Colonials Corner

Hank Fraley is no longer a Cleveland Brown.

The Browns released the veteran offensive lineman and Robert Morris graduate Wednesday, leaving them without a backup center and leaving Fraley in search of a new employer.

”You never know where you’re going to be the next year. The team normally turns around 20, 25 percent,” Fraley told the Akron-Beacon Journal back on January 4th.

”I hope I’m not hanging it up yet. I feel good, my body has held up great. I definitely want to be back here next year as a Brown. If it doesn’t work out, hopefully there’s 31 other teams watching that film [who] know what I can bring to the table. I’m not ready to give up or get into coaching.”

Fraley lost his starting center job to rookie Alex Mack last year, and after starting a couple games at guard, ended up spending most of his time as a third tight end in running formations for the beleaguered Browns offense. Fraley joined the Browns four years ago after six seasons in Philadelphia.

Robert Morris announced their 2010 football recruiting class this afternoon, and a quick glance at the 22 newcomers to Moon Township provides two immediate reactions: The idea of recruiting for depth is not being taken lightly; and what in the world are they feeding these kids in high school?

You can look over the entire recruiting class here, but we’ve pulled out some of the juicy tidbits off a few players.

• The two transfer wide receivers (Jordan Batts from Northeastern, Brad Hilovsky from Hofstra) will play right away. Expect Batts to start alongside T.J. Green and Hilovsky to team with Anthony Coleman in the second pairing. Batts will be here for 3 years, Hilovsky for 2.

• The offensive line likely will stay together for the entire year, as all five starters return, but I cannot wait to see freshman Bryant Ausperk in pads. At 6′8, 310, he’s instantly the biggest player on the team. Give him a year to learn left tackle, and if he’s any good, he could keep Jeff Sinclair’s backside clean until he graduates.

• Size at receiver will help too. You either have to be extremely fast (Tyjuan Massey, Mario Hines) or have some size (Sherrod Evers) to be good at this level, and Bart Lindsey certainly has the height. The 6′4, 180 Georgian might get some looks early because of his size. That, and some very open competition behind the veterans, should provide for an interesting camp at wide receiver.

Read the rest of this entry →

Mixed in the frenzy of top high school athletes signing with top level schools are all the “projects”, “overlooked” stars on small teams, and just generally “under-sized, under-skilled” athletes that slip through the cracks.

They’re the ones that end up at schools like Robert Morris, even if those tags are only mistakenly applied (see Myles Russ).

They’re the ones we’re worried about. However, since the focus is usually on the stars and the big money schools, information about signings for the small schools won’t come until later.

Update: Day one is over and the first signings have made their way across our desk. After hunting, prowling, and scouring for information, I have seven names to offer up from Day One. Those names are after the jump, with more to come in the coming days.

Update #2: Added three more recruits to the list.

Read the rest of this entry →

Perhaps the question of the week popped up courtesy of a friend. He posted an image on Facebook showing, quite clearly, a Robert Morris University football helmet in a promotional spot for an upcoming episode of Fox’s television show “House, M.D.”.

As an avid watcher of the show, I went back and took a closer look at the promo. It’s clearly a Robert Morris helmet, and it appears twice. Once very clearly in the first second of the clip where a runner gets tackled, and then again a few seconds later in a quick glimpse of the quarterback.

This isn’t the first time that the show has referenced Pittsburgh sports this season. First there was the Pittsburgh Penguins paraphernalia decorating the wall of a teenage patient in an episode titled “Instant Karma” in October, followed by – finally – the long awaited and inevitable Omar Epps-Mike Tomlin comparison in a November episode.

The RMU helmet episode airs Monday, January 28 at 8pm EST. I’ll record it like usual and see if any additional connections come up.

You can watch the YouTube clip below. Quickly hit pause at the 1 second mark to confirm the appearance.

With the loss of Sherrod Evers and the overall questions surrounding its receiving corps, the Robert Morris football team is searching for a top flight receiver or two to add to its young offense. The demise of the Northeastern University football program could provide an answer.

Colonials Corner has learned that Robert Morris is courting rising sophomore wide receiver Jordan Batts. A source said the 5′11, 170 pound Florida native visited RMU last weekend. Batts spent last year at Northeastern, where he led the team with 49 receptions and 432 receiving yards. He was also named a Northeastern Co-Rookie of the Year. For comparison, Sherrod Evers had 47 catches for 668 yards for RMU last year.

The Huskies went 3-8 last year and earlier this month the University decided to end the program. That left Batts and the rest of the football players without a team. Since the football program is ending, Batts and any other transfer will not have to sit out the standard transfer year and he would be eligible to play immediately.

The source went on to explain that while Batts is from Florida – which is a standard RMU recruiting area – he reportedly does have some Pittsburgh ties, which could possibly work in RMU’s favor. After some digging, Colonials Corner learned that Batts told the Huntington News (the Northeastern University student newspaper) that he grew up in Pittsburgh before moving to Florida as a child, and that when he was originally searching for colleges, he wanted to move back to the Northeast.

The source also said that Batts has been compared athletically to former Robert Morris receiver Tyjuan Massey.

More as this develops.

With Evers gone, who will be the big play receiver for the Colonials in 2010?

It was the tale of two seasons for the Robert Morris football team. There was the unexpected collapse and six game losing streak to open the season, and then the remarkable turnaround with wins over the cream of the crop in the NEC to finish with a five game winning streak.

Despite the turnaround, a key question remains. How good is this team? For all his hiccups and perceived attitude issues, Jeff Sinclair had his best performances in the final few games of the season. The defense overcame a rash of injuries to become increasingly difficult to score against. And Garrett Clawson has become a fairly clutch kicker, always a nice luxury on a winning team.

