HARRISONBURG – For coaches and players, August training camp can feel like a long three weeks.

“People talk about the training and the grind,” James Madison coach Mike Houston said. “But people who talk about it, usually don’t have a clue.

“Right now is the grind, and anyone in preseason camp across the country knows exactly what I’m talking about. You’re in the dog days.”

Houston and company finished practice No. 11 on Saturday, but no matter how busy the second-year coach is or what he has on his agenda for the day, he seems to always make time for the program’s first coach.

Challace McMillin was the first head coach at JMU when the school started football in 1972. He coached through the 1984 season.

Anyway, McMillin attends practice regularly and whenever he’s there, Houston takes a few minutes to talk with McMillin.

*****

- OK, back to what’s happening on the field with the Dukes.

- Some good news on the injury front for JMU as preseason All-American left tackle Aaron Stinnie is back to practicing without any restrictions. For the first nine practices, he was limited in a medical-red jersey as the team eased him in after he missed most of the spring. But as of Saturday, he was in a gold jersey, moving well and back to full speed.

- Junior running back Marcus Marshall, who joined JMU in January after transferring from Georgia Tech, said he’s more comfortable than he was in the spring.

- Marshall said he understands how to be patient within the offense now. At Georgia Tech, Marshall was asked to get to full speed as quickly as he could once he took the handoff, but at JMU, he said knows he has to wait for the play to develop before he hits the hole at 100 percent.

- The team scrimmaged Saturday morning, and junior running back Trai Sharp said he thought the running backs handled inside zone and outside zone plays well.

- Sharp focused on improving his explosion during the summer with strength coach John Williams. He said Saturday that he’s been able to see the training starting to pay off.

- Without any hesitation, Sharp said his strength as a back is making a cut to get vertical. He thinks the improvement in explosion has helped with that.

- Running backs coach De’Rail Sims said he’s planning on playing all four veteran running backs – Marshall, Sharp and seniors Cardon Johnson and Taylor Woods. How much he uses each one will depend on the flow of the game.

- Sims said with the depth JMU has at running back, the team would like to redshirt Percy Agyei-Obese.

- Sims also said he sees that Sharp’s confidence has grown since last season. When Johnson got hurt before the postseason, Sharp was elevated to the team’s second running back. Sharp ended the season with 617 rushing yards and five touchdowns.

- Of Sharp, Sims said, “People forget that this was a kid committed to N.C. State, and you don’t get ready to go to an ACC school, if you can’t play. Trai can play.”

- Kicker Tyler Gray said this summer he worked with kicking coach Desi Cullen of Kornblue Kicking. Cullen is a kicking-coach specialist that works in the DMV area.

- Gray said he really wanted to work on the follow through of his kicks, which he said he thought was a weakness last year.

- Gray said he’s also become good friends with freshman punter Harry O’Kelly. Throughout the summer, Gray said O’Kelly came over his house and that O’Kelly even came on vacation with Gray and his family to Myrtle Beach. Gray said O’Kelly has handled the transition of leaving his native Australia well.