United Bank Playbook - James Madison Preview - West Virginia University Athletics

Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks

United Bank Playbook - James Madison Preview

August 28, 2019 12:21 PM | Football

By: John Antonik

Tale of the Tape (2018)
Points Per Game	33.9	40.2
Points Against	14.6	27.2
Rushing Yards Per Game	183.3	160.9
Rushing Yards Allowed Per Game	104.4	147.7
Passing Yards Per Game	223.6	351.3
Passing Yards Allowed Per Game	185.1	258.7
Total Yards Per Game	406.9	512.2
Total Yards Allowed Per Game	289.5	406.3
First Downs For	279	290
First Downs Against	194	262
Fumbles/Lost	16/9	16/7
Interceptions/Return Ave.	14/19.9	15/12.6
Net Punting	35.6	37.5
Field Goal/Attempts	23/27	16/20
Time of Possession	27:44	28:51
3rd Down Conversions	78/171	68/156
3rd Down Conversion Defense	59/191	57/158
Sacks By/Yards Lost	36/253	24/155
Red Zone Scoring	56/69	43/53
Red Zone Defense	23/29	39/45

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – We kick off the 150^thyear of college football on Saturday afternoon with plenty of storylines as West Virginia begins its 128^thyear of gridiron play against James Madison at sold-out Milan Puskar Stadium.

But of course, No. 1 atop the top list of storylines is Neal Brown's Mountaineer coaching debut.

The 39-year-old Danville, Kentucky, resident was appointed by director of athletics Shane Lyons as WVU's 35^thhead football coach last January and his seven months presiding over the state's most valuable resource have seen a dramatic uptick in excitement and enthusiasm in the program.

The team Brown is putting out in the football field this Saturday will by no means be a finished product, but it does represent a starting point for where things are headed.

"We need to play a game to see where we're at," Brown said earlier this week, admitting he will have some butterflies when he runs out of the tunnel into the stadium for the very first time.

"I think if you don't have butterflies – and not just because it's my first game as head coach here – but really, you have some butterflies every game you play," he explained. "If you don't, you've maybe lost your edge a little bit."

Mountaineer fans, starving for the success West Virginia football once enjoyed a decade ago when WVU was considered a yearly top-10 contender, is anxious to see if Brown's team can play with an edge right out of the gate.

He named Oklahoma transfer Austin Kendall his starting quarterback last week following a lengthy battle with former Miami transfer Jack Allison and redshirt freshman Trey Lowe III for the job, and Kendall has now been assigned the task of operating WVU's remodeled offense.

He takes over a unit littered with new faces. Two of the three starting wide receivers listed on the season-opening depth chart have never made a college start, and just three – left tackle Colton McKivitz, center Josh Sills and tailback Kennedy McKoy – boast significant starting experience.

However, all three are All-Big 12 caliber players and Brown suspects McKoy, a senior from Lexington, North Carolina, could be sitting on a big senior season.

Brown has a history of giving his playmakers the football and McKoy, who has never carried the ball more than 145 times in a season, could have it in his hands quite a bit this year.

And when McKoy isn't out there toting the football senior Martell Pettaway, sophomore Leddie Brown and sophomore all-purpose back Alec Sinkfield will.

Running back is by far the deepest position on West Virginia's offense.

"Three guys have in-game experience in Kennedy McKoy, Martell Pettaway and Leddie Brown," Brown noted. "Those guys almost had an even number of carries last year so the it's the most experience by far on offense.

"These guys have the ability to run inside and outside, they can protect you in the pass game and they have good hands," Brown added. "They are versatile and they're experienced so that's something that we don't have a whole lot of on offense."

Kendall started one college game while he was at Oklahoma against Baylor, but it was barely more than just dipping his toe in the water.

"It was only the first series, unfortunately," Kendall recalled Tuesday. "We punted and they muffed the punt and (Heisman Trophy winner) Kyler Murray went in and threw a touchdown pass so that was it."

The last time Kendall played a full football game was during his senior season at Cuthbertson High in Waxhaw, North Carolina, four years ago. He said he doesn't recall much about that game.

But he WILL remember Saturday's contest against the Dukes.

Brown said he's seen a much more vocal Austin Kendall since he won the starting job, and he is hopeful that it will carry over into the games.

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"I'm not going to be real vocal off the field but when I'm on the field I talk to the guys to pump everybody up," Kendall explained. "I'm just trying to be the leader that everybody needs. I'm always telling guys 'let's go, let's go' whenever they drop a pass or miss a block. I even talk to myself, too, if I make a bad pass I'm just always telling myself inside, 'Have a next-play mentality.'"

Up front, Kendall will be working with an experienced player in Sills, although he has never snapped in a live college football game. The decision was made during preseason camp to move him from right guard to center to stabilize that position.

