Sophomore Kerby Long practiced with his James Madison football teammates Tuesday for the first time in more than a month.

The last time Long participated, on September 24, the Dukes' final practice before traveling to Liberty, he broke his left hand.

"It feels fine now, but we'll see how it is," Long said prior to Tuesday's practice. "I haven't really fallen on it. I can catch passes, but we'll see."

"Kerby's ready to play. He's the kind of youngster, he loves to play football," said head coach Mickey Matthews.

Long, who had 14 catches for 213 yards and two scores as a freshman, was held without a catch in two games before his injury.

The Dukes won at Liberty without him, but proceeded to lose their next four games before upsetting Delaware on the road this past Saturday.

"Who knows, I could have made a difference. But I guess everything happens for a reason," Long said. "I haven't made, I haven't done anything this season so far. So hopefully I can do something this time."

"Kerby is a very versatile player. He plays a lot of positions in our offense," said redshirt freshman quarterback Justin Thorpe. "So we missed him a great deal."

On Tuesday, Matthews said Long would be the Dukes' "motion guy" in their "wildcat" formation. Matthews also confirmed that Long would be adding another position to his resume: backup quarterback.

"He was a high school quarterback. Then he played some quarterback over at Fork Union. He's played some quarterback here," Matthews said. "He's got a pretty good arm. He's a pretty good player there."

Junior Drew Dudzik had been rotating with Thorpe at quarterback until his season ended with a broken foot against Richmond October 10.

True freshman Kavon Seaton served as Thorpe's backup the last three weeks, but didn't see any action.

"I'm pretty comfortable with it," Long said. "I played quarterback when I first got here, during the spring. So I kind of know the plays a little bit."

"Kerby's one of the most explosive athletes we have on the team," said Matthews. "He's more than adequate to fill in for these last three games as our backup quarterback."