If expanding the playbook is what James Madison coach Curt Cignetti wants to do this fall, he said the experience of the personnel the Dukes have may allow him to do so.
“But it’s not how much you do. It’s how well you do it,” Cignetti said Monday during the Colonial Athletic Association coaches video conference.
JMU is loaded with veterans maintaining extensive knowledge of the schemes the Dukes run and expansive in-game experience to draw from throughout their time in college football.
The Dukes have 10 fifth-year seniors, eight sixth-year seniors and a seventh-year senior on their roster. And according to a National Football Foundation study released Monday, there are 21 JMU players – tied for the fifth most in FCS heading into this fall – who have already earned a degree.
They have those seasoned athletes playing key positions, too, like sixth-year senior quarterback Cole Johnson, sixth-year senior linebacker Kelvin Azanama and sixth-year senior safety Wayne Davis.
“We probably can [do more] particularly on the defensive side,” Cignetti said. “We’ve got a few more [defensive backs] and D-Linemen to create a few more packages and get a few more guys on the field. Then we’ve got an experienced quarterback, who is really smart and makes quick decisions, and he can handle volume. So, from that standpoint, we’ll probably do more.”
Cignetti said it might be easier for the JMU defense to add more wrinkles this fall considering the unit overall is deeper than the offense.
This fall will also mark defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman’s third year in that role while Mike Shanahan, though he’s in his third season at JMU, is in his first season as offensive coordinator.
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- Cignetti said no decision about his backup quarterback has been made yet, even though he knows who he’d go to if the Dukes need a second-string signal-caller.
“I just don’t see any need to make an announcement,” he said. “Might as well let the competiton play out as long as we can. It makes everybody better.”
He said all three quarterbacks vying for the No. 2 role have done a good job this past month, with freshman Billy Atkins emerging as a serious contender later in camp.
“I think he’s really come on and caught our eye,” Cignetti said. “Once he understood what it was all about in terms of studying, learning the offense and how much time you have to put in to learn it – and he’s not quite there yet, because he needs more reps – but he’s got arm talent and escape-ability.”
Atkins was part of the Dukes’ most recent recruiting class. He led Mount St. Joseph High School to the 2019 Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association state title.
- The third-year JMU coach said he’s eager for the return of a normal sized crowd at Bridgeforth Stadium after the Dukes played most of the spring in front of only family and friends.
“That’ll be awesome again,” Cignetti said. “That’s a great advantage for us. We have a stadium that’s second to none at this level.”
- JMU’s season-opening opponent is Morehead State, and the Eagles will return to Harrisonburg to kick off a campaign for the second time in as many seasons.
The Dukes blanked Morehead State, 52-0, this past February to open the spring season.
Eagles coach Rob Tenyer told the Daily News-Record earlier Monday that he believes his team is more equipped to try to compete against JMU. Leading up to the last bout, Morehead State only held nine practices before appearing in the game against the Dukes.
He said the Eagles were able to practice regularly and frequently this past month throughout their training camp. They also won four of their last five games in the spring to carry momentum into the fall.
“It went pretty well,” he said. “And we have the largest roster that we’ve had in 10 years and we probably have the largest senior class in the history of this program, so we’ve had a lot of guys come back. … And the goal was to pick up where we left off and I think we did.”
