Judge, I know that there is a concern regarding the overall physical beating that FCS teams take when stepping up to play FBS teams. As a generalization, the most notable difference is in the size and strength of the offensive/defensive lines which can wear a team down over 70 plays in a game.

I'm curious on your thoughts in doing this back to back vs. TCU and Ohio.  Are the Dukes going to be so banged up that it is going to negatively impact their ability to compete for the NEC Championship?
 

Thanks Phoenix and great questions and I would agree with you on those concerns. I think you are on point in that a lot of times our receivers and backs and dbs can hold their own in space but line play tends to be where you see a significant difference and you saw in second half of the Hawaii game. While injuries can and do occur almost anywhere with football generally and  it makes sense that maybe a  significantly greater risk is presented  when playing an FBS team,  I think I would prefer 1 of these games per year instead of 2 at least until we have the full complement of FCS schollies. I recognize that this is a tremendous revenue generator for the athletic budget overall too however but let's make sure we have the greatest possible competitive advantage

Last edited by Judge Jack McVay Jr (2/10/2021 11:28 am)

I am a big supporter of playing FBS teams. It gives us more exposure than we'd normally ever get. It brings in a ton of money for the athletics department (I have to think some of our facility upgrades are as a result of the ones we've already played). It gives us a chance at a big upset.

I would agree that we should keep them to one a year though. Our focus should be on being the best NEC team we can be, trying to win the conference, and make a run in the playoffs. Playing too hard a non-conference schedule gets in the way of that.

I also think we should target the lower rungs of FBS. Playing TCU likely brings in more money, and the game is certainly higher visibility; but it puts us in a position of being sacrificial lambs. Buffalo, Hawaii, UMass, Coastal Carolina, Ohio, etc. we have a real chance of beating. We need to bring our A game and also hope they don't. If that happens we have a legitimate shot though. If we bring our A+ game and TCU shows up with their C- game they still probably beat us. If they show up prepared for us, they can practically name their score. I would make an exception to that rule for the occasional game with local teams like West Virginia, Penn State, or Pitt. Traveling halfway across the country to get blown out has to have a negative effect on morale though.

All good points Levon and I get your point about collision in space compared to line collision and I always felt that when I played center I was playing one of the safest positions on the field and I had played virtually all of them between high school and college. I guess your movement in space is limited relative to DB WR LB and RB and different injury risks are created by positions.  The program is moving forward though and does serve as a revenue generator for Duquesne and as luckymcd points out and hopefully we will need more a 2000 capacity stadium and have to use Highmark or another venue