Category: Richmond Spiders
Seasoned Spiders Seeking Encore
From last season’s national championship to next year’s stadium unveiling to long-standing academic standards, the University of Richmond football program has much to offer.
But for all those assets, the most striking element of the 2009 Spiders is their depth chart. Just peruse the 22 projected starters for Saturday’s regular-season finale against William and Mary.
Freshmen? Please. They’re practice fodder. Sophomores? Need not apply. Each of Richmond’s first-teamers is an upperclassman, 15 seniors and seven juniors. Moreover, all were redshirted, meaning every starter has been in the program at least four years. Good luck finding a lineup this experienced.
Spiders All-Time Leading Receiver Set For Second NASA Mission
The liftoff is set for 2:28 p.m. ET on Monday, Nov. 16.
Leland Melvin, a University of Richmond Hall of Famer and member of the All-UR Stadium Team, has begun final preparations for his second mission as a NASA astronaut. Melvin and his crew are set to launch from the Kennedy Space Center Monday at 2:28 p.m. ET.
Richmond, William & Mary Rename Football Rivalry As Capital Cup
The historic football rivalry has been played 118 times and is the oldest in the South.
This year’s winner of the South’s oldest college football rivalry will take home a new trophy - The Capital Cup - symbolic of the long-standing series between The University of Richmond and The College of William & Mary, the schools jointly announced Wednesday. It will be awarded for the first time following the Nov. 21 game at UR Stadium.
Richmond Football, Seven Other Sports Penalized for Text-messaging
The NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions has placed Richmond on two years of probation and imposed recruiting restrictions in eight sports for impermissible recruiting text messages and telephone calls to prospective student-athletes.
Richmond Unveils All-UR Stadium Team
The prestigious team features 28 Richmond Legends that played in the UR Stadium era (1929-2009)
The University of Richmond department of athletics has unveiled the All-UR Stadium Team, which recognizes the greatest Spiders to have played at the historic venue. After 81 years, 2009 marks the final season of Richmond Football at UR Stadium.
UNH Football Notebook: CAA Expansion Won't Affect 'Cats Short-Term
DURHAM — There are numbers CAA commissioner Tom Yeager has a pleasure trying to crunch, and others that present more of a challenge.
Start with the tough ones. Two years from now, the CAA will welcome its 13th football-playing member, Old Dominion, which will be lodged in the league’s South Division and unbalance an unbalanced league schedule even more.
In 2012, Georgia State will bring the membership to 14, and play as a nominal member of the North Division, but with a specially-crafted schedule.
Six Interceptions Fuel UR’s Romp
A break-up would have sufficed.
University of Richmond safety Derek Hatcher yesterday arrived as the passed ball did. Instead of the break-up, Hatcher went for the interception, and got it by prying the ball from the Massachusetts player who momentarily had possession in the third-quarter sequence.
UR coach Mike London called Hatcher’s thievery “one of the best plays defensively I’ve ever seen. . . . Talk about ball awareness.”
It’s a hot topic after the Spiders, top-ranked in the Football Championship Subdivision, collected six interceptions in a 34-12 Colonial Athletic Association win before 8,214 at UR Stadium. The school record for interceptions is eight, set in 1938 vs. Hampden-Sydney.
’Saders Ready to Exact Revenge
The chance to play another year of college football, to hone his skills and polish his game were all reasons Holy Cross quarterback Dominic Randolph came back for a fifth season. One last crack at a Patriot League championship was another.
“Definitely,” Randolph said this week. “That’s the goal of every team and not winning it last year pushed me to try again.”
Colgate beat Holy Cross, 28-27, in the last game of 2008 to claim the Patriot League crown. The longtime foes will clash again at 1 p.m. tomorrow at Fitton Field, and the top-25 matchup should certainly have PL title implications. It is the first of five straight league games for HC.
Coach London’s Corner: Midseason Report
The 2009 football season is well under way and the Spiders are playing well enough to have six wins versus zero defeats. It has been a season of close calls, last-second wins and dominating play at times on offense and defense.
Someone said a long time ago when it came to football and winning games, “I’d rather be lucky than good,” although I think that luck is when opportunity meets preparation.
This team is a road-tested team for sure. Four of our first six games have been on the road. The first two games were away against Duke University and the University of Delaware. Those games were followed by two home games against Hofstra University and the Virginia Military Institute. The last two games were again away at James Madison University and, most recently, the University of Maine.
UMass' Two-Tailbacked Monster To Lead Attack Against top-ranked Richmond
AMHERST – One is the sixth-leading rusher in University of Massachusetts football history, a go-to player who offers senior leadership.
The other is a sensational sophomore, so effective as a fill-in that it’s hard to see him glued to the bench.
When it comes to Tony Nelson and Jonathan Hernandez, coach Kevin Morris says there is room for both.
