Without A Doubt: JMU Offense Explodes In Playoff Win Over UNH

HARRISONBURG — If Donnie Kirkpatrick ever played Texas Hold’em, he’d probably have a great poker face.

The James Madison offensive coordinator engaged in a classic slow play of deception Saturday, doing what he could from the sideline to help the Dukes dominate in a 55-22 win over New Hampshire in the second round of the FCS Playoffs.

By eliminating New Hampshire (8-5), it was the first playoff win for JMU (11-1) since 2011.

With JMU leading by three in the second quarter, Kirkpatrick called for a trick play he had setup in October when the two teams met in the regular season.

Senior wide receiver Rashard Davis was motioned for a jet-sweep before he took a handoff from junior quarterback Bryan Schor. Davis — a former high school quarterback — sprinted to his right, planted and launched the ball downfield finding fellow senior receiver Brandon Ravenel wide open.

“It was what the defense gave us,” Ravenel said. “The defender jumped a bit and I went right by him. Rashard gave me a great ball and it was like playing catch at that point.”

The 37-yard receiver-to-receiver touchdown pass pushed Madison’s lead to 17-7 with 8:45 left in the first half.

“It makes you look good when the players do it right,” Kirkpatrick said. “But, the reverse pass was something that we had worked on. We had hit New Hampshire on the run that it looks like a few times in the previous game against them.”

At New Hampshire, Davis had two carries of off the same jet-sweep motion for 10 yards in the nail-biting 42-39 JMU win.

“By the end of game up there that was the play we ran that could have maybe sealed the game for us, but their safety came up aggressively and we had to punt,” Kirkpatrick said. “We figured their safety would do it again, so I said before we use that play, we’re going to run the pass off of that play first. I was hoping to call it somewhere down near the red zone because if I was going to use that play, I wanted it to go for a score.”

Davis’ touchdown pass came in the midst of JMU scoring 31 unanswered points during an aerial assault on New Hampshire’s vulnerable secondary and gambling defense.

The big-picture plan Kirkpatrick implemented for Saturday didn’t differ too much from how his offense led JMU to win at New Hampshire earlier in the year either.

Schor threw second-quarter touchdowns to Ravenel, junior wide receiver Terrence Alls and junior tight end Jonathan Kloosterman giving the Dukes a 31-7 halftime advantage.

Schor, in his first game back from being injured at Villanova on Nov. 12, said he wasn’t surprised New Hampshire stacked the box to stop JMU’s rushing attack. The signal-caller finished the game 30-of-37 for 371 yards and five touchdowns. The 371 passing yards stands as a single-game best for Schor.

“They’ve run that defense the whole year and they played the same way they played us in Week 7, so I wasn’t surprised,” Schor said.

He added it was his job to put the ball in the air where only his receivers could catch it.

“If they try to defend us one-on-one, I have a lot of confidence in our guys to go make plays,” he said.

On a career-day, Ravenel had eight catches for 155 yards and two touchdowns. He also had an 86-yard kickoff return touchdown in the third quarter to extend JMU’s lead to 38-15 immediately after New Hampshire was given life.

Wildcats senior running back Dalton Crossan scored on a 14-yard run to open the second half.

Ravenel set a career-best and JMU playoff record with 263 all-purpose yards.

New Hampshire coach Sean McDonnell said his defense had no answer for Schor, Ravenel and the rest of the Dukes’ skill players.

“We have to go back to the drawing board because they had four touchdown passes in the first game and in this game, I lost track of it,” McDonnell said. “They hit some big ones. “They’re hard to defend because they have a great running back in [Khalid] Abdullah. The quarterback can run. Then what they do offensively is spread you out and put you in one-on-one situations and your guys have to be as good as their guys and their guys were better than ours today.”

The 55 points scored by JMU set a program record for points in a playoff game.

“It was a pretty special day by Bryan Schor and our offense,” JMU coach Mike Houston said. “I don’t think he looks like he missed a beat after his couple of weeks off.

“And they were really gambling. They were pressuring and stacking the box. They were playing man coverage out wide and I’ll take our guys in man coverage against just about anybody. Of course with Bryan and as accurate of a passer as he is, he’s going to give our receivers a ball that has a shot to be a big play.”

JMU had five pass plays of 20 or more yards in the win.

Without bluffing, Kirkpatrick said that was the idea.

“You can’t get one-on-none,” he said. “So, if you’re going to play us one-on-one, that’s the best odds we’re going to get.”