HARRISONBURG — Jalen Green said coaches at James Madison stuck to mostly discussing his future and what’s on the horizon for the program when he took his first visit to the school last month.

There was one exception.

“They didn’t bring up any past defensive ends, except for Charles Haley,” Green said. “Everyone knows him.”

Haley, a five-time Super Bowl Champion and Pro Football Hall of Famer, was an All-American at JMU who played for the Dukes from 1982 to 1985.

Green left impressed from his June 3 recruiting trip to Harrisonburg, considering the quick history lesson he got on Haley and what the staff envisions for Green in the purple and gold.

The 6-foot-2, 240-pound Good Counsel (Olney, Md.) defensive end committed less than a month later, becoming the sixth verbal pledge in the Dukes’ class of 2019 on July 1.

JMU tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator Fontel Mines led on the Rivals.com three-star prospect. Rivals also ranks Green as the 15th best prospect out of Maryland.

“He was able to tell me that I’d be able to play early,” Green said of Mines. “And then I talked to [defensive line coach Jeff] Hanson and he just told me that they really liked my film, and that he could see me in the scheme.”

Green said Hanson helped him understand exactly what to expect when he arrives in Harrisonburg.

“On the visit I was able to hear about some of the things that he tries to teach,” Green said. “He just said he gave out a list to his players of simple things they should do every day like push-ups, burpees, jogging and then he told me about some of the drills they do in practice.”

Before he gave his pledge to JMU, Green earned eight other scholarship offers including ones from FBS Army, Liberty and Virginia as well as the Dukes’ Colonial Athletic Association foe Stony Brook at the FCS level.

Greene said his final decision came down to JMU and Virginia.

“I just felt like it was a perfect pick,” Greene said. “It wasn’t too far from my house — like a two-hour drive — and I think it’s a good level of football and a great place to get an education.

“But I looked at the decisions with overall factors like me being close to my family and being home, but I didn’t pay much attention to the difference between FBS and FCS.”

His relationship with the coaching staff and with current Dukes sophomore cornerback Wesley McCormick played a role in ultimately deciding on JMU, he said.

Green and McCormick have known each other since their early high school days. McCormick also helped JMU land his former Northwest High School (Germantown, Md.) teammate, safety AJ Woods, who gave his commitment to the Dukes late last month.

“Wesley showed me all the kind of stuff that the JMU guys do and all the things that they get, so it was cool to get that insight from him,” Green said.

In his junior year at Good Counsel — when the Falcons finished 2017 ranked as the fourth-best team in Maryland by MaxPreps — Green compiled 52 tackles and 15 sacks.

Green, who will study business at JMU, said Good Counsel has prepped him well to play immediately once he gets to college.

“Just our whole schedule is set up like college academically and athletics wise,” Green said. “It’s a Catholic school, private school, so it’s a good education and in the football aspect of things, when I go on visits, I see the same structure practice that we have going on in colleges. Our practices are really intense.”

Gaffney (S.C.) tight end Hunter Bullock became the seventh commitment in the class last week. Of the seven commits, two are from Maryland, two are from North Carolina and one each are from New Jersey, South Carolina and Virginia.