Dukes Land QB O'Donnell

HARRISONBURG — Jake O’Donnell knows he’s taking a chance on himself.

“I’ve always grown up thinking that if you don’t believe in yourself, how can you expect anyone else to believe in you?” he said.

The quarterback at Sickles High School in Tampa, Fla., has accepted an offer as a preferred walk-on at James Madison over similar opportunities at other Division I schools and scholarship offers at the Division II level.

He announced his commitment on Twitter on Saturday after his visit to Harrisonburg.

He said Florida Atlantic, Florida International, Illinois and Stetson were in contact with him throughout the recruiting process and that Angelo State, Quincy University, Tusculum College and the University of West Florida, all Division II programs, had offered him scholarships.

O’Donnell is the second walk-on quarterback the Dukes have added this offseason. Earlier this month, coach Mike Houston said Pittsburgh transfer Ben DiNucci, who is on campus for spring practice this semester, elected to continue his college career at JMU over scholarship opportunities elsewhere.

Houston can’t comment on O’Donnell due to NCAA rules because O’Donnell, who said he’s a pocket passer, hasn’t enrolled at JMU yet.

“I know there are going to be guys ahead of me like Ben DiNucci, who came in from Pitt, and Cole Johnson,” O’Donnell said. “But if anything, that makes me want to go [to JMU].

“I’ll become a better student of the game and I’ll learn a lot from these older guys, so hopefully it translates [to the field] over the next few years.”

Johnson, who will be a junior, and freshman Gage Moloney, who redshirted this past fall, are both on scholarship.

O’Donnell said JMU wasn’t on his radar until last week, when he received a message from Dukes cornerbacks coach and recruiting coordinator Tripp Weaver.

Weaver invited O’Donnell to visit.

“It came together pretty quickly,” O’Donnell said. “But when I got the call from James Madison it was something I had to take.

“It was a no-brainer. And for me, I felt like I had to take a shot on myself to see where it goes. Academically, I had to look at choosing a school that, without football, would I still want to go there? That was one of the main factors for me, and getting on campus to have that presence of being wanted by every coach and seeing that every one was ridiculously friendly, I decided that’s where I wanted to go.”

O’Donnell said he’ll study business at JMU and has aspirations of going to law school to become a sports agent once he’s done playing.

What helped O’Donnell ultimately commit to the Dukes was Houston’s message when the two were able to speak during the visit.

“Coach Houston talked to me and said that he doesn’t care if you’re a walk-on or a scholarship player, but whoever is producing, working the hardest and making it all shake is going to play,” O’Donnell said. “It doesn’t matter to him about who you are or what your last name is.

“That helped in my decision a lot because there’s a lot of schools where it’s just politics, especially at the Division I level, that have the five-star quarterback by Rivals or 247[Sports] or ESPN and they come in to start immediately because they’re well known.”

O’Donnell, who transferred to Sickles from Jesuit High School before his senior season, also has played internationally, having suited up for the U.S. National Team in 2016 and 2017.

He said he will take from some of his experiences on that stage to help him in his transition to the college level.

“My sophomore year, right after one of my practices I found out that [USA Football] wanted me to come out to Texas to play in some of the developmental games,” O’Donnell said. “And I was just beyond happy when I got to do that. Players from all around the country came to Texas to play in it and there wasn’t a lick of anyone without talent.”