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We have a very good football program

Hampton seems to be making the transition. They took Rhode Island to double overtime. They need to ditch the D2 schools If they want to pad their schedule, they should play a Patriot League school.

Oh wait...maybe not.
 
RICHMOND, Va. (October 28, 2024) – CAA Football has announced its weekly award winners for Week 9 of the 2024 season. Richmond sophomore quarterback Cam Coleman was selected as the Offensive Player of the Week, while Villanova junior linebacker received Defensive Player of the Week accolades. Elon junior punter Jeff Yurk was chosen as the Special Teams Player of the Week and Hampton freshman linebacker Michael Matthews-Canty was named the Rookie of the Week.

CAA Football Offensive Player of the Week
Cam Coleman, So., QB, Richmond (Clemmons, N.C./Robert B. Glenn)


Coleman was 15-of-16 passing for 278 yards and 4 TD’s and added a fifth TD on the ground in Richmond’s 41-14 win at Bryant. The sophomore had a 4-yard TD run in the first quarter before throwing scoring passes of 60, 36, 15 and 16 yards in the second to give the Spiders a 41-7 advantage. His 322.2 pass efficiency rating and 93.8% completion percentage are the best in FCS this season.
 
Since 2021, the coaches and players in this program have built an unbelievable culture. Bad losses? Absolutely. But since October 30th of 2021, this team is 22-3 in conference and 29-10 overall, including playoffs. I give a ton of credit to the boys that show up to practice every Tuesday morning and put the effort in every day in the offseason. When they started 0-2 to start the year, no one was more upset than them. 7 in a row ain’t a joke.
 
The powers that be have wanted to destroy football for years. The football endowment and fans have kept them from just doing it. So the plan now is a slow death. Moving to the weak Patriot league is just another step towards their goal.
 
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The idea that the CAA will be relevant is like thinking the PAC-12 is relevant… the CAA has totally diluted itself and now 3 out of their 4 best programs have moved on. Nova being the 4th will be shortly behind. The Patriot is so far from having the bells and whistles of a great conference, but in the age of fluidity in CFB, it’s about as stable as you can get.
 
The powers that be have wanted to destroy football for years. The football endowment and fans have kept them from just doing it. So the plan now is a slow death. Moving to the weak Patriot league is just another step towards their goal.
Silly. The so called powers that you speak of don't need your or my approval to pull the plug. The NCAA is self destructing. PL isn't ideal but it sure appears to be fairly stable. Things will be changing for a while I'm afraid.
 
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Silly. The so called powers that you speak of don't need your or my approval to pull the plug. The NCAA is self destructing. PL isn't ideal but it sure appears to be fairly stable. Things will be changing for a while I'm afraid.
But what why now? What is the rush?
 
But what why now? What is the rush?
Don't know. The ideal league size for football is 9. 8 league games and 3 or 4 OOC games. 4 league games per week with a single team bye. Maybe we saw an open 1 or 2 slots in a stable league amongst the bedlam and went for it. They've been after us for years.
 
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In addition to other previous points mentioned: stability of PL, dilution/eventual destruction of CAA, and the hopes of Villanova/W&M joining, here are some other considerations. First, I will see I completely agree that the timing of going to PL was not the right one, but I have no inside information with the AD and don't know what considerations there were behind the scenes to make the move now as opposed to later. But I want to provide another hopefully more positive perspective pushing back on the notion that our entire football program is going to become irrelevant because of this move.

The first point is the kind of recruits UR has gotten have almost never been 3 or 4 star recruits. I don't mean this in a negative way, but expressing the reality of our situation and level of football program we are compared to the larger college football landscape. Unlike basketball where we are often recruiting against power programs for recruits and getting kids in the top 200 of their class in the entire country, football is a different story. We go for recruits who typically are under the radar and we see potential/develop them into the great football players they are. As far a I've been following UR for the past decades, a solid recruit (in terms of offers) is one who has offers from other CAA/Ivy programs and maybe schools like Army/Navy. As far as I am aware, the recruits in this upcoming class are just as good as they've ever been.

This leads me to my 2nd point. Why do recruits choose UR? Since we're not talking about recruiting players who have offers from Ohio State, what is important for them? I imagine our education, history of strong football success at this level, and even having players who are on active rosters of NFL teams today graduate here (Turner & Funderburk. Mustapha played at UR 1 year too). That hasn't changed with move to PL. Only thing is conference affiliation. Again, since the recruits we're going after likely don't have any significant FBS offers, how much of a difference will it make in their decision to play in the 10th best conference in division 1 vs. the 14th best conference? In other words, what's a more important recruiting pitch for recruits at our level: conference affiliation or winning conference championships and making deep NCAA runs? I don't see how PL automatically means we can't build and sustain a winning program. As an example, Gonzaga's reputation was not hurt by being in WCC relative to other top teams being in power conference. Different situation, but my point is conference affiliation is not a reason a program should be held back, especially at our level of FCS.

