Colonials Corner

Once again, no changes to the depth chart for Saturday’s game versus Central Connecticut State. It worked last week versus Wagner, but the Blue Devils are a more potent offense and a very talented team. The one benefit is that CCSU is like RMU – very talented, but very young and very inexperienced.

The usual suspects remain out – Argenta, Molnar, Setticase, McElhinny, and DeGrava. Ryan Nearhoof is also out with a knee injury. Chris Roberts, injured two weeks ago on the defensive line, looks about ready to go with a sore ankle. And Garrett Clawson kicked last week with a bad hamstring, but Matt Catanzarite took over on kickoffs. That may continue this week.

I’ll be at the game for the Times, so look here for a full report following the festivities.

And why does it matter?

Well, Colonials fans have a new team to root for. Former point guard Derek Coleman signed with the Manchester Millrats of the Premier Basketball League, marking his return home from Europe. Coleman spent last year with Upstairs-Weert in the Netherlands.

Manchester (New Hampshire for the geographically impaired) is essentially a homecoming for Coleman. He was part of Mark Schmidt’s Boston invasion along with Tony Lee and Cori Boston, and was Lee’s teammate prior to RMU at Charlestown High School.

Maybe if the trip to Poland doesn’t work out for Lee, Coleman can get his buddy into the PBL. The league, by the way, is new competition for the popular minor league ABA. Most of the teams are former teams that were in the ABA but left over philosophical differences.

Jeremy Chappell is the featured Colonial in the latest season preview article in the Tribune-Review.

The senior guard and new captain covers a variety of topics, including replacing Tony Lee and AJ Jackson. He also seems to be pretty enthused about a new defensive look for the Colonials. Mike Rice says his team is going to press quite a bit, and it sounds like they’re going to go on the attack offensively as well.

If nothing else, sounds like the Colonials are at least going to be an up-tempo, exciting team.

One other tidbit that I found interesting:

“Playing at Syracuse, even though we lost, was a good thing,” Chappell said. “We were able to get publicity, and the experience should help us. It should help the program a lot.

“We’re a team that is a threat, even though we’re from a small conference. Teams now respect us more.”

Towards the end of last year, Chappell was one of the guys Rice talked about as wanting to raise the awareness around Robert Morris basketball. I think it was the SFNY post-game show where Rice recounted a story from the locker room, where he asked the room what they wanted out of their time at RMU and that particular season. A championship (they had yet to play Wagner) and other similar answers were popular, but Chappell said something to the effect that he wanted people to know about Robert Morris.

Sounds like he’s beating the same drum this year. Couldn’t ask for more from a team captain. I get the feeling, watching him in the open practice and over the summer, that he’s going to bring it on the floor as well.

Michael Landers and Shadrae King are adding some extra hardware to their respective trophy cases.

Landers was named Northeast Conference Defensive Player of the Week while King was named Northeast Conference Rookie of the Week for their performances against Wagner.

Landers had two fumble recovers, one for a touchdown and the other a near miss, while King scored two touchdowns on passes from Erik Cwalinski.

The junior safety might have picked up the most yards of any individual Colonial with his 59 yard touchdown and 50 yard return. Sounded like he ran out of gas on the last run. He’s been a turnover machine since getting full playing time last year, as he leads the Colonials with four interceptions.

King’s fellow freshman, James O’Quinn, earned the ROTW honor earlier in the year, and the two are going to be dangerous targets for the next three years in the RMU receiving corps. We’ve been excited about King since seeing him in training camp, and this is likely just the first of many awards to come. He’s still learning the tight end position – he was a receiver in the run-orineted McKeesport offense – but his athleticism is outstanding.

Good week for Bobby Mo football. You can tell we’re in Western PA, too. They lose last week, and we have a host of comments. They win, and it’s like pulling teeth. Just like the Steelers. Heh.

Maybe we should talk about changes every week here at Colonials Corner. Talk about a response.

Actually, the Colonials defense became suddenly opportunistic and they helped put a whipping on the Wagner Seahawks. Six turnovers forced by Robert Morris, two interceptions and four fumbles. 14 points scored by the defense, two additional touchdowns set-up by turnovers.