But is the offense really on the way up? The offensive line still had problems maintaining any sort of consistency, even in the winning streak. And Sinclair will lose his top receiver, Sherrod Evers, to graduation. No one behind Evers really stepped up as a consistent threat outside of tight end Shadrae King.

Robert Morris will return 19 starters next year and plenty of depth. Will it be enough to finally return to the top of the NEC? We shall see. What follows is a breakdown of the highs and lows of the season and the strengths and weaknesses of the team heading into the offseason.

Read the rest of this entry →

This is it. The final game of the season. For several seniors, this is the final game they will ever play on a football field. We’ll get to them in a minute.

Kickoff is at noon and the game can be found at the usual stations.

Robert Morris audio – WPIT 730 AM (click listen live box on top of page) or rmucolonials.com

Live video/stats - rmucolonials.com

Our preview this week in the Times covers three defensive standouts that are playing their final game – Mark Syzmanski, Ian Milanak, and Adam Lawrence. We covered Sherrod Evers and Camdin Crouse last week.

Sixteen seniors are on the roster, but not all of them have exhausted their eligibility. Here’s who we know will be playing their last game on Saturday against Monmouth: SS Nathan Argenta, QB Camdin Crouse, TE Harry Girting, LB Adam Lawrence, DT Gavin Marshall, DL James Murphy, LB Ian Milanak, DE Mark Syzmanski, DL Mike Burkett, and WR Sherrod Evers.

Here’s who we know will be returning: RB Raphael Johnson (Prop 48), FS Mike Landers (focused on academics freshman year), and CB Marvin McCalla (academics in the past).

And here’s who have eligibility questions remaining: QB Desmond Brentley, DB Michael Richards, LB Robert Williams. Richards joined the team last year, Williams was a freshman in 2006 but not on the roster in 2007 before returning in 2008, and Brentley reportedly redshirted his freshman year at Grambling and will probably need to find out for sure from the NCAA if he has a year.

A few things to share as the middle of the week approaches:

• Ohio Guard Brook Turson officially signed his letter of intent to play basketball for the Colonials. He verbally committed a month or so ago and signed his LOI on Monday. Turson, who is close to senior Jimmy Langhurst and freshman Brad Piehl, chose RMU over Central Michigan, among others. Coached by his father at Plymouth High School, the 6′3, 200lb Turson has averaged 20.8 points per game in his first three years in high school.
• Robert Morris also has two other verbal commitments still out there – 6′7 JuCo forward Wilbur O’Neal and 6′4 Gonzaga High School wing Malcolm Lemmons. We’ll see if they officially sign during this signing period. RMU has two other scholarships available for next season.
• One of those could go to Iona Prep guard Jordan Bonner. A 6′2 guard, Bonner has interest from RMU, along with Monmouth and Binghamton. He will not be committing until the spring.
• Eric Hall of the Beaver County Times has a piece on Rob Robinson’s role as captain on this year’s team.
• Overseas, former RMU guard Jeremy Chappell currently leads the top Polish League in scoring. Through 7 games, Chappell has led Znicz Jaroslaw to a 5-2 record by averaging 21.9 ppg. He also leads the league in steals and is fifth in the league in rebounding. Others playing hoops overseas – Tony Lee just started playing for BK Ventspils in Latvia, A.J. Jackson’s season just started in Portgul as he suits up for Academica de Coimbra, Bas Rozendaal is a role player for GasTerra Flames Groningen in Holland, and Bateko Francisco will be playing in France once he’s done with some classes in December.
• We never get much news about RMU football recruiting until really late in the process, but a Florida quarterback has RMU on the shortlist. Scout.com says Zack Wynn has RMU as one of six suitors. Western Michigan apparently leads the race, but RMU is in there with Florida Atlantic, Troy, Harvard, and Duke.

The final home game of the year comes with Wagner atop the NEC. RMU knocked 1st place Albany off last week. Can they do it again? We’ll be there to find out.

Robert Morris audio – WPIT 730 AM (click listen live box on top of page) or rmucolonials.com

Live video/stats - rmucolonials.com

This week’s preview in the Times centers on the seniors, primarily Sherrod Evers and Camdin Crouse. Evers has been the primary receiver the past two years and one of the leaders on the team. Crouse, meanwhile, has the interesting perspective of being the primary backup quarterback for most of his career. Crouse was the #2 man behind Erik Cwalinski in 2007 and 2008.

Sixteen seniors are on this year’s roster and there are only a couple question marks surrounding potential returnees. Nathan Argenta should have another year after sitting out last season with an injury. Desmond Brentley might have another year depending on how transfer rules shake out. Any others will need to work within the NCAA to see how it shakes out.

Kickoff is at 1pm from University Field in good ol’ Albany, New York. RMU fans should familiarize themselves with all things Great Danes – the men’s basketball team will be spending the weekend there Nov. 20-22.

Robert Morris audio – WPIT 730 AM (click listen live box on top of page) or rmucolonials.com

Live video/stats - rmucolonials.com

This week’s preview in the Times centers on Joe Walton’s perspective on different elements of the season, but it primarily focuses on how he’s had to use younger players in key roles.

Notes:

• Myles Russ will try and play again. He practiced Wednesday and Thursday and Walton plans to try and spot him as long as Russ feels well enough. Raphael Johnson will continue to be an important part of the offense, but as long as Russ doesn’t reaggravate the ankle injury like he did against Sacred Heart, Russ will play.
• If you want to see who has done well on the JV squad, start keeping an eye on special teams. With an overall young roster and with so many younger players getting time because of injuries, the only major roster shuffling in the final weeks could come on special teams.
• No other major changes to the injury status of players. The same guys that have been out remain out.