Junior quarterback Drew Dudzik stood on the sideline at Bridgeforth Stadium this week, tossing a football back and forth with punter Matt Goff.

But the now-ubiquitous crutches under Dudzik's arms indicated he won't be returning to the field for James Madison anytime soon.

"It's extremely hard, especially when you can help out the team. I love playing football, and it stinks watching," says Dudzik, who broke his foot in the third quarter of JMU's October 10 loss to Richmond. "This is the first time in my whole life I've gotten injured during the season, so it's tough."

Doctors inserted a screw into the side of Dudzik's foot two days after the injury. Dudzik says he's scheduled to get x-rays taken on the foot in a few weeks to make sure it's healing properly.

"It's kind of a long healing process. I'm just looking forward to getting better," says Dudzik.

"Just looking forward to that day I can get back out here and start running around again," he adds, saying he doesn't expect to be cleared to start running until after JMU's holiday break.

Before breaking his foot, Dudzik was splitting time at quarterback with redshirt freshman quarterback Justin Thorpe. Since Dudzik went down, Thorpe has taken every quarterback snap for the Dukes.

Thorpe has struggled since Dudzik's injury, as the offense failed to score for 12 quarters until the third quarter of Saturday's 20-8 upset win at Delaware.

When asked if he expects to return to JMU for his final year of college eligibility, Dudzik flashes a smile.

"Oh yeah," he says. "Go Dukes."