Wayne Davis is returning to the position he played earlier in his college career.
The James Madison defensive back no longer mans the spur – the hybrid outside linebacker-safety spot he started in during the last two seasons. The Dukes are now using the fifth-year senior as their strong safety.
“Vision,” is the largest discrepancy between the two roles, Davis said Thursday after JMU’s practice.
“You get to see the whole field,” he said, “and essentially at the spur position you’re almost a linebacker, so you have another line of defense behind you. But at safety, you’re the last line of defense, so the job is technically a little different.”
But it fits Davis and the new-look Dukes defense well.
He said the transition is developing smoothly. He played safety as a redshirt freshman at Ohio State ahead of transferring to JMU, so he’s familiar with the responsibilities a strong safety has. Additionally, Davis has picked up nuances and intricacies about the position, he said, from first-year safeties coach Eddie Whitley, who was an All-Atlantic Coast Conference safety for Virginia Tech in 2011.
Over the last two seasons, Davis racked up 107 tackles to go along with 13 tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks, four interception and 17 pass breakups as a spur and while doing so learned the duties the rest of the JMU defense has from one play to the next.
Since the Dukes return only two other starters on defense – defensive lineman Mike Greene and cornerback Wesley McCormick – from 2019, they need someone with experience and confidence, and who can see the whole field, to communicate across the unit.
“Primarily I’m the voice,” Davis said. “And I’m probably one of the loudest people on the team, so I use that on the field to vocalize the calls and give everybody their assignments.”
He said chemistry within the defense is growing with each practice, but that it is taking time because of how many inexperienced players are set to make their first-career start on Feb. 20 when JMU kicks off its spring campaign against Morehead State.
“But, we’ve got a lot of young guys coming up who are very hungry and have been waiting their turns to play,” Davis said.
He said from his viewpoint, linebackers Diamonte Tucker-Dorsey and Kelvin Azanama as well as safeties Que Reid and MJ Hampton are eager for more opportunity. Those players were buried on the depth chart behind past starters Dimitri Holloway, Landan Word, D’Angelo Amos and Adam Smith.
Tucker-Dorsey and Davis were teammates at Lake Taylor in Norfolk before Davis starter his career at Ohio State and Tucker-Dorsey joined the Dukes.
“A lot of the guys are learning the terminology,” Davis said, “and with Coach Whitley, a new coach, he’s learning the terminology as well. But so far, so good.”
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- Davis and senior center J.T. Timming insisted the Dukes are eager and ready for their season-opening game.
“I think we’re more than ready,” Timming said. “We’ve been hitting each other long enough and I think we’re just ready to hit somebody else that isn’t our own teammate. You don’t want to sit there and hit the same person every single day.”
JMU hasn’t had the luxury of a long training camp like it would have if the preparations were for a traditional fall season. The Dukes began their preseason Jan. 22 and are on a four-practice-per-week schedule.
Timming said it helped that the team had fall practices to install most of the offense and defense.
- Timming said he knows all of the positions on the offensive line in case he’s needed at guard or at tackle in the event JMU is without other offensive linemen because of a positive coronavirus test or contact tracing.
“I know what the left tackle needs to do on every play,” Timming said. “I know what the right tackle needs to do on every play and both guard [spots], so I can really play any position that needs to be played especially with COVID, because you don’t know what’s going to happen. I’m down for anything at this point.”
- One receiver to start paying attention to is junior Devin Ravenel. In each of the two portions of practice open to reporters (Thursday and last Friday), Ravenel worked with the first-team offense.
That doesn’t mean he’s guaranteed to start, but the 6-foot pass catcher could be in line for more playing time than in past seasons.
In 2019, Ravenel hauled in 12 catches for 146 yards and a touchdown.
- Just because senior running backs Percy Agyei-Obese and Jawon Hamilton are ahead on the depth chart at their position, doesn’t mean sophomore Solomon Vanhorse won’t play. In fall practices this past October, Vanhorse was used some in the slot as a receiver and some as a running back. He can return kicks, too.
This preseason, he looks natural catching the ball out of the backfield and still shows the same shifty style with the ball in his hands during drills. He can help JMU this spring.
- A defensive lineman likely progressing into a larger role is defensive tackle Tony Thurston.
The Louisa product played in 10 games in 2019 and redshirted the year before, but worked with the first-team defense at times in the fall and is taking reps with the unit regularly this spring.
