ELON, N.C. – D’Angelo Amos said he was a little surprised no one got in his way.
“I’m just thinking about what we practice,” the JMU freshman safety said. “Hands together, hands down and not go up, so that’s just what I did. I put my hands where his foot was going to be.
“I don’t know where it hit actually, but when I saw it on the ground, I picked it up. Scoop-and-score.”
The special teams savant went untouched past the line of scrimmage and blocked Elon punter Hunter Stephenson’s third quarter attempt, recovered the loose ball and returned it for a six-yard touchdown.
The score gave JMU a 24-0 lead early in the second half.
“I though that gave us all the momentum there in the second half,” second-year JMU coach Mike Houston said. “We worked on it all week and had a good plan for it. We felt like we’d get there and were just waiting for the right time and fortunately it was the perfect execution.
“A big play by that young man and he’s a guy that we have high hopes for, so we’ve really pushed him.”
Amos backs up both senior safeties Raven Greene and Jordan Brown on defense, but has used special teams to see the field this season. Amos also had two tackles in the Dukes’ win over Elon.
“I just do whatever my team needs me to do,” Amos said. “We pride ourselves on having a lot of athletes, so if we can get people to do multiple things and excel at it then that’s what we’re going to do.
“And if my role is to play special teams and give it all I can, then that’s what I’m going to do.”
The blocked punt and touchdown were both firsts in Amos’ career.
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- With its win, James Madison finished the regular season at 11-0 overall and 8-0 in league play. The program does have one other unbeaten season in its history – a 9-0-1 mark in 1975.
- The 31-3 victory also allowed JMU to capture its second straight outright Colonial Athletic Association title. While doing so, the program also became the first in CAA history to complete back-to-back unblemished marks in league play.
- The Dukes have now stretched its Division-I best active winning streak to 23 straight victories. JMU has also won 18 straight conference games and a program-record 10 straight road games.
- By holding Elon to three points, JMU went the entire regular season without allowing an opponent to score more than 14 points in a game.
- The FCS playoff committee unveils the bracket Sunday and the Dukes should earn the No. 1 seed. Houston said, “I see no way possible that we don’t. If we don’t get the No. 1 seed, there’s something wrong with the system.”
- With senior quarterback Bryan Schor’s 36-yard pass to senior wide receiver Terrence Alls in the first quarter, the senior signal-caller became the school’s second all-time leading passer. He also surpassed the 6,000-yard mark for his career during the Dukes’ win and is now up to 6,113 passing yards for his career.
- Schor also tied a career-high for rushing touchdowns in a game with three. Both Schor and Houston said the offenses’ game plan was to get the quarterback involved in the running game.
- On his 21-yard touchdown run, Schor said he saw Elon not set on defense, so he snapped the ball quickly. The senior quarterback added that both senior receivers Terrence Alls and John Miller gave him great blocks to get in the end zone.
- Miller had a career-best seven receptions in the win over Elon.
- Miller said winning the CAA was extremely difficult because the Dukes “got everybody’s best shot,” this season.
- Greene, who had four tackles against the Phoenix, said it was fitting that JMU won with a real team effort between the offense’s strong performance, the defense’s solid day and the big play on special teams.
- Senior defensive tackle Cornell Urquhart had a career-high nine tackles.