GM 8 Football vs Elon 1pm Saturday Oct 26 Family Day FloFootball.com

[ramster]

Jim-right on.
Others said same after game.
Nobody covered URI's receivers like ELON did. Still winnable game. I don't see the talent gap.
Vito did not have good game,but not all his fault.When Rams went up 13-10 in 3rd-I said URI can win this game.
Guy next to me agreed. We started laughing when slow 2nd string Elon QB walked in from 50. That's that.
There is obviously a hangover effect,too late for "next game" .IMO
They really miss DJ Stewart. Too many Juco's on Rhody for a # of reasons.

What do you mean by Vito’s bad day was not entirely his fault?

[rambone 78]

Yeah it was his fault...he was missing passes by a lot....and his receivers didn't seem like they were on the same page at times.

He was all over the place.

The thing that was surprising though was the defense....played well 1st half, completely disappeared 2nd half.

Opposing coaches see what we're doing and adjust to it....what does Fleming and staff do? Not a clue.

[Bos8]

Jim-right on.
Others said same after game.
Nobody covered URI's receivers like ELON did. Still winnable game. I don't see the talent gap.
Vito did not have good game,but not all his fault.When Rams went up 13-10 in 3rd-I said URI can win this game.
Guy next to me agreed. We started laughing when slow 2nd string Elon QB walked in from 50. That's that.
There is obviously a hangover effect,too late for "next game" .IMO
They really miss DJ Stewart. Too many Juco's on Rhody for a # of reasons.

What do you mean by Pito’s bad day was not entirely his fault?

I think he means it would have been worse if his receivers didn't bail him out by making some spectacular plays??

[rambone 78]

Seems like a lot of games this year, the talent gap between URI and opponents has been small if any....so what does that say about the W-L record?

[ramster]

rambone, you are showing frustration like many of us, but please don't overreact and suggest a drop down which is something we thought of before and thankfully abandoned. Why would you want to be in a league with Bryant and Robert Morris, Merrimack, etc.??? When Bryant built their football stadium, I remember how ProJo raved about it, their program with pointed barbs at URI. But where is Bryant now. Their games draw flies whereas URI have had two crowds close to 9000 fans which is impressive given the current terrible team and a 20 year heritage of little success. A new stadium would help punctuate a transformation, but the "loser" image is the more difficult obstacle in achieving transformation. It's all about attracting recruiting and how do you do that if you are continually threatened with "drop down" comments.

To ramster, we need a new scoreboard and Thorr knows that. The down marker control which was working properly prior to game, suddenly fizzled and maintenance was not able to fix it quickly. So our bad luck on the field was replicated elsewhere. I agree the public announcer was not smart enough to adapt to the situation as he should have provided the down info on every play thereafter.

Obadiah,
Agree with you about NOT dropping down. Worst decision Thorr has made was to drop down to NEC, 2nd best decision Thorr has made was to reverse that decision and rejoin the CAA. Best decision Thorr has made was hiring Dan Hurley
Attendance to date:


The scoreboard is old, I get that. I was at the Brown game. They have a very old stadium, not maintained in the cleanest, best shape either imho, but they have a nice scoreboard. Good size and they show instant replays on the scoreboard video screen. They show plays that Refs are reviewing, they replay great catches,etc. very nice
I’m not complaining about that. I know we got great new lights and a wonderful new turf field - thank you to the donors and to Thorr and President Dooley and anyone else I might be leaving out on the Turf and Lights. Bravo plus!!

But the malfunctioning of the scoreboard..........
Did not work the entire game
No mention of it at all from the press box. No apology, no “we sorry, we are aware of the problem and we are working on it, we appreciate your patience”.
No having the PA announcer enhance his description of the game and include ball on the 33, 3rd down, 4 yards to go
I get Thorr and Vinny Turco continually walking around the grounds high diving, shaking hands, talking, but when the scoreboard (and there is no back up scoreboard) is not showing down, yards to go or ball on, the. That is a major issue for fans. At least put a ladder up at the scoreboard and make it look like you are doing something to fix it. There was nothing. From the beginning to the end of the game I did not see a single person working on the sign and never heard a word or explanation about the issue. Still have seen or heard anything in any lost game information. To me this falls under Vinny Turco. Maybe I’m wrong. But at least come out and say what the status is for the Merrimack game. I’m not buying the scoreboard is old and needs to be replaced. If it can’t be fixed then buy a new one, but this should be and should HAVE been a Fixable issue. If not at least tell us so.

