He named you. You must be special.
– K, Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
Ever since the previous regime announced its move to Indiana, questions have been abound regarding the shape of the new JMU offense in 2024. New head coach Bob Chesney takes over as the program’s chief and commander after coaching for six seasons at the FCS program Holy Cross (HC). He also brings with him his OC (more on this later).
Not only is there mucho turnover on staff, but virtually all of the playmakers from a year ago for the Dukes have also moved on, namely WR Elijah Sarratt and QB Jordan McCloud. New names will have to step up in their absences, and it sounds like some already have.
From the spring game:
Well, quarterback Dylan Morris and wide receiver Cam Ross had the juice today.
Morris, the team’s projected QB1, looked for Ross plenty of times and made several completions throughout the afternoon. Ross had a key first-down conversion in the opening quarter and became Morris’ first read throughout the majority of the game.
Ross has lightning speed and a diverse route tree. Ross looks to be a major part of Morris’ targets this fall. The 5’10” UConn transfer is well-positioned to be WR1. He will have stiff competition for that spot from returning ECU transfer Taji Hudson.
Dylan Williams looks like the real deal. He scored a touchdown and snagged an incredible one-handed catch in the 1v1 competition period. He is a jump ball threat with his already impressive frame (6’1 and 193 lbs). Even as a freshman, he was a dominant force as a pass catcher.
“This dude is going to be something special … He’s a freak athlete, has massive hands, catches everything near him, and works his tail off,” Morris said.
The early enrollee freshman could be JMU’s next star wide receiver in due time.
The name that caught my eye the most there was UConn transfer Cameron Ross. Williams is intriguing as well, but it might take a season or two for him to become the guy. Ross originally broke out as a true freshman back in 2019 for the Huskies. During this campaign, he caught 60 passes for 723 yards and four scores (14.5 PPG).
He barely played over the next three seasons, appearing in five games total, before recapturing his form in 2023, where he caught 44 of his 78 targets for 552 yards and two scores. As mentioned, he then transferred in the offseason to the new-look JMU Dukes.
Coaching & System
WR1 PPG AVERAGE — HC/OC: 20.351 (one year sample)
The new head coach of the Dukes is a man named Bob Chesney. Chesney spent the last six seasons at Holy Cross. His OC, Dean Kennedy, was with Chesney at Holy Cross from 2022-23. He started as the QB coach and was promoted in his second year. This is the only season in his coaching career where he occupied a primary play-calling role. Before Holy Cross, Kennedy was the assistant QB coach at Florida (2020-21), a graduate assistant at Florida (2018-20), and a graduate assistant at Mississippi State (2017).
The image below is derived from one of the subscriber’s models and pulls data from the 2023 season at Holy Cross. The offense during this season featured two receivers, and then the target share dropped off dramatically. Jalen Coker led the way with 59 receptions for 1035 yards and 15 scores, while former five-star WR Justin Shorter caught 34 for 443 yards and three scores. The next leading receiver had 11 catches.
It isn’t typically what their offenses look like; rather, it was just a feature of the team last year. During their time at Holy Cross, the Chesney/Kennedy offenses produced only one 1,000-yard receiving season by Coker. In 2022, Coker was close with 50 receptions for 914 yards and 11 scores. The next two receivers had 21 and 32 receptions.
The projections pictured above should be ignored at this stage, but I am not putting it past JMU to have a WR who approaches an output along those lines in 2024 if the QB play is good (that projection would yield over 22 PPG in 1PPR formats). This is probably a good place to segway into the next section.
Closing
The QB play is a complete question mark, with Washington transfer Dylan Morris looking like the most likely candidate to take over QB1 duties under the new staff. Morris spent five years at UW and failed to do much of anything. Had it been the previous regime still at the helm for JMU, I’d have faith that they’d figure out how to pull an elite player out of Morris, but with the new guys, I just don’t have a lot of familiarity to speculate one way or the other.
The other question mark is that despite a strong spring game, it is not currently clear whether Ross will be the team’s WR1. There are other names mentioned in that snippet from the spring game that we should consider as well.
I like that Ross comes in having already been a productive player (even as a true freshman) on a poor team in UConn. I don’t know much about the new staff, but based on what the OC did last year, if Ross is WR1, he’s probably going to get fed a pig-gasmic amount of targets. That’s a one-year sample size, though.
