Guest Post: A Fresh Start to Recruiting Under Withers

Hello all.  The guys at the JMU Sports Blog gave me the privilege of writing to everyone once again, and this time, I thought I’d write about a certain event just around the corner…National Signing Day.  Not just any national signing day but Everett Withers’ first “true” recruiting class (given that he only had 2 months to recruit last year).  As we all have seen and heard, the old regime supposedly got a bit lazy on the recruiting trail, or they, quite frankly, were not as successful bringing in talent to Bridgeforth Stadium.  Since graduating from JMU in 2012, I would consider myself a “die-hard” JMU football fan, and I have developed a bit of an obsession with the recruiting world that is considered the life-blood of college football.  To that end, I present you with 3 unique recruiting objectives or themes that I’ve noticed from the new era in 2015:

More Beef Up Front

Yes, JMU Football is getting bigger, meaner and nastier.  As we all have seen, Mickey Matthew’s staff put a lot of pride in providing us a fast, athletic defense to go along with a fairly nimble “FCS” offensive line.  While you can’t really go wrong with the philosophy, Withers and staff are truly turning a new leaf in regard to the type of athlete that JMU recruits.  Assuming these verbal commitments stick, JMU currently has 5 recruits on board that are at least 270 pounds in addition to 3 others that are flirting around the 250-pound range.  After trying to fit circle pegs into square holes last season, Withers is looking for his own type of linemen.  Gone is the era of oversized tight ends playing tackle (anybody remember a 250-pound Matt Krout starting as a rFR versus VT?), oversized wide receivers as speed rushers or defensive ends playing inside like Sean O’Neill and Tyler Snow.  With the implementation of the 3-4 defense and the new offensive philosophy that brings in a smash mouth running game, a la Ohio State, that compliments a vertical aerial attack; the JMU nation will be seeing a much different breed of ‘lete on the offensive and defensive line.

• Notable potential signees:
  1. DT Jordan Brooks, 256 lbs. – quick, strong defensive lineman that played against top competition for the nationally-ranked Centreville HS squad.  He would fit right in at the DE position in the 3-4 while sliding inside on passing downs, he also had multiple FBS offers.
  2. DT Jahee Jackson, 295 lbs. – teammate of another JMU commit. While a highlight tape can only say so much, Jackson is the epitome of a “slobber-knocking” defensive lineman.  Prototypical NT unless he slides in at Guard.  Did I mention ODU offered…?
  3. OL prospects Tyree Chavious, AJ Gray and Chase Brown – as mentioned above, these guys weren’t tight ends or former quarterbacks—they grew up in the trenches.  Since we are still an FCS team, you have to give the staff a hand in luring these young men, all at least 280 pounds, to the purple and gold— something we haven’t seen in 5 years.  While still raw, some DHall, a college workout regime and some ass-kicking by Coach Davis would do them well.
  4. NT Austin Cannon – just watch the highlight tape; that is all.

Size on the outside

Similar to the philosophy that the staff is implementing to the line of scrimmage, JMU is getting much bigger in the receiving corp.  We put to rest the idea of taking option-based quarterbacks and forcing them to run precise routes against seasoned CAA defenses.  After Daniel Brown (and I’ll even put Brandon Ravanel in the mix), our WR corp consisted of smallish, slot receiver-like pass catchers that often needed 2 or 3 year of experience before being key contributors (imagine if Deandre Smith had redshirted).  Even Everett Withers joked around saying that we had the worst WRs in the country and, sometimes, that was hard to argue against.  Similar to Georgia Tech’s philosophy, JMU simply put really good athletes outside, and we prayed they ran past the secondary.  The new era is bringing in 6 freshmen pass catchers (2 tight ends, 4 wide receivers) with 4 over 6’3.  After watching their tape and doing some research, I would argue that the 4 receivers in this class all possess the ability to catch the ball at its highest point, evolve into true end-zone threats, as well as effectively block the bubble screen, which is a key component in our scheme.  Nothing against ours speedster and Charlottesville-bred Rashard Davis, but I’d rather not see him get blown up in the outside anymore.

