What FB needs to compete

[rhodyrudder]

1. Offices. Something needs to be done ASAP. Right now there are nicer refugee camps in Turkey. Fix them, please. Recruits may want to see them, and the coaches and players have to use them.

2. A FULL allotment of scholarships. Don't bring a knife to a gunfight. Football teams historically lose players to injury during a season at this level. Plan ahead.

3. Improvements at Meade :
a. Lights
b. Some say turf; I'm happy with a quality grass field. What do you think?
c. Eventually a new east grandstand and press box. As of now, they're less than adequate. What do we need to do for next year? Some of the blue vinyl coverings are coming up. Do we replace them or just leave as is for the time being?
d. Creature comforts and concessions need to be improved.

4. Coaching staff, salaries & recruiting budgets:
a. A full complement of coaches,
b. who are paid on a respectable level with our CAA opponents. These should be at least in the ballpark of the median salaries in the league.
c. See 4b. While having the best RI schoolboys dream about playing for the Rams should be a goal, realize that we will need to go out of state, out of New England, and probably to places like Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, Illinois, Kansas, California. What does the roster at Delaware look like? How about at James Madison?

5. Practice facilities, weightroom, meeting rooms & video equipment, training staff:
a. Are they currently adequate? If not, then make them above average. If the team can't prepare to play at its peak, then it probably won't win in this league.
b. How much energy is given to scouting, relative to what our league opponents do?

6. Other
a. When we take a high pay guarantee to play 1-A competition, is this money given back to FB? Do the players get to enjoy life in the big-time, so to speak, when we ask them to be sacrificial lambs for the big boys? If we can get UMass to pay us to play at Gillette, do we drive up in school buses the day of, or do we act like we belong, staying in nice hotels near the stadium? Can we get charter planes if, say, LSU or Penn State schedule us?
b. What do Villanova, UNH, Richmond, etc. do before home games? I'm not sure the team needs to be put up for the night at the Marriott, but if other schools do it...

What say you? What have I forgotten?

[Rhody74]

Great list! If you check out Maine's roster (http://issuu.com/maineathletics/docs/20 ... edia_guide) they've gotten players from throughout the Northeast .... Maryland to Maine including a few from Ohio and Canada. If you can attract good players to go to Maine, you can attract them to URI.

They played two FBS teams .... dunno if they were both pay games, but if you need to do that to help budget the team, then go for it. And it probably toughened them for the CAA. They won the conference and are ranked 4th in the country in FCS.

[STC]

For me I think priority should be to improve Meade. Those junky stands have become a representation of the football program itself.

[RF1]

The Football Program needs this:

meade%20stadium%20concept.jpg (99.43 KiB) Viewed 2595 times

[STC]

The Football Program needs this:

meade%20stadium%20concept.jpg

Yes! Bingo.

[rhodyfan3]

Here are a few pictures of the new strength and conditioning center.

[section(105)]

Know what??......is it "fixable"...? I recall President Dooley saying he'd continue to support having football if the program is fixable.....

[Carl K Tortella]

Certainly it is "fixable" !!!! If URI can not be at least a football equal of Maine and New Hampshire and be successful in the CAA { a great football league } then the entire university should be eliminated. Unfortunately URI is a stepchild of a politically corrupt and bankrupt state that is VOID of pride across the board . So that everything is three times harder to accomplish here than elsewhere. That said it is going to happen much sooner than later , NOW.

[bigappleram]

its not impossible, i agree.

[Hal Kopp]

Lights first,synthetic field second,east stands third.
I have asked this question 10 X:-are there empty rooms in the Ryan Ctr.?

[neil]

Not a major concern, but it shows where our program is - How many years since we had a Media Guide? Football and basketball!

[rhodyrudder]

I don't have unrestricted access any more, since I no longer work for Sports Info, so I can't answer either question definitively.
No idea about empty rooms in RC. It appears as if the locker room is in there now. Offices in the same building as the locker room, and in the newest facility to boot, would be nice!
Regarding media guides, they are definitely nice bells and whistles. It looks like most of that stuff is online these days, but I hope they do still print some on HQ paper. There may be NCAA rules about them though. I can ask if they are still produced.
I noticed there are no game-day posters for MBB this year, with players on the front, as in the previous five years or so. Instead they give out programs each month. XM is on the current issue.
It's all about the hype, for sure. (Make recruits' eyes open and donors' jaws drop.)
You should see the stadium in Nebraska, with the Heisman Trophy room.

