Bond With Dukes' Staff Led Montgomery To JMU

Jaelin Montgomery would’ve preferred to visit as many of the schools he earned scholarship offers from as possible.

But it wasn’t going to happen this year, with on-campus visits and in-person recruiting barred by the NCAA due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“Since I couldn’t visit the campuses I was just trying to base my decision off of the relationships I have with the coaches,” Montgomery, an offensive lineman from Prince George High School, said.

Montgomery joined James Madison’s 2021 recruiting class when he pledged to the Dukes late last month, accepting their scholarship offer over 15 others including another from FBS East Carolina, which was his other finalist, he said.

Last fall, Montgomery was an all-region 5B second-team selection.

“And I’ve had a great relationship with [offensive line] Coach [Damian] Wroblewski and my recruiting coach, Coach [Matt] Merritt,” Montgomery said. “So I just decided to make my decision.”

He said he created a tighter bond with Merritt than any other coach who recruited him. Merritt is in his second year as the Dukes’ running backs coach.

“I kind of look at him more as a mentor and not just as a coach,” Montgomery said, “because I can go to him about anything in life and he’ll help me with his advice. I can go to him, there’s no doubt about it.”

The 6-foot-4, 310-pounder added he liked that he was able to speak with Dukes coach Curt Cignetti and at least virtually meet some of JMU’s academic support staff prior to his commitment.

“So it was really just between East Carolina and James Madison,” Montgomery said. “It was really just the relationships that it came down to and I had a better relationship with the JMU coaches and everybody I met there.”

Montgomery said Wroblewski told him he projects best as a tackle at the college level and that’s where he’ll likely begin his college career. Including Montgomery, the Dukes have secured commitments from three offensive linemen in their 2021 recruiting class to this point. Linganore’s (Frederick, Md.) Scott Hummel is likely to play either center or guard, and Cherokee’s (Marlton, N.J.) Josh Toner will probably play guard.

JMU is scheduled to lose two tackles – Liam Fornadel and Ray Gillespie – to graduation after this coming season.

“[Wroblewski] told me when I get there that it’s going to be a battle for the starting spot,” Montgomery said. “I’ll have to battle with some of the other freshmen or even the guys already there for that starting spot, but that’ll be my main mission when I get up there.”

Though Montgomery is one of the more recent commits in a class of 10 to thus far, according to him he’s already getting acquainted with his future teammates. Montgomery said the 10 prep standouts have created a group chat to stay connected and that he’s enjoyed getting to know St. John’s Prep (Danvers, Mass.) tight end Gus McGee and Stone Bridge (Ashburn) linebacker Skylar Martin.

In April, Hummel became the first commit for the class, and since May 21 the other nine have joined the group.

“I thought they were about to run out of spots and they were my top school,” Montgomery said with a laugh, “so I was like ‘Why not?’ It was the best decision for to me make.”