Also, we are ranked top 20/top 15 in the country depending on the poll and we've technically not played any ranked opponents this year (but I will count Delaware because they obviously would be ranked). So even though CAA has several ranked teams, we're not playing them (i.e. New Hampshire, Villanova, Rhode Island). It's still very realistic to be ranked in polls in PL if we don't play any ranked opponents, especially if we try and schedule 3-4 other top FCS teams (including W&M) every year in our out of conference schedule. Holy Cross was a top 8 seed to NCAA's a couple years ago.

In summary, conference affiliation for the kind of recruits UR goes after likely isn't the driving factor in their decision and we can continue to sell the things that make UR special (education, football pedigree, NFL players) and now can also add to our recruiting pitch coming here to win championships and make NCAA tournament every year. We can continue to play good teams out of conference to boost our strength of schedule and not see a drop in our rankings. Add this to the other established points that PL is more stable, the hope Villanova and/or W&M join, and the CAA is not as good as it was and is much more diluted/unstable/and potential to break-apart. Add smaller points that UR probably cared about such as affiliating with more like minded academic institutions, likely similar attendance from fans to UR games, not having as much of a say in CAA that is poorly run by AD, ESPN+ vs. FloSports, and I can see why they took a calculated risk to leave now. Whether this will prove to be a good decision or not, time will tell.
 
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All the above clearly points to the necessity of the toughest/hardest OOC schedule that can be had. Bringing in some MVC teams for home games might even generate local interest.
 
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All the above clearly points to the necessity of the toughest/hardest OOC schedule that can be had. Bringing in some MVC teams for home games might even generate local interest.
Sorry,OOC is baked in for next number of years.Add WM beginning in 2025.Fordham becomes a league game.12 regular season games in 2025.

 
Sorry,OOC is baked in for next number of years.Add WM beginning in 2025.Fordham becomes a league game.12 regular season games in 2025.

32 counter you are better at such stuff, so below is more a question than a statement

If Nova comes in at the end of this year and next several years are set for OOC, that is 8 conference games and no room for W&M without buying out an OOC game already scheduled if I understand it right.
 
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Our recruiting use to be Mid Atlantic-NE primarily, but now many recruits are from NC, GA, TN.
I talked to some golfers yesterday from Charlotte and they mentioned how Richmond recruits
In the Charlotte Metro area. I worry by going to PL that we will lose some identity in those areas
in SE we recruit.
 
Our recruiting use to be Mid Atlantic-NE primarily, but now many recruits are from NC, GA, TN.
I talked to some golfers yesterday from Charlotte and they mentioned how Richmond recruits
In the Charlotte Metro area. I worry by going to PL that we will lose some identity in those areas
in SE we recruit.
I think losing coaches who recruit those areas is more worrisome.
 
CAA Football Defensive Player of the Week
Jeremiah Grant, Sr., DE, Richmond (South Orange, N.Y./Bergen Catholic)


Grant contributed five tackles, three sacks, two forced fumbles and two QB hurries to lead a strong defensive effort in Richmond’s 35-24 victory over Towson. The senior, who tops FCS with a school-record tying 11.5 sacks, forced fumbles on two of his sacks, setting up field goals. The Spiders tallied 7.0 sacks and forced four TO’s in the game.

CAA Football Special Teams Player of the Week
Sean O’Haire, Fr., PK, Richmond (Kildare, Ireland/St. Mary’s Secondary School)


Kicking in his second collegiate game, O’Haire was 5-for-5 on field goals and added two extra points in Richmond’s 35-24 win over Towson. The true freshman made FG’s of 21, 22, 47, 36 and 18 yards, which tied a program record and matched the most FG’s made in FCS this season.




 
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The quirk of Strength of Schedule ratings: the teams with some of the worst records have the higher SOS, while the teams with the best records have a much lower SOS.

NC A&T has a Strength of Schedule of 6
Campbell 15
Bryant 22
UR has a SOS of 113 (of 129)

 
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Sorry,OOC is baked in for next number of years.Add WM beginning in 2025.Fordham becomes a league game.12 regular season games in 2025.

Given what you posted, will we be playing W&M next year? What about 2026 and 2027? It appears there is no room for them on the schedule.
 
