Field Notes - 3.19.17
HARRISONBURG – James Madison practiced three straight days – Thursday, Friday and Saturday – and is now four sessions into the spring. Saturday’s practice ended with a scrimmage. Throughout the last few days, both coaches and players were available to the media.
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- Second-year coach Mike Houston said Saturday’s practice and scrimmage were “competitive and energetic.” He added Friday’s practice was held outside in the snow, which made for “an intense” day of drills.
- Houston said the veterans on the roster are pushing themselves to get better while young players are battling for contributing roles on the team. Coaches are evaluating what young guys can be relied on.
- Of the younger players, Houston said center Mac Patrick has had a strong start to the spring. Patrick saw some action during the 2016 postseason when starting center Kyle Rigney got hurt at North Dakota State. The Mechanicsville native, Patrick, is the top candidate to fill the void at center.
- On the defensive side, Houston said he has been pleased with Maryland transfer linebacker Gus Little. Of Little, Houston said, “He’s going to be a good football player here.”
- The biggest story out of the program this week was departure of offensive line coach Jamal Powell. The DN-R broke news Friday that Powell was leaving Madison for Lamar University. On Saturday, Houston said he wasn’t completely surprised Powell decided to make the move.
- Here are Houston’s full comments on Powell: “His family and his wife Rachel’s family are both down in Texas. He’s going to be about 15 miles from his mom, who just lost her husband earlier in the spring, so it’s a situation where everybody that looks at the move might have questions, but he’s doing it because of his family. I think that’s something we all understand. Now, I think we are kind of unique in that we have one of the better offensive line coaches in all of college football coaching the tight ends. We had the most over qualified tight ends coach in the country. Bryan [Stinespring] will coach our offensive line moving forward permanently and we will take our time to fill the [open coaching] position appropriately with our tight ends position.”
- Senior left guard A.J. Bolden said the offensive linemen were a bit upset when Powell told them he was leaving, but added once Powell explained to them why he was leaving they completely understood. Bolden said Powell was a “great coach” at JMU and is someone he’ll always look up to.
- Bolden said Stinespring taking over the position helps make the transition a little easier considering JMU isn’t looking for a brand new offensive line coach. Bolden said Stinespring would regularly help coach the tackles during practices anyway.
- Preparing for what will be his senior year, Bolden said there are a few aspects of his game he’s starting to focus on this spring. He said he first wants to get his weight down to 315 pounds by the time summer training rolls around – Bolden said he’s at about 335 pounds currently. Losing those 20 pounds would make him more versatile and more agile for the team, he explained. With his technique and fundamentals, he said he’s diligently making sure his hand placement is correct with every drill. He said he needs to keep his hands on the inside of the defender as opposed to outside, so that he has leverage on every play. Lastly, he’s working on explosion in his hips, which he said if he could be more explosive off the snap, he’d be a better player.
- Running backs coach De’Rail Sims is in the initial stages of evaluating how to replace the production of talented running back Khalid Abdullah, who the team loses to graduation. Sims is optimistic. In his position group this spring, JMU has added Georgia Tech transfer Marcus Marshall and returns Trai Sharp and Taylor Woods. The Dukes also will get Cardon Johnson back from injury come June. Sims said, “We may actually take a step up. I’m going to miss Khalid, his leadership and his production, but I think we’re going to be okay.”
- Sims said for Marshall, the spring is all about getting him to learn JMU’s offense. Within the offense, Sims said the biggest difference for Marshall is that he’s starting to see how much space he can run in as opposed to what he did at Georgia Tech where everything was tight and compact.
- Marshall said he really likes it at JMU so far. He said he likes the speed of practice and how everyone works to get better.
- The ex-Yellow Jacket added that it’s a big benefit for him to be in Harrisonburg for the spring so he can learn everything before the season starts. He said the offense isn’t too complicated to pick up and that Sims has done a great job of explaining the scheme to him.