HARRISONBURG — Through 10 spring practices, Bryan Schor said James Madison’s offense has picked up where it left off at the end of its national championship run.
Second-year offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Donnie Kirkpatrick said it’s because the rising senior signal-caller is improving.
“Schor looks great,” Kirkpatrick said. “He looks better than ever and that’s good to see because you do worry that at some point the quarterback will just plateau and eventually you’ll just see that, ‘Well, this is about as good as they are.’
“He isn’t done yet. He’s getting better. He’s better than he was last year right now and he’s showing signs that he can keep getting a lot better, too.”
The Milford, Pa., native was the 2016 Offensive Player of the Year in the Colonial Athletic Association, the College Football Performance Awards FCS National Performer of the Year and the Dudley Award winner.
He threw for 3,002 yards and 29 touchdowns and rushed for 569 yards and 10 touchdowns in his junior season. His 73.1 percent completion rate led the country.
His task for the spring: elevate his own game while developing chemistry with an entirely new group of first-team wide receivers. JMU graduated three of its top four pass catchers from last season.
Terrence Alls is the lone returning receiver who started games in 2016.
“Guys are falling into the shoes that we expect them to step into,” Schor said.
At a practice this week, Schor bulleted a pass to Alls on a slant pattern for a touchdown during a red-zone team period. Schor’s also developed a rapport with Ishmael Hyman, who’s shown through two-thirds of the spring that he can run under a deep ball as well as any wide receiver the Dukes have.
“We have guys that are going to surprise a lot of people,” Schor said. “Ish Hyman and John Miller are really good wide receivers. Everyone knows Terrence Alls is a really good wide receiver and I think Riley Stapleton is a guy who’s going to surprise a lot of people. Add [Jonathan] Kloosterman in there at tight end, and I feel pretty confident in the guys we have to reload and to compete again this season.”
But, it all goes back to Schor raising his skill level and bettering all the intangibles that go with it. A second straight year in the same offensive scheme is benefiting Schor.
Kirkpatrick said this fall JMU plans to give Schor more options at the line of scrimmage than he had last year, meaning he could check in and out of play calls more frequently if he needs to.
“He’s quicker with the reads and he’s seeing things better,” Kirkpatrick said. “He understands the offense. Last year, we had a few checks and as the year went we added some. Now, he’s got the whole reign of the thing. He understands so much more, so mentally, he’s better.”
JMU coach Mike Houston echoed Kirkpatrick’s evaluation of Schor’s growth and added Schor is plenty capable of making more decisions prior to the snap.
“The biggest thing I see is that he has confidence,” Houston said. “I think we can [put more on him]. Having another year in the system has given him the confidence to make the throws and make the plays. I’ve had it like this at times in the past with a guy that is a veteran quarterback on offense and it’s really like having a coach on the field because they know everything inside and out.”
And Schor’s going to need to.
Kirkpatrick said he thinks opposing defenses will play to stop JMU’s running game even more so than they did this past season. JMU had the nation’s fifth-best rushing offense (275 yards per game) sparked by the nation’s leading rusher, Khalid Abdullah (1,809 rushing yards).
Abdullah’s gone, but the Dukes’ backfield features four talented players — Cardon Johnson, Trai Sharp, Taylor Woods and Georgia Tech transfer Marcus Marshall.
“We’re going to probably have to throw it more, at least early because last year, I think coming in here that opponents looked at us and thought, ‘OK, we’ve never seen them play. Maybe we heard a rumor, but we’re confused about what they’re going to do offensively,’” Kirkpatrick explained. “Now they have 15 games to study and when you win, they’re going to study.
“Now, I really think they’re going to say, ‘Well, they’re just going to run it until you stop them.’ Defenses tried some of that last year, but they didn’t have the background to stop it. Now they have 15 games of our run game to study it.”
And whatever defenses throw at JMU, Kirkpatrick added Schor would be ready.
“He’s gotten much stronger and his release is quicker,” Kirkpatrick said. “He’s putting more on the ball and I think his accuracy is probably what it is. It stayed, but it’s going to be hard to be better there.”
