football practice

By JACKSON HEPHNER The Breeze

Less than five months away from its season opener against Bucknell, JMU football's back in Bridgeforth Stadium for spring football practice.

The NCAA allows for each team to have 15 spring practices in one month. JMU will end its month with 14 practices, which started March 23 and will end with its spring game April 22.

There’s still 2 1/2 weeks left before the game, but just under two weeks into practice, head coach Curt Cignetti said he’s pleased with the on-field product and said after practice April 4 that JMU’s back into a rhythm where practice is flowing like it normally does.

The Dukes returned to the field after what Cignetti called a good offseason. He added that the team has made significant gains in “all the areas that are important” in developing his players.

“Now, it’s time to play football,” he said after day one of spring ball.

Cignetti said the team is using the spring to figure out who can do what. There are holes that need to be filled — like 2022 Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Year quarterback Todd Centeio and First Team All-Sun Belt wide receiver Kris Thornton, to name a few — but for now, the coach said his goals for the spring are to develop players, keep them healthy and improve as a whole.

Offense: searching for new weapons

The offense has four quarterbacks who are competing during spring practice for the starting spot: two returning players, redshirt sophomore Billy Atkins and redshirt freshman Alonza Barnett III, and two transfers, redshirt freshman Brett Griffis from Wake Forest and Jordan McCloud from Arizona. Cignetti said at the beginning of spring practice he’s never worked four quarterbacks before.

“To be honest, they’ve got a lot to learn, I feel like,” Junior tight end Zach Horton said about the quarterbacks, “but we’re throwing a lot at them right now too, but it's up for grabs, competition wise.”

Cignetti has remained tight-lipped on who holds the edge in the competition and said it’s hard to work four different quarterbacks. But on Tuesday, he sounded closer to a decision.

“I came out here with something in my mind moving forward,” he said. “We’ll see where it takes us.”

The spriwng is not only a time to develop players but also chemistry. Horton is returning to a tight end room that no longer features graduated Noah Turner and Drew Painter, who tallied 19 catches for 221 yards in 2022. Last year, Horton found himself looking to Turner and Painter for guidance.

Now, Horton said, he and his fellow tight ends are on their own, and if they have questions, they need to ask one of their coaches. In Turner and Painter's absence, Horton said he feels he needs to “take their spot” and become a mentor for the younger guys in the room.

Defense: picking up where it left off

On the other side of the ball, the defense returns after losing just two players in the offseason — All-Sun Belt Second Team defensive lineman Jamare Edwards and cornerback Jordan Swann. Redshirt junior linebacker Taurus Jones said that because of the defense's continuity, it already knows the playbook well, and its focus is on fine-tuning and adding things, as well as just “being a tight-knit group.”

Among the veterans returning to the defense is graduate defensive lineman Isaac Ukwu, who’s entering his seventh season after racking up 7.5 sacks in 2022. Ukwu isn't participating in spring football due to injury, though Jones still calls him the “dad of the team.”

“He's still a big voice on a team even though he's not out here right now,” Jones said of Ukwu. “But Issac, man, I love that guy. He's really our big brother for everybody. He's a great leader, role model all the way.”

With so many returners, Jones said that the goal of the defense this year is to achieve more of the same of last year, a unit that led the Sun Belt in total and rushing defense and slotted in third against the pass. He said that the defense wants to lead in all categories in the Sun Belt in 2023.

“It ain't gonna be easy,” Jones said. “It's probably gonna be harder than last year because people probably were sleeping on us last year because we were an FCS team, but now we've shown that we can compete at the FBS level and it should be harder, I assume.”

The defense wants to improve the offense as well. Jones said the defense understands the offense has more new pieces, and that it hopes to use practice to make the offense better. Its strategy is simple: “Beat them bad every day.”

“I know you probably hear me talking a whole lot,” Jones said. “That's really what everybody comes out here to do and we love to compete. And when we in between these white lines, we're not teammates at that point. It just is, really, we want to win every period, every rep, every single thing honestly.”

Horton said he loved the competitive practices and said “it definitely makes us better,” and it allows for everyone to get used to that competitiveness in games. Despite the competition, the offense’s goals for this year are similar to the defense.

“Pick off where we left off the Sun Belt offensively, in stats and all of that,” Horton said. The offense finished third in total offense last year.

Before the Dukes follow up 2022's 8-3 campaign, JMU has 2 1/2 weeks left until the spring game and a long summer before the season-opener at home versus Bucknell on Sept. 2.