Cignetti Pleased With Progress Of The Dukes

His James Madison team had wrapped up its second scrimmage and the first-year coach was as positive about his new group of players this past Saturday as he’s been all spring.

“This thing is coming together,” Cignetti said. “I think with the language and the verbage, the guys are playing fast and they’re understanding the expectations and the standards, and I see it starting to gel.”

Defensive end John Daka’s blocked field goal, which was was corralled and sprinted all the way into the opposite end zone by cornerback Wesley McCormick set the tone for a spirited 60-minute session.

It halted the offense’s first drive and put points on the board for the defense.

“Those kind of plays when you’re in spring ball or fall practice, it’s the good and the bad,” Cignetti said. “I’m going to look at it from the defensive perspective and it was a nice job on the penetration, the block and the scoop-and-score with a 97-yard return for a touchdown.”

What Cignetti said pleased him most was his players didn’t have a lull in emotion.

The Dukes had their first scrimmage on March 30 and were only a week away from the spring finale while also already having 11 practices – and at times those can become mundane between the same individual drills, installation of schemes and hitting the same opponent over and over – under their belts.

“A lot of times, the second scrimmage can be just sort of OK,” Cignetti said. “Everyone gets keyed up for the first scrimmage and everybody is keyed up for the spring game, but I thought we had good energy as we got going and I thought we got a lot of good work done today.”

Three quarterbacks – Ben DiNucci, Cole Johnson and Gage Moloney – continue to share reps at practice. Last week, Cignetti said he didn’t want to put a timetable on naming a starter, but after Saturday’s scrimmage he said he was impressed with Moloney.

Moloney, a redshirt sophomore, doesn’t have the experience of DiNucci or Johnson, but was a prep standout at Northwestern High School in Rock Hill, S.C., where he threw for more than 6,700 yards and 71 touchdowns for his career and was South Carolina’s Mr. Football for 2016.

“I thought Gage Moloney showed up a little bit today,” Cignetti said.

Wide receivers Kyndel Dean and Davis Patterson had touchdowns, and so did running back Solomon Vanhorse while safety Chris Chukwuneke picked off a pass. Cignetti said he also liked how receiver Jamir Hudson played throughout the scrimmage.

A few second- and third-teamers earned more first-team reps with starters defensive end Ron’Dell Carter, tight end Clayton Cheatham, defensive tackle Mike Greene and cornerback Rashad Robinson sitting the scrimmage out.

“We had four or five guys get dinged up on Thursday and didn’t scrimmage today,” Cignetti said. “… We’re going to play 12 regular season games, and everyone wants to play 16 games or so, but when you play that many games, you’re going to have some injuries, so that’s football and the next-man-up has to be ready to go. And I thought in general, it was a good day.”

Over the final week of spring practice, Cignetti and company will try to build off the Saturday scrimmage to finish the spring strong in order to carry positive momentum into the summer.

“The goal is still the same to keep improving, put more stuff in,” Cignetti said, “and kind of get our football IQ improved in terms of situations and developing young players, developing consistency and getting guys playing the way we want to play.

“I think this team still needs to develop the mental toughness to come out every day and play their best. You don’t want to be an up-and-down team ever and that’s hard to do in football, but that’s the winning edge.

“… That’s why we run those 40-yard dashes at the end of the scrimmage. You’re trying to capture the edge and some of these games may go to overtime, some may go to four overtimes, and at the end of the game, the message is you’ve still got more to give. It’s a mindset and we’re still sharpening the saw.”