[OBRAM]

You could make a strong argument that U of New Haven has better facilities than URI.
http://www.newhavenchargers.com/sports/ ... .aspx?id=9

[rhodyfan3]

I definitely feel like this program is fixable. It just needs a little love.
Now Hal, you say lights first, field second, and east stands third. I agree with those improvements. Any reason for that particular order?
Not saying you're wrong, just sharing an opinion, but I would switch up that order.
I'm not overly concerned about lights right away. Night games would be fun, but they aren't a necessity. We could build up the fan base with our usual afternoon games.
East stands are definitely important. I have sat there all four years I have been here, and I can say sitting there is not the best way to enjoy a football game.
Turfing the field would also be fantastic as well. Now someone help me out here, but are we talking about turfing Meade, the practice field, or maybe both? Would you turf the practice facilities but not Meade? Does it make sense to practice on turf all week then play on natural grass? Could you turf Meade and also practice there? Anyone who can help me out with those questions I would appreciate it.
Now before I get jumped on I know this costs money. These are future plans that we can hopefully raise funds for. Thorr did a great job with the basketball team, maybe he can do the same for our football team.

[Hal Kopp]

I believe there is a plan in place.
Here is what I know as am told (as far as facilities):
A. FB Offices are in Keaney/move them into the empty rooms in the RC
B. The field often looks like crap,particularly for a school that specializes in turf management. Go to synthetic turf,much less maintenance. Can hold multiple events on it,including HS championships. A lot of area HS fields are synthetic.
C. No HS saturday night games now,lights would be nice bump in attendance,bring in more revenue.
D. East Stands are most expensive part of equation. Leave to last.
E.SADC is almost done=eliminates WR objection.
How much of above is deferred maintenance? Really,think about that.
Coaches pay and recruiting budget need to increase,but small potatoes compared to facilities.

[RF1]

Division 3 RPI has a better football stadium than URI:

http://rpiathletics.com/sports/2010/5/2 ... px?id=2768

[rambone 78]

Wow. How sad. For us, that is.

We spend upwards of $2 mil a year for scholarships, they don't have any. They are private, we are a state school that gets basically zippo from the state for athletics.

Something is wrong here, big time.

How we can get ANY decent players to come here, is beyond me. Recruits see this too.

[rhodyfan3]

Those are actually really nice facilities. I am very jealous of that stadium. I wonder how much that cost them?

[RF1]

Alfond Stadium at UMaine in Orono

[RF1]

Lavalle Stadium at SUNY-Stony Brook

[RF1]

University of Albany's Bob Ford Field

[rhodyfan3]

Looking at these stadiums, just makes me realize how important it will be to improve Meade. It will help with recruits and it can also help boosts the schools image.

[bressler3south]

RF1 has it correct! The Meade Stadium Concept is beautiful. It's doable. Just get rid of the Erector-Set Stands, which have been an eyesore and utter disgrace symbolically for URI since Day One of its existence. The first money going into the fund for new construction would be all of the cash for scrap metal the University would get for the aforementioned stands……..

[jcru]

That was my initial reaction back in 2001 as well. However, I believe if you look at the concept drawings, it basically includes the same kind of erector stands on the east side that are there.

Basically, the West stands are already done and are brand new, that wouldn't change. The plan would call for completely breaking down everything on the east side except for the steel skeleton, and then going from there, it would be exactly like the west side in all other aspects, so the east would still be huge, maybe not the exact same shape, but the same aesthetically to match the west side. But the plan would save the money on the west side that is already complete and I'm sure preserving the steel skeleton on the east side ultimately saves a ton of money in the end.

In the drawing, you can see the major difference would be the shape of the outside edges, heading towards the endzones. This also does two other things: A. makes sure that you are increasing the capacity of the stadium, not staying the same, the goal here is to improve the product and bring more people to attend games, and B. you are not changing the footprint of the stadium on the east side.

It's one of those things that, as pretty as the picture is, it would be a lot better looking when completed than the picture suggests, I think. Esp when you go to sit on the west side and look forward and around, or when you go to sit on the east side and look forward and around. It never got to the 3D stage where you could test the view all around from a point at the middle of the field like they did with the Ryan Center.

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