The James Madison football program wrapped up its preseason camp over the weekend and will now turn its attention to the Sept. 3 opener against Morehead State at Bridgeforth Stadium. With the season less than a week away, it’s an appropriate time to get JMU fans the answers to questions they are wondering about for the upcoming fall.
This is the first edition of the DN-R’s weekly JMU football mailbag. Each week I will take your questions - you can submit them via email to gmadia@dnronline.com, on Twitter using #JMUTalk or on the DukesofJMU.com’s message boards - and select a few to answer. Let’s get started.
Throughout the preseason, Jimmy Moreland’s name came up more than a few times in questions on Twitter. Anyway, at practice Moreland looks like he can still play even though he is likely at least a few weeks away from seeing game action with the defense. Last week, cornerbacks coach Tripp Weaver said Moreland is the “most athletic, but most undisciplined” within the position group. The Royal Palm Beach, Fla. native has struggled with fundamentals like footwork. Right now, Moreland is JMU’s fifth-best corner behind the four guys on the two-deep. Senior Taylor Reynolds and sophomore Rashad Robinson will start in the base 4-2-5 defense and Reynolds will bounce to the nickel spot when the Dukes bring a third corner - sophomore Charles Tutt - into the game. Sophomore Curtis Oliver is also part of the four-man rotation. Most of Moreland’s contributions will come on special teams, especially early in the year.
Over the last three weeks of watching JMU practice, it’s become apparent that with the experience the offensive personnel has that the offense is going to be able to score points and rack up yards in coordinator Donnie Kirkpatrick’s system, so if you’re looking for X factor, turn your attention to the defensive side of the ball.
Coach Mike Houston and defensive coordinator Bob Trott are trying to turnaround a defense that gave up more than 550 yards of total offense per game in its three losses last fall. Houston and Trott are disciples of the Fred Goldsmith tree. Goldsmith was the head coach at Rice and Duke in the 1990s and a well-renouned defensive coordinator at Arkansas and Air Force prior to becoming a head coach. The 4-2-5 system that Houston and Trott learned through Goldsmith is notorious for guiding defenses to create turnovers, which has been an emphasis throughout camp. In the regular season, if talented opposing offenses are still able to parade up and down the field against JMU, the defense will need to create critical turnovers that can change the momentum of the game. Houston’s Citadel squad and Trott’s Richmond defense both ranked within the top three nationally in FCS for interceptions last year.
I’ll go back to the cornerback spot here because Robinson entered camp with an edge over Tutt, Oliver and Moreland for the starting role oppositte of Reynolds. According to Weaver, the decision to keep Robinson with the first-team defense was an easy one. Weaver said Robinson had twice as many interceptions as any cornerback throughout training camp.
If you’re looking for a newcomer or two to keep an eye on, I don’t think any true freshman or transfers are going to begin the year as starters, but I do think one freshman will have a prominent role on defense and one transfer will have a contributing role on offense. At defensive end John Daka will play in pass rushing situations. Houston said that the Dukes could rush Daka off one side of the defensive line while preseason All-American Andrew Ankrah crashes off the other. On offense, despite arriving at camp a few days late, Duke transfer Terrence Alls has learned the playbook quickly and has speed that the coaches don’t want to leave on the sideline. Alls will play immediately in some sets featuring four wide recievers.
EMAIL from Kenny P. ... Two questions for you - 1) From your observations, which QB is the best long-term option for the Dukes this season? and 2) How often is the offense lining up with both Abdullah and Cardon in the backfield?
Well Kenny, your first question is a tough one to answer. I don’t want to take an easy out here, but I think that until both Bryan Schor and Connor Mitch get into game-action in the new offense, that it’s hard to say. Schor understands the scheme and has great chemistry with his teammates. Mitch is starting to understand the offense, but timing with receivers, running backs and the offensive line, hasn't progressed like it has with Schor yet because that’s something that rarely can happen in three weeks. That chemistry is also tough to achieve once the regular season gets started. For this season, right now, I believe Schor is the best option for JMU, unless Mitch is able to create the important chemistry quickly.
To answer your second question, I think you’ll see Abdullah and Johnson in backfield at the same time, frequently. Kirkpatrick likes the idea of forcing the defense to load the box to stop JMU’s running back duo. If the defense loads the box, Kirkpatrick believes receivers like Brandon Ravenel, Rashard Davis and Domo Taylor will see one-on-one coverage from the opposing secondary. With the speed and skills that JMU’s recievers possess, a one-on-one matchup is an advantage for the Dukes. Abdullah and Johnson also provide versatility - they can run with the ball, catch it, block for one another and lineup in the slot or out wide - which allows Kirkpatrick’s offense to use tempo since he wouldn’t have to sub in other personnel for Abdullah or Johnson.
