HARRISONBURG — His most productive player is the one that doesn’t do anything wrong.

“That’s the reason he’s successful,” first-year Chattanooga coach Rusty Wright said of Mocs wide receiver Bryce Nunnelly. “And why he always will be in whatever he decides to do. You wish you had 21 other ones like that.”

A 6-foot-2, 190-pound junior, Nunnelly was a first-team All-Southern Conference selection last year and a STATS FCS preseason All-American ahead of this season for the 79 catches, 1,237 yards and seven touchdowns he recorded in 2018.

But those numbers were accumulated in a pro-style offense before Wright and his staff installed a spread system this offseason.

“Now we’re in shotgun the whole time,” Nunnelly said. “Some of the route combinations are the same, so overall it’s not a dramatic difference or change, but it feels like we’re capable of throwing it more.”

And increased opportunities to catch the ball, Nunnelly added, would make any receiver happy.

He hauled in a 59-yard touchdown grab in Chattanooga’s Week 1 win over Eastern Illinois and notched a game-high eight receptions the following week during the Mocs’ loss to Jacksonville State.

So this week, when James Madison travels to Chattanooga, the Dukes must be prepared to match Nunnelly.

“He’s got good height, good speed, good ball skills,” JMU coach Curt Cignetti said. “He’s an intuitive player. He’s got a feel for how to get open in the zones and he can beat man. And so, we’re going to have to always know where he’s at and do a good job on him.”

Especially since JMU’s plan might not be as easy as plugging senior cornerback Rashad Robinson on Nunnelly.

Robinson left Saturday’s win over Morgan State during the second quarter after he limped off the field and is day-to-day, according to Cignetti. Junior Wesley McCormick, who has started opposite of Robinson, has played well, though, with six tackles and a tackle for loss, and Cignetti said he’s expecting senior corner Charles Tutt and junior corner Taurus Carroll to return to action after missing the first three weeks with their own injuries.

“But it’s been easy to adjust, the offense has been simple to learn and I feel comfortable playing in the offense,” Nunnelly said. “I feel like once we get more practices and games under our belt, we’ll be even better. We struggled last week against Tennessee and a little bit against Jacksonville State, so we haven’t clicked the way we needed to, but that’s first year, new coaches, new offense and we’ll be all right once we get a few more games under our belt.”

Nunnelly said his strong relationship with quarterback Nick Tiano has served as the constant through change. Tiano, who began his career at Mississippi State, has connected with Nunnelly on 15 of 35 completions this season.

“We’d stay in the summer to work on routes and work on timing to have that trust between me and him,” Nunnelly said. “And that goes a long way under the lights in a game. I know I can trust him and he can trust me.”

The path Nunnelly took to Chattanooga differed from the one Tiano did. Nunnelly, a product of Walker Valley High School in Cleveland, Tenn., said he earned only three scholarship offers — from the Mocs, Tennessee Tech and Charleston Southern — because his prep stats weren’t eye-popping.

He said his high school coaches asked him to play safety and wide receiver, so he did it and ultimately chose Chattanooga since the program was close to home and had won at least a share of three straight Southern Conference titles under former coach Russ Huesman.

“I just wanted the chance to play whether it was on special teams or a little at receiver, so I did that my freshmen year here,” Nunnelly said. “Then coming into my sophomore year, we had five seniors at wide receiver and so I was just telling myself to do all I can. I just wanted to start and get myself a chance to get in the game and it happened. It was crazy with all those stats.”

Wright said he hopes Nunnelly’s teammates pay attention to how he strives to make an impact.

“It’s just how he does every day things,” Wright said. “It’s the normal things that people take for granted. You walk down there in the locker room and his locker is neat and clean. He comes to practice every day and works his butt off. He tries to do things right and he never complains.

“Then he gets done with practice, takes those pads off and puts his book bag on and goes to school. He makes good grades and never misses anything. That’s why he’s successful.”