So today is the day for football. I originally planned to do one sport a day, but there’s a lot of ground to cover on this one (this will definitely be the longest one I do, by a lot), it is not for the faint of heart to read, and it’s daunting to write. A couple of times I went to write this over the weekend and was just like, nah, I don’t feel like it. So I guess it’s time to get down to it without further ado.
In the 13 seasons Thorr Bjorn has been the AD, the football team has a record of 21-84 in conference for a winning percentage of exactly 20%. We have had no winning records in conference in those 13 years, and only two seasons when we avoided losing records, with matching 4-4 conference records in 2010 and 2018. We’ve had 3 seasons in his tenure where we didn’t win a single conference game, going 0-8 in 2009, 2012, and 2019. In the 13 seasons prior to him taking over as AD, the team went 33-76 (.303) in conference, with two winning records and no winless conference seasons. The three longest losing streaks in program history, two matching 15 game streaks and a 12 game losing streak, each occurred in his tenure. One 15 game streak went from 11/12/2011 to 9/7/2013 and the other one went from 10/26/13 to 11/15/14. We went a combined 3-33 in that time from 11/12/2011 to 11/15/14. The 12 game losing streak was between 9/19/09 and 9/11/10. On 10/29/16 we made national sports news when we lost 84-7 at James Madison, and the score wasn’t that close, as a James Madison player purposely took a knee toward the end of the game instead of scoring another touchdown. He has hired 3 coaches in his tenure. Darren Rizzi went 2-7 (.222) in conference his one season in Kingston. Joe Trainer went 8-32 (25%) in conference in his 5 seasons in Kingston. After the 2010 season we announced that we’d drop down to the NEC conference. They’re also in FCS like us, and the conference gets an auto bid for the playoffs, but they offer less scholarships to players and the competition isn’t as fierce. Right before the 2012 season we reversed course on that decision. Whether you are glad we ended up staying in the CAA or wish we had dropped down to the NEC, either way you were going to be unhappy with what transpired.
Coach Jim Fleming will start his seventh season as head coach on Saturday, February 27th when the Rams travel up to Bryant. There is no contract information for him available. His original contract was due to run out in 2017 unless we picked up an option for the 2018 season. Obviously not only did we pick up his option season, but at some point we signed him to an extension. In his previous 6 seasons as head coach he has a 9-38 (.191) conference record. His teams have gone 1-7, 1-7, 1-7, 2-5, 4-4, and 0-8 in conference.
Last season was particularly puzzling. How does a FCS team go 0-8 in conference and still land three players on NFL rosters? Isaiah Coulter started the year on injured reserve for the Houston Texans, was active for a couple of games down the stretch but had no catches. Kyle Murphy spent the last 7 weeks on the Giants roster but was inactive for every game. Aaron Parker spent the year on the Cowboys practice squad. I can’t think of another team in URI history that had three future NFL players on it as seniors, and yet we went winless in conference.
Justin Rohrwasser spent the year on the Patriots practice squad after playing here in 2015 and 2016. Tyler Catalina and Dave Steinmetz both have had cups of coffee after being recruited by Joe Trainer and playing under Jim Fleming. Again, we are getting more high end talent than I can remember, yet it’s not translating to wins.
So how does this happen? I mean Thorr knows what he’s doing. He was interim AD at UMass when Don Brown was hired, and they went 18-6 in our conference and went to the FCS championship game and the quarterfinals in the three years the two of them teamed up. He also played a key role for football in the athletic department outside of the Don Brown era when they were successful. We’ve had talent good enough to make the NFL. I’m just not exactly sure where the disconnect is.
To make this even worse, our two closest competitors have been successful during this time. Since 2007 New Hampshire has made the playoffs 11 times, making the final four two times and the final eight four other times. In that time Maine has made the playoffs four times, made the final four once, and the final eight one other time. I’ve been to Maine’s stadium. It’s better than ours, but it’s not some Taj Mahal either. The times I’ve been to Orono I found it to be a nice little town, but I’ve never been there in the winter when the weather would make the men of the Night’s Watch from Game of Thrones say “fuck this shit!” New Hampshire had very comparable facilities to ours when they started their success under Sean McDonnell, but they’ve since renovated their stadium and turned it into a model of what we should be looking to do. So how have these two programs been so much more successful than ours when they didn’t seem to be recruiting to a significantly better situation than ours?
We do need to significantly improve our facilities if we insist on staying in the CAA and having any semblance of a competitive program. Playing in the CAA is an arms race, and we have not been keeping up. The average stadium in the conference seats 12,710, we max out around 8900, but that includes approximately 2300 standing room only. We did complete a $4.1 million project in the summer of 2019 that added lights and field turf, but honestly, your average high school in RI has lights and field turf now, and we’re not exactly a high school football hot bed. It’s a very nice project, but it doesn’t move the needle at the NEC level, never mind the CAA level. To move the needle for facilities at the CAA level, you’re looking at another $20-25 million to redo at the very least the east stands. I’m sure most of you remember the great white buffalo, the architectural drawing of what a renovated Meade stadium would look like. That drawing came out in late 2001, and since then only the Ryan Center and the seats next to it have been produced. It’s hard to imagine our program not being successful if that was built here. Can it ever be done here though remains the question nearly 20 years later.
I suppose by now it is time to land this post. The next president, along with the AD and donors, have some very big decisions to make in regards to football. The decisions regarding basketball are relatively easy compared to football. For basketball it’s invest as much as you can, smartly, in our flagship program. For football, there are several questions. In order, is it sustainable to lose approximately $500,000 a year as we currently do for the return we’re getting? Is it time to finally invest the necessary funds to attempt to really compete in the CAA, knowing that you will lose more than $500,000 a year but maybe you restore pride in our second biggest program? Will the donors provide the necessary funds to do this during a budget crisis? Is it time to give the NEC another look, keeping our football program at the FCS level but competing with schools with approximately the same commitment to football that we’ve shown? Is it time to finally swing the axe that’s been rumored to be hanging over the program’s head off and on since at least the early 90’s? There are no easy answers to these questions, if there were, we would have answered them by now. As of now, football remains the enigma that URI can’t crack.
