Around the CAA: Week 1

HARRISONBURG – With 10 wins over Division I-A opponents in the last five years, including James Madison’s eye-opening upset of then-No. 13 Virginia Tech, it’s not likely the Colonial Athletic Association will be overlooked by any of its big brother foes this opening weekend.

“If you take a look at the record, that’s all you have to do,” said Villanova coach Andy Talley, whose team opens against Temple on Thursday. “I think it’s pretty evident to any I-A team that when you’re playing a CAA team, you’re going to be in for a run. If your kids fall asleep at the switch and they take you into the fourth quarter, there’s a real good chance you could get beat.”

Six of the 10 CAA teams in action this opening week play a I-A team.

Since 2002, the CAA has won 16 games against Division I-A opponents. Of those 16, five have come in season openers. In 2009, Colonial teams turned the trick three times in the opening week, with Villanova knocking off Temple 27-24 on Sept. 3, William & Mary beating Virginia 26-14 on Sept. 5, and Richmond topping Duke 24-16, also on Sept. 5.
New Hampshire won five straight I-A games from 2004-2009.

This year, Villanova plays Temple and New Hampshire takes on Toledo, both on Thursday. On Saturday, Delaware plays at Navy, JMU plays at North Carolina, Richmond plays at Duke and William & Mary travels to Virginia.

With the exception of North Carolina and Toledo, all of those teams have suffered losses to CAA teams in recent years.

“There’s no sneak attacking with us and Navy,” Delaware coach K.C. Keeler said. “We’ve had some success against them, beat them in ’03 and ’07. Those are years they went to bowls.”

William & Mary coach Jimmye Laycock led his team to its first win over a Division I team in 11 years when the Tribe beat U.Va. 26-14 in 2009.

“We’ve been playing I-A teams for as long as I’ve been here,” Laycock, starting his 31^st season, said. “I think they all prepare. I think they all take us serious. I think they come ready to play. I haven’t seen any instance of them not.”

Timing, JMU coach Mickey Matthews, said, is a big part of the equation for CAA teams to pull upsets. A year ago, Virginia Tech was coming off a season-opening loss to Boise State played on a Monday night. With the quick turnaround, the Hokies were at a major disadvantage against JMU.

That won’t be the case when the Dukes open this Saturday at North Carolina.

“I talked to the North Carolina people about scheduling Boise State on Monday night,” Matthews joked. “So we could play a team coming off the Boise state game last year like tech did, where they wouldn’t get back in bed til 6 in the morning Tuesday morning and wouldn’t even look at our film til Wednesday. For some reason, they wouldn’t agree to that.”

 And, unlike a decade ago, when CAA teams travel to I-A games – even against BCS conference opponents – their fan bases now expect success.

“The expectation level here in Philly is that Villanova can compete,” said Talley, whose team has beaten Temple in two of the past three meetings. “In our game, certainly at Villanova, people do think we have a great shot to win this game.”

In the interim: Richmond is preparing for its I-A game while dealing with a tumultuous coaching change. But interim coach Wayne Lineburg said this week the Spiders are handling former coach Latrell Scott’s resignation after a second DWI charge, well.

“It’s certainly been a trying week,” Lineburg said. “Our kids have done a good job. Obviously they’re very disappointed in what happened with Coach Scott. We all were. They did a nice job bouncing back and continuing to work. … They’ve held firm and it hasn’t always been easy so far. Our focus now is just working toward getting ready to play Duke.”

For his part, Lineburg said he’d like to earn the coaching position on a more permanent basis, but said his focus at the moment is simply on coaching this year’s Richmond team.

“Of course, I think anybody in this position would certainly want that to happen,” Lineburg said of having the interim title removed. “But we can’t worry about the end result right now. We’ve got to worry about the process and worry about week to week. If it happens and it works out, then obviously that’ll be a great thing. We’ve just got to control what we can control each week and see how it ends at the end of the season.”

For now, that’s meant keeping things pretty status quoi at Richmond. While Lineburg – the team’s offensive coordinator in Scott’s one season last year –  said he’s made some adjustments to practices, for the most part, he’s aimed to keep the transition as smooth as possible.

“I was certainly involved with how we did things last year,” Lineburg said. “So most of the things will be very similar. There might be a few things here and there that we kind of work in that over time I’ve liked and our staff likes. For the most part, we’ll keep it relatively the same to keep things normal for the kids.”

As for Scott, Lineburg said the two have talked frequently since Scott’s dismissal.

“He’s a great friend of mine,” Lineburg said. “I’ve talked to him multiple times after the first couple of days, after he’s kind of gotten over the shock of it. We’ve talked multiple times and he’s helping me as best he can. He’s a class act. Obviously he made a mistake but he’s a class act. He’s still helping us and wants us to do well. He still cares about these kids and this program.”

Wild Kittens?: Villanova coach Andy Talley will field the youngest team of his 26-year tenure at the suburban Philadelphia school when the Wildcats kickoff against Temple on Thursday night. Talley said he expects to start true freshman and will have a redshirt freshman, Dustin Thomas, taking over at quarterback.

“We’re in a complete rebuilding phase,” Talley said. “When you’re playing guys that young, you just don’t’ know what you’re going to get. We haven’t done that since I’ve been here. This is the youngest football team we’ve put on the field here at Villanova.”

Adding to the challenge for Thomas – who replaces three-year starter Chris Whitney at QB – is the fact that star receiver Norman White (foot) is “very, very questionable” for Thursday’s game, Talley said.

Thomas will also be lining up behind a rebuilt offensive line that includes a pair of freshmen.