Great to see crowds like this at URI Football Games:

8511 Delaware
6104 Stony Brook
8911 Elon plus thousands who stayed at their respective tailgate area and did not enter the stadium but enjoyed the football induced environment anyway
Merrimack TBD
James Madison TBD

[Brian Forster]

Vito has had one bad game.
He's not responsible for 6 losses.

[ramster]

A lot of good points about the future of the program, so I won’t repeat them
Some of my observations about the game and this season have already been noted. I too was wondering why a move wasn’t made to Perrantes when the game started to get away from Rhody. I could only surmise that after watching him in practice during the season, they don’t think he’s ready yet. That would be an interesting take, though, after hearing he was neck and neck with Vito to be the starter in game one.
Vito had a rough game yesterday. His big problem from last year of locking in early on his target reared it’s ugly head agsin. I could see two of the interceptions coming as he released the ball. That said, I thought Elon’s secondary was exceptional. The windows were tight all game. Also, the O line had big trouble with number 98.
I’ll repeat an observation I made after the Stonybrook game. Rhody needs to upgrade its talent on both lines. Opposing defensive lines are much more athletic and Rhody’s D line very rarely gets pressure, which forces the backs to have to cover longer, which is obviously a problem. I’ve never played organized football and certainly have never coached it, but I feel every Rhody defensive scheme has to include a safety to handle the deep middle. Number 80 could have had an even bigger day if Elon focused on the deep middle more.
I realize upgrading talent is difficult when recruits see you win 2 or 3 games each year, plus what others here have already mentioned about lack of resources and funds and the strength of the CAA.

#98 is senior Defensive End Marcus Willoughby. Willoughby was named STATS FCS National Defensive Player of the week on September 9. He is a very good player. I thought the URI Offensive line did a solid job of giving Priore time to throw 47 passes. The OL gave up zero sacks despite Elon knowing for much of the game that URI was in a throwing situation.

[JimSidd]

How many hurries, though? I feel Vito had to throw before he was ready on more than a few occasions. Willoughby was harassing him in a lot of cases and I think I saw three jersey grabs that could have been called holding. It looked like the official was looking right at the play one time and ignored it. I remember saying aloud “that’s a hold” before the ball was thrown. I realize there is more holding than the officials call on a regular basis and can usually apply to both teams at some level.
I feel Rhody’s run defense overall was somewhat better than it has been. There were just those few big plays, but I didn’t see the consistent 5-6 yard gains that I saw in the Stonybrook game.

[ramster]

Did you think the 3 interceptions caught by the same Elon player were partially caused by the URI Offensive Line or were the 3 interceptions the responsibility of Priore?
Did you think the two fumbled hand offs by Priore were partially the fault of the URI offensive line? Or the fault of the running back?

[ramster]

A lot of good points about the future of the program, so I won’t repeat them
Some of my observations about the game and this season have already been noted. I too was wondering why a move wasn’t made to Perrantes when the game started to get away from Rhody. I could only surmise that after watching him in practice during the season, they don’t think he’s ready yet. That would be an interesting take, though, after hearing he was neck and neck with Vito to be the starter in game one.
Vito had a rough game yesterday. His big problem from last year of locking in early on his target reared it’s ugly head agsin. I could see two of the interceptions coming as he released the ball. That said, I thought Elon’s secondary was exceptional. The windows were tight all game. Also, the O line had big trouble with number 98.
I’ll repeat an observation I made after the Stonybrook game. Rhody needs to upgrade its talent on both lines. Opposing defensive lines are much more athletic and Rhody’s D line very rarely gets pressure, which forces the backs to have to cover longer, which is obviously a problem. I’ve never played organized football and certainly have never coached it, but I feel every Rhody defensive scheme has to include a safety to handle the deep middle. Number 80 could have had an even bigger day if Elon focused on the deep middle more.
I realize upgrading talent is difficult when recruits see you win 2 or 3 games each year, plus what others here have already mentioned about lack of resources and funds and the strength of the CAA.

