HARRISONBURG — Edward Morgan already has a knack for finding the purple-shaded pay dirt at Bridgeforth Stadium.

In September, the former ASA College wide receiver hauled in 11 catches for 139 yards and three touchdowns in the Avengers’ double-overtime loss to Georgia Military College in Harrisonburg.

“Freaking fourth quarter, last play of the game almost with a minute left, the kid catches the ball,” said Ken Merchant, who served as receivers coach at ASA this past fall before becoming an offensive analyst at Howard University this offseason. “Breaks a tackle, two kids on GMC run into each other and he runs into the end zone on a 34-yard post route.

“Incredible.”

Morgan was one of five transfers — but the only junior college product — officially added to James Madison’s football roster Monday. He could crack the Dukes’ receiving core immediately, considering the team graduated former starters Terrence Alls and John Miller from the 2017 squad.

“With Edward, we did a tremendous amount of research because we knew nothing about him,” JMU coach Mike Houston said. “And I think with JUCO players, you have to do a tremendous amount of research because you have to figure out why they’re there.”

Since Houston arrived at JMU, he has only signed two other former junior college prospects. Ex-Northeastern Oklahoma A&M quarterback Mack Waldman was part of Houston’s first recruiting class, but never saw game action. This past January, defensive lineman Matt Terrell joined the Dukes after spending the fall at Garden City Community College in Kansas, but Terrell initially began his career at Virginia, and JMU used the other former Cavaliers on the roster who were familiar with Terrell to vouch for him.

Morgan, who played at Friendship Collegiate High School in Washington, D.C., before moving to the Brooklyn, N.Y.-based two-year school, had a totally different situation.

“When we were recruiting him out of Friendship Collegiate, he was just one of those kids who didn’t have a great GPA,” Merchant said. “He was on the cusp of qualifying, but didn’t end up qualifying, so he was looking for a home and we found him.

“He was able to come to ASA as a freshman and we saw a lot of talent in him at a young age, but he pulled his hamstring. He pulled his hamstring off the bone. He had a bad tear and didn’t play at all his freshman year, but it healed up nicely going into his [redshirt freshman] year.”

Between academics in high school and the injury suffered during in his first year at junior college, Morgan missed out on multiple evaluating periods for FBS and FCS coaches to scout him.

And even in the spring ahead of his second season at ASA, Morgan had a setback with the hamstring, Merchant said, which meant Division I programs were forced to wait again to determine whether or not the 5-foot-11 pass catcher was good enough to play at the top level of college football.

“We had about 30 FBS schools come last spring ball just to watch our guys practice,” Merchant said. “And he was a standout, but tweaked his hamstring again during spring ball and only practiced once or twice.

“But there were three schools — Akron, Buffalo and [California] — that came and we’re all like ‘Who the hell is that guy? Who’s that guy?’ And then he got hurt, so we shut him down because we knew he was talented and there wasn’t much else to see, but he didn’t get any of those offers.”

It wasn’t until training camp that Morgan completely healed, but as soon as he was, he showed to be the threat that Merchant and the rest of the ASA staff thought he could be.

Morgan led ASA with 60 catches for 846 yards and 11 touchdowns to become the first ever All-American receiver at the school, earning second-team National Junior College Athletic Association honors. He also registered 275 yards and two touchdowns on six kick-return attempts.

Cal, Akron and Buffalo showed interest in Morgan, and Albany, Eastern Kentucky and Morgan State offered him before he selected JMU.

“Going into the season, he was healthy and I’m making sure he’s not doing too much and his work ethic is insane,” Merchant said. “I’m like ‘Ed, you have to relax and please 75 percent until we get to game week,’ so that just goes to show what kind of guy he is.

“Then during the season, he was incredible week after week. If I tell him to do something, he’s doing it on the spot as far as correcting hand placement or foot placement, technique or releases, he picks it up like that and it showed week to week.

“The kid is a phenomenal player.”

Merchant said he thinks Morgan can play outside receiver or in the slot for the Dukes, depending on what role JMU needs him to fill.

Morgan has three seasons of eligibility to play out at JMU.

For this season, junior Riley Stapleton and senior David Eldridge are projected to start at outside receiver, and the competition on the inside that began during the spring is expected to continue.

Sophomore Ezrah Archie suffered an injury early in March and missed most of the 15 practices while redshirt freshmen Kyndel Dean, Daniel Adu, Jake Brown and Josh Sims failed to do enough during that time to enter the summer as clear-cut first-teamers.

“Edward, you know if Ezrah Archie doesn’t get injured this spring, is there as big of need for him?” Houston said. “I don’t know. But certainly, we felt like we needed to have a little bit better depth going into the fall with that occurring.”

If Morgan can emerge to contribute right away will be found out in August when the Dukes report for training camp.

“That championship caliber team is what he was looking for,” Merchant said. “And it’s NFL or bust for this kid, and I can’t wait to watch him on Sundays because I think he can get there, as long as he keeps that hamstring healthy.”