each drive didn’t throw the defense off. In other weeks, the rotation had its merits and seemingly kept defenses off balance.

Thursday’s outcome leads to major questions about the plan for the rest of the season.

One crushing defensive lapse

This mistake goes overlooked because Troy missed a field goal on the drive, but the Dukes allowed a 15-yard run on third-and-15 from the Troy 3 halfway through the fourth quarter. To make matters worse, Goose Crowder was in the game at quarterback following an injury timeout that sidelined Tucker Kilcrease.

Crowder has an upper-body injury, which has been reported throughout the week. The Trojans didn’t want him throwing from the end zone on third-and-long in his first play of the night while dealing with an injury. They ran the ball to set up a punt.

Somehow, JMU allows a 15-yard run. Troy keeps the drive going before missing a 49-yard kick that sets up the Dukes at their own 30. JMU’s defense didn’t allow points, but it did allow yards. It led to a massive field position (and time) difference.

Let’s say JMU gives up a 7-yard run on third-and-15. Evan Crenshaw would then punt from his own 10 with about 7:30 left in the quarter. Crenshaw is an elite punter, but he would’ve had to hit a 60-yard punt with no return from Michael Scott to put the Dukes at their own 30. 

Even if he did that, the Dukes would have the ball at their own 30 with over seven minutes left. Instead, JMU got the ball at its own 30 with about three minutes left. 

We discussed how JMU ran out of time on its final drive. It would’ve been nice to have four extra minutes left to try to produce the game-winning score. Imagine four extra minutes and another 15-20 yards of field position. That’s game-altering.

Troy averaged 3.8 yards per carry Thursday. In what was an obvious running spot with a backup quarterback, the Dukes missed several tackles on a critical, field-position-altering 15-yard run. 

Conference championship teams don’t do that.

Vibe check 

Some fans will say they’re checked out for the rest of the season, with conference title dreams dwindling and College Football Playoff aspirations gone. 

Well, they’re lying. 

If JMU loses out and goes 7-5, the fanbase will be apoplectic. If Napier steers the Dukes to three wins in a row, they’ll be 10-2 going into a bowl game. That difference matters drastically. 

It impacts potential player retention. It impacts donor morale. It impacts 2027 expectations from both fans and outside media members. 

JMU’s path to a conference title is murky at best, with App State and Georgia Southern now both positioned nicely to make a run at the East. But the finish to this season matters. 

Bob Chesney’s 2024 team limped to the finish line, but he swung the fanbase back positively with a bowl victory and several key player retentions. Can Napier finish strong in Year 1?

Reaching 10 wins with a bowl game still to play is doable. He’ll need to go 3-1 over the final four to get there. Fans will be disappointed if this group finishes with three or more losses after starting 7-0, but JMU fans aren’t dumb. Hitting 10 wins in Year 1 with a major roster upheaval is an accomplishment. It can be equal parts disappointing (because of the 7-0 start) and encouraging (because of the offseason turnover). 

Almost everybody in the fanbase goes into Year 2 excited if Napier hits 10 wins. If he fails to get there after starting 7-0, however, fans will begin to raise serious doubts about whether his tenure at JMU will end like his at Louisiana or Florida. 

The last few games matter massively as Napier tries to convince JMU faithful he’s the right man for the transition to the American Conference. 

Photo courtesy of JMU Athletics Communications