Even though J.T. Timming has never started previously for James Madison, he doesn’t lack experience and that’s vital while manning a spot on the field where knowledge comes in handy.

“Being here as long as I’ve been here, I’ve been able to learn the system pretty well,” Timming, the Dukes’ fifth-year senior center, said.

He’s had plenty of time to study it, too, having spent the last three campaigns as the backup to former JMU center and All-Colonial Athletic Association choice Mac Patrick. Timming and Patrick were roommates on the road through last season, and Patrick said Timming, who will start for the first time on Feb. 20 in the Dukes’ spring opener against Morehead State, is more than ready to take the job over and handle all of its responsibilities.

“J.T. is going to be a great player,” Patrick said. “Especially at a position on a football team that’s so important. You need a center that is experienced, knows what they’re doing, is football savvy and I think J.T. has all of those qualities.”

The center must communicate with the entire offensive line, call out blocking assignments and identify blitzers at the line of scrimmage, protect the quarterback and have rapport with the signal-caller to keep snap timing in sync.

Patrick started the program’s last 44 games at center before graduating after the 2019 season, but he said Timming was always there learning alongside him, talking through situations with him and quietly readying for his own moment.

“Every single week I felt like J.T. had the potential to start,” Patrick said. “He had the ability and talent to start and that pushed me in every single practice to stay on schedule and to make sure I wasn’t slacking and I was giving my full effort. Because I thought as soon as I relax and I think I have this position, that J.T. is going to blow by me.”

Though Timming played his prep football in the backyard of many Mid-American Conference schools, coaches at those programs never pushed as hard as JMU or Georgia State in pursuit of the then-Lakota East High School (Liberty Township, Ohio) standout.

“Those were the only two offers I had during the summer going into my senior year,” Timming said. “I took a visit here, did the camp here and then I went to Georgia State and when I went to Georgia State, I knew James Madison was where I wanted to be. It reminded me a lot of home and was a perfect fit for me.”

Rick Haynes, the coach at Lakota East, said he wasn’t surprised when Timming opted for JMU instead of waiting on any of the MAC schools to offer a scholarship. Miami (Ohio) is 23 miles from Lakota East. Both Ohio University and Bowling Green are less than a three-hour drive from Lakota East.

Timming was a first-team All-Greater Miami Conference selection as a junior and a senior. And while Timming was in that league, it featured plenty of opposing players who went on to play in the MAC and other prospects who continued their careers at Tennessee, Iowa State and Cincinnati, according to Haynes.

“He was tough,” Haynes said of Timming. “He loved the weight room. He was a great leader on our team. … But I don’t think I was surprised [he committed to JMU] because I think the caliber of football JMU plays is attractive. And obviously living here in the Midwest, I don’t think there’s any doubt that if they were in the MAC, they would compete with the MAC schools.”

In his first year at JMU, Timming redshirted and earned the Dukes’ Doug West Offensive Scout Team MVP the same season they won the national championship. Since then, he’s appeared at times in a reserve role and on special teams all while never looking to explore other possibilities for his career elsewhere.

“He’s a really great guy,” JMU fifth-year senior quarterback Cole Johnson said. Johnson and Timming have lived together since their sophomore years.

“And he’s the one guy who has really been in the same position as me,” said Johnson, who like Timming has had to wait to take the spot atop the depth chart until now. “So it’s been a lot easier to have somebody to talk to when we’ve both been in that No. 2 position the past four years. We’ve just said keep working hard, put your head down and keep grinding and eventually it’ll pay off.”

Timming said he wanted to finish his undergraduate degree at JMU and then when he did, he jumped right into a master’s program at the school.

Said Haynes: “With the NCAA transfer portal, kids are much more likely to transfer. Even now in recruiting with the college coaches, one of the questions they ask is, ‘Has the player been at your school all four years?' It trickles down to our level with kids transferring back and forth if they don’t start or have a better opportunity somewhere else, but based on knowing J.T.’s family and the type of kid he is, it doesn’t shock me at all that he’s wanted to stay. It also speaks to the culture and environment they have at JMU that he’s wanted to stay.”

There will be many anxiously and eagerly watching Timming in his starting debut, including JMU coach Curt Cignetti.

“He’s really waited a long time for his chance,” Cignetti said. “And now he’s got his opportunity. I’m really excited for him. He’s a grizzly old vet who loves to play football. He’s like a coach on the field, too, him and Cole. But J.T. could probably coach the line for us if he needed to. He makes all the right calls and he’s the kind of guy you want in your foxhole.”

Patrick said he’ll reach out to wish Timming well in the days leading up to the opener.

Haynes, whose team played this past fall, said he’d love to get to a game at Bridgeforth Stadium to root on his former offensive lineman.

“We are obviously very excited for J.T. because he’s a really great kid,” Haynes said. “And he has put in the time and he’s waited this out and now he’s getting his chance.”

But there’s no one more ready than Timming himself. He said he’s learned every responsibility on the offensive line in order to help his teammates out. He knows both tackle spots and both guard spots, so he can bark out instructions if he needs to.

And he’s spent some of the preseason examining JMU’s spring opponents – Morehead State, Robert Morris, Elon, William & Mary and Richmond.

“The extra time I’ve put in is watching game film on opponents to recognize tendencies,” Timming said. “Just so I can be a little more prepared by the time we get to game week. … When we were in the fall we thought we were going to have a season, so we looked at every single team we thought we were going to play against and we broke down film on ‘em. And when we realized we weren’t going to play, once the spring schedule got released, I redid the same thing.”