HARRISONBURG — Quincy Avery sees what everyone else does.

“If you put Ben in a room of quarterbacks, no matter what their level of play is, you’ll be really, really excited about his talent level,” Avery said. “Him being able to do things has never been the question — how talented he is, arm strength, athletic ability.

“With Ben the big thing is just being super consistent.”

In each of the past three offseasons, James Madison quarterback Ben DiNucci has spent time with Avery, a private quarterback coach who trains Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson and Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Josh Dobbs, too. Avery and DiNucci have worked together longer than the senior signal-caller has with any coach or offensive coordinator he’s had in his college career.

Between DiNucci’s three seasons at Pitt and first year and a half with the Dukes, he’s played for three head coaches and five offensive coordinators with JMU coach Curt Cignetti being the third head coach and Dukes offensive coordinator Shane Montgomery the fifth coordinator.

Avery said he trained DiNucci for 10 days earlier this summer, and on Monday — only three practices into training camp at Madison — Cignetti said he noticed the improvements DiNucci made since the spring.

“He’s doing what he’s coached to do,” Cignetti said. “He’s really locked in. He’s making quick decisions. He’s been very accurate with the ball, and I’ve been impressed.”

All signs point to DiNucci retaining his starting quarterback job and one reason why Avery said DiNucci’s strides are significant is because the Wexford, Pa., native wanted to address the issue of consistency.

DiNucci hasn’t been made available to the media yet this training camp.

“His highs are so high,” Avery said. “Like he has elite-level arm talent. He can throw the ball with anybody, but it’s about his ability to be consistent throughout a game.

“Every situation he needs to play at the highest level, so that’s the thing we worked on the most — consistent footwork so that he can regularly be that elite-level passer. He doesn’t just want to see the flashes, he wants everybody to know exactly what they’re going to get every time he steps on the field.”

The footwork drills were rigorous, according to Avery, who said he pushed DiNucci to get better from the pocket and on the run.

“First thing we did was just work on his rhythm footwork,” Avery said. “For those who don’t know what that means, it’s being able to throw a ball without a hitch. It’s in that first read of the progression, [to] put the back foot in the ground and throw on time.

“Then, from there, the idea was if he could get consistent with the foot placement of his last step on those throws, he could reset so that when the number two [read] and number three [read] comes open, he was in a good position initially to allow him to stay on base and on balance throughout his progression. That was a key component.”

Last season, DiNucci was a third-team All-Colonial Athletic Association choice for his 2,275 passing yards, 433 rushing yards and 25 total touchdowns. But his 12 interceptions — five coming in the second-round playoff loss at Colgate — had his job in question with Cignetti reopening the competition upon taking over at JMU.

“So then, from there, we started doing some off-platform or pocket-movement drills,” Avery said. “That put him in unique and awkward positions that forced him to get back on balance, because Ben does so much off platform.

“He creates plays with his feet. He extends plays. He does all those things that allow him to be dynamic, but it’s after that, how does he get back into a position where he’s thrown a million footballs before? So we just worked on getting back to base and balance after those freaky movements that he does to extend plays.”

Avery said three days were strictly one-on-one with him and DiNucci, but that the rest of their time together was spent with a group of quarterbacks including Watson, Dobbs, Oklahoma’s Jalen Hurts and Penn State’s Sean Clifford among others.

“Ben had the opportunity to work with all these guys and I think that gave him a jolt,” Avery said.

On top of the quarterback-specific training DiNucci did leading into preseason camp, he took time to better the chemistry he has with his receivers. Wide receiver Jake Brown said he has a strong connection with DiNucci after last year and all the passes Brown caught from DiNucci at Bridgeforth Stadium in June and July.

“I have a lot of trust in Ben to put the ball in a spot where I can catch it,” Brown said. “We’ve had a good chemistry the first few days of camp, but we worked on it a lot all summer.”

Avery said DiNucci doesn’t want his final college season to go to waste.

“He’s got a chance to win a conference title,” Avery said. “He’s got a chance to win a national title, and he has the opportunity to go on and play football after this season. So I think he did a really good job of understanding all the things he goes through in games and being locked in about it for this upcoming season.”