HARRISONBURG – Milan Puskar Stadium in Morgantown, W.Va., is a drastically different setting for college football than Beaty-Richmond Field at Carl Smith Stadium on the campus of UVA-Wise.

The last time Truvell Wilson started a game was in 2016 for the Division II Cavaliers, who play their home contests in the 3,900-seat venue. Wilson’s next start could come Aug. 31 for James Madison when Dukes open their season at FBS West Virginia in front of 60,000 geared-up-for-kickoff, gold-and-blue-decked-out spectators.

“I’m more focused on the day-to-day,” Wilson, the redshirt junior offensive lineman said, “taking advantage of each day, but I’m pretty sure in that moment, it’s going to feel surreal. I’ve been working to get to this point all of my college career, and here I am finally starting in Division I.”

Wilson joined JMU in 2017, but sat out that season due to NCAA transfer rules and then only saw limited action last year as a backup. It wasn’t until this past spring that the 6-foot-2, 303-pounder began climbing the depth chart and pushing for a starting job.

Through two weeks of training camp, he’s taken the majority of first-team reps at left guard.

“He’s a guy that made a lot of progress in the spring,” first-year JMU coach Curt Cignetti said. “And he’s picked right up and taken it to another level here in the fall.”

At UVA-Wise, Wilson started every game of his lone season with the Cavaliers at left tackle and earned honorable mention All-Mountain East Conference accolades. He said his performance there was enough to draw interest from former Dukes offensive line coach Bryan Stinespring.

“He talked to [former coach Mike] Houston and said it was OK for me to come here,” Wilson said. “But I wanted to come to JMU out of high school. I didn’t get the offer, so I wanted to go get a year of film at Wise. I started all the games at left tackle and showed I could play, so I transferred here and the rest is history.”

Wilson said beside the one from UVA-Wise, his only other scholarship offer out of Henrico High School was from Virginia State, another Division II program.

“Of course at every level of football, people are going to compete, and play hard,” Wilson said. “But I’d say the talent here at this level is better than the talent level at the D-II level. Everybody here is athletic, physical. Everybody can move. Everybody can play and you have to be on your A-game here. You can’t afford to take days off. If you take days off, you’re losing your spot or you’re looking really bad. You have to keep on it, stay on it and keep grinding every day.”

And right now, Wilson is doing just that.

“Truvell is playing extremely well and I have a lot of confidence in him,” Cignetti said.

Here are two other Dukes with their stock on the rise:

Fifth-year senior linebacker Mike Cobbs was in line for more playing time anyway.

He would’ve been the first linebacker off the bench to sub in for either fellow senior linebackers Landan Word or Dimitri Holloway when they needed a breather. But Holloway’s hand injury has him out for two weeks, which means Cobbs will get most first-team reps alongside Word in the middle of the Dukes’ defense.

“I hate to see Dimitri go down. That’s one of my guys,” Cobbs said. “I came in here with him freshman year. He’s always been behind me. I’ve always been behind him, so when he’s ready, he’ll comeback and play of course, but for now, I’m going to do what I can to play at the same level as him and if not higher.”

Cobbs served a role on special teams over the past few seasons, making seven tackles last year and 10 tackles the year before, but he said adding about 10 pounds this summer has helped prepare to see meaningful snaps on defense.

“Coming in I still had that safety body,” Cobbs said. “I was around 200 pounds, so knowing I had to play inside the box and deal with offensive linemen and start dealing with running backs a lot more, I had to gain weight. [Strength coach] Brian Phillips did a great job in the weight room and I put on about 10 pounds of muscle, so I’m weighing in at about 215, 216 pounds right now, but I feel the same speed. I don’t feel like I’ve lost a step.”

It’s not easy for a true freshman running back to make the case for seeing the field right away, but Austin Douglas trying to.

He had a strong performance in Friday’s team scrimmage and has put together two consistent weeks of practice.

“I thought Austin Douglas ran really well at running back,” Cignetti said. “He definitely caught my eye.”

Cignetti said Douglas is one of two first-year players – along with defensive end Jalen Green – who likely won’t redshirt this season.

Douglas is still behind juniors Percy Agyei-Obese and Jawon Hamilton at running back, but has shared second-team reps with redshirt freshman Solomon Vanhorse.

At Mount Vernon (Atlanta), Douglas rushed for 1,673 yards and 17 touchdowns last year as a prep senior.

“He’s very mature,” Cignetti said. “He picks things up quickly and approaches his work like a veteran, and he’s got talent.”