DATE: Thursday, October 2, 1997             TAG: 9710020728

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C4   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: ED MILLER

LENGTH: 63 lines

FOOTBALL REPORT

James Madison star

had to convince

Dukes he could play

The recruiting story of the year in Division I-AA is not really a recruiting story at all. That's because James Madison didn't recruit its star tailback, Delvin Joyce.

``He kind of recruited us,'' JMU coach Alex Wood said.

Joyce, a redshirt freshman who leads the Atlantic 10 in all-purpose yards, with 756 in four games, had no scholarship offers after a standout career at Fieldale-Collinsville High in Martinsville.

Recruiters were scared away by his size (5-foot-7, 180 pounds) and the fact that he didn't take the SAT until late in his senior year.

``I didn't really know I had to have the score to be recruited and take official visits,'' he said.

So Joyce, who was an excellent high school student, made some unofficial visits to JMU. He chose the school for its academics, he said.

Joyce never doubted his ability to play college football. He stopped by a JMU practice one day and decided to come out for the team. While many walk-ons are actually recruited - told they can eventually earn a scholarship - Joyce wasn't.

``He just decided to come out for football one day,'' Wood said. ``And we're glad he did.''

JMU is Freshman U.

JMU took 55 players to last Saturday's game at Maine, and 27 of them were either true freshmen or redshirt freshmen.

The Dukes, who are 3-1 and ranked 22nd in the nation, won 24-22 when quarterback Greg Maddox hit true freshman Lindsay Fleshman with a 59-yard touchdown pass with 1:34 left.

Fleshman caught four passes for 114 yards. The week before, redshirt freshman Earnest Payton caught a 35-yard touchdown pass that proved to be the game-winner.

The week before that, Joyce set a Bridgeforth Stadium record with 322 all-purpose yards in a 32-27 win over East Tennessee State.

``Each week somebody young steps up,'' Joyce said.

With so many freshmen playing big roles, the future looks bright at JMU. Joyce said his classmates have already talked about future goals.

``We're thinking national championship,'' he said.

Tribe QB recovering

William and Mary quarterback Mike Cook is progressing nicely after undergoing knee surgery Sept. 16, but team doctors are unable to say when the all-conference performer will return.

Meanwhile, backup Steve Fill and third-stringer Daron Pope are competing in practice for the right to start Saturday at Northeastern.

Pope, a redshirt freshman, has started the last two games while Fill was recovering from an ankle injury. He's completed 35 of 61 passes for 451 yards and three touchdowns. Pope has thrown just one interception, but Fill replaced him late in last Saturday's 20-17 win over Boston University. Coach Jimmye Laycock said Pope had made some ``uncharacteristic'' decisions.''

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