New James Madison coach Bob Chesney is working to assemble his inaugural staff atop the Dukes program, and he's expected to make a couple of bold defensive moves, among others, sources with direct knowledge share with FootballScoop.
Chesney is going to hire Lyle Hemphill to run the JMU defense; he's snagging him away from Duke, where he also is taking Zach Sparber to coach the Dukes' linebackers after Sparger had also been at Duke.
Chesney is retaining Eddie Whitley Jr., and as FootballScoop first reported last week, Chesney also is adding former JMU All-American Sam Daniels to coach the defensive line.
Anthony DiMichele is going to coach the JMU secondary and head up the program's recruiting coordinator post under Chesney, for whom he worked at Holy Cross.
Dean Kennedy will come with Chesney from Holy Cross to coach quarterbacks and serve as the Dukes's offensive coordinator; Drew Canan also is accompanying Chesney from Holy Cross and will fill the roles of tight ends coach and special teams coordinator.
Former Old Dominion assistant Justin Harper is going to coach the JMU wideouts.
Damian Wroblewski is being retained at JMU by Chesney; Wroblewski will serve as the offensive line coach and the offense's associate head coach, per a source.
Chesney is expected to hire Jason Novak from Michigan State to run JMU's strength and conditioning program for football.
Additionally, sources told FootballScoop that Matt Transue, who has SEC experience at Tennessee, ACC experience at Virginia Tech and has also worked at Memphis and Georgia Southern, will remain as JMU's senior director of football operations at JMU. Transue had been offered a post at Indiana University by Curt Cignetti.