CAA getting interesting....as usual!

[Tribe4SF]

Richmond and Delaware go down today. JMU ekes out a win at Northeastern.

Bruce Dowd needs to put that "top tier...middle tier...bottom tier" stuff in his hat. It demeans the quality of this conference.

[TigerFan17]

Yah...its more like Tier 2: Rhody, Tier 1: everyone else


No hate to Rhody...just the truth IMO :)

[blur2005]

Yah...its more like Tier 2: Rhody, Tier 1: everyone else


No hate to Rhody...just the truth IMO :)
I'll beat MaineJeff to self-hating on the Black Bears and add Maine to the Tier 2, at least this season.

[DTSpider]

Richmond looked pretty bad today as well. We've got to play a lot better, I fear some of the young guys were a little overconfident.

[blur2005]

Richmond looked pretty bad today as well. We've got to play a lot better, I fear some of the young guys were a little overconfident.
I don't know, I thought you guys had it won.

[Dukie95]

It's always tough to win on the road in the CAA. Those road wins are so important - I'm so glad JMU got out of NU with the W, but it was close.

[OxSoxUNH05]

I'll beat MaineJeff to self-hating on the Black Bears and add Maine to the Tier 2, at least this season.

Tier 3: Maine! xlolx

[Ram Ball]

Yah...its more like Tier 2: Rhody, Tier 1: everyone else


No hate to Rhody...just the truth IMO


OUCH... The truth hurts!

[Khan4Cats]

Just how good is Hofstra? Are they a legitimate threat or are they just beating lesser teams right now before a meatier schedule eats them up? Not trying to talk smack or anything, but trying to figure how to rank them considering they are unbeaten and can still get to 11 D-I wins (only NDSU can do that in FCS also).

[Sam Adams]

Tier 1: Massachusetts & Madison

Tier 2: Hofstra

Tier 3: UD, UNH, Nova, Towson, Richmond

Tier 4: W&M

Tier 5: URI, NU, Maine

[ChickenMan]

It's still to be determined as to just how good Hofstra is.. but they do have the most favorable schedule of all the playoff contenders in the CAA. No JMU.. UD or Richmond from the South and they get the top two teams from the North.. UMass and UNH both @ Hofstra. But this is the CAA where there are no automatic wins.. as anyone is capable of jumping up and beating any of the supposedly top contenders.

[ChickenMan]

Tier 1: Massachusetts & Madison

Tier 2: Hofstra

Tier 3: UD, UNH, Nova, Towson, Richmond

Tier 4: W&M

Tier 5: URI, NU, Maine


Wrong again... but at least you are consistent... xlolx

[JMU-MRD-DAD]

I would not put JMU in the top tier.

Let's face it, Landers has only played 6 games and Holloman is injured, maybe loss for the season.

Let's focus on Rhody and then come home for a week off before hosting the Spiders.

Go Dukes

[tribe_pride]

Wrong again... but at least you are consistent... xlolx

Chicken - how far off do you think he is? The only difference I may put is to either put UD and UNH in the tier with Hofstra or divide up Tier 3 into 3A and 3B with 3A being UD and UNH. Overall not terrible rankings though.

[ChickenMan]

Chicken - how far off do you think he is? The only difference I may put is to either put UD and UNH in the tier with Hofstra or divide up Tier 3 into 3A and 3B with 3A being UD and UNH. Overall not terrible rankings though.

I'm not sold on UMass being above UNH.. Richmond or Delaware. If UD hasn't beaten anyone.. the same certainly can be said about UMass.

Holy Cross.. Colgate.. Towson.. Maine is hardly a killer's row. All I'm saying is that there's way too much football to be played before anything is really determined.

[JMU-MRD-DAD]

I'm not sold on UMass being above UNH.. Richmond or Delaware. If UD hasn't beaten anyone.. the same certainly can be said about UMass.

Holy Cross.. Colgate.. Towson.. Maine is hardly a killer's row. All I'm saying is that there's way too much football to be played before anything is really determined.

.........so true.....it's like the weekly debate over the top 5 rankings...who cares....means nothing at this point.....

[umassfan]

I'm not sold on UMass being above UNH.. Richmond or Delaware. If UD hasn't beaten anyone.. the same certainly can be said about UMass.

Holy Cross.. Colgate.. Towson.. Maine is hardly a killer's row. All I'm saying is that there's way too much football to be played before anything is really determined.


Someone who went to the UD UNH game and seen many UMass games stated that UD and UNH are not in the same level as UMass... and the reason being DEFENSE.

[andy7171]

Tier 1: Massachusetts & Madison

Tier 2: Hofstra

Tier 3: UD, UNH, Nova, Towson, Richmond

Tier 4: W&M

Tier 5: URI, NU, Maine

Um, what has Hofstra done to be in your tier 2? Beat all of Tier 5? Beat a 2-4 Furman? Beat 2 NEC teams, barely?

I would put UD and UNH in Tier 2, move Hofstra down to Tier 3 this week and down to Tier 4 next week.

[89Hen]

Um, what has Hofstra done to be in your tier 2? Beat all of Tier 5? Beat a 2-4 Furman? Beat 2 NEC teams, barely?

I would put UD and UNH in Tier 2, move Hofstra down to Tier 3 this week and down to Tier 4 next week.
That was my thought exactly. Until HU actually plays somebody above "Tier 5" they are lumped in with the rest.

[GannonFan]

Agreed - Hofstra gets the big test this week - they play a road game in the CAA against a decent opponent in Towson. Until you play on the road in conference against a decent team you just don't know.

[UNH SUPERFAN]

Agreed - Hofstra gets the big test this week - they play a road game in the CAA against a decent opponent in Towson. Until you play on the road in conference against a decent team you just don't know.

Amen!!!

[Jaxhen]

Someone who went to the UD UNH game and seen many UMass games stated that UD and UNH are not in the same level as UMass... and the reason being DEFENSE.

And the Towson coach picked UD over UMASS after having played them back to back. Nobody knows for sure until the end of the season. You can't judge a team on one performance, either good or bad. There are so many factors that affect a team's performance in a single game. All you can say is that UNH played better than UD last Saturday, just like Towson played better than Richmond, Richmond played better than UNH two weeks ago, and Northeastern played better than UD for one game in 2003, and we all know how that ended. Thank goodness we have a playoff system.

[Uncle Buck]

That was my thought exactly. Until HU actually plays somebody above "Tier 5" they are lumped in with the rest.

Like i have said all along on the CAA boards, we don't control who we play or what their record is, we can just go out and try to win games. This past week was the first 4 qtr effort all season, hopefully we get by Towson this week. I think we really have a good shot at beating the Tigers.

[89Hen]

Like i have said all along on the CAA boards, we don't control who we play or what their record is, we can just go out and try to win games. This past week was the first 4 qtr effort all season, hopefully we get by Towson this week. I think we really have a good shot at beating the Tigers.
Not trying to say they can't be a step above, but it's unproven so far. I would hope you can beat the Tigers... the Hens did at Towson and we're Tier 3. xsmiley_wix

[GannonFan]

Like i have said all along on the CAA boards, we don't control who we play or what their record is, we can just go out and try to win games. This past week was the first 4 qtr effort all season, hopefully we get by Towson this week. I think we really have a good shot at beating the Tigers.


Odd year for the CAA - plenty of teams have seemed to have pretty easy schedules in the early going, save for UNH. Hofstra is not alone in that department.

[mcveyrl]

Odd year for the CAA - plenty of teams have seemed to have pretty easy schedules in the early going, save for UNH. Hofstra is not alone in that department.

That's true, but I think starting with the UNH-UD game last week, there's a slate of at least one monster conference game per week from here on out.

In the words of Bill Parcells in the Coors Light commercial...


"That's a good thing...not a bad thing."

[Uncle Buck]

Don't get me wrong guys, i am probably the most skeptical HU fan going right now. I still don't know how good we are even at 5-0 because we have been inconsistent. We still struggle on third down conversions and that can kill us in a close game. As for what tier we are on, i agree that we should not be above anyone else until we get to the meat of the CAA schedule. We just happen to have a schedule that pretty much plays into our favor this year and we need to take advantage of it. I'll go even one further. With the exception of UNH playing Iona this week, every team we face from here on out has a tough matchup the week before us. Towson battled Richmond, 'Nova has a bye, W&M has UMass, N'eastern has UNH, and UMass has UNH. It could work in our favor with teams coming in banged up from tough games the week before. Hey, when you were 2-9 the year before, you look at everything.

[TigerFan17]

Our offense finally started to show signs of life and the defense continues to impress me.

Early the in the season, the D was doing all we could ask, but were on the field the whole damn game because we were turning the ball over 4, 5 times a game.

If our offense is back on track and our defense continues to play relatively well, I think we can beat Hofstra.

Again, it all comes back to the play of Sean Schaefer and if we can get a decent running game going.

[Nebuta]

CAA is always interesting. Some teams play better at Home. Some teams play up or down to competition. CAA is a wild conference, a majority of teams are playoff calaber teams, and the ones that just miss are one or two playmakers from a playoff team. Its unforunate, because once conference play starts, the CAA seems to canabalizes its self and eliminate good teams that would do some damage in the playoffs, prior to. I suspect, we can use the 7 degrees of seperation from 1# method for almost every team in the CAA by the end of the season. Cause I just dont see how a team can go undefeated in the CAA this year.

[JMU2K_DukeDawg]

Simple - UMass and JMU don't play each other! :P

Just kidding. I believe JMU has a good team, but they have looked bad on the road - both at UNC to start the season and at NU last week.

UMass doesn't look perfect, they just seem to play enough good football to overwhelm their opponents. In fact, the BC game that they lost might be their most impressive 4 quarters of football in terms of effort.

Delaware - always struggle against high powered offenses (see Towson and UNH). They busted up Towson this year, but got bit in New Hampshire by the Cats.

Richmond - I dunno. They are still young on defense. I think they are a year away from being a serious contender. They look good, but Towson was a damaging slip on Saturday to their hopes.

UNH - Santos doesn't play both sides of the ball. They won't get too far. Toughest schedule by far.

Hofstra - What the hell happened vs. Stony Brook? Wow. I can't see them making it through their schedule unscathed, but they do have the schedule advantage.

Also, when all your teams win their OOC games, it is easy to say all the CAA teams have had easy schedules. In fact, most have, but wins over Furman, Coastal Carolina, Northwestern St., Lehigh, and other former playoff teams should not be thrown aside without proper respect.

[DrG]

I fear Hofstra if for no other reason than UMass has historically struggled in Hempstead.

[DTSpider]

Richmond - I dunno. They are still young on defense. I think they are a year away from being a serious contender. They look good, but Towson was a damaging slip on Saturday to their hopes.



The whole team is young now. I think Richmond only has 8 seniors and 3 are hurt. Unfortunately there's just not a ton of depth due to injuries. We're young so we'll be up & down all year. Only 2 road games left, but against JMU & UD. Hopefully we can play well at home for the next 2 weeks and then play well at JMU.

[Col Hogan]

If it wasn't for the effort the Minutemen put out against Boston College, I'd be in the camp of those who say UMass hasn't really displayed much this year...

But I think that game showed the me...and hopefully the team...just how good they can be...especially on defense...

They still have to finish strong...UHN comes into Amherst...and the last game of the year is at Hofstra...

I think it's going to be another nail-biter in the CAA...

[EmeryZach]

Hofstra is definitely scary for UMass. And Santos can always have a big game for UNH. Should be fun.

[JmuSkinsfan]

Hofstra is definitely scary for UMass. And Santos can always have a big game for UNH. Should be fun.

Man...could you imagine a CAA with four 9-2 teams? Could happen!

UMass..JMU....UD...Hofstra...then UNH at 8-3...

of course...this would be assuming UNH beats Umass ... cause i cant see Umass losing to hofstra