The Redemption Of Moreland

HARRISONBURG — Jimmy Moreland could only describe the feeling as “very strange.”

He spent each Saturday last fall where he had spent each Saturday the previous fall – at Bridgeforth Stadium.

The difference? Last season he wasn’t part of the game.

Instead of jumping to catch an interception to help James Madison, he sat on the metal bleachers waiting to throw streamers like everyone else does when the Dukes score.

“I would come to every game and sit in the stands. I’d sit in the student section,” Moreland said. “I’d come early, too, because since I’ve always been a football player, I wanted to see the team warm up and make sure everyone looked like they’d be ready to play.”

Throughout the season, fans in the crowd would recognize him and ask what he was up to. He said he could remember telling some of those questioning him during JMU’s loss to Richmond last October that he was working out on his own.

All Moreland wanted to do was rejoin the JMU football team, but the Royal Palm Beach, Fla., native lost the privilege of being a football player.

Moreland and two Madison teammates — Rhakeem Stallings and K.J. Ford — were charged with petty larceny in the spring of 2015. Everett Withers, JMU’s coach at the time, dismissed all three players from the program.

“I don’t like talking about the incident, but it was a big deal,” Moreland said. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, did this just happen?’ Then, once we were told that we were kicked off the team, I thought to myself, ‘What do I do from here on out?’”

Before his crucial mistake, Moreland was on the fast track at JMU.

As a true freshman in 2014, he was a two-time Colonial Athletic Association Rookie of the Week. For the season, he racked up 47 tackles, had two fumble recoveries and two interceptions. He returned both for touchdowns.

His early success was what he said he envisioned for himself.

Moreland picked JMU over Coastal Carolina, Appalachian State, Iowa State, Toledo and Marshall out of high school, but after getting kicked off the JMU roster before his sophomore season, none of those schools, or any other school at the Division I level, called to gauge his interest.

The only coaches to reach out to the 5-foot-11 defensive back were from junior colleges.

“I went to Iowa Western for a week,” Moreland said. “I knew it wasn’t for me. I just felt like if this is the life, I can’t do it. I had to stay focused and keep doing what I was doing here.”

About a month after Moreland got in trouble, Withers reached out, the cornerback said.

“He texted me and told me to keep staying out of trouble and that maybe he could do something for me in the future,” Moreland said. “He told me to get good grades and just keep my nose clean.”

Moreland stayed out of trouble, went to class and tried to stay in shape on his own in hopes of a return to the field. Withers’ plan, Moreland said, was to invite him back for spring practice in 2016. But Withers left Harrisonburg to take the head coach position at Texas State in January.

Current Dukes coach Mike Houston was hired and Moreland’s future was in his hands.

“The first day I was in the office, there was a folder on my desk that had the entire story in it,” Houston said. “I’ve had guys like him in the past. Some have worked out and some have not, but I always believe in giving someone a second chance if they deserve it.”

Houston said he had a player at Lenoir–Rhyne — where he worked as defensive coordinator from 2007 to 2010 before being elevated to head coach in 2011 — that was a standout as a freshman. The same player was ineligible and removed from the program as a sophomore before taking advantage of a second chance given by Houston to return for his junior and senior seasons. Michael Green finished his career as a three-time All-American.

Houston and Moreland met one-on-one before the start of spring practice and Moreland was allowed back on a “trial basis.”

No longer on scholarship, there wasn’t any risk in bringing Moreland back.

“Coach Houston basically said all he knew about me was my background and that he didn’t want to go off that,” Moreland said. “He wanted to see for himself the person I was from that first meeting on. He gave me the trial basis and once he gave it to me, I took advantage of it. He wanted to judge me for himself.”

Respect from Houston, his new position coach Tripp Weaver and his old teammates was still something Moreland had to earn.

Houston said he was tough on Moreland during the spring and didn’t treat him like he treated the rest of the team.

Moreland said Weaver kept a close eye on him, too.

“When you first take a job, the first job you have is to get to know your players,” Weaver said. “Once I got to know Jimmy, he wasn’t what I had perceived him to be just because of the past incidents. He’s a great person. He and I really hit it off.

“But I am on him every day. He’ll get a text from me every day and every night just to see what he’s doing. I want to make sure he’s living right off the field and everything else; but he’s doing well and I’m proud of him.”

Moreland has played in all seven games this season as a redshirt sophomore and started at cornerback in JMU’s Sept. 24 win at Maine.

He has 21 tackles and one interception. He is a fixture on all four of the major special teams units and was the lead blocker on both of Rashard Davis’ punt return touchdowns in the first two weeks of the season.

“It says a lot actually about him,” Davis said. “Knowing you can do a lot more for the team by just playing your role and being a team player, it says a lot about his character and really how much of a mature human being he can be. He knows his time at corner will come, but right now, playing the role he can on special teams and taking it seriously like he has, that’s positive.”

Senior cornerback Taylor Reynolds said it didn’t take long for the players in the position group to welcome Moreland back.

“I would say anyone that’s played football all their life and then had to take a year off in college when it matters, it hurts them,” Reynolds said. “Just by him continuing to do his schoolwork, study and keep his nose clean off the field, that alone earned our respect back. Jimmy has come a long way. He’s been a good addition to our football team.”

The contributions made by Moreland this season makes the story one of redemption, but for Moreland, Houston and anyone else involved with the JMU football program, they say it’s still a story that isn’t over.

Moreland said he has the goal of earning his scholarship back.

Houston said he wants Moreland to keep improving on the field and eventually leave campus with a degree. Moreland is studying sports and recreation management at JMU.

“He’s a success story at this point,” Houston said. “But the true success will be if he graduates from James Madison University, which is the goal all of us have for him. Hopefully, that’s how this ends.”