Former JMU LB Holloway Joins Football Staff As Graduate Student Coach

There will be a familiar face on the James Madison defensive coaching staff when the Dukes open fall camp on Wednesday.
Former JMU linebacker Dimitri Holloway, a part of four straight Colonial Athletic Association championship teams, joined the Dukes’ coaching staff as a graduate student coach to help with the defensive line ahead of the 2023 campaign.
For Dukes head coach Curt Cignetti, the opportunity to help Holloway, a 2016 FCS National Champion, break into Division I coaching is special.
“I think it’s always great when you can take care of your own — guys that were in the football program for four or five years, earned a degree from JMU, have a lot of pride in the school,” Cignetti said. “You’re creating opportunities for young people to launch themselves successfully in their life’s work.”
In addition to his college coaching experience, Holloway served as the linebackers coach at Menchville High School during the 2020 season. There, he helped break down opponent film, created scouting reports, and helped produce the run-game plan for the team.
As a Duke, Holloway was a three-year starter and logged 329 tackles — 27 for a loss — for sacks, eight pass breakups, four forced fumbles, and three fumble recoveries. His final season in Harrisonburg was Cignetti’s first at the helm, so as he rejoins the program, the Newport News native is already familiar with how the fifth-year head coach operates each day.
Cignetti added that Holloway was an “excellent leader” on that 2019 team, so it wasn’t a hard decision for him to add the former player to his staff.
“When you’re in my position, you’ve always got a list at every position,” Cignetti said. “So when you do have a vacancy, you don’t have to spend quite as much time identifying. [Holloway] was always on my list and coach [Bryant] Haines was very high on him, so it happened fast.”
Holloway brings knowledge of the program to the defense and joins a staff that hasn’t seen much turnover in the five years that Cignetti has been the coach. Seven of the 10 full-time assistant coaches have been on the JMU staff for four years or more.
Haines, the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach, has coached with Cignetti for the past nine seasons, while offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach Mike Shanahan has for eight and associate head coach and offensive line coach Damien Wroblewski has been alongside for seven.
As Cignetti ran through the list of assistants on his staff for a long time, he noted that the low turnover rate has “also enhanced our ability to be successful.”
One of those coaches is former JMU wide receiver John Miller, who has coached the Dukes’ running backs since 2021 and is in his fourth season on staff.
Cignetti pointed to Miller as an example of a former player returning to Harrisonburg and positively impacting the program.
“I think John Miller’s done a great job for us,” Cignetti said. “He has a tremendous future in coaching.
As Holloway joins the program in a graduate role, Cignetti said he believes his prior playing career at JMU will serve him well.
And it will also establish a connection with those he’s helping coach, not only with his past collegiate coaching seasons but also his ability to connect with shared circumstances that come as a college football player at JMU.
“I think there’s a credibility that Dimitri brings right away with a lot of our defensive players that were young guys when he was playing,” Cignetti said. “[He] can maybe relate to what’s going on with those guys, instant credibility.”
In addition to Holloway, Cignetti hired James McCarthy and Reed Relosky as offensive graduate student coaches ahead of fall camp.
McCarthy, a Dartmouth alum, was an undergraduate student assistant with the Big Green during the 2022 season. Relosky spent last fall as an offensive assistant at Pitt and worked with the wide receivers.