As we have the week off, it seems appropriate to take a look at the rest of the CAA and their chances for a title or the playoffs:

1) Villanova/Maine this weekend should be interesting. Is Villanova really the favorite to win the league, or is Maine again lying in the weeds to surprise the whole CAA again?

2)Albany/JMU- Is Albany really good, or will a battle with the Dukes by a return to the bottom half of the CAA for them? For JMU, another loss this early would likely doom their title and playoff hopes.

3) NH/Elon- At least New Hampshire has to play someone before our bye week. Could going on the road in the league present any problems for them? I always have mixed feelings about hoping next week's opponent loses the week before....

4) Stony Brook at Towson- Both teams a win. As JMU found out last week, starting 0-2 makes it tough to get back in the race.

Right now, it appears that there are 7 teams of the 12 with a realistic title shot: Villanova, NH, UR, Tribe, Delaware, Albany, Maine. The next 3 weeks are likely to thin the herd significantly. Any thoughts on who is the favorite?

I would only say 4 teams have a realistic shot at the title. Nova, UNH, UR, and us. Of that group I think that Villanova is the heavy favorite. Robertson has been so good for them this year. I think that the other four are on fairly equal footing but I would also definitely put the Tribe as the 4th team in the group. I guess we'll find out how good we really are after the trip to Durham.

Villanova has to be the favorite until they prove otherwise. Us, UNH, and Richmond are all in a pack, though I like where we sit; we play well against UNH and we get Richmond at home on national TV in a game that will almost certainly have playoff (if not conference champion) implications. As many have said this is a great time for a bye week, and our team can focus before heading in to the meat of the schedule. QB play is certainly on the up and up, 65% completion rate against the best defense we've seen (not counting VT) is a good sign of improvement. The pick was a bad decision, but things are headed in the right direction.

(09-30-2014 04:33 PM)hktribefan Wrote:  Villanova has to be the favorite until they prove otherwise. Us, UNH, and Richmond are all in a pack, though I like where we sit; we play well against UNH and we get Richmond at home on national TV in a game that will almost certainly have playoff (if not conference champion) implications. As many have said this is a great time for a bye week, and our team can focus before heading in to the meat of the schedule. QB play is certainly on the up and up, 65% completion rate against the best defense we've seen (not counting VT) is a good sign of improvement. The pick was a bad decision, but things are headed in the right direction.

I wouldn't say the pick was a bad decision. I'll take Tre one on one competing for a jump ball any day. It was certainly a less than a perfect throw. It didn't give Tre a chance to compete for the ball. Either the WR or QB was on the wrong page with regard to where that ball was supposed to go. Tre got turned around when the ball was in flight and never recovered to get in position to make the catch.

In fact if Tre had turned the other way he gets the ball 9 of 10!

From my view, that one was on Tre. Doesn't happen often.

I am still wondering if Tre is fully healthy yet. Given the strength of some other leagues, this might be a 3 bid league again this year. If so, it will be tough and likely take 6 conference wins to get in.

(09-30-2014 05:24 PM)WMTribe90 Wrote:  

(09-30-2014 04:33 PM)hktribefan Wrote:  Villanova has to be the favorite until they prove otherwise. Us, UNH, and Richmond are all in a pack, though I like where we sit; we play well against UNH and we get Richmond at home on national TV in a game that will almost certainly have playoff (if not conference champion) implications. As many have said this is a great time for a bye week, and our team can focus before heading in to the meat of the schedule. QB play is certainly on the up and up, 65% completion rate against the best defense we've seen (not counting VT) is a good sign of improvement. The pick was a bad decision, but things are headed in the right direction.

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Jay mentioned on the radio that Tre appeared to lose sight of the ball because of the angle of the setting sun. Anyone driving due West when the Sun is low on the horizon has experienced the los of an ability to see what is coming directly towards you.

I wouldn't say the pick was a bad decision. I'll take Tre one on one competing for a jump ball any day. It was certainly a less than a perfect throw. It didn't give Tre a chance to compete for the ball. Either the WR or QB was on the wrong page with regard to where that ball was supposed to go. Tre got turned around when the ball was in flight and never recovered to get in position to make the catch.

