From Under Recruited To JMU’s Defensive Star, Carpenter’s Rise A Product Of Belief

All it took was one text message.
At the time, it didn’t appear to be a ground-breaking communication between James Madison linebackers coach Bryant Haines and James Carpenter, who was set to enroll in Harrisonburg as a typical student for the ensuing fall.
But that simple message in February of 2019 helped carve a path for Carpenter, who didn’t have a Division I offer out of Roanoke Catholic High School to play college football. Haines, now the Dukes’ defensive coordinator, had a walk-on spot for the undersized defensive lineman.
It didn’t come with a guarantee.
Instead, it was an opportunity for Carpenter to prove he could stick at the college level. And that was all he wanted — a shot to make his presence felt.
“[The recruiting process] was definitely very frustrating, but when coach Haines texted me, it was a very exciting moment for me,” Carpenter said. “Even though it was just a walk-on spot, I was very excited. … I think my size was a big thing for me coming out of high school, but I think it’s played out very well for me.”
Not only did he jump on the chance to play for a perennial FCS contender then, but Carpenter excelled at the college level.
The now 6-foot-2, 282-pound nose guard went from an under-recruited high school prospect to JMU’s ironman on defense and has helped guide the Dukes to one of the best defensive units in the country.
Carpenter has become a household name within the JMU fanbase and quickly garnered national accolades and respect from his peers around the Sun Belt Conference, but it wasn’t all glitz and glamor for him.
Instead, Carpenter’s rise to the top of the defense came with belief — from himself and a coach that thought he had a shot — and a blue-collar mentality.
‘I Knew He Had Something’
In what was Curt Cignetti’s final summer camp at Elon before he accepted the head coaching job at JMU, the veteran head coach saw something in Carpenter.
Carpenter was there as an offensive lineman, but the more Cignetti watched, the more potential he saw in the prospect. After the camp was over, Cignetti found himself watching Carpenter’s film from the camp — over and over.
Cignetti, a film aficionado almost always watching film during the season, continued to watch the tape. Why? “Because I knew he had something,” the now fifth-year JMU coach said.
He saw Carpenter’s movement skills. He had a quick release off the ball and knew how to use his size, even if he wasn’t the biggest player on the field. The more Cignetti watched, the more he liked Carpenter.
Then came the move to JMU.
But that coaching move may have helped land Carpenter, who suddenly had interest from one of the Commonwealth’s most consistent programs. And it was just over 100 miles up I-81 North from his hometown.
Soon enough, after the text message from Haines, who arrived in Harrisonburg with Cignetti as a part of his first staff at JMU, Carpenter was added to the Dukes’ roster as a walk-on in the first recruiting class of the Cignetti era.
When Carpenter arrived on campus that summer, he joined a defensive line room laden with future professionals — John Daka, Mike Greene, and Ron’Dell Carter.
Daka spent time with four different NFL teams in 2020 and 2021 and played with the XFL’s Houston Roughnecks this past spring, while Greene is currently on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Carter, the 2019 CAA Defensive Player of the Year, played with eight NFL teams from 2020-2022 and spent the past spring with the USFL’s Michigan Panthers.
As Carpenter entered an experienced position group, Greene noticed the freshman had the tools to thrive on the defensive line.
He just had to put it all together.
“I remember when he first got there,” Greene said. “He’s just always been so athletic. He always had some twitch to him and had real good hands. We used to say he had hands like a little ninja. He had real good hand speed from the get go and he has a knack for playing defensive line.”
For Carpenter, who possessed some of the qualities of a college defensive lineman, his freshman season was all about learning from the elder statesmen of the room.
He gravitated towards Greene, who was in his junior year.
“He was the guy for us when I got here,” Carpenter said of Greene. “Just overall, his mindset, a lot of technique stuff, just a combination of everything that he would talk us through, I would just take as much information as I could from him. I just tried to soak everything I could in from him.”
Carpenter wanted to learn from Greene, a staple of the Dukes’ defensive front. Anything Greene did or said, Carpenter made a mental note of it. Soon enough, it started to click.
But unlike Greene, Carpenter was slightly undersized for the interior of the defensive line, so instead of trying to overpower an offensive lineman, his approach was different. He used his finesse, hand speed, and leverage to find a way to make an impact.
“Everyone says the low man wins, so I think for me, if I’m this size, I’m fine with it,” Carpenter said. “I’m pretty good with it. People think it’s a big negative thing, but I like to use it as a positive. I’m lower than most people, so using that leverage, my size is the biggest thing for me.”
During his freshman season, Carpenter appeared in one game and redshirted. But during the 2021 spring season, Carpenter played in all eight games and made seven starts at defensive tackle after Greene moved to the defensive end spot due to injuries.