All of this done in a driving, swirling downpour. Ugly weather, ugly game for Wagner. We’re just going to go chronologically here…

Rolf Bathold kicks it off with a 64-yard interception return with about 5 minutes left in the 1st quarter. Wagner was able to get a field goal in the second, but the Colonials forced two Wagner fumbles. Michael Landers popped one loose and Adam Lawrence recovered. Shannon Smoot did one all by himself.

Shadrae King caught the first of his two touchdowns from 19 yards out on a nice individual effort, and then just two minutes later caught his second touchdown from 7 yards out.

21-3 was the score at the half.

Landers struck again early in the third. Troy Cree forced another fumble, Landers picked it up and zigged and zagged his way for a 59 yard touchdown to make it 28-3. Then, just four plays later, Landers picked up another fumble forced by Rolf Bathold and returned it 50 yards before running out of gas at the Wagner 14. Myles Russ dove into the endzone three plays later to make it 35-3.

In the beginning of the 4th quarter, Joe Walton started subbing in reserves in various positions round the field, including on defense. That gave freshman safety David Pittman a chance for his first career interception, and he nearly returned it to the house. Wagner’s offense might want to work on tackling on turnovers or something this week. Pittman returned the pick 56 yards to the Wagner 14, but the Colonials didn’t punch it in and turned it over on downs.

Reserves played most of the final ten minutes of the game for the Colonials.

With so many turnovers and such a short field, RMU had under 200 yards of offense and just 23 minutes of possession, but they were efficient. Ten pass breakups for the defense, as well, to go with their 6 turnovers.

Erik Cwalinski finished 11-22 for 126 yards and 2 TDs, with no mistakes. Myles Russ carried 13 times for 39 yards. Sherrod Evers returned to catch 3 balls for 72 yards, King finished with 3 catches for 32 yards and 2 Tds.

No major injuries in the rain.

Rolf Bathold and Shadrae King have the Colonials up at the half on Staten Island.

Bathold returned an early interception 65 yards for a touchdown, the 2nd interception by Bathold on the year and the 7th overall by the team. The Colonials have also forced two fumbles, one forced by Michael Landers and recovered by Adam Lawrence and the other a solo effort by Shannon Smoot.

King, meanwhile, has been a force inside the twenty with 3 overall catches for 32 yrds and two touchdowns. His first was apparently a spectacular effort where he sprinted past Wagner’s defensive back – just plain beat him – to a spot between the pylons where he made a jumping, twisting catch and landed inbounds on a nice throw from Cwalinski.

Couple other notes:

Matt Catanzarite, a sophomore, is handling kickoffs for the Colonials today. Garrett Clawson is still handling anything involving points, but Catanzarite is being used as a specialist.

More importantly, Sherrod Evers has returned to the lineup AND has made an impact. He has 3 catches for 72 yards.

Despite our active discussion here at Colonials Corner, there are no planned changes outside of replacing the injured Joe Setticase for the Robert Morris football team.

Setticase is out and will continue to be replaced by Ian Margerum. The senior moved from guard to tackle follow Setticase’s injury last week versus Bryant. Freshman Logan Miles will earn his first start at left guard after filling in for Margerum last week.

Chris Setticase will back up Margerum at LT with freshman Brad Rodgers serving as Miles’ backup.

Sherrod Evers is still doubtful. I’m speculating here, but it seems his ankle injury has the characteristics of the dreaded high ankle sprain. Never sure when it’s healed, unlike a broken bone, and it can last a long time. Pittsburgh fans should be familiar with the details, considering the Pittsburgh Penguins lost Sidney Crosby and Marc-Andre Fleury to the same injury for long stretches last year.

Also, LB Jacob Dagrava may not play with an eye injury and DL Chris Roberts – who left last week’s game – may not play either.

A couple of Bryant fans on various message boards mentioned that the Colonials definitely looked sluggish last week and raised questions about the long bus trip. It’s another one here as they head to Wagner. We’ll see how RMU handles it.

The season hasn’t even started yet, and already we might have a shot fired across the bow of the Robert Morris Colonials from the Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers.

In a season preview article in the Frederick News-Post, Coach Milan Brown and his players talk about being the favored team in the Northeast Conference and their attempt to do something that hasn’t been done in the NEC since Rider in 1993-1994: Win back-to-back titles.