(09-30-2014 07:56 PM)TribePride91 Wrote:  I am still wondering if Tre is fully healthy yet. Given the strength of some other leagues, this might be a 3 bid league again this year. If so, it will be tough and likely take 6 conference wins to get in.

I think it takes 7 wins to have a snowball's chance at making the playoffs. 8-4 should do it. UNH (3-1) only plays 11 games this season but they have a very favorable schedule with URI and Elon coming up and no Nova. Albany is flying high now but they're looking at a buzzsaw on the horizon.

#RisingTribe

(10-01-2014 02:59 AM)Tribal Wrote:  

(09-30-2014 07:56 PM)TribePride91 Wrote:  I am still wondering if Tre is fully healthy yet. Given the strength of some other leagues, this might be a 3 bid league again this year. If so, it will be tough and likely take 6 conference wins to get in.

I think it takes 7 wins to have a snowball's chance at making the playoffs. 8-4 should do it. UNH (3-1) only plays 11 games this season but they have a very favorable schedule with URI and Elon coming up and no Nova. Albany is flying high now but they're looking at a buzzsaw on the horizon.

#RisingTribe

Given the strength of the MVC, I could see the possibility of an 8-4 team that is 5-3 in the CAA being left out of the playoffs this year. That hasn't been the case in the past.

Probably no more than 3 CAA teams.

Need to be ahead of either NOVA, UNH or UR is a good guess.

(10-01-2014 07:41 AM)wanm65 Wrote:  Probably no more than 3 CAA teams.

Need to be ahead of either NOVA, UNH or UR is a good guess.

Remember that they went up to 24 teams in the playoffs last year with 13 At-Large bids so I can see 4 CAA teams in it if the 4 mentioned take care of things against everyone but each other. Better not to leave it to chance though

Only 3 CAA last year

I think people give the MVC a lot of respect based on North Dakota State. Yes they are the class of their conference, and should be ranked #1. Beyond that though, I think our conference stacks up pretty well against them. I recall a few years ago we went out to Carbondale to play a highly touted team out of the MVC and did pretty well. Of course that was then and this is now, but the point is that because there is so little crossover between the "power" conferences of FCS in OOC play there is really no way to gauge who is better. They have 7 teams in the TSN poll and we have 6. The Big Sky seems kind of off this year, the SoCon is an afterthought, and no other conference has more than 3 ranked. It's still very early on in the season, but I think 4 CAA teams will get in. Though as tribe_pride puts it, let's not leave it to chance.

It is interesting to speculate, but I appreciate how Coach Laycock never does. The Tribe needs to continue to focus on New Hampshire and no one else until the next game on the schedule. We, as fans, will have a much better idea of the overall picture in about 3-4 weeks. I don't expect the CAA to get more than 3, though. Big week for Maine and Albany this week. Albany's schedule is very easy relatively speaking. Also, New Hampshire's win at UR was big. If they beat us up there, they are the actual favorites because their schedule is much easier after that than Villanova. New Hampshire's toughest remaining game on the road is Delaware. Villanova has both us and UR on the road.

For the Tribe, we need a healthy Airek Green. Also, it would significantly help if Windmuller can come back and be as good as he was the first 4 weeks.

(10-01-2014 09:05 AM)wanm65 Wrote:  Only 3 CAA last year

The CAA only had 2 teams with 8 or more wins last year. New Hampshire made it with a 7-4 record winning their final 3 including conference champ Maine in the final game. Delaware and W&M finished with a 7-5 record for the next best. We lost our last 2 games (including to a 6-6 Richmond team) and Delaware lost its last 3 games (all to nonplayoff teams). Last year, except for the top few, the conference was not good at the end.

My assumption is that we have 4 teams with fewer than 5 losses. If 4th best is 7-5, it will be a struggle to get 4 teams in.

This has nothing to do with competition in the CAA, but didn't warrant it's own thread. As a fan, the bye week sucks. It comes at a great time for the team and is so important for us to rest before some big games, but it is really boring. That's all.

You can start a new thread on the Oct 11 game at New Hampshire. We could all begin speculation prior to their game this week with Elon and prior to another start for their backup QB, 5th year senior, Andy Vailas.