Alongside the player he looked up to, Carpenter was named the VaSID Defensive Rookie of the Year after he made 21 total tackles with five tackles for a loss, two sacks, and an interception.
The next fall, Carpenter followed his breakout season with six starts at nose guard and was named a Phil Steele FCS Freshman All-American.
Greene, who called it a “smooth” transition of playing alongside Carpenter on JMU’s defensive line, said watching the former walk-on earn his way onto the field was gratifying.
“As a walk-on, you’ve got to fight for it every single day,” Greene said. “He came out there and ended up getting a spot on the field and making a name for himself. I’m really proud of him, for sure.”
‘I’ve Got A Lot Of People Depending On Me’
In his first season without Greene on the defensive line with him, Carpenter’s role expanded in 2022.
And by expanding, it more than doubled — literally.
Carpenter went from playing 224 snaps during the 2021 season to 625 snaps in 11 games during the 2022 campaign, the Dukes’ first season in the Sun Belt Conference. His gaudy number of plays on the field was the 17th-most in the FBS and the second-most in the Sun Belt last season.
For Carpenter, the ability to play virtually every snap with just a handful of plays off a game came from an internal motivation to win — and a realization of the necessity he had to do it.
Before the season began, JMU had two defensive tackles — Tony Thurston and Tyler Negron — leave the team in fall camp. That left the Dukes in a precarious situation with their depth almost depleted.
Instead of worrying about it, Carpenter took a different approach: he would put the load of the interior defensive line on his back.
“Going into games, I kind of knew that we lacked some depth, so I just had that mindset of, ‘I can’t really come out. I’ve got a lot of people depending on me,’” Carpenter said. “It’s a physical sport, it’s a grind over 12, 13 weeks. Just that mindset is what helped me stay in games and stay healthy throughout the year.”
As Cignetti looked at it, Carpenter’s mindset made him one of the best players on JMU’s defense and one of the best players on the team.
“He’s probably one of the most tenacious players I’ve ever been around,” Cignetti said. “... He gives great effort every play, he’s super tough. He’s really hard to block. He’s arguably, if you rated the team 1-50, he’d probably come out No. 1 in a coach’s vote of 10 coaches.”
Carpenter’s ability to will himself through the season — at a high level, no less — earned the respect of his coaches and teammates and those around the Sun Belt Conference.
He was named a second-team All-Sun Belt defensive lineman after last fall when he posted a career-best 52 tackles with 11.5 tackles for a loss and 5.5 sacks.
Appalachian State All-Sun Belt center Isaiah Helms noted how difficult Carpenter is to block, even though he isn’t the tallest defensive lineman in the league.
“He’s a big dude, he’s very athletic and he’s good with his hands,” Helms said. “As an offensive lineman, when you’re dealing with somebody like that at that caliber, it’s hard to keep in front of him. He’s a great athlete and it makes my game better too.”
For a player that started as a walk-on, that’s high praise. But for Greene, who saw it up close and personal for three seasons, Carpenter has always been capable of being a force on JMU’s defensive front.
“I think he’s always had it in him, he’s always been a dog of a defensive lineman,” Greene said. “He’s always had a good knack for football. I think he’s got more of a platform and more attention to his name [now], but JC has always been a dog.”
For Carpenter, last fall was a complete validation of what he thought when he arrived in college football — he belonged.
It was further confirmed when JMU played at Louisville last fall, and Carpenter made seven tackles, his third-most in a single game. And he did it against Atlantic Coast Conference competition.
“I think the biggest thing I learned from myself is not only can I do this at the Sun Belt, but their center was one of the best in the ACC, seeing that I can do it against bigger schools, better players,” Carpenter said. “Just seeing that I could also do it at the Power Five level [against Louisville], which is something that I feel like that I can do.”
Carpenter is a far cry away from the small, undersized nose guard that he entered college as. He’s put on muscle and embraced his height.
Though he’s shorter than some of the other dominant collegiate nose guards, Carpenter has used that as motivation, and it’s paid off.
“It’s definitely a big chip on my shoulder that I carry,” Carpenter said. “Not many people thought I could be in the position that I am now because of my size. … I’m going to keep getting better and prove everyone wrong.”
But as he gears up for another season in Harrisonburg, Carpenter called his path to being the Dukes’ defensive anchor “crazy.”
It may sound out of a movie, but it’s reality, and Carpenter has enjoyed it all to this moment — even if he had to earn it all each step of the way.
“I think to make it to this point from where I was, it’s very gratifying and it’s definitely a blessing,” Carpenter said. “If you would have told me that I would be in this spot four years ago when I was walking-on in the summer, I definitely would have told you that you were crazy.”