Strength of the Unit: Offensive Line

8/15/2015 8:30:00 PM | Football

As we gear up for the 2015 James Madison football season, JMUSports.com will be producing positional features known as the "Strength of the Unit." In the fifth installment, we highlight the offensive line, who are led by assistant coach Jamal Powell in his first season with the Dukes.

The 2015 unit returns two key members from last year's squad, including one all-conference honoree, and moved one lineman to the center position while transitioning two others from defense to offense to compensate for the loss of three starters, Nick Appel, Josh Hogan and Matt Williams.

JMU brings back seven letterwinners to the offensive line while four others were on the roster but didn't see any playing time last season. It also adds six freshmen to make up the 17-man unit.

"We're an offensive line that is continually building to get better each day," Powell said. "We obviously want to build from our great season last year when we had our offensive line playing very hard. We have some new guys stepping into some new roles and we're working on getting depth right now. We have a lot of competition at each position, from left tackle all the way over to right tackle."

Leading the line is redshirt junior Mitchell Kirsch, who was a Second Team All-Colonial Athletic Association selection last season and was named to the 2015 Preseason All-CAA Team. Also back is redshirt senior Austin Lane, who along with Kirsch, started all 13 games a year ago. The duo was part of an offensive line that led the CAA with 497 yards per game and a league-best 39.9 points per game in conference play and helped break single-season school records for passing and total offense.

The Dukes have moved redshirt senior Dominick Richards under center after he saw action in 10 games in reserve on the line in 2014.

"We feel like we have good numbers coming in with the guys that will be leading the way in that position," Head Coach Everett Withers said. "Mitchell, Austin and Dom are our three main guys who we know will be in the lineup somewhere for us come September."

Joining Richards in new roles are redshirt junior Matt Frank and redshirt sophomore Aaron Stinnie, who played on the defensive line last season.

Other returners include redshirt senior Casey Kroll, redshirt junior Kyle Rigney, redshirt sophomores A.J. Bolden and Nick Edwards and redshirt freshmen Taylor Dean and Richard Xu. JMU also added six freshmen, four of which made all-state teams as a senior.

"We signed a really impressive freshmen class on the offensive line so there will be one or two of those freshmen that help us this year somewhere," Withers said. This is a position that we will need help in but will be a position we grow during the summer."

Early next week, we'll head back to the defense as we'll feature the cornerbacks in the sixth of 11 "Strength of the Unit" installments.

Offensive Line Breakdown
Returners:
R-Jr. Mitchell Kirsch – Second Team All-CAA, started 13 games in 2014
R-Sr. Austin Lane – started 13 games in 2014
R-Jr. Dominick Richards – moved to center
R-Jr. Kyle Rigney
R-So. A.J. Bolden
R-Sr. Casey Kroll
R-Fr. Taylor Dean
R-Fr. Richard Xu

Transitioning to Offensive Line in 2015:
R-Jr. Matt Frank
R-So. Aaron Stinnie
R-So. Nick Edwards

Newcomers:
Fr. Chase Brown
Fr. Gerren Butler
Fr. Tyree Chavious
Fr. A.J. Gray
Fr. Johari Frazier
Fr. Jahee Jackson