Colonials Corner

Phil Steele’s annual college football preview magazine, one of many football magazines printed around this time, is one of the few to pay attention to FCS football. While the other magazines go all out on the bowl eligible teams, Steele’s magazine prints out a page each on all of the Football Championship Subdivision squads, including Robert Morris.

He also hammers out preseason all-conference teams and All-American teams.

This year, Robert Morris linebacker Alex DiMichele was named as a 3rd team All-American in Steele’s magazine.

DiMichele was also named to the All-NEC second team. He’s joined on that squad by center Sam Miller, linebacker Elias Navarro, safety Michael Landers, and punter Nick Schirtzinger. Running back Myles Russ, corner Rolf Bathold, and kicker Garrett Clawson were named to the All-NEC first team.

The Pittsburgh Basketball Club summer league is back in action Wednesday night with another tripleheader. Again, all games are at the Greentree Sportsplex and admission is free. Arrive early as parking tends to be at a minimum.

Wednesday’s schedule:

7PM — PGT (Jeremy Chappell, Dallas Green) vs. UPMC (Mezie Nwigwe, Josiah Whitehead)

8 PM — Lair (No RMU connections) vs. Center Court (Russell Johnson, Yann Charles, Shane Mahoney)

9PM — P&W Motors (Karon Abraham, Coron Williams) v. SPK (Velton Jones, Lijah Thompson, Anthony Myers, Elton Roy)

STANDINGS:
Center Court – 4-0
UPMC – 3-1
The Lair – 3-1
SPK – 1-3
PGT – 1-3
P&W – 0-4

Since there seems to be enough interest, I’m going to do regular open threads for everyone to discuss the summer basketball league played at Greentree.

Games begin at 7pm and are held at the Greentree Sportsplex. There is no admission charge, and the tripleheader usually lasts until 10:30 or so.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch is reporting today that the University of Rhode Island, one of the founding members of the Yankee Conference that merged into the A-10 conference and is now known as the CAA, is exploring the possibility of leaving the CAA for the Northeast Conference.

The move would be for football only, as Rhode Island participates in the Atlantic-10 in all sports.

The CAA has seen quite a bit of movement in the last couple of years. It first appeared to be expanding to 14 teams with the announcement that Old Dominion (2011) and Georgia State (2012) would be launching football programs and join the conference. But since then, Hofstra and Northeastern both ended their football programs, leaving the CAA at 12 teams. Should Rhode Island lead, it would drop to 11.

Meanwhile, the Northeast Conference presents an interesting opportunity for some schools in the Northeast, including Rhode Island. It now has an automatic bid to the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs, provides 40 scholarships instead of 63, and would reduce travel costs for some of the CAA schools used to traveling to Richmond, William and Mary, and eventually Georgia State.

The NEC has also been willing to add football-only members in the past, too. Duquesne and Albany are currently football-only members – Duquesne plays the rest of its sports in the A-10, while Albany is in the America East – and former member Stony Brook was a football-only member before moving to the Big South Conference.

So far the Richmond Times-Dispatch is the only paper reporting this. Stay tuned for any additional updates.

Thanks to Original_RMC for the tip.

The annual Pittsburgh Basketball Club Pro-Am season begins on Monday and the regular season will last through July 14. The following week will the playoffs and championship game.

We will not be able to attend like in years past, but we encourage Pittsburgh area and Robert Morris fans to check out the games. They are triple-headers held at the GreenTree SportsPlex. There is no admission charge, and games are held every Monday and Wednesday, beginning at 7pm. The night usually lasts until about 10:30.

For a complete schedule of games, reference this PDF file on the PBC website. There are six teams featuring players from Robert Morris, Pitt, and Duquesne, as well as local athletes who ended up at other schools. It also will feature appearances by former area athletes, including former Pitt star and current New Orleans Hornet Aaron Gray, former Pitt star Carl Krauser, UNLV’s Armen Gilliam, and former RMU star Jeremy Chappell. Some D-2 and D-3 players from the area are also on the roster, as are a couple of highly touted incoming college freshmen from the local high schools (Evan Pierce of Mt. Lebanon, headed to Wagner; Tom Droney of Sewickley Academy, off to Davidson).

For a full list of players participating and the rosters, download this Microsoft Excel file.

After the jump, we’ll break down the teams featuring Robert Morris players.

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We’ll get right to it. Bunch of questions in the comments during the preview section, so I’ll do my best to answer them.

If (QB Kevin) Quinn shows that his is 100% healthy during camp and there are some struggles at other positions like TE, do you perhaps see McNeil taking a stab at TE knowing that he could actually see the field faster since Sinclair is in front of him?

