JMU Signings

[whitey]

Cuffee, Taveion – Fr. – DB – 5-11 – 180 – Virginia Beach, Va. – First Colonial/Fork Unionhttp://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e136/wh1t3bread/3star.gifhttp://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e136/wh1t3bread/3star.gifhttp://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e136/wh1t3bread/3star.gif
Harper, Aaron – Fr. – RB/LB – 6-2 – 228 – Fredericksburg, Va. – Courtlandhttp://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e136/wh1t3bread/3star.gifhttp://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e136/wh1t3bread/3star.gif
Thorpe, Justin – Fr. – QB – 6-2 – 208 – Richmond, Va. – Varinahttp://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e136/wh1t3bread/3star.gifhttp://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e136/wh1t3bread/3star.gif
Williams, Chase – Fr. – LB – 5-11 – 215 – Gaithersburg, Md. – Northwesthttp://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e136/wh1t3bread/3star.gifhttp://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e136/wh1t3bread/3star.gif
Acker, Corwin – Fr. – RB – 5-10 – 199 – Landover, Md. – James Hubert Blake
Akuak, Lue – Fr. – DL/OL – 6-3 – 270 – Fort Belvoir, Va. – Hayfield/Fork Union
Barlow, Brian – Fr. – TE – 6-4 – 215 – Stephens City, Va. – Sherando
Beaver, Chris – Fr. – LS/TE – Mooresville, N.C. – Mooresville
Johnson, Josh – Fr. – LB – 6-2 – 220 – Forestville, Md – St. Johns/Fork Union
Veney, Jamie – Fr. – LB – 6-3 – 215 – Kilmarnock, Va. – Lancaster/Fork Union
Watford, Earl – Fr. – OL – 6-5 – 275 – Philadelphia, Pa. – Simon Gratz
Williams, Richard – Fr. – OL – 6-3 – 290 – Danville, Va. – George Washington



More info here. (http://www.jmusports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=71029&SPID=8113&DB_OEM_ID=14400&ATCLID=1383949)


Video highlights should be up on Mickey Matthews (http://www.coachmatthews.com/) site some point soon as well.

[NYJMUSupporter]

Nice class. We beat out a number of 1-A schools for some of these guys. Good to see we continue to imrpove the quality of the athletes coming into JMU each year. After watching the press conference yesterday, it sounds like many of them are also very good students. Congrats to Mickey and his staff on a great recruiting season!

[andy7171]

Y'all went Fork Union heavy!

[NYJMUSupporter]

I am glad that we did. Fork Union puts out some very high quality athletes. We beat out Iowa and Iowa State for Taveion Cuffee. He should step in next season and help our secondary. All the reports I have read say that he is a trenendous athlete who projects to be a 4 year all american caliber DB. Only time will tell, but I am excited. Is it football season yet?

[89Hen]

Y'all went Fork Union heavy!


I am glad that we did. Fork Union puts out some very high quality athletes.
Not trying to disparage JMU's name, but FUMA is a place where non-qualifiers go. I think these kids deserve a second chance, but I would hate to load up my team from there. Many of them may not be around next year if they fall back into old habits. xtwocentsx

[mcveyrl]

Not trying to disparage JMU's name, but FUMA is a place where non-qualifiers go. I think these kids deserve a second chance, but I would hate to load up my team from there. Many of them may not be around next year if they fall back into old habits. xtwocentsx

I agree about FUMA's reputation, but I don't know that five guys (Kirby Long, plus this year's four) is necessarily loading up the team.

Plus, I have known guys that have gone to FUMA and played football there and they are definitely different people when they come out (granted, none of them played D-I ball...)

[Tribe4SF]

FUMA's reputation is one of helping kids advance academically, and athletically. They are not a "diploma factory", and should be commended for what they do. Both they, and Hargrave have strong histories of successfully helping kids advance themselves.

