2015 football

[twisted3829]

[RF1]

URI played Syracuse tough the last time up there.

UMass at Gillette is the 2016 FBS pay game.

[ATPTourFan]

Will UMass even have any $$$ to give us by 2016??

[Shinze88]

Watching today's URI football game vs Fordham has me wondering why we continue to field a team. I know the kids on the field are trying hard and nobody is questioning the effort of the players or coaches. Jim Fleming might be a good football coach, but I just dont see how URI will never get the talent necessary to compete in the CAA without MAJOR changes to the infastructure of the progream. The disparity in talent continues to get larger with each passing season, and its really difficult to follow this team knowing they have little chance to compete, nevermind win.

[Rhodymob05]

Our football program is pretty bad but I would never ever get rid of it. Jim will make a difference, it's game two of his first season. Give it time. A college needs a football program.

[bigappleram]

i was at that rainy bloodbath....ouch. QB looks shaky, albeit he is a FR, but didnt he get recruited by BC? couple good running backs. the line was bad and defense on the field the whole game.

[Rhody74]

Bryant beat Maine. Can URI?

[adam914]

Bryant beat Maine. Can URI?

The answer is probably no, and that goes for any team on our schedule at this point.

[OBRAM]

It looks like the decision 4 years ago to go the the NEC in football will take a lot longer than I thought to overcome. We don't have any depth and experience on our team, and we will need to build that back

[rambone 78]

um, I know its very early, but we are overmatched.

Fleming has got his work cut out for him. Imo, this program has a couple more years to show signs of real progress, or its got to go.

The first game results were expected. I thought we'd at least put up a fight against Fordham. The key word is competitive. We're not, not even close.

Will the money be there to get this done?

[RhowdyRam02]

This has nothing to do with the aborted NEC move. If our last 3 years of losing are due to that, how do you account for the 14 losing seasons in the 15 seasons before the announcement? This has to do with the stadium situation. We're not going to attract the right level of coach and players without improving our stadium situation.

So what do we need to make our stadium situation competitive in the CAA? We need Meade to be upgraded to 9000-12,500 capacity and the 1400 seats next to the Ryan Center are the only ones that are usable. So we need to find the money for 7600-11,100 seats. And based on other stadium projects in the conference we'll have to spend about $2700 per seat. So we'll need to spend $20-30 million just to have a chance to be competitive.

If you don't want to spend at least $20 million on Meade Stadium or can't do it then we'll continue to get our teeth kicked in year after year, or we need to drop to a level more commensurate with our commitment, or we need to eliminate football and use the athletics resources it currently takes up more efficiently.

[rodfromcranston]

What a mess, with no solutions, other than to throw a
huge unattainable amount of money at the problem.
Cure it or kill it.

[Hal Kopp]

FB has been a disappointment. Aren't all the programs except track and filed doing poorly? For a while now? There needs to be a complete review of the future of all struggling programs. Dump them and Put the $$ into a university run head shop.

[OBRAM]

Facilities has been a big problem and only getting bigger now. We had poor football facilities compared to UNH until recently, however, they had a weight training area which we just got after 15 years of planning. It has been poor management, starting at the top when football was always put in questions by the Administration, then no drinking at tail gate, to going to NEC, to not funding coaches and recruiting. I will always believe we can be as successful as Maine, UNH, Fordham and Stony Brook. I would like to be as successful as NDSU.
One only has to look at Bryant, there facilities are stadium is below Meade, they have a field turf practice facility, but how can they compete better than URI, it has to be management. We have some very successful alumni, worth in excess of $100 million. We need the same leadership that gave us the Ryan Center for football.

[rambone 78]

If the facilities aren't improved this program is doomed. Fleming or no Fleming.

I don't see URI spending upwards of the $20 million or so needed to upgrade Meade. There are many local HS facilities that are better.

Either find the money and spend it, or save it and kill it. There are a lot of other athletic programs at URI that could use an upgrade.

URI needs to be GOOD at what they do, even if it's limited in scope. It's obvious the school doesn't have the funding to support the current number of athletic programs it has.

Football accounts for at least a third of the entire sports budget. It's a gigantic waste imo.

