University of Richmond Athletics
No. 10 Spiders Set To Face Rhode Island On The Road
10/09/2006 | Football
Oct. 9, 2006
Spider Football Gameday Central
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The 10th-ranked Richmond Spiders head north for the second-straight week Saturday, Oct. 14, to face Rhode Island. Kickoff at the Rams' Meade Stadium is set for 12 p.m.
Bob Black (play-by-play), former Richmond defensive standout Jasmonn Coleman (analyst) and Matt Smith (sideline) will handle the radio call which can be heard in the Richmond area on ESPN Radio 950 AM and worldwide at RichmondSpiders.com.
The Spiders are coming off a 27-17 loss at the hands of No. 1 New Hampshire. Richmond led the top-ranked Wildcats 14-6 at halftime last weekend, but three turnovers in the second half led to 14 points for New Hampshire, which went on to win. The Spiders held the high-powered UNH offense to 50 percent of their seasonal average in points and total offense, while wracking up 353 yards of total offense good for a 6.1 average gain per play.
Richmond is under the direction of third-year head coach Dave Clawson, who has compiled an eight-year career record of 45-42 and a 16-13 mark in his tenure at Richmond. Tim Stowers is in his seventh season as the Rams' head coach. Stowers, who is in his 13th year as a head coach overall, has established a career mark of 79-68.
QUICK OUTS...
-- Senior Adam Goloboski cracked the Richmond Top-10 in career tackles with his seven-stop effort against Northeastern. The Hereford, Md., native moved his total to 337 with 14 tackles against New Hampshire, and needs just two tackles to take over ninth place on the Spiders all-time career tackles list. Winston October currently ranks ninth with 338 tackles in his career. Four stops this week for Goloboski will move him past Jeff Edmiston and Cary Goodwin, both in seventh with 340 career tackles.
-- Senior Ryan Mace is tied for first in the Atlantic 10 in punt return yardage. The McKinney, Texas, native averages 15.0 yards per return, which is 10th-best in the country. In his career, Mace has returned 43 punts for an average of 8.7 yards and has a career-long of 40 yards.
-- Richmond's defense has recorded at least one sack in 16 of its last 17 games dating back to the second game of the 2005 slate. The only game this season when the Spiders did not sack the opposing quarterback was against Bucknell which attempted just nine passes.
-- Don't let the Richmond average of 31:43 in time of possession fool you. In two games this season the Spiders' offense has been a part of two lopsided possessional games. Against Duke, Richmond had the ball from 19:28 in the second half and put together a drive of 18 plays, 83 yards and 9:09. Against Northeastern, the Spiders had the ball for 23:00 in the second half and put together a drive of 24 plays and 69 yards in 13:48.
-- The Spiders' defense has allowed an average of 2.4 trips into the redzone over its last 12 regular season games. Those 12 opponents have come out of those games with an average of 9.1 points off redzone penetratrion, shy of a 14.6 average in points allowed by the Richmond defense in those 12 games. Last week Richmond's defense snapped the New Hampshire string of 21-straight TD's on trips in the redzone. The Wildcats were forced to kick a field goal on their first trip inside the 20-yardline, then missed a field goal on their second trip inside the redzone.
CLAWSON BALL?
"Beamer Ball," referring to the Virginia Tech head coach Frank Beamer and his teams' special team success, is known around the Commonwealth of Virginia. After Richmond's win over Northeastern, Virginians might be able to refer to special team football as "Clawson Ball."
Richmond created all 12 of its points on special teams against the Huskies. The Spiders blocked a punt which was returned for a touchdown and recorded a safety after a muffed snap on a punt attempt.
Freshman Andrew Howard's field goal, in the first quarter, was made possible by junior Andrew Harris. After Harris recorded a blocked field goal at the 6:02 mark in the first quarter, the Spiders marched down the field and gave Howard the opportunity for a 42-yard kick.
A RICHMOND WIN WOULD...
-- Make the team 5-1 to start the season for the first time since the 1995 season.
-- Make the Spiders 2-1 after three Atlantic 10 games for the second-straight season.
-- Make the Spiders 2-1 on the road this season and 8-7 all-time on the road under Clawson.