Branyan Javier-Castillo had another solid game for URI. He had the only QB sack of the game for either team. He made a tremendous open field tackle on a runner who would have gained another 15-20 yards had he not made the shoestring tackle. He made a game high 7 solo tackles plus 4 assisted tackles. Javier-Castillo leads the CAA in assisted tackles on the season and is second in Solo Tackles.
In the next two home games and on FloFootball for the away games, I’d ask you to watch #16 in action. I think he is among the best Linebackers that we have had here at URI. I was disappointed that he was not on the preseason All CAA Team, but that comes from him having transferred in from JC last year.


As for Priore,
Elon chose to kick to us to start the game. They took the wind. 1st play of the game Priore mishandled the snap/handoff to RB. Very next play Elon gets a TD. Bad play. We outplayed Elon in the 1sr half but the score did not indicate it.
Priore had another mishandle of a handoff. Perfect weather, sunny day, dry ball yet two fumbles lost by Priore.
Priore threw 3 interceptions all to the Same guy!! Amazing that 1 DB gets 3 INT’s in the same game.
Offensive line prevented QB sacks limiting Elon to zero.
Priore’s best passes were the short slants over the middle
One guy near me said The receivers always have to come back for the ball, that Priore often under-throws the long balls. It made me think about how often Parker and Coulter make catches on balls coming back towards Priore.
Parker and Coulter are tremendous. They have made a lot of passes from Priore receptions whereas average Receivers would not catch many of Priore’s passes.
I was surprised that Fleming and Fleming JR did not go to Perrantes. No reason not to go with him.
I would go with Perrantes against Merrimack this Saturday, and depending on how he does make the decision for the next game starting QB.


Fleming JR
No impressed with his play calling
Too many times we throw a pass short of the 1st down line on 3rd down. Don’t know why we don’t call a pass play beyond the 1st down marker.
Should not be mishandling snaps from center and handoffs to running backs to the degree we did Saturday this far into the season
Off-sides calls killed us on the offensive line. Why so late in the season are we committing these silly penalties? Another penalty was for an illegal formation. Plus holding calls. Aaaarrrggghhh.
Not impressed with Fleming JR’s style of leadership, communications or energy level.
I think Rambone has pointed this out numerous times and I am leaning towards his opinion on Fleming JR
The Time-out with 2 seconds left in the 1st half was terrible. It did not look to me like the strategy was to get down to 2 seconds. It looked to me like total confusion, the left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing, lack of leadership, lack of ownership, lack of decision making of any kind. This is on the Offensive Coordinator and of course ultimately on the HC.

[Iggy1979]

I would go with Perrantes for the remainder of the year. Nothing to gain by sticking with Vito.

[RhowdyRam02]

Opponents’ coaches make adjustments at half and crush Rhody in the 3rd quarter. Elon scores 24 points in the quarter.

To this point, in the six games we've played at the FCS level, we've been outscored 67-31 in the third quarter. We're 1-4-1 in the third, with our only winning third quarter coming against Brown

[RhowdyRam02]

perrantes should have been given a shot already...why not sprinkle him in to change things up, like basically 3-4 other teams have done this year to us. That requires creativity and imagination which our staff seems to lack. Feel bad for the players, they shouldn't be 1-7.

That would have been a horrible idea considering how red shirt seasons work. That said, now that we're 1-7 and only have four games left, he can play all of the remaining games and still have this year count as a red shirt season

[RhowdyRam02]

The problem here is that Thorr does not know what he is doing when it comes to college football. Fleming is an inept coach and has demonstrated that each year. Thorr resigned him after going 13-43! He does not know how to evaluate football coaches. But frankly not enough people care.

There is zero evidence that Fleming has been extended beyond this year at this point. There were talks in the summer, there was chatter it was close, but no announcement was made, and an announcement would have been made if something was finalized

[RhowdyRam02]

Fleming was extended and thus this shit show is not his fault. He presented his qualifications - 13 wins and 43 losses over 5 years. Thor was dutifully impressed and now we all must suffer.

Could you please link to that information?

[rambone 78]

Since there still seems to be no proof one way or the other concerning an extension, I guess we'll find out soon after the season ends.

I'm hoping that this staff is shown the door...

Enough of the "but he's raised the talent level" bullshit.

Probable 2-10 record doesn't support that in the least. Even if so, he has to coach that talent up. Total failure in that regard.

If he can't win, he should be fired. Simple as that.

[ramster]

perrantes should have been given a shot already...why not sprinkle him in to change things up, like basically 3-4 other teams have done this year to us. That requires creativity and imagination which our staff seems to lack. Feel bad for the players, they shouldn't be 1-7.

