Connor Adams came to James Madison with an open mind, prepared to learn. But he quickly learned that football will ALWAYS be his life.
A friend of Connor's friend introduced him to a member of the recruiting team for JMU football, Tim McDaniel. McDaniel quickly realized Connor's passion and dedication to the sport he loved and offered him a position to help recruit. But a position like this requires commitment and an individual's sharpest attention.
Just three days before spring camp begun in 2016, Connor was offered an un-paid internship to be quarterbacks coach Donnie Kirkpatrick's assistant.
But don't let the title fool you, Connor was fully immersed in everyday practices, training and studying with players and coaches responsible for both sides of the ball.
"As an intern, you do whatever you can to make the program flow," Connor says. "A lot of my work was tedious and time-consuming like inputting data for film, going over the scouting report for the millionth time, or something as simple as setting up the film room for players and coaches. My title says that I worked under coach Kirkpatrick with the quarterbacks, but it was much more than that."
The Dukes quickly emerged as FCS playoff contenders in 2015. In 2016, JMU won the FCS National Championship in what Connor describes simply as "fantastic".
"Being able to step into an organization that is well established, I have been able to work with a slew of talented coaches. No matter who has come and gone, JMU has always brought in successful coaches that I can learn from. It's tough to get your footing sometimes and not be overwhelmed. But its a great feeling learning from coaches that have been doing it for so long. The learning process has been so helpful for me."
Connor continues what seemed to be an indescribable moment in his life. "The National Championship was amazing, it puts you on top of the world knowing that my work helped to bring this team to greatness. It was just an amazing season, everybody bought into a system that worked and it made us feel like no one can hang with this team."
Balancing his work with JMU Football and the work demanded from his professors was a challenge he had not yet faced. For the first time in Connor's life, he had to manage school work and preparation for the football team.
"I was very fortunate," says Connor about his collaboration with the coaches and players. "JMU football personnel gave me time to do my schoolwork. If it needs to get done, they let me do it FIRST. But it was certainly tough, especially in my first year, I really didn't know how to swallow everything on my plate. But finding that balance was definitely not easy."
Of course it was a lot of work for a young man in his college career. But what Connor claims as the driving force behind his work is not only his passion for sport, but the culture and brotherhood of JMU Dukes Football.
"I think you grow up and you look at athletes as these huge, scary, monstrous people, but once you sit down and talk to them like they're normal, you can truly detect that it is more than a team, it is a family. Its all brotherly-love circulating that locker room everyday. Of course there are times where it can get chippy, whether in the locker room, on the field, or off the field; but the mentality of this team is that they are stronger when they are together. The fans created this term the JMU Breed and since then, it has really become about the team as a whole. They care about eachother's lives and are best friends off the field."
With JMU hiring former Elon Head Coach, Curt Cignetti, I wondered what an actual member of the team thought of the hire rather than the typical athletic director press conference introducing Coach Curt as the "perfect addition" to the team.
Connor says, much similar to everything else I have heard about coach Curt, "He has a career that will blow you away. Working with Nick Saban at Alabama, we already know that he knows how to be a winner. And obviously, we can't ignore what he has done in his time at Elon. He transformed the Phoenix into a winning team and CAA contenders. He has given the Dukes many problems in his short tenure with Elon. Coach Cignetti knows how to win and that alone should be enought to excite every single Dukes fan in the nation."
With his graduation coming closer and closer, I had to ask the most important question of all: How has your work with JMU set you up for a future career in coaching football?
"The opportunity to work year round with the team was incredible," Connor says in an almost upsetting tone as if he never wants to leave. "I am going to take everything I have learned with the team and just continue to grown with it. Everything I do is in preparation for the next step in my life. It is very important to me. I wouldn't trade this experience for anything."
Just like many other students preparing to graduate, Connor had a simple answer, "I still do not know what I want to do when I graduate, but all I can say is that this experience has been the most important experience of my life."
College is a learning process. For Connor, college has been much more than hitting the books. As he graduates in the fall, coach Connor will be readily prepared for any football coaching position. Heck, I've known Connor for four years now and I can tell you that he will be a coach for many years to come.
