College Football

FCS champ James Madison delights over signing class

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 5:59 p.m. ET

(STATS) - Winning the FCS national championship this past season has created a good problem in James Madison's recruiting efforts.

"To be honest," coach Mike Houston said, "we've got really, really quality players that want to be here (in the recruiting class) that we don't have scholarships for right now."

The Dukes could afford to be selective in the final stages of a 25-member recruiting class that was announced Wednesday - less than a month after they capped Houston's first season with their program's second national title.

The well-rounded class, with 11 commits from Virginia and from six other states plus Australia, featured quarterback Gage Moloney (Rock Hill, South Carolina) and defensive tackle Marcus Hawkins (Morganton, North Carolina) among the high school signees and transfer running back Marcus Marshall, the leading rusher at Georgia Tech each of the past two seasons.

"We've had a really good recruiting class put together all the way back to the summer, early fall," Houston said. "There's a little bit of everything. We have multiple guys on the offensive and defensive line, obviously. Secondary because we're getting older in the secondary, so we have to prepare our secondary for the future. We're going to bring in three wide receivers. We're graduating (running back) Khalid (Abdullah) and (quarterback) Bryan Schor's going to be a senior, so you're going to see a little bit of everything all throughout the class."

The national title made everybody take another look at James Madison's recruiting class, and some mid-major FBS schools likely made a late push to sway some decisions.

"But they're solid," Houston said, "because they've experienced JMU and they understand what the school is and what kind of place it is as well as what kind of football program we have. They all want to be there."

James Madison 2017 Signing Class

Daniel Adu, WR, 6-2, 175, Springfield, Va. (West Springfield)

Percy Agyei-Obese, RB, 5-11, 192, Frederick, Md. (Oakdale)

Ezrah Archie, WR, 6-1, 185, Sicklerville, N.J. (Timber Creek Regional)

Noah Beckley, ATH, 6-0, 190, Salem, Va. (Salem)

Taurus Carroll, CB, 6-0, 167, Fredericksburg, Va. (Benedictine)

Clayton Cheatham, TE, 6-3, 220, Mechanicsville, Va. (Hanover)

Kyle Davis, LS, 6-0, 210, Waxhaw, N.C. (Marvin Ridge)

Kyndel Dean, WR/S, 6-2, 175, Winston-Salem, N.C. (Parkland)

Liam Fornadel, OL, 6-3, 300, Ramsey, N.J. (Don Bosco Prep)

Julian Freeze, KAT, 6-2, 188, Virginia Beach, Va. (Landstown)

Jake Glavin, OL, 6-2, 300, Chester Springs, Pa. (Malvern Prep)