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JMU coach refuses to name starting quarterback for Charlotte game

Posted on by angelo
JMU coach refuses to name starting quarterback for Charlotte game

HARRISONBURG — Less than a week before he began coaching James Madison football, Bob Chesney wasn’t ready to name a starting quarterback.

Washington transfer Dylan Morris was in competition with Alonza Barnett III before Saturday’s opener at Charlotte and on Monday, Chesney said, that competition will continue as he and his staff work to determine whose skill sets are best equipped to execute the game plan against this week’s opponent.

And Chesney said he remains open to the idea of ​​playing both quarterbacks Saturday for JMU.

“Every option is open,” Chesney said during the Sun Belt coaches’ teleconference Monday morning. “They’re both good football players. It’s not a tough decision to make because we can’t figure out who’s who. We know what they both can do. We’re trying to figure out what kind of game we’re going to play.”

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The Dukes are moving on from Jordan McCloud, who was the conference’s player of the year last season. When McCloud entered the transfer portal, Chesney and his staff stepped up their efforts to secure a trade.

Barnett started last season’s opener under former coach Curt Cignetti, then didn’t start the rest of the season as McCloud took over and had an impressive campaign. He returned, along with Billy Atkins, who has played 13 games in the last three years and also started once.

However, once McCloud announced his intention to leave, JMU began scouring the transfer portal for another option. That’s when offensive coordinator Dean Kennedy found his way to Dylan Morris.

As the Dukes prepared for their bowl game, Morris — still on Washington’s roster — was deep in preparations for the national semifinal against Texas.

Morris, who appeared in four games as Michael Penix Jr.’s backup, participated in a Zoom call with Kennedy that lasted nearly two hours.

“We talked about the plan, what I was looking for,” Morris said. “It all just kind of came together. I knew listening to him talk football, you could see how smart he was and that he was really going to do a lot to make sure we were in a great position offensively.”

It was the football IQ that drew Kennedy to Morris, prompting him to zero in on the 6-foot-1, 200-pound redshirt senior, who played five seasons at Washington, starting 15 games. He was the team’s starter in 2021 as a sophomore.

“I saw that his intelligence level was different than a lot of people’s,” Kennedy said. “That’s when I thought, ‘Let’s make this happen.'”

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Kennedy, who spent the last two seasons as Chesney’s offensive coordinator at Holy Cross, played a significant role in Morris’ selection.

“There were a lot of things that went into that process. There were a lot of names on the table,” Chesney said. “And at the end of the day, he was the guy that Coach Kennedy trusted the most.”

Morris committed to Madison without visiting Harrisonburg, but he did a lot of research, studying the Dukes’ program and the success Chesney and Kennedy had had at Holy Cross.

Morris even recalled watching JMU’s appearance on College Gameday and said he was looking forward to seeing the fan tradition of throwing banners after the first score live.

Kennedy’s offense aims to be balanced and protect the ball – Chesney places a premium on ball security and field position – while providing explosive hitting by creating favorable matchups with pre-snap movement and versatile players.

Morris and Barnett, a slick and elusive runner, bring different skill sets, making it likely that part of planning the right matchups could involve using both quarterbacks on a game-by-game or series-by-series basis.

“We’ve lived this life before,” said Chesney, who played quarterback Matthew Sluka in limited and running back packages during Sluka’s true freshman season in 2020. Sluka became a full-time starter and three-time All-Patriot League selection.

So on Saturday, Chesney and Kennedy could give the ball to Morris or Barnette. They could play against both. And the player who starts in Charlotte won’t necessarily be the same player who’s selected the following week for the home opener against Gardner-Webb.

“It gives us two different situations for every opponent we play, and I think we like that aspect,” Chesney said. “Both teams can do a lot of things. There’s no shortage of plays or ways to attack a defense and I think that’s what Coach Kennedy works on the most.”