[Rhody72]

The sky fell long ago. Each new coach comes in with the brashness of Jim Fleming. How much money have we wasted on football already - be sure to count the matching women' scholarships? Oh yea, I forgot, we don't count athletic scholarships as a cost at URI. Football props up women's sports for which there is no interest.

Hire Marcus Lemonis as AD.

[Hal Kopp]

Rhody72,finally some logic! Womens sports need to go in line with Football. Just keep the legal requirements. Track and field can stay. Mens Basketball is doing nothing (seems like forever) along with all the other sports. Go with Track and field and skeleton groups to stay legal.
Think of the $$ savings.

[rambone 78]

Au contraire, HK, men's BB is finally on the verge of becoming a big revenue producer for the school.

The ONLY one, granted, but let's see where that takes us first.

[OBRAM]

Amazing what you read here, seems like the old RI mentality. You have a state university with almost 20,000 students with a $700 million budget, we should have good facilities for all sports. Even RI College has baseball stands, outside track, nice pools and they did not have to have private donations to create the RIC tennis courts. URI needs all sports to be good to gain attention, get out of state students. I say, bring back that 'Ram Band' when it used to have 150 member, and they played at NYJet and Patriot football games. How far we have fallen in 40 years.

[RhowdyRam02]

One only has to look at Bryant, there facilities are stadium is below Meade, they have a field turf practice facility, but how can they compete better than URI, it has to be management.

I'm not sure if I'm misunderstanding you or if you've never been to Bryant, but their stadium is nicer than ours, and they've never had their facility condemned.

[OBRAM]

bryant has 2,500 seats on a new East structure that is nice, but the west is high school bleachers. Any way you look at it, their facilities are not stellar. But they have a nice practice area and no doubt will upgrade the West side.

[theblueram]

Our football team sucks.

[Rhody72]

HK, Men's BB is URI's only sport that can pay for itself. Richard Gelles use to say that every weak program in his college has a strong external constituency. He couldn't dump Journalism even though he had no tenured faculty members. Football is the cinder block of URI athletics but it has a strong external constituency - most are over 70.

[Jay McKay]

Of course improving Meade would be great - especially redoing the grandstand side and getting the home team and fans back in the warm sun during the cold November games! But our facilities are not the biggest issue and quite frankly the overall URI campus and location (Narragansett, Newport, down the line) make it, in my and opinion, a pretty attractive sell compared to UNH and Maine - the football programs that we need to emulate. What is the biggest difference between us an them? Primarily, football is important to these schools and just perhaps it relates to their not having a prominent(or dream of prominence) basketball program! Hockey is very important to them and gives them great recognition in that arena but I doubt that it makes much money. Is there a correlation here? When I found this forum I was struck by how many contributors have chosen former Ram basketball greats as their monikers and I think that is telling in these football conversations.

I agree with Fleming that URI can be successful in football but to get there it has to be important to the entire university. Dooley says it is important and bringing tailgating back was an important first move. Thor has done a good job with the new coaching staff , but I am sure his main focus is basketball, at least that what considering the NEC suggests to me. If we are going to play football at URI we can only be successful if it is important to us. I can't wait for Saturdays game - it is an important one!

[Jay McKay]

I think the comments about the facilities being at the root of our being unable to compete miss the mark. In comparison to UNH and Maine, institutions we are most similar to, we have a lot to sell...campus and location. But football is more important to them while it has long been an afterthought at URI. Perhaps the reason is our basketball aspirations while their other main focus has been hockey. Is there a correlation here? Fleming has stated quite clearly that there is no reason why URI cannot obtain the consistent level of success that these 2 schools have - but it has to be important to us as it is to them? Dooley was smart enough to bring back tailgating and seems to understand that football Saturdays are a great connection to alumni - current and future. I think Thor is on board but let's face it URI's athletic focus has always been basketball. Can we do both?

[neil]

As a season ticket holder, I was surprised that I didn't know many of the names that have played this year. Fleming might be pulling a "kraft" and playing the younger players and let them get the experience. Will be there tomorrow hoping around three thirty that the team crosses the field and sings the fight song with the band.