CAA Football – Week One Preview

I attended Old Dominion University in the late 1990’s and graduated in 2001. I was very proud and grateful for the opportunity I was provided, and I took great pride in ODU. At that time the marquee sport was women’s basketball; Wendy Larry’s teams made the NCAA Final game in 1997 and won an NCAA-record 17 consecutive CAA conference tournaments at one point. Unfortunately my time at ODU also coincided with the Jeff Capel men’s basketball era, which turned out to be much less successful than current coach Blaine Taylor’s tenure.

It should suffice to say that I was more than a little jealous of my high school friends who went to UVa, Virginia Tech, James Madison and William and Mary. Their schools had football! The sport was always my biggest passion in athletics. Conversely, my school had women’s basketball and nine-time national champion women’s field hockey. I followed Virginia college football from afar, focusing more on the NFL because my alma mater did not sponsor the sport.

Let’s fast forward to 2006, when the administration announced that it would launch a football program. The football Monarchs, whose first game was played in 2009, have played two seasons as an FCS Independent team before joining the powerhouse Colonial Athletic Association for the 2011 season. The team finished its inaugural season with a first-year-program-best record of 9-2, and followed that up with a record of 8-3 in 2010. I have paid much more attention to CAA Football the last couple seasons to gear up for ODU’s first season in the conference.

I share this background to underscore how much of an honor it is for me to contribute a regular column about CAA Football to Saturday Blitz. I take pride knowing that ODU is part of the CAA in general and now also belongs to the football conference. Each week I will review highlights of the previous week’s games. There will also be previews of the most important game(s) of the upcoming weekend.

At this point it’s a bit late for me to perform a full preview of each team in the conference. Not expecting to be a contributor to Saturday Blitz, I spent much of the past month previewing ODU and its opponents on my own blog, VBR Productions. I did a comparison of ODU’s offense, defense and special teams to the best of the conference, but working a real job prevents me from writing a full CAA preview. The football conference has its own web site that is in the middle of providing previews of each team, so I recommend that you give that a visit for an in-depth preview.

But it’s not too late to start previewing each CAA team’s games this weekend. We’ll start with the University of New Hampshire, which opens its season Thursday against FBS Toledo. The Wildcats have wins over their last five FBS opponents – Rutgers, Northwestern, Marshall, Army and Ball State. Give me one other FCS program with wins over five FBS opponents, let alone five consecutive wins. Although Brian McNally and Matt Evans return to lead an outstanding defense, Toledo returns almost 20 starters from last year’s team and is among the favorites to win the MAC. With a new starting quarterback (Kevin Decker) at the helm, Toledo may be a bit much for the Wildcats to pull out their sixth consecutive FBS win.

Next we’ll look at one of the top FCS teams this season, The College of William and Mary. The Tribe plays at the University of Virginia, the site of their 2009 26-14 victor over the Wahoos. This version of the Cavaliers is much improved over the team that W&M defeated two years ago, as former Richmond head coach Mike London is turning the program around. Can the Tribe win its second straight game in Charlottesville, VA? Don’t be surprised to see Jonathan Grimes lead W&M to victory.

Last season’s FCS runners-up, the Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens, take on Navy to open their season. Delaware loses CAA Offensive POY Pat Devlin but returns four of their five starting offensive linemen. They’ll open holes for Preseason CAA Co-Offensive POY running back Andrew Pierce, who should have another stellar season. The Hens do lose a lot in the secondary from last year’s unit, including two All-Americans, but the defensive front should be able to handle Navy’s triple option offense. Can they score enough with a new quarterback?

While we’re discussing CAA teams who play FBS opponents, let’s not forget about the FCS team with the biggest win in 2010: the James Madison Dukes. Despite beating Virginia Tech 21-16 in Blacksburg, the Dukes won only six total games. That’s an indication of how tough the CAA is – the team that beat the ACC champion went 3-5 within the conference. With ten starters returning to a dominant defense, they have a real chance to beat a UNC program that has had its share of turmoil in the offseason.

Towson University has a legitimate shot of tripling its win total of one last season. Coach Rob Ambrose is in the third year of changing the culture of the Tigers, and the young men he’s brought in are several steps above the talent level of previous seasons. They open their season against Baltimore-rival Morgan State Bears of the MEAC. Although the Bears bring back 16 starters, I expect the Tigers to start its season with a win at home.

Speaking of cross-town rivalries, the city of Philadelphia will be abuzz with The Mayor’s Cup, the annual game between Villanova and Temple University. The Wildcats beat Temple in 2009, propelling the program to a 14-1 record and an FCS national title. Temple got its revenge in a 31-24 victory last season. In 2011 Villanova loses more than half of the starters from last year’s FCS semifinalist team. It will be hard for a talented but unproven Villanova squad to beat Temple to kick off 2011.

In a game I’ll be attending (assuming Norfolk isn’t washed away by Hurricane Irene), Old Dominion hosts Campbell University. The Monarchs have beaten the Camels each of the last two seasons. The Monarchs return all but four starters from a team that won eight games last season. Similarly Campbell returns 18 total starters from last year’s 3-8 squad, including all five offensive linemen. After losing starting QB Daniel Polk to graduation, the Camels may have a difficult time scoring enough points against ODU on the road.

The Maine Black Bears open their season hosting Bryant University of the NEC. Although it finished 2010 with a 4-7 record, Maine returns eight starters on each side of the ball, including their top four tacklers on defense. The Bulldogs bring back several of its starters as well but loses its top two defensive players from last season. We’ll go with Maine here to open the season at home with a win on the strength of its defense.

In its final season as members of the CAA, the University of Massachusetts opens at Holy Cross of the Patriot League. Each team earned a record of 6-5 last season although the Minutemen had two victories over top-15 FCS teams. UMass also returns nine starters on defense from last season’s squad, including 2010 CAA Defensive POY/2011 Preseason CAA Defensive POY Tyler Holmes. This actually may be a difficult game for UMass as it loses senior quarterback Kyle Havens and will start an underclassman (either RS sophomore Kellen Pagel or RS freshman Brandon Hill), but the defense should be more than enough to win at Holy Cross.

Lastly, the Richmond Spiders will try to overcome a difficult end to its preseason camp by taking on the Duke Blue Devils. They did defeat Duke 24-16 to start the 2009 season and 13-0 in 2007, so they have a good history against this ACC opponent. The turmoil from the change of head coaches two weeks before the season may be too much for them to overcome.

The University of Rhode Island has its bye the first weekend of the season, so there is nothing to preview for them now. With six of the ten other CAA teams in action against FBS opponents, it may be a stretch to get more than five wins. But don’t be surprised if more than one CAA team beats its FBS foe – we’re going with Delaware and William and Mary as the mostly likely to pull off wins. I expect the four teams playing FCS opponents to win their games, though with Towson it may be wise to take a wait-and-see approach. Nevertheless, for the first time I can say I get to cheer on my football conference mates against the rest of the NCAA.