HARRISONBURG – Tight ends at James Madison might find themselves in the end zone more often this season.

“We’re going to definitely be used in the red zone quite a bit for sure,” said senior Dylan Stapleton about the system first-year offensive coordinator Shane Montgomery installed for the Dukes.

Last year, JMU tight ends caught only two touchdowns in the red zone as the offense finished the season with a 37-to-22 touchdown-to-field goal ratio inside opponents’ 20-yard line.

This year, coach Curt Cignetti wants the unit to get the ball across the goal line more frequently when the Dukes have red-zone opportunities.

“Touchdowns are obviously the name of the game,” Cignetti said. “It takes three field goals to overcome a touchdown.”

Stapleton said him, Clayton Cheatham, Drew Painter and Nick Carlton are all anxious to try to help convert more touchdowns in the red zone this year.

When JMU reached the FCS national championship game in 2017, Dukes tight ends caught five red-zone scores and the year before when JMU won it all its tight ends hauled in 10 red-zone touchdowns.

“It’s exciting for sure because we weren’t used too much last year in the red zone,” Stapleton said. “I think this year they have play calls for us specifically, which is nice. I think we have a lot of potential in that room and that the coaches are doing a great job of getting players the ball when they need to.”

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- Both linebacker Landan Word and spur Wayne Davis noted how much trouble running back Percy Agyei-Obese has given the defense throughout August training camp. “Percy is an extremely hard runner,” Word said. “He’s hard to tackle and when he gets a full head of steam, that kid is hard to bring down.” Davis said, “And Percy probably talks the most, too.”

- Cignetti said he thinks the Dukes have five running backs – Agyei-Obese, Jawon Hamilton, Austin Douglas, Solomon Vanhorse and Eric Kirlew – capable of playing in a game.

- Cignetti said how often the offense plays up-tempo depends on the opponent from week-to-week. He said, “The element of surprise is still a big element of offense.”

- No quarterback has been named the starter yet, but like Cignetti has done throughout the month of August, he pointed out that Ben DiNucci has taken the majority of first-team reps.

- DiNucci said he’s in a great place with his confidence. He worked this summer with Quincy Avery, a private quarterback instructor, who has trained Deshaun Watson, Jalen Hurts and others.

- DiNucci said he addressed consistency issues with Avery, and that the most important part of their time together was DiNucci ironing out the timing of his footwork. The signal-caller said he also benefited from conversations with Hurts (Oklahoma), Justin Fields (Ohio State), Sean Clifford (Penn State) and Anthony Brown (Boston College).

- DiNucci said cornerback Rashad Robinson has given him the most problems during practices and scrimmages. “I didn’t play against him last year since he was hurt,” DiNucci said. “But he picked me off on Saturday and it was literally a play I could do nothing on because he tipped the ball up in the air, is falling over and he’s had a great camp.”

- Defensive end John Daka said he think Bryce Maginley can play a role for JMU’s defense. Daka and Maginley are roommates, and he said Maginley has made a point to learn more about how to play defensive end well from Daka.

- Word said the biggest difference between first-year defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman’s defense and former coordinator Bob Trott’s defense is, “in this defense you have to be aware of everything and have to know exactly what’s going on in multiple positions. In the last system and it was a great system, but it was easy. Everyone had a fairly easy job to do and you didn’t have to be locked in on everything that was going on around you.”

- Cignetti said the team has two more regular practices before switching over to begin preparations for West Virginia.

- DiNucci and Davis both said they’ve started their individual preparation for West Virginia already. DiNucci said he watched the Mountaineers’ spring game a few times and Davis said he watched that also to get a feel for West Virginia’s personnel. DiNucci said he’s also looked at film of Troy’s defense. WVU defensive coordinator Vic Koenning followed coach Neal Brown from Troy.