HARRISONBURG — Gage Moloney was next in line, the heir apparent at a high school football program blessed with quarterback royalty.

Justin Worley and Mason Rudolph came before him. Worley went on to play at Tennessee. Rudolph is the starter at Oklahoma State.

“Among our landmark quarterbacks, he certainly has a place,” Northwestern High School (Rock Hill, S.C.) coach David Pierce said of Moloney.

Moloney is the centerpiece of FCS national champion James Madison’s 2017 recruiting class. He signed his national letter of intent and faxed it to the school Wednesday.

During his run as a two-year starter at Northwestern High School, Moloney led the Trojans to a state championship in 2015 before throwing for 2,673 yards and 24 touchdowns in his senior year when he earned the Mr. Football Award in the state of South Carolina.

Eventual college stars and future pros like Stephen Davis, Stephon Gilmore, Marcus Lattimore and Jadeveon Clowney won the award in the past.

“We had three finalists for the award prior to this year, but this year he won it,” Pierce said. “He certainly has an athletic ability that the others didn’t have.

“He came in behind Justin Worley, who was the Gatorade Player of the Year, and Mason Rudolph, who will probably be a Heisman candidate next year. He came in on their heels and he won the award.”

Moloney said his transformation was aided between his sophomore and junior seasons with the help of his former head coach and position coach Kyle Richardson. After Northwestern won its state title in 2015, Richardson was hired as an offensive analyst at Clemson, which won the FBS national championship by beating Alabama in the College Football Playoff championship game in January.

Richardson developed Worley and Rudolph, too.

“Coach Richardson had the biggest impact on my football career so far,” Moloney said. “He wasn’t big on technique, but he was big on the mental side. He was the greatest coach I ever had and I’m glad I was able to have a year with him before he went to Clemson.”

It was in Richardson’s air-raid offense Moloney was able to succeed. Pierce, who was promoted to the head gig at Northwestern following Richardson’s departure, kept the offensive system in place.

Moloney said there are commonalities between the offense at Northwestern and the offense at JMU.

“I was talking with [JMU offensive coordinator Donnie] Kirkpatrick,” Moloney said. “He wanted to see what was similar between our offense and their offense.

“The names and formations — we literally had the same formation names. There were maybe one or two more words to the plays, but it’s very similar. I think I’m going to pick up on it really fast and I’m really excited about it.”

Pierce said even by watching Madison’s offense on television, he could tell Moloney had the skill set for Kirkpatrick’s spread system.

“If you’re going to incorporate any kind of run-pass option with a fast-paced spread offense, you’re going to put defenses in a bind, and I think Gage will fit in well,” Pierce said.

Kirkpatrick said he first became aware of Moloney through Richardson when Kirkpatrick was in his final season as an offensive assistant at East Carolina.

“Kyle had originally texted me and said, ‘You got to look at this guy,’” Kirkpatrick recalled. “He said, ‘This guy is going to better than the two we had before,’ and that got my attention because I knew how good the two [Worley and Rudolph] were before.”

Kirkpatrick said when he got to JMU, he wanted to keep recruiting the quarterback, which is where Dukes’ cornerback coach Tripp Weaver came in.

Weaver is responsible for recruiting the state of South Carolina for JMU.

Moloney, who flipped his verbal commitment from Ohio University to JMU in December, said Weaver was one of the reasons he decided to change his mind.

Moloney held offers from Appalachian State, Colorado State and East Carolina, in addition to garnering interest from Florida Atlantic University and Georgia State as late as last week.

Weaver said developing a relationship with Moloney, his mother and his high school coaches were important in the recruitment.

“Coach Pierce and that coaching staff down there do a great job of coaching those kids, so the first thing I had to do was get in close with them to get access to Gage,” Weaver said.

Besides its trio of terrific quarterbacks, Moloney’s running back teammate Jerry Howard signed with Georgia Tech and the school sends players to Division I programs year after year.

“Whenever I’d go see Gage or go get a transcript, there was a line of coaches in there,” Weaver said. “But it’s fun to go into a school like that to recruit because they try to help the coaches out as much as they can.”

Once Moloney gets to Madison, it’s likely the left-handed gunslinger will have to wait before seeing the field.

The Dukes return Colonial Athletic Association Offensive Player of the Year Bryan Schor as well as Cole Johnson, who started a game when Schor was hurt in the fall.

“Gage is a really good thrower and also a really good runner,” Kirkpatrick said. “And we’d like to be able to keep that dual-threat thing going a bit.”

Schor hosted Moloney on his official visit to JMU in January, which he said reaffirmed his decision.

“He told me how special JMU was and how good of a decision I was making,” Moloney said. “He just backed up everything I thought and he’s just so humble for how good he is and what type year he had, which made it a humbling experience for me as well.”

As for the legacy Moloney leaves behind in Rock Hill, S.C., it’s one that puts him in the company of Worley and Rudolph. He said the same way he approached taking over as the starter at Northwestern High School and filling their shoes, is the same way he’ll approach the start to his college career.

“They were their own people, so I played my own game and worried about what I could control,” Moloney said.