Short answer? No. McNeil developed well at quarterback last year, and to be honest, with just three experienced QBs on the roster and only one with game experience, the Colonials need to keep McNeil at quarterback. He and Quinn know the system the best besides Sinclair, and if Sinclair goes down at any point this season, RMU will need someone who knows the system to step in. Going to Sinclair last year actually hurt the Colonials until late in the season. RMU went off on the five-game winning streak because Sinclair took that long to fully adapt to the system. College ball is an adjustment, especially for QBs. Plus, since McNeil never took the field last year, he should be able to get a fifth year.

Could Jon Hill be a surprise freshman that makes an impact on the D this year? And it seems that the DL have a lot of depth, any possible names that you could see being switched to the OL?

Both line positions are deep, including 18 offensive linemen. And both positions are deep in multiple classes. So while there might be one or two switches, those would just be because of coaches changing their minds on freshmen who played both ways in high school. No one really pops out there. As far as Hill, could be a surprise? Sure. Any freshmen with his credentials could. But the depth at DE is pretty impressive, so Hill would have to really wow the coaches to jump in front of all the guys who got playing time last year.

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This is part seven of an eight part series examining the Robert Morris roster and depth chart for the 2010 season. For a schedule of the rest of the parts in the series, click here.

Well with each of the positional previews out of the way, it’s time to move into the other portion of the summer preview special. We’ll take a look at the two-deep depth chart, break down the schedule, and point out some newcomers to watch. All of the roster info is generally available in the other other posts, but this will condense it and give a good look at how the team shakes out as a whole and how some of the newcomers factor into the lineup.

Let’s begin with the two-deep depth chart. These are the guys guaranteed to get playing time on any given Saturday, either as starters, role players, subs, or special teamers. Players in bold are starters.

Also, feel free to submit any questions you have about this series or the team in general. I’ll answer them in a post late Saturday/early Sunday.

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This is part six of an eight part series examining the Robert Morris roster and depth chart for the 2010 season. For a schedule of the rest of the parts in the series, click here.

At the end of last year, it looked like the most holes Robert Morris had to fill for 2010 was in the secondary. But as summer kicks off and training camp looms in the distance, the holes are non-existent.

All four starters at the end of the year last year are back, as Michael Landers, Marvin McCalla, and Michael Richards are earned redshirts and a fifth season. They’ll join fellow senior Rolf Bathold in an all-senior secondary, at least to start. Landers and Bathold are locks, but Richards and McCalla could be pushed by youngsters. Alex Tarr and Eric Lowry were backups to McCalla and Bathold last year, and the team is especially high on Lowry, a rangy 6’1 sophomore. Richards, meanwhile, ascended to the strong safety position with Nathan Argenta still working his way back from an ankle injury and David Pittman leaving the team midway through the season.

Whatever happens, the depth in the secondary is incredible, and should the offense awaken some and the defense continue to press, the secondary will be able to continue their ballhawking traits developed last year.

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This is part five of an eight part series examining the Robert Morris roster and depth chart for the 2010 season. For a schedule of the rest of the parts in the series, click here.

While multiple parties were involved in pulling Robert Morris’ defense to the top of the NEC last year, two men were responsible for making it tick: Linebackers Adam Lawrence and Alex DiMichele. DiMichele, now a senior inside linebacker and primarily a run stopper, is the heart and soul of the defense. He is the team’s pulse, an unquestioned leader, and an absolute warrior. DiMichele finished second in the NEC in tackles and led the league in fumble recoveries. Lawrence was also one of the team’s leaders last year. The senior played outside as a playmaker, leading the team in sacks with 5.5 and tackles for a loss with 12.5. Both were good for 3rd in the NEC.

Couple that with Elias Navarro’s breakout year as a junior (97 tackles, 3 interceptions, 2 sacks) and Ian Milanak’s steady play at the other outside linebacker spot after playing inside the year before, and the linebackers were the backbone of the defense.

Navarro could end up doing what Milanak was asked to do: Move outside to allow for a seasoned youngster to start inside alongside DiMichele. It was Navarro last year, and it’ll likely be Ryan Nearhoof this year. Navarro has the speed and the agility to play both positions, and he could wreak havoc like Lawrence did at an outside position.

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This is part four of an eight part series examining the Robert Morris roster and depth chart for the 2010 season. For a schedule of the rest of the parts in the series, click here.

Robert Morris has always been a defense dominated by active linebackers and opportunistic defensive backs. But it also has a quieter tradition of strong defensive tackles (think Jason Forrest and Matt Brunck swallowing up the middle of opposing offensive lines) and speedy, sack hungry defensive ends (Mark Syzmanski before injuries settled in).

For all the offensive maladies last year, the defense was extremely good. Robert Morris was ranked second in the NEC in scoring defense, third in pass defense, second in turnover margin (remarkable considering how often the offense handed the ball back), second in rushing defense, first in total defense, first in pass efficiency defense, first in opponent first downs, first in sacks, and first in red zone defense.

Nationally, the defense finished 11th in total defense, 6th in pass defense, 12th in turnovers created, and 5th in pass efficiency defense.

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