The fact that our strength of schedule is 113 out of 129 and we’re still going to be top 10 in the country, win a conference championship, and have good chance of top 8 seed in NCAA shows that it can be done from the Patriot League too because I can’t imagine our strength of schedule being worse than 113 out of 129 in that league. The CAA is a great conference this year but we didn’t play the top teams like URI, Villanova, UNH, Stony Brook, which I am guessing is part of the reason why the administration wanted us to leave.

Also, from a recruiting perspective I imagine telling them our ability to win championships, have high seeding in NCAA tournament (hopefully going on deep runs), sending the occasional guy to NFL (3 players on active roster have been to UR and 2 of them graduated from here), and all the other great things about UR as a school will carry more weight to them than conference affiliation. We’re not recruiting against top FBS school for our guys where conference affiliation, NIL money, etc. becomes a much larger factor. Our typical recruit will have these kinds of offers: Us, William & Mary, Yale, Fordham, Furman, Stony Brook, Air Force. I don’t think - from a recruiting standpoint - there will be much of a drop off from that because of all the other selling points.
 
That last part is really the key factor: Will we be able to retain the kind of recruits we get now once we move leagues. I tend to agree with you that we mostly will, based more upon the university that we are and the history of our program. If we can walk into the Patriot and maintain this level of talent and play, win 2 or 3 titles in a row and make some playoff noise, it will negate any perceived drop-down in league affiliation.
 
That last part is really the key factor: Will we be able to retain the kind of recruits we get now once we move leagues. I tend to agree with you that we mostly will, based more upon the university that we are and the history of our program. If we can walk into the Patriot and maintain this level of talent and play, win 2 or 3 titles in a row and make some playoff noise, it will negate any perceived drop-down in league affiliation.
Here’s a list of our commits for this class so far. I imagine they would know of our league change by now. In my opinion, this class looks to be just as good, if not better, of a recruiting class that I can recall since following UR. Speaking of which, does anyone know when signing day is for football and if any of these verbal commits signed their NLI?

 
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Here’s a list of our commits for this class so far. I imagine they would know of our league change by now. In my opinion, this class looks to be just as good, if not better, of a recruiting class that I can recall since following UR. Speaking of which, does anyone know when signing day is for football and if any of these verbal commits signed their NLI?

  • Freshmen Commits
    D1 Football (early period) signing dayDecember 4, 2024-December 6, 2024
  1. Jack Callaghan - 4/15/24 - QB - Collegiate School, Richmond, VA - 6'2"/210
  2. Christian Soltis - 6/27/24 - LB - The Hun School, Princeton, NJ - 6'3"/225
  3. Jackson Thorne - 6/29/24 - LB -Independence HS, Ashburn, VA - 6'1"/220
  4. John Insinga - 7/1/24 - DE/WR - Hun School, Greenwich, CT - 6'3"/224
  5. Matthew Martin - 7/1/24 - OLB/TE/WR - Atlee HS, Mechanicsville, VA - 6'4"/207
  6. Jack Reece - 7/2/24 - DE/DT/G/C/T - Chatham HS, Chatham, VA - 6'3"/285
  7. Moses Bailey - 7/11/24 - DE/MLB - St Francis Academy, North Laurel, MD - 6'3"/240
  8. Elijah Lee - 7/16/24 - DB/RB - Randallstown HS, Baltimore, MD - 5'11"/172
  9. Michael Creamer - 7/22/24 - RB/SS - Stafford HS, Stafford, VA - 6'0"/210
  10. Isaiah Davis - 7/23/24 - RB/SS - Cleveland HS, Cleveland, TN - 5'11"/175 - REOPENED
  11. Charles Kaludis - 7/24/24 - TE/DE - Suffield Academy, Suffield, CT - 6'4"/235
  12. Jeremiah Washington - 7/25/24 - WR/CB - Choate Rosemary Hall HS, Wallingford, CT (Ancaster, Ontario, Canada) - 5'10"/170
  13. Brady McIntyre - 7/28/24 - OG - Mechanicsville HS, Mechanicsville, VA - 6'5"/305
  14. Tramayne Bullock, Jr. - 8/1/24 - CB/S/WR - Episcopal School, Alexandria, VA - 6'2"/175
  15. Caleb Watts - 8/4/24 - G/T/DT - Prince George HS, Prince George, VA - 6’4”/300
  16. Devin Geronomi - 8/6/24 - WR/DB - White Knoll HS, Lexington, SC - 6'1"/170
  17. Bryce Lee - 8/27/24 - DL - Independence HS, Charlotte, NC - 6'3"/255
  18. Donovan Higgins - 9/5/24 - WR - Pearl-Cohn HS, Nashville, TN - 6’0”/183
  19. Tanner Wheeler - 9/29/24 - DE/TE - Freedom HS, Bethlehem, PA - 6'5"/265
 
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