“Absolutely. It makes us a better football team,” Morris said as 14th-ranked UMass prepared to play Saturday at No. 1-ranked Richmond, the defending Football Championship Subdivision champion.
Substance Over Style
Richmond’s Eric Ward posts impressive numbers where it counts most.
Flash doesn’t define Richmond quarterback Eric Ward. His statistics alone aren’t likely to blow away passive observers.
“We’re not a spread offense where [he] throws 50 times a game and we’re not an offense that requires him to be a part of the running game,” explained Spiders head coach Mike London.
But Ward has compiled impressive numbers throughout his career perhaps more important than any individual mark.
“Just look at the record, and look at his career and what he’s doing now. He’s made the case to be considered one of the best in the country,” London said.
Minutemen: Out of Frying Pan, Into Fire
AMHERST – The Minutemen survived the frying pan, just in time to jump into the fire.
“The message we deliver from week to week is pretty much the same about how we want to practice and prepare for a game,” said University of Massachusetts football coach Kevin Morris, whose team plays at Richmond Saturday.
“We have a lot of plans. But now, we have to execute them.”
UR Puts No. 1 Status on the Line at Delaware
Nothing said more about the University of Richmond football operation at Duke last Saturday than the way the Spiders arrived.
Minutes before kickoff, in a stadium nearly filled with 33,011 fans, UR players eschewed the tradition of running from locker room to sideline. Instead, the Spiders and their coaches walked, slowly, purposefully, in rows of three or four, with arms locked.
“We wanted to take the field with an air of confidence,” said Richmond coach Mike London. “It was something the players and I decided we were going to do, kind of a show of solidarity.”
Richmond Jersey Makes Its Way To Iraq, Honorary Helmet Decal Announced
Former head coach Frank Jones commemorated.
A throwback No. 38 Richmond Spiders football jersey has made its way overseas and now hangs in the Battalion Headquarters of the 3-8CAV (1st Calvary Division) in Mosul, Iraq. The 3-8CAV is collecting No. 38 jerseys from pro and college football teams across the country.
Can Richmond give CAA another title?
In some people’s minds, defending national champion Richmond is one of the favorites to win the 2009 title. But the reality of the Colonial Athletic Association is that the Spiders might not even survive their own division, let alone the NCAA playoffs.
- 3447 words - FCS News Articles, CAA, Rhode Island Rams, New Hampshire Wildcats, Massachusetts Minutemen, Richmond Spiders, Hofstra Pride, Delaware Blue Hens, Villanova Wildcats, James Madison Dukes, Towson Tigers, William & Mary Tribe, Northeastern Huskies, Maine Black Bears Defending National Champion Richmond And Villanova Selected As CAA Favorite In 2009, All-CAA Teams and TV Package Announced
Richmond, which returns 18 starters off last year’s NCAA National Championship team, and Villanova, which returns 16 starters from 2008, are picked to share the overall CAA Football Championship in 2009. New Hampshire, last season’s North Division winner, was also picked to repeat in the North according to a vote of the league’s 12 head coaches and selected media. The results of the poll, along with the Preseason All-Conference squads, were announced during Wednesday’s CAA Football Media Day at the ESPNZone in Baltimore, Md.
- 1760 words - CAA, Rhode Island Rams, New Hampshire Wildcats, Massachusetts Minutemen, Richmond Spiders, Hofstra Pride, Delaware Blue Hens, Villanova Wildcats, James Madison Dukes, Towson Tigers, Northeastern Huskies, Maine Black Bears Hall Of Fame Richmond Football Coach Frank Jones Dies
FROM RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH (John O’Connor) - Frank Jones, who coached the University of Richmond’s football program to national acclaim in the late 1960s and early 1970s, died in Richmond on Saturday. Mr. Jones was 90 and recently suffered a stroke.
Mr. Jones, a native of Tifton, Ga., and a 1948 University of North Carolina graduate, in 1966 took over a Spiders program that had lost 14 consecutive games. The Jones Era began with five more defeats. Richmond had the nation’s longest losing streak.
Four more Buchanan Award candidates announced by Sports Network
UNI’s Ruffin heads up latest group of Buchanan candidates
Missouri Valley Football Conference defensive player of the year James Ruffin is among the four latest candidates added to the watch list for the Buck Buchanan Award, presented annually to the top defensive player in FCS.
Ruffin racked up 18 tackles for loss (first in conference), 10 sacks, 69 tackles, and three forced fumbles for the Panthers last year, en route to All- America and All-MVFC honors.
Other players added to the list were Richmond cornerback Justin Rogers, Youngstown State defensive tackle Mychal Savage and William & Mary defensive end Adrian Tracy.
- 834 words - Missouri Valley Football Conference, CAA, Richmond Spiders, William & Mary Tribe, Northern Iowa Panthers, Youngstown State Penguins 
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