That would have been a horrible idea considering how red shirt seasons work. That said, now that we're 1-7 and only have four games left, he can play all of the remaining games and still have this year count as a red shirt season

RR2,
Do you agree it makes sense now to insert Perrantes, and/of there QBs in place of Priore over these last 4 games?

[RhowdyRam02]

perrantes should have been given a shot already...why not sprinkle him in to change things up, like basically 3-4 other teams have done this year to us. That requires creativity and imagination which our staff seems to lack. Feel bad for the players, they shouldn't be 1-7.

That would have been a horrible idea considering how red shirt seasons work. That said, now that we're 1-7 and only have four games left, he can play all of the remaining games and still have this year count as a red shirt season

RR2,
Do you agree it makes sense now to insert Perrantes, and/of there QBs in place of Priore over these last 4 games?

Yes. If the coaches were telling the truth and Perrantes was a steal for us, is the future of the program and was neck and neck with Vito during the summer, then you don't waste a year of his career sprinkling him into games here and there during the season. It just doesn't help his development and you don't want to blow a year of his career for a few series in a bunch of different games. That said, now that we know the season is going nowhere and he's getting the red shirt whether he takes every snap the rest of the way or doesn't get a single snap I would say he should play as much as possible these last four games. Find out how he is preparing for a game and playing at this level. Find out if the assessment of his play previously was accurate. Do we really have something there? Get him experience so he can push Vito in the spring and summer for the QB1 spot next year.

[ramster]

That would have been a horrible idea considering how red shirt seasons work. That said, now that we're 1-7 and only have four games left, he can play all of the remaining games and still have this year count as a red shirt season

RR2,
Do you agree it makes sense now to insert Perrantes, and/of there QBs in place of Priore over these last 4 games?

Yes. If the coaches were telling the truth and Perrantes was a steal for us, is the future of the program and was neck and neck with Vito during the summer, then you don't waste a year of his career sprinkling him into games here and there during the season. It just doesn't help his development and you don't want to blow a year of his career for a few series in a bunch of different games. That said, now that we know the season is going nowhere and he's getting the red shirt whether he takes every snap the rest of the way or doesn't get a single snap I would say he should play as much as possible these last four games. Find out how he is preparing for a game and playing at this level. Find out if the assessment of his play previously was accurate. Do we really have something there? Get him experience so he can push Vito in the spring and summer for the QB1 spot next year.

Good points and rationale. In fairness to Perrantes it would also give him the opportunity to fail and possibly decide to transfer. Also the opportunity to succeed and even show why he should be considered for the QB Starting slot next season.

Several of us in the stands were wondering why Priore kept coming out late in the game with no other QB getting a chance. Even the last series of downs when the game was prohibitively out of reach. Even if the HC thinks 100% Priore is the man it makes to sense to leave him in until the last minute of a blowout whereby he could get hurt.

[rambone 78]

What have they got to lose....other than a few more games ha ha.

What I would like to know is what happened to the defense in the 2nd half.

I know they have no depth and they are undersized.

Whoever the coach is has to address that big time over the offseason.

[ramster]

What have they got to lose....other than a few more games ha ha.

What I would like to know is what happened to the defense in the 2nd half.

I know they have no depth and they are undersized.

Whoever the coach is has to address that big time over the offseason.

What happened to the defense in the 2nd half?
Quarter 3:
URI Drive 1: URI drove for TD
URI Drive 2: on 3rd and 5 Priore intercepted by Liggs
URI Drive 3: URI punted into end zone
Quarter 4:
URI Drive 4: on 4th down and 2 Priore throws to Antrum for 1 yard. Ball to Elon on URI 46 yard line
URI Drive 5: on 2nd and 3 Priore intercepted by Liggs on Elon 36 yard line
URI Drive 6: URI starting on 2 yard line 3 downs and out. Punt to URI 45
URI Drive 7: URI drive ended 2nd and 20 end of game

So after the 1st TD the offense did nothing. Priore threw 2 of his game total of 3 interceptions to Liggs.

URI Defense was on the field a lot in large part due to the ineptitude of the offense.

[rambone 78]

There is more of a talent shortage on defense than on offense.

Play calling and Priore was awful.

This and the Albany game were turnover fests.