Surrounding Sills will be inexperienced guards in massive 345-pound junior Michael Brown and either junior college transfer John Hughes or junior Chase Behrndt, who lost the center job to Sills. Brown's rapid development has been one of the most interesting stories of training camp and Brown believes it could be one of the more interesting stories in college football if it continues.

Brown never played high school football while growing up in Compton, California, and only took up the sport a few years ago when he followed his older brother, Joe, to Eastern Arizona College. Mike is going to have missed assignments, for sure, but he is also going to take somebody with him during those times when he goes in the wrong direction.

On the outside at left tackle is West Virginia's top offensive lineman in 38-game veteran McKivitz, a three-year starter. Senior Kelby Wickline will get the starting nod at right tackle where he's made three career college starts.

Youngsters Briason Mays, Adam Stilley, Junior Uzebu and Tyler Thurmond will be counted on for depth.

The wide receiver corps this year is completely renovated with lots of new faces. There's touted Temple transfer Sean Ryan, a 6-foot-3, 198-pounder from Brooklyn, New York, Florida State transfer George Campbell, once a five-star recruit out of East Lake High in Tarpon Springs, Florida, and emerging redshirt freshman Sam James from Richmond Hill, Georgia.

Ryan has performed well all camp and Brown took a calculated risk by working him with the ones while his immediate eligibility status was still being determined. Ryan got finally got the nod last Friday.

"We would have been in a little bit of a bind if he was ruled ineligible," Brown admitted. "He's a guy that has good length. He played well down the stretch at Temple so this won't be his first meaningful college action."

James had an exceptional spring game and it has carried over into fall camp when he made several big plays during the team's officiated scrimmages. He is very comparable to former Mountaineer burner Shelton Gibson in terms of his downfield playmaking ability.

Bryce Wheaton, the grandson of legendary Mountaineer running back Garrett Ford Sr., gives the receiver corps impressive size (6-feet-3, 215 pounds) and physicality while former Alabama transfer T.J. Simmons provides additional size and athleticism in the slot.

Tevin Bush and Sinkfield coming from the running backs room are others Brown can count on in the passing game.

Redshirt freshman Mike O'Laughlin gets the nod at tight end over Jovani Haskins following a solid fall camp. Two years ago, O'Laughlin was a wide receiver at Fenwick High in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, before adding 40 pounds to his 6-foot-5-inch frame.

"It's going to be his first college football game so we're going to have to deal with that, but I'm excited about his future here," Brown said.

Redshirt freshman T.J. Banks will be the team's No. 3 tight end, while Logan Thimons and Bowling Green transfer Jackson Knipper should see action at the S back in short-yardage situations.

Defensively, West Virginia is introducing a brand new scheme preferred by veteran defensive coordinator Vic Koenning. Gone is the 3-3 stack that has been used in some manner and form here for the last 17 years. In its place is an attacking 4-2-5 scheme similar to what Gary Patterson runs at TCU.

It's an athlete-centric defense designed to create maximum confusion at the line of scrimmage and produce turnovers. Initially, Koenning is going to have to rely on the guys up front to carry the defense until some of the inexperienced players he has in the backend get more seasoning.

Senior defensive tackle Reese Donahue has made 24 career starts, by far the most of any returning player on West Virginia's defense. Behind him is touted sophomore Dante Stills, a touted national-level recruit out of Fairmont Senior who has really come on of late and is beginning to perform like a four-star prospect.

Older brother Darius Stills is another playmaker at nose while the Mountaineers have competent guys manning the other defensive end position in junior Jeffery Pooler Jr., junior college transfer Taijh Alston and Michigan graduate transfer Reuben Jones. The Bandit linebacker is a half-and-half position that can make it a four-man front when they walk up to the line of scrimmage or a three-man front when they walk off.

Senior Quondarius Qualls, junior Zach Sandwisch and promising freshman Jared Bartlett are top three players there.

"The thing that we've been able to do over the last three or four years with this defense is establish a pretty good pass rush," Koenning said.

Getting to the passer has been a big issue in the past for West Virginia's defenses.

Josh Chandler is the team's No. 1 weakside linebacker and a player Koenning hopes can be very disruptive like David Long Jr. was in last year's defense. Earlier this fall, Koenning predicted that Chandler could be the player opposing offensive coordinators are going to have to account for when they begin game planning for the Mountaineers.

Chandler's backups are Exree Loe and Martinsburg senior Deamonte Lindsay.

Junior Dylan Tonkery is not a very big Mike linebacker at 228 pounds, but he's extremely mobile and has a nose for the football, as do his backups Jake Abbott and Shea Campbell.

The Spear linebacker (or the Spur safety in the old defense) will be occupied by JoVanni Stewart, Kwantel Raines and Dante Bonamico. Stewart was a productive outside linebacker last year at 196 pounds, but he is back at his more natural position this season.

