HARRISONBURG — James Madison opens Saturday at Bridgeforth Stadium against Morehead State. It’s the second straight year that the Dukes kickoff their season versus the Eagles. Last fall JMU beat Morehead State, 56-7.

Despite the tough start in 2015, Morehead State bounced back to finish 7-4 and third overall in the Pioneer Football League.

Earlier this week, the DN-R caught up with Morehead State coach Rob Tenyer to learn more about his team in advance of Saturday’s game.

DN-R: Let’s start here, how was preseason camp and what areas were the biggest areas of emphasis for your team over the three weeks?

Rob Tenyer: Camp went really well. We stayed fairly healthy throughout, which was good. We have some really good returning leadership pieces that I think helped us during camp. We’re still trying to build the right culture here, but I think internally everything is good. We were picked really high in our conference — to finish within the top of four of our league this year and we started prepping for JMU last week. We’re excited to get going.

DN-R: Your quarterback Austin Gahafer — the Pioneer League’s 2015 Player of the Year — is back. What has he done throughout the offseason to improve?

RT: I think he has become more consistent in understanding our offense, so we’ve been able to evolve a little bit. We’ve got some new pieces and anytime that happens, you do have the ability to transition to get used to new guys. Austin has done that real well. I’m excited about our offensive line. We have returning players there and it’s probably the biggest offensive line that we’ve had. As much as we throw the ball, that is important for Austin to keep him healthy. With Austin, I also think his leadership is really strong. The kids look to him.

DN-R: With his growing leadership skills, how much do you put on him at the line of scrimmage, with the playbook and just in general to carry your team?

RT: It changes year to year and that depends on what we’re trying to do at quarterback. Sometimes it depends on the opponent and what issues that they present. It’s always tough going into the first game because there are so many unknowns, especially with JMU since they have a new staff and scheme. They will be different and we’ll be different. There will be points in the game that we lean on Austin as a four-year starter to make changes, adjustments and let us know what he’s seeing between series. That is a place that he’s grown too. We want to build around the thing that he’s good at, so it’s important for us that we keep an open line of communication with him during the game.

DN-R: Along with Austin, you also return one of his top targets from last year in Jake Raymond. How important is it to have a veteran quarterback with a trusted receiver when you go into one of these road non-conference games where, like you said, you have some unknowns and don’t know the opposing scheme all that well?

RT: That’s important. It also ties into our philosophy, too. Jake Raymond is a great example. He’s been around for five years. Him and Austin work really well together. Jake is one reception away from being are all-time leading receiver here, so we’ll lean on him to have a big campaign for us. Those two have chemistry and when things breakdown, they find a way to get things done. That’s important in big games and close games.

DN-R: I know when you look at JMU, there’s a new offensive coordinator and new defensive coordinator, but a lot of the personnel, like the running backs, is the same. Does that help you prep in anyway?

RT: Those two kids are pretty good. That’s about the best one-two punch that I’ve seen in a long time, especially at this level. Either of those guys could probably be starting at a lower-tier FBS school like in the MAC or Sun Belt. The situation at quarterback, I’m sure with [Connor] Mitch coming in, I think Bryan [Schor] will get the start this weekend so they could see what happens. Then they’re so explosive at the receiver position. They have three No. 1 guys there. They can run. Typically in a game like this, you’d think they’re just going to run the ball to try to control the line of scrimmage and I’m sure they’ll do that, but I think they’ll also throw it to try to be balanced. Then they have three kids on defense — [Gage] Steele at linebacker, [Andrew] Ankrah and then the corner [Taylor] Reynolds. Those kids are as good as it gets at the FCS level. No matter the scheme, we have to know their personnel because they’ll be around the football and make plays.