HARRISONBURG — Simplicity equals speed, at least in the eyes of James Madison defensive coordinator Bob Trott.

Maybe it’s a philosophy he picked up in previous stops, working in the NFL for coaches like Bill Parcells or his time as an assistant for Fred Goldsmith at Air Force, Arkansas and Duke — programs in the highest level of college football.

Regardless of where he learned it or who he learned it from, over the course of preseason camp and into the first game week in Harrisonburg, the Dukes’ new coordinator has installed his base 4-2-5 scheme and other packages with the intention to let his defenders play without any hesitation on the field.

“I learned a long time ago that you can screw up a good player pretty easily,” Trott said. “If a guy is confident and he knows what he has to do, he usually plays faster and with more confidence.”

James Madison opens its season Saturday at 6 p.m. against Morehead State at Bridgeforth Stadium.

The past two seasons, JMU has boasted some solid individual talent on defense, yet it failed to translate into team success. Last fall, Madison was second-worst in the Colonial Athletic Association in scoring defense, and third-worst in both rushing and total defense despite having three All-CAA selections in defensive end Andrew Ankrah, safety Raven Greene and cornerback Taylor Reynolds. Ankrah was also a second-team STATS FCS All-American choice.

Greene and Reynolds return for their senior seasons and Ankrah is back for his junior campaign.

“In football there’s 11 of us out there and even if some of us have great individual talent, it’ll mean nothing if we can’t put it together,” Greene said. “The new staff has done a great job of teaching us how to compose our talent together. Everyone knows their own job, so it’s simpler.”

No matter the package, players say most basic principles that Trott implemented into the base 4-2-5 scheme stay the same. Because principles are the same, players don’t have to think about what they have to do on each down and when they don’t have to think, they can react to the opposing offense.

“It’s the system that I’ve always tried to implement,” Trott said. “I’ve been in a lot of systems, I’ve been in the NFL and sometimes if you make the system way too complicated, and it’s hard for the player to play in, the player is confused. We’ve spent a lot of time trying not to be confused.”

Defining roles and responsibilities within the defense is part of the approach for Trott — who held the coordinator role at JMU’s rival Richmond the past six seasons. It has trickled down to each of the defensive position coaches, too.

“We’ve really focused on playing as a team defense,” Ankrah said. “We know we can’t all individually try to make every play.

“[Defensive line] Coach [Jeff] Hanson emphasizes staying in our gap, playing the quarterback on read plays and containing the quarterback.”

Reynolds said Trott’s philosophy gives JMU a chance to turn around what has been a lackluster unit in recent seasons.

“We gave up a lot of big plays last year whether it was in the running game or passing game, but I think we’re a lot more sound on defense now,” Reynolds said. “The new coaches have put an emphasis on a lot more teaching. They want us to understand where we fit on defense.”

The first test for the retooled Madison defense will be to slow quarterback Austin Gahafer and an Eagles offense that averaged more than 28 points per game last season.

“Hopefully, we’ll do our job and take a step forward,” Trott said. “This is still part of the journey and we’re trying to take a step to get better each week and this is the first big step.”