More From Mickey Matthews

He remembered detailed stories about recruiting running back Khalid Abdullah, punt returner Rashard Davis, offensive tackle Mitchell Kirsch, wide receiver Brandon Ravenel and cornerback Taylor Reynolds.

RB Khalid Abdullah

Matthews initially saw Abdullah at one of his satellite camps in the Virginia Beach area. JMU was the only school to offer Abdullah a full scholarship.

“That’s how we found Abdullah,” Matthews said. “He had a great camp and he was just a great young man.

“You could tell when he matured, he’d be a physical specimen. He was such a nice kid, so it was a no-brainer.”

Matthews said it didn’t scare him off that Abdullah didn’t have any serious interest from other schools.

“He came to the camp and I told our running backs coach Ulrick Edmonds, offer him a scholarship in the next five minutes,” Matthews said.

Abdullah is JMU’s all-time leader for rushing touchdowns with 39 for his career. He has 1,708 rushing yards and 20 rushing touchdowns this season.

**More on Abdullah's recruitment from Novemeber's DN-R story: Overlooked No More

WR/PR Rashard Davis

When his staff showed him Davis’ high school highlight tape, Matthews couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

“It’d been three weeks to Sunday since Charlottesville High School had a prospect – so they put on the tape and I said, ‘Charlottesville High School has a recruit?’” Matthew said. “Then seeing Rashard play quarterback, I thought his film was being filmed at a fast speed. This was one of the fastest guys I’d ever seen on a high school film. He was a human rocket.”

Davis has four punt-return touchdowns this season and was named Colonial Athletic Association Special Teams Player of the Year.

“It didn’t take long to recruit him,” Matthews said. “The other big one on him was Liberty but his mom and I got along really good. I’m glad she liked me.”

OT Mitchell Kirsch

Kirsch camped often at the University of Virginia.

Matthews said him and his assistants used to travel to Charlottesville to help work the camp.

“[Former Virginia coach] Mike London would let us go over there a lot,” Matthews said. “I watched Mitchell in summer camp and talked to his dad. Duke and someone else in the ACC were recruiting him. He was a good player.”

Matthews said he liked that Kirsch had also played on the defensive line in high school.

“Our philosophy was to recruit guys that played defensive line in high school,” Matthews said. “We wanted to turn them into offensive linemen in college. Mitchell fit that mold and Mitchell had a mean streak in him.”

WR Brandon Ravenel

One of Matthews’ biggest pulls was Ravenel, who had FBS offers from Boston College, Buffalo, Purdue, Temple and West Virginia.

“We had him in summer camp and jeez, he was skinny,” Matthews said of his first encounter with Ravenel. “He could hide behind a telephone pole he was so skinny.”

Ravenel was in 8th or 9th grade at the time, Matthews said.

“I remember talking to his dad one evening after a camp, and of course you never know how heavily a kid is going to be recruited at that point, but certainly we thought Brandon would be a great player,” Matthews said. “Brandon could tell you, but he said then coach ‘I’m coming here.’ I said, ‘we’ll see.’

“As time went on, he still camped with us every summer and he showed me the letter from when West Virginia offered him, but Brandon fell in love with JMU.”

In his career, Ravenel has 160 receptions, 2,250 receiving yards and 15 touchdowns.

CB Taylor Reynolds

Reynolds picked Madison over his hometown school, the University of Delaware.

At Newark High School, Reynolds was a standout quarterback, but Matthews moved him to cornerback to help the Dukes on defense. Matthews said the program believed Michael Birdsong would be a mainstay at quarterback then for the next four years.

Reynolds is now an NFL prospect at the position.

“My last year at JMU, we were struggling so much in the defensive backfield, so we moved Taylor to corner to solve that problem,” Matthews said. “He played very average as a freshman, but he wasn’t ready yet.

“I saw him run routes too and I thought he would have been a tremendous receiver too. But that’s why we did it.”

Reynolds has 11 interceptions for his career.

“With him being a cornerback NFL prospect, I was correct,” Matthews said. “But he could have played quarterback, there’s no doubt. He could have been a great college quarterback.

“He’s an NFL prospect at corner or receiver because he’s that good of an athlete.”