• Notable potential signees:
  1. The Twin Towers, WRs Christian Harden and Riley Stapleton – both possess Daniel Brown size, both are former basketball players and both should win a number of jump balls for JMU.
  2. Dominique “Domo” Taylor – at 6’3 and 210 pounds, he is a big physical WR that, at times, looks like Dez Bryant on the field and seems to aspire to be just like him as well.  We haven’t seen a prospect like him since Rockheed McCarter.
  3. James Brunson – an underrated WR prospect from the “speed” state that came from the same HS that produced Sammy Watkins.  Withers has done well with Florida players at JMU *cough* Jimmy Moreland *cough*.
  4. Mack Cullen – while he does contradict everything I said above since he was a former triple option QB, he does have more potential at TE in this scheme than any of our current players at the position.

Knack for Finding Under-the-Radar Talent

After doing a bit of digging, I noticed a trend where Withers finds highly-touted, next-level type players that run into injury issues during their careers that ultimately affect their “brand” in recruiting.  Notably 4 players – ATH Quan Welch, DE Trevor Brown, OLB/DE Nyck Grayson and RB Trai Sharp – have gone through season-ending knee injuries, and each has verbally committed to play for the Dukes.  All 4 were considered up-and-coming players in their regions with all-purpose back, Quan Welch, leading the way with a reported 14 offers from FBS and FCS schools.  Trevor Brown is a very good-looking albatrossesque defensive line prospect who holds offers from both Marshall and ODU.  Nyck Grayson, who is primed to fill in the pass-rushing role of Sage Harold set a school-record 17.5, sacks his junior season and sat out his senior season due to a torn ACL.  Grayson also holds an offer from UMASS… yes, they still have a football team.  Lastly, our “big-time” potential signee, Trai Sharp.  The 3-star North Carolina native who had reported offers from Purdue, Illinois, App State and was once an NC State commit had a season-ending knee injury in his junior season.  He was able to bounce back with a successful senior season for Carrboro High School.  I really hope that these players have a significant impact for the Dukes.  Their circumstances remind me of Delaware’s All-Conference WR Michael Johnson who was once an SEC caliber recruit from Florida but fell in the rankings due to injury.  Not sure where Mickey was, but the Blue Hens scored big time.

We are days away from National Signing Day which is the earliest day that high school prospects can sign their letters of intent to their school of choice.  There have been a number of major flipped commitments from much larger institutions, and we have seen similar changes on our level (remember when UMASS stole 3 prospects from us in 2012).  While anything can change, I can only hope that JMU can keep their current verbal commitments and hopefully bring on new ones in the coming days.  Twitter has truly changed our access into the world of recruiting, and we can see, first-hand, that the coaches are actively on the road, recruiting future Dukes.

There was tremendous roster turnover when the new staff stepped in 1 year ago, and I am assuming that is part of the reason that we currently have such a big signing class coming onboard.  While I have not mentioned the likes of LB Dimitri Holloway, QB Cory Owen, DB Charles Tutt, DB Curtis Oliver, DB Robert Branch, LB Kirk Robinette and DB Rashad Robinson, it’s hard not to notice that the staff is pursuing big-time high school prospects aggressively.  While we all are well aware of the saying that “stars get you fired” and there are many people out there that are still defensive on the type of players that Withers is bringing in.  Let’s not forget that Mickey Matthews’ 2011 class consisted of 16 players that were ranked with 2 stars or more.  All respect to Dean Marlowe, that class, arguably, underachieved big time when you consider the expectations that were brought on to them.  The buzz is back at JMU, and the culture is changing significantly.  HS players want to sport the purple and gold, they want to win championships and they want to play in front of 25,000 fans screaming their hearts out for the Dukes.  When you beat out schools like Alabama for a kicker (thanks to Jonathan Barrett for the insight), I can sincerely say that I am excited for what’s to come for the JMU Nation in 2015.  GO DUKES!

This is the first is a series of recruiting-focused guest posts written by JMU amateur recruiting guru @Michael_2Clutch. Give him a follow on twitter for all the latest JMU recruiting news.