Sean Mahone is the team's No. 1 Cat safety, with touted true freshman Tykee Smith from Philadelphia backing him up. The Cat's role is similar to the Bandit safety in the old defense and teams in the backend with the free safety, manned by converted corner Josh Norwood.

Behind Norwood is emerging freshman Kerry Martin Jr. from Capital High in Charleston.

"I think they've both progressed very well during camp," Koenning said of his two inexperienced free safeties. "They both want to be good very, very badly and they're probably doing as well as they can. What we have to make sure we do as coaches is take it one day at a time and get everything we can out of today."

Seniors Hakeem Bailey and Keith Washington Jr. provide a combined 17 games of starting experience at corner, while their two backups, true freshmen Tay Mayo and Nicktroy Fortune, are as green as the Milan Puskar Stadium turf.

"I'm sure they are going to attack a lot of places once they start looking at all of the FRs on the roster and that is what it is," Koenning said. "We'll see. There are a lot of unknowns, but I think the most important known is they will be here Saturday and if our guys play as hard as they can, as smart as they can and as fast as they can and we can serve them, that is the approach we are taking."

Special teams have taken on great emphasis under Brown and he's got a pretty good starting point in returning place kicker Evan Staley, who converted 16 of his 20 field goal attempts last year. LSU graduate transfer Josh Growden should giving the punting unit a big boost this fall. The return game is unproven, but Brown has some quality athletes back there with James, Washington Jr. and McKoy on kickoffs and Sinkfield handling the punts.

The assignment Saturday is unusually difficult for an opener with a very experienced James Madison team coming to Morgantown. The Dukes, now coached by WVU alumnus Curt Cignetti, could be the top FCS team in the country this year.

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Cignetti is in his first season at JMU after leading Elon to the FCS playoffs both seasons he was there. In fact, Cignetti's Elon team defeated James Madison 27-24 last year and his vast coaching background includes stints in Power 5 football at Pitt, NC State and Alabama where he worked with Nick Saban.

Cignetti boasts an impressive .720 winning percentage in eight seasons coaching at Division II Indiana University of Pennsylvania and Elon.

In addition to having an extremely experienced team, he's got seven former FBS transfers on his roster including starting quarterback Ben DiNucci, who began his college career at Pitt.

DiNucci won the starting job earlier this fall after beating out junior Cole Johnson and sophomore Gage Moloney. Brown said he likes what he's seen on tape of DiNucci.

"He's done a good job of running the offense they had there last year," Brown said. "He's got a strong arm and I think he's a better than average runner."

Brown says JMU's running backs go four deep and he believes the Duke's defensive front six is similar to what the Mountaineers will be facing in the Big 12 later this fall. Specifically, Brown singled out JMU's two ends Ron'Dell Carter and John Daka.

Last year those two generated 17 ½ sacks and 30 tackles for losses and really controlled the line of scrimmage when they lost to NC State 24-13 in last year's opener.

Behind them is perhaps the best FCS corner in senior Rashad Robinson.

"According to some of the NFL stuff I've seen they've got more NFL prospects than we do," Brown noted. "I don't think we have to worry one bit about our guys overlooking anybody or not respecting their opponent because all they've got to do is turn on the film.

"If you're an offensive player and you turn on the film and you see the Robinson kid playing corner, that's a Big 12 player. You watch those two defensive ends, those are Big 12 players, and I can say the same about some of their guys on offense as well," Brown added.

Mix in a sold-out Milan Puskar Stadium for an FCS opponent - the first time that's happened since 60,566 showed up to watch West Virginia defeat Villanova in the 2008 opener - and we're talking about a pretty compelling Saturday afternoon in Morgantown, West Virginia.

A rare 2 p.m. kickoff has been assigned for the game, to be televised locally on AT&T Sportsnet (Rob King, Rasheed Marshall and Meg Bulger). In addition to airing locally, the game stream can be accessed on multiple platforms outside the AT&T Sportsnet footprint.

The stream will be available on WVUsports.com and the WVU Gameday App. Additionally, fans will be able to tune in live via Roku and Apple TV by searching for the "MountaineerTV" channel on each device.

For fans inside the viewing area, the AT&T SportsNet Channel Finder and Territory Map can be found on pittsburgh-attsn.att.com. The online stream will be blacked out inside the AT&T SportsNet viewing area.

The Mountaineer Sports Network from Learfield IMG College will have complete wrap-around radio coverage starting at 10:30 a.m. with the Go-Mart Mountaineer Tailgate Show, featuring Dan Zangrilli, Dale Wolfley and Jed Drenning, leading into regular network coverage with Tony Caridi and Dwight Wallace beginning at 1 p.m.

Following the game, Dan, Wolf, Jed and postgame show contributor Allan Taylor from The Athletic will wrap things up.

This will be James Madison's second appearance in Morgantown, its first coming 15 years ago in 2004 when former coach Mickey Matthews led the Dukes to a I-AA national championship that season.

Wednesday Sound

Sean Merinar contributed to this report