JMU builds O-line for the future
HARRISONBURG — Jamal Powell was asked how he would describe his 2016 offensive line recruits.
James Madison’s offensive line coach hemmed and hawed for about 20 seconds before settling on an answer.
“The future,” Powell said.
It’s not difficult to envision the Dukes’ haul of five offensive linemen someday being a big part of new coach Mike Houston’s offense.
JMU graduated two starters from last year’s offensive line – left guard Austin Lane and center Dominick Richards. They started all 12 of Madison’s games alongside right guard Matt Frank, right tackle Mitchell Kirsch and left tackle Aaron Stinnie.
Frank and Kirsch are rising seniors, while Stinnie is a rising junior. Rising senior center Kyle Rigney also saw spot duty last season.
While offensive-line recruits typically take several seasons to mature into college-ready players, this crop of linemen has the look of seasoned veterans. The recruits – Robert Snead (6-foot-6, 315 pounds), Mac Patrick (6-2, 290), Zaire Bethea (6-3, 290), J.T. Timming (6-2, 295) and Michael Faulkner (6-4, 262) – bring an average weight of 290 pounds with an average height around 6-3.
That’s not far off from what the Dukes’ offensive-line unit averaged in 2015. The starters last year averaged 297 pounds and had four players taller than 6-3.
“You look at all of our offensive linemen, you got size, you got athleticism, got explosion, you got a lot of different things there with that group,” Houston said of the five recruits last week.
It’ll also help JMU’s linemen to have their position coach back in 2016.
Powell – a former All-American at TCU and one of two coaches to be retained by Houston – is slated to begin his second season at Madison this fall.
The Dukes’ fifth-year seniors played for Chris Malone, now the offensive line coach at Chattanooga, in 2012. The next season, Curt Newsome, now the head coach at Emory & Henry, coached the offensive line. In 2014, ex-coach Everett Withers brought in Brad Davis to coach the O-line, but the former Oklahoma lineman bolted to East Carolina after just one season. Davis is now at North Texas.
When Withers left to take over at FBS Texas State last month, he did not bring along Powell. So working in conjunction with outside linebackers coach John Bowers, Powell instead helped keep JMU’s recruiting class together — including the O-line recruits.
How much of a factor did Powell being retained make in the recruitment of those linemen?
“I would hope I played a part in there, but I don’t speak for anyone else,” Powell said.
Powell said the group of five linemen forged a close bond in the recruiting process. All five were verbally committed since last summer and coordinated all their visits to campus so they could spend time together.
And when they were back at home – Snead in Chester, Patrick in Mechanicsville, Bethea in New Jersey, Timming in Ohio and Faulkner in Georgia – they kept in touch via group texting.
“Offensive line is a position you have to be close because you play in such close proximity and you spend so much time together,” Powell said. “It’s no different in this class. When they came up on their visit, you could tell they knew each other before they got here, which makes it more comfortable for them.”
Powell described the individual linemen signees. Snead is the biggest of the group, he said, while Timming is a “gritty” lineman who played in a triple-option offense in high school. Patrick, Powell said, is an athletic player who can play multiple positions, as can Bethea. Faulkner, meanwhile, played good competition in the Atlanta area and projects to play at left tackle, according to Powell.
The Dukes should also benefit from the addition of Bryan Stinespring to the staff. Stinespring – a longtime assistant at Virginia Tech – coached the Hokies’ offensive line from 1998-2005 and brings an “intensity” to the running game, Houston said. Stinespring will be the Dukes’ tight ends coach and run-game coordinator.
All combined, Houston also called the group “the offensive line of the future.”
“I think those guys will be what leads our program in the years to come,” he said.