[JMUDuke2002]

FUMA's reputation is one of helping kids advance academically, and athletically. They are not a "diploma factory", and should be commended for what they do. Both they, and Hargrave have strong histories of successfully helping kids advance themselves.

Exactly.

[NYJMUSupporter]

If I am not mistaken, FUMA sent 34 players to Division 1 schools on signing day. Very impressive

[89Hen]

FUMA's reputation is one of helping kids advance academically, and athletically. They are not a "diploma factory", and should be commended for what they do. Both they, and Hargrave have strong histories of successfully helping kids advance themselves.
xconfusedx That's not what I've seen. It's a prep for UVA and VT players who don't have the grades/scores for admission.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=FUMA

BTW, I'm just reporting what I've heard. I'm not the one giving them this rep.

[mcveyrl]

xconfusedx That's not what I've seen. It's a prep for UVA and VT players who don't have the grades/scores for admission.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=FUMA

BTW, I'm just reporting what I've heard. I'm not the one giving them this rep.

It should be against the terms of service to quote a "source" with this sentence...


girls are not aloud to walk around campus (emphasis added by me)xlolx xlolx


I will say that I share the hen's concern about athletes from FUMA. I view them a lot like I view transfers, which means they can be hit or miss...thankfully we've got the talent to where these guys don't have to play right away and we'll see how they do off the field.

[JmuSkinsfan]

I've found that FUMA is for players who think they are FBS caliber but might not get enough early recruiting. So most of them go there for a year, build up their stock a bit, and move on to FBS or FCS schools.

A guy in my class in high school went to FUMA after only starting for two years in high school...he went on to make the team at Georgia as a linebacker. I believe he's a redshirt sophomore now.

[jmuroller]

Prep schools are completely different than they were 5-6 years ago. High School seniors would normally go there if there GPA's were to low and they would take something around 4-8 classes, depending on how long they were there and raise their overall grades for NCAA requirements.

Now there are rules where you can only count 1 class toward your overall grades after High School, so that won't do much for a player. The main reasons a player goes to FUMA and Hargrave are because their SAT/ACT test scores are not high enough. They take classes over the summer and at the Prep school to prepare for them and most of the time they leave at the Christmas break for their school. The other main reason is because they want to improve their stock. Either they didn't get a scholarship offer and think if they go Prep School they will get one, or they didn't get big enough offers and want take the extra year to see if anything else comes up.

Nowadays if a kid has really bad grades coming out of High School, he is looking at the JUCO route or D2.

[bjtheflamesfan]

Not trying to disparage JMU's name, but FUMA is a place where non-qualifiers go. I think these kids deserve a second chance, but I would hate to load up my team from there. Many of them may not be around next year if they fall back into old habits. xtwocentsx


FUMA and Hargrave Military Academy are two of the best post-graduate prep football programs around. I went to Hargrave but I know that as much as you dont want to put the majority of your stock in kids like these, you do want to give them a serious look. They compete against some pretty good schools each and every fall

[89Hen]

High School seniors would normally go there if there GPA's were to low
So how was it there? xeyebrowx :p xsmiley_wix Sorry Roller, just giving you some grief. xpeacex

[jmuroller]

So how was it there? xeyebrowx :p xsmiley_wix Sorry Roller, just giving you some grief. xpeacex

That is why I wasn't an english major.

[JMU2K_DukeDawg]

...and when you refer to a language, English in this case, it is capitalized. ;)

[JMU2K_DukeDawg]

Back to our recruits - awesome class. Small but potent. These kids look extremely promising and I like that we are reloading our O-line yet again, found some LBs where we have a glaring need, and added a three-star recruit for our secondary.

I am not sold on the QB yet, although he appears to be much like Landers, we'll have to wait to see how he develops in time. Dudzik is positioned well to take over after next year anyway.

Also, I like filling the need with a good LS. The long snapper is a position that is so underrated and taken for granted. I cannot be more pleased given the limited scholarships this year. We should have a hell of a team on the the field yet again and the future still looks bright beyond this year for JMU. GO DUKES!