But in it, junior guard Jeremy Goode may have made a remark that could end up on a bulletin board in the Sewall Center:

“No one expected us do anything (last year) and now everybody’s saying we are the premier team,” junior guard and leading scorer Jeremy Goode said. “But it doesn’t mean anything on paper. Robert Morris started out at the top last year, coasted through the whole season, and then let it go at the end.”

Subtle, but effective. Not sure I’d want to pile on the memories of the end of last season with this group though.

Uh, needless to say, the Mount/RMU rivalry was already going to be heated this year. Any slight – perceived or real – is just going to fuel the fire.

Barring some extremely fortunate losses, upsets, and general ineptitude, it seems pretty clear that Robert Morris will not be able to snag their 6th NEC championship this year. While today’s loss is only a non-conference loss, it pushes the overall record to 2-5 and seems to indicate that last week’s amazing win versus Duquesne is the outlier in a season full of disappointments.

Coupled with the fact that Albany and Monmouth remain undefeated in conference play, while Sacred Heart (!) and Central Connecticut State each have two wins and impressive overall records, and it would seemingly take a miracle for Robert Morris to rebound.

The coaches acknowledged prior to this year that this would likely be a “rebuilding” year. Yes, they thought they could contend, but they also admitted to having youth and inexperience, and that they would only go as far as the young players would take them.

So, what now? Do you embrace the youth movement and make a few changes? Do you keep things the same and hope that continued teaching and impact of seniors like Erik Cwalinski will help the younger guys? Do you go half-and-half, perhaps rotating at QB like some teams do in college, or substituting more along the lines or wherever else there might be some youngsters ready to take over for next year?

I want to hear from you. What would you do? Some positions and players to facilitate an argument:

QB – Erik Cwalinski is a senior. Camdin Crouse appears ready and is a junior. Desmond Brentley is also a junior, while Aaron Smetanka is a sophomore.

RB/FB – Pretty young. Russ and Link are both sophomores.

WR – Still pretty young, but seniors Chris Kozak and the injured Sherrod Evers still get snaps. Rotate more young guys in, like sophomore Michael Blanchard, freshman Paul Evans, and others?

TE – Regis Flowers has been a rock, including today. He’s a senior. Do you do more with freshman Shadrae King? What about little used freshmen Cody Godding and Erron Farrow?

OL – Joe Setticase and Ian Margerum are seniors. Would you change anything? Potential underclassmen that have been active – Logan Miles (freshman), Brad Rodgers (freshman), Chris Setticase (sophomoer)

DL – Mike Burkett and Shannon Smoot get lots of playing time and are seniors. Plenty of young guys available, but not many have been active at all this year.

LB – All the linebackers come back next year.

DB – All of the defensive backs are back next year.

Have at it.

So much for using the Duquesne game as a building block. The Colonials apparently left their offense in Moon Township.

Bryant’s transition to a D-I, Northeast Conference opponent has gone pretty well, as the Bulldogs are 4-3 behind a tough run defense. Without the running game working like it did last week, the Colonials were doomed offensively. Turnovers didn’t help either.

Myles Russ was held to 37 yards on 16 carries, but Erik Cwalinski was sacked EIGHT times. RMU lost one of their three fumbles, and Cwalinski threw an interception as well. He was only able to complete 11 of 25 passes for 161 yards. He did score on an 11 yard touchdown run late in the 4th quarter.

Bryant held the ball for 40 minutes, doubling RMU’s time of possession of 20.

Considering how much they were on the field, the RMU defense played fantastic. If the offense had put anything together, perhaps the D’s performance would have turned out better. Two of Bryant’s scoring drives were courtesy of fantastic field position left to them by the RMU offense.

The RMU D did have a small moment of glory. After Nick Schirtzinger bobbled the snap on a punt, he fell on it at his own 1 yard line. The RMU D – actually, mostly just Alex DiMichele – stopped the Bulldogs on three consecutive runs and forced an errant 4th down pass to prevent the Bulldogs from scoring.

The Colonials were still in it at that point, but after the Colonials sputtered offensively again – they didn’t gain a yard – Bryant eventually made it 20-0. Cwalinski scored later to pull it closer, but it wasn’t nearly enough.