Jun 4 / Rob

JMU Snags Great Deal – Vanderbilt Transfer Lafonte Thorougood From Our Laptop to Yours

In May, Vanderbilt announced that Lafonte Thourogood would be granted his release to transfer. Matthew Stoss confirmed tonight that on Sunday Thourogood to JMU on Sunday he was coming to play for the Dukes. Thourogood was a running back at Vanderbilt and redshirted last year. He was a very successful duel threat QB in high school and it is expected that he will line up behind center for JMU.

This is a very, very big get for Coach Matthews and his staff. Recruiting analysis and rankings are notoriously suspect, but Lafonte was a highly praised recruit coming out of Ocean Lakes High School in Virginia Beach. He was ranked as the 25th best duel threat QB in the 2011 class by Rivals.com. As you can see from the highlights above, he’s a big, strong, player who was sought after for his athleticism. He originally committed to Virginia Tech, before changing his mind and opting to sign with Vanderbilt. In addition to those two programs, he received scholarship offers from Arkansas, Florida, Stanford, North Carolina, NC State, Tennessee, and West Virginia. Many of those schools probably offered him as an “athlete”, but those are not programs you usually see extending offers to guys that end up at JMU. In short, this is a great, great get for the Dukes. Plus, Lafonte still has 4 years of eligibility and he carried a honor roll GPA in high school. In short, it doesn’t just look great from the screen of your i5 laptop deals like this can’t be passed up! I don’t mean to disrespect Jace Edwards, but it would be tough to argue that swapping Edwards for Thorougood this off-season didn’t improve the Duke’s at QB.

14 Comments

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  1. White Hall / Jun 4 2012

    Great news. Now let’s hope that Mickey gives him a fair chance to compete and play and not let his man crush on JT keep him from playing the better quarterback like he did with Dudzik in ’09 or Edwards last season.

  2. JNelson / Jun 4 2012

    Great pickup. Who is te receiver (#1) in the highlight video, kid had some wheels?

  3. Rob / Jun 4 2012

    White Hall, I think he’ll be given a chance to compete for the QB spot. He could be a great fit for JMU’s run first, run second, run third offense. If he develops as a passer, then he could be really good. Really though, I just like having athletes of his caliber on the squad, regardless of whether he ends up as a #1 QB, RB, WR, etc. The more playmakers the better.

  4. Sean / Jun 5 2012

    Does anyone feel bad for the team all these highlights are against? It’s the same team the whole time haha

  5. 2004 Duke / Jun 5 2012

    Thank God. He sounds like a good fit for us.

  6. Matt / Jun 5 2012

    I’m seeing Rodney Landers in that highlight – a “man among boys” type of athleticism. I think this guy starts somewhere in the backfield day one. Am I over-simplifying things?

  7. Matt / Jun 5 2012

    JNelson –

    I don’t know #1’s name off hand, but some one on another board was saying he plays for Tennessee now.

  8. Rob / Jun 5 2012

    I found a Ocean Lakes roster from when Thorougood was there and #1 is Justin Hunter. He does play for Tennessee.

    I think JMU has depth at RB with Scott, Anderson, etc. And I don’t see JT losing the QB job barring injury (or another “sabatical”). If Thorougood is as good as he looks in the highlights though, I’m sure he’ll get on the field somehow. Maybe in the same role that Coble played last year. Or maybe they just try to develop him as a QB and give him a chance to learn as a back-up.

  9. Matt / Jun 5 2012

    Just as long as we don’t stick him at WR and waste his athleticism using him as a decoy.

    These are good problems to have. I’d always rather have too many good players than not enough – especially at WR and QB. Mickey will figure it out, but the only one who might be affected by this who has a redshirt to burn is Fisher. Not a lot of options to get everyone on the field and not waste eligibility.

    Can’t imagine this guy stepped down to FCS to be a RB though. He could have stayed at Vandy for that.

  10. David B / Jun 5 2012

    What a pass @ 2:50!

  11. Todd / Jun 6 2012

    Foremost, I’m excited about what he can bring to the field, but I love that a kid from Vandy, which has an excellent academic reputation, chose to transfer to JMU. Posts on Vandy websites say he had some family issues that made him need to get closer to home, but even so you’d have to think he’d have had some choices, and he chose the Dukes. Not just talented, but like you said, he’s evidently a good all-around person.

  12. Ray harold / Jun 11 2012

    Yes thourogood will be a great fit for JMU he and sage harold #3 for the dukes are 2nd cousins they are the future

  13. Matt / Jun 13 2012

    good get for you guys, he left us for vandy bc the new coach made promises to him he couldnt keep (making him a QB, we likely would not have) – shocking this would happen in the SEC!

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