HARRISONBURG — Maybe this is the year Dimitri Holloway finally snags the first interception of his college career.

He said he thinks he’ll have more chances to do it in James Madison’s new defense.

The fifth-year senior linebacker has played in 38 games, started 22 times and has 205 total tackles to go along with 16.5 tackles for loss and three forced fumbles, but he’s never picked off a pass.

“I move out a little bit more in this defense,” Holloway said Saturday following the Dukes’ second spring practice. “I move outside of the box a little more depending on the formation that the offense gives us, so I move around more than I did last year.”

Holloway is manning the WILL linebacker position in the system first-year defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman is installing this spring. This past season, Holloway’s top responsibility was to plug gaps and make tackles to stop the opponent’s rushing attack, and on the rarest occasions had to drop into pass coverage in former defensive coordinator Bob Trott’s 4-2-5 scheme.

The primary task for Holloway remains the same – solidly defend the run first – but tacks on the additional duty of staying with receivers more regularly when Hetherman calls for it.

“There’s certain formations where I’m in straight man-to-man, so I mean it’s good,” Holloway said. “It can show my ability that I’m more than a run stopper.”

Most of the time, the pass-catchers Holloway matches up with are running backs on a route of the backfield or tight ends moving off the line of scrimmage.

Holloway, who was a second-team All-Colonial Athletic Association choice last season, said in his prep career at Heritage High School, he sometimes lined up as a safety, so pass coverage isn’t totally unfamiliar to him.

“And it’s one of those situations that we worked on just knowing the defense that was coming in,” Holloway said. “Throughout the winter when we were just doing workouts, I’d get out here with the running backs and tight ends, and just go one-on-one with them every now and then, so I could help myself and help them.”

He said the toughest to cover was running back Jawon Hamilton because of Hamilton’s speed, but added proudly that he thought he did a decent job and got the best of tight end Dylan Stapleton a few times.

“I don’t see myself breaking [former JMU cornerback Jimmy Moreland’s career interception] record,” Holloway said with a laugh. “But it is fun out there just knowing you can get in man-to-man situations. It’s exciting because you always see the corners out there doing their thing, breaking passes up and since you don’t always get the opportunity to do it as a linebacker, you get excited to have that opportunity.”

Hetherman and all other assistant coaches aren’t available to the media this spring, but JMU coach Curt Cignetti said he trusts Holloway.

“What I really like about him is first of all when you put him on tape last year, he’s a really good player,” Cignetti said. “But he’s an even better person. He’s very dependable and you can rely on him.

“He’s a smart player. He trains well. He’s committed. He’s disciplined. He’s a great role model for the younger players and I’m really looking forward to a lot of good football from him this year.”

Another way Holloway prepped for the spring was through watching all the game tape of Maine that he could.

Hetherman joined JMU after holding the same position with the Black Bears. Maine boasted the best rushing defense in all of FCS in 2018.

“I’ve watched [Maine] a lot over the past couple of weeks since Coach Hetherman came from there,” Holloway said. “I’ve had to scout those guys to see what the defense does. I’ve looked at the base personnel and some of the blitzes we were going to put in when we started spring ball, and now that we’re actually out here it’s better because we can see ourselves in the defense.”

Holloway said last year he knew all of his teammates’ jobs on each play Trott dialed up, and wants to have the same knowledge of Hetherman’s system.

“One thing I always harp on is I’ve got to be the best linebacker I can be out there for the defense as a whole,” Holloway said. “I’m basically the quarterback for the defense, and as long as I can be the best, I should be able to expand on the season I had last year.”

Last season, Holloway had a team-best 127 tackles.