Kidwell Finds Comfort On Left Side

HARRISONBURG — The path to playing time for Nick Kidwell has opened up.

At least during the spring.

“I didn’t expect having this big of a role quite yet,” the 6-foot-5, 319-pound James Madison redshirt freshman offensive lineman said after practice Thursday.

A Boonsboro (Md.) High School product, Kidwell appeared in two games this past fall while redshirting and has four years of eligibility to play out at JMU. Before earning first-team reps at left tackle, Kidwell was practicing behind starter Liam Fornadel at right tackle earlier in the spring.

“We moved him over to left tackle to see if we could hold up a little better there,” Dukes coach Curt Cignetti said. “And after two days, he’s done pretty well.”

With the Dukes’ Aug. 31 season-opening game at West Virginia over four months away — and with 2018 starting left guard Zaire Bethea and left tackle Raymond Gillespie not practicing this spring — Kidwell said he is earning reps that could help show the coaching staff he’s ready to see more significant action than he did in his first season on campus.

“I want to play in a few more [games] this year,” Kidwell said. “I’m trying to get better every single day. I’m still new at this, so I’m trying to get better and learn something every single day. I just want to keep improving.”

Kidwell said he fits well with Cignetti’s and offensive line coach Damian Wroblewski’s downhill approach to blocking. Kidwell, who had other scholarship offers out of Boonsboro from Liberty, Monmouth, New Hampshire and Villanova before selecting JMU because of his bond with former assistant coach John Bowers, considers run blocking his strength. He played left tackle in a Wing T offense at the prep level.

So with three practices and the April 13 spring game left before summer break, Kidwell is focused on his adjustment back to the left side of the line and his pass blocking, he said.

“It’s a little different than the right side, but I’m getting used to it,” Kidwell said. “My feet, that’s one thing, and then my punch. My outside hand has to go up and my inside hand has to go down, which is flipped from the right side. The plays are flipped up, but we’ll figure it out.”

He said defensive ends John Daka and Isaac Ukwu are testing him with their speed rushes.

“It’s just so much faster in college,” Kidwell said.

Fornadel, Gillespie and center Mac Patrick are all giving Kidwell advice about how to succeed at his new position, according to Kidwell.

“I’ve had my ups and downs,” Kidwell said of his spring. “I’ve had some really good times and some down spots, but I feel like I’m improving and that’s a start.”

Cignetti said: “He’s a tough guy.”

Just two days after he pleaded no contest to a charge of false imprisonment in an Indiana County (Pa.) Common Pleas Court, James Madison senior wide receiver Riley Stapleton returned to Dukes practice Thursday.

No decision regarding Stapleton’s future with the program has been decided.

“Poor choices and decisions lead to poor consequences,” Cignetti said Thursday. “That’s all I’ve got to say.”

The Indiana Gazette reported Stapleton was placed on probation for one year after he acknowledged charges that he restrained his former girlfriend at a house party in June of 2017 in Indiana, Pa.

Stapleton was sent for anger management and a drug-and-alcohol evaluation, according to the newspaper.

“We are extremely disappointed in Riley’s actions and will issue punishment in line with the court’s findings,” JMU athletics released in a statement on Wednesday through associate athletic director for communications Kevin Warner. “We will be meeting with the student athlete to communicate his punishment and then will release that accordingly.”