-- Give Clawson his second career win over Rhode Island and move his streak to two-straight wins over the Rams.
-- Move Clawson to 46-42 as a head coach and 107-88-1 in his coaching career.
-- Extend the Spiders' win-loss record in the all-time series with the Rams, 11-5.
-- Push the Richmond lead in the all-time series to 6-3 in games played in Kingston, R.I.
-- Mark the Spiders' fifth-straight win in Kingston.
-- Give the Spiders 13 wins in their last 15 games dating back to a 38-20 win over Villanova, Oct. 8, 2005.
-- Give Richmond an all-time record of 454-590-53.
A RICHMOND LOSS WOULD...
-- Make the Spiders 4-2 on the season for the first time since 2000.
-- Make Richmond 1-2 after three Atlantic 10 games for the first time since 2004.
-- Make the Spiders 1-2 on the road this season and 7-8 all-time on the road under Clawson.
-- Move Clawson to 45-43 as a head coach and 106-89-1 in his coaching career.
-- Make the all-time series with the Rams 10-6 in favor of the Spiders.
-- Cut Richmond's lead to 5-4 in games played against Rhode Island in Kingston.
-- Push Rhode Island's win streak to two games in all-time series.
-- Even Clawson's career mark at 1-1 against the Rams.
-- Give Richmond an all-time record of 453-591-53.
NO OFFENSIVE PUSHOVER
Richmond's defense may get most of the publicity, but the Spider offense is no pushover. Redshirt Freshman Eric Ward has led a Richmond offense which ranks fourth in the Atlantic 10 and 23rd in the nation in total offense (373.4 yds/game). Richmond averages 203.8 yards per game on the ground (4th - A-10, 20th - nationally) thanks to junior running back Tim Hightower's average of 106.2 yards per game (2nd in the conference). Ward has an efficiency rating of 126.6; sixth-best in the league, while his 155.0 yards of total offense per game is ninth in the league and 71st in the country.
DEFENSIVE SUPREMACY
Richmond's defense ranks among the Top-10 nationally in three major categories including total defense, scoring defense and pass defense. Nationally, the Spiders are fifth in I-AA and sixth in all of Division I in total defense (214.4 yds/game), which also is tops in the Atlantic 10. Defensive Coordinator Russ Huesman's defense is fifth in I-AA and seventh in all of Division I against the pass (118.6 yds/game). The third category in which Richmond ranks among the Top-10 in I-AA and leads the league is scoring defense (12.4 points/game).
The Spiders went into New Hampshire last week against the top-ranked offense in all of Division I and held the Wildcats to 27 points and 272 yards of total offense. Both game-ending totals were just 50 percent of New Hampshire's average coming into the game.
UNEVENTFUL TURNOVERS
Richmond has turned the ball over 20 times in its last 13 games, and up until last weekend the Spider defense had not allowed a points to come off those turnovers.
Richmond's opponents have now scored 14 points off the last 20 turnovers by the Spiders.
THE OPTION, AGAIN
Saturday the Spiders will be facing the option offense for the third time in their last five games.
Richmond limited VMI's option offense to 129 total yards, and limited the Keydet's passing attack to -1 yards on 1-of-8 attempts. The Spiders' front seven accounted for 10 stops-for-loss totalling 22 yards. Junior Sherman Logan also recorded a sack in the contest for five yards.
The following week against Bucknell, Richmond entertained the Bison option attack and gave up 238 yards of total offense (182 rushing, 56 passing). The Spiders' front seven recorded seven tackles-for-loss accounting for 15 yards.
In the last two weeks, Richmond has sacked the opposing quarterback six times for 38 yards. Although pocket-passing is not characteristic of an option attack, the Spiders can disrupt the flow of an option-based system with push from its defensive front-seven.
SPIDER SPORTS ON THE WEB
Richmond's official athletics website can be found at www.RichmondSpiders.com. The comprehensive site, which includes releases, photos, biographical sketches, statistics and video highlights as well as audio broadcasts for every Spider Football game, is part of the College Sports Television Network. CSTV currently hosts sites for more than 100 universities, as well as its newest member -- the Atlantic 10 Conference.
OVER THE AIR
Spider football games can be heard live on the Spider Sports Network. The network includes two new radio affiliates for all of Spider Athletics. ESPN Radio 950 AM will carry every Spider Football game in 2006, while The Wolf 93.1 FM will broadcast each the Spiders' scheduled three night games (at Duke, Delaware, at Villanova).
The "Voice of the Spiders" Bob Black, a veteran broadcaster in his 23rd season for the Spiders, will handle the play-by-play.
Former Spider defensive standout Jasmonn Coleman (analyst) will join Black in the booth for his second season with Spider Football. Coleman, a Henrico High School product, played in 42 games on the defensive line for the Spiders during his career. During the 1997 season, as a senior, Coleman tied for the team lead with seven sacks.
Matt Smith reports from the sidelines, offering listeners an all-access field level view of the action and will have the first word from the Spiders and head coach Dave Clawson live from the locker room following the game.
Matt Josephs rounds out the radio team, producing the broadcasts and anchoring the Spider Sportsdesk from the studios of flagship station ESPN Radio 950, keeping listeners up-to-date on Atlantic 10, state, and national college football scores and highlights throughout the day.
SPIDER FOOTBALL IN THE RANKINGS
Richmond Football has now been in The Sports Network I-AA Top-25 for each of the last 12 weeks. The Spiders first appeared at No. 23 in the national poll, Oct. 31, 2005, after topping James Madison, 17-15. Richmond then moved up in the poll each week for the remainder of the season. The Spiders debuted at No. 15 in the 2006 Preseason poll. After its shutout-win over Duke, Richmond jumped to No. 10, then moved up two spots to No. 8 the following week. The Spiders jumped to No. 7 Sept. 18 and have remained in that position the last two weeks. After falling to top-ranked New Hampshire last weekend, Richmond dropped to No. 10 in the current poll.
NCAA I-AA PLAYOFF RECAP & RANKINGS
Richmond was impressive in their two contests in last season's NCAA I-AA playoff run. The Spiders finished the Championship format ranked among the Top-5 in several categories combining all 16 teams in the field.
In its two games, the Spiders were a perfect 9-for-9 on trips inside the redzone -- one of just four teams in the entire field of 16 to be perfect in the category.
The Spider defense allowed an average of 17 points in its two games during the playoff run, which ranked second among the 16-team field. Only Nicholls State allowed an average of fewer points in its playoff run (14 points in one game).
Richmond's defense allowed opponents a 33 percent success rate on third-down conversions in the NCAA I-AA Championships. Only Texas State had a better opponent third-down conversion figure of 30.6 percent in the 16-team field.
The Spider offense rushed for an average of 223 yards in their two games during the NCAA I-AA Playoffs, ranking fourth among the 16-team field.
The Richmond defense allowed the third-lowest rushing average in the NCAA I-AA Playoffs, at just 147.0 per game.
BIGGER, STRONGER AND SMARTER
The Spiders have not only improved on the field, but also in both the weight room and the classroom since head coach Dave Clawson first year at Richmond.
Since first taking over the program in the spring of 2004, Clawson has talked about the correlation of off-the-field success and program success. The Spiders have done just that, raising the team GPA at least two points in each of the four semesters. The culmination of the success came in the transition from last fall's team GPA of 2.46 to the spring 2006 team GPA of 2.62, a jump of 0.16.
As mentioned above, the Spiders have also improved in the weight room. In 2004, Richmond had just 20 players on its roster with a three-lift combined total of 1,000 pounds. In 2005, the Spiders upped the total to 42 players of 1,000 pounds. The improvement happened once again this past off-season, as now 54 players (61 percent of the roster) has a three-lift total of more than 1,000 pounds.
LEFTOVERS FROM NEW HAMPSHIRE
-- The loss dropped the Spiders 4-1 on the season for the first time since 1997.
-- The loss made the Spiders 1-1 on the road this season and 7-7 all-time on the road under Clawson.
-- The loss moved Clawson to 45-42 as a head coach and 106-88-1 in his coaching career.
-- The loss made the all-time series with the Wildcats 9-8 in favor of the Spiders.
-- The loss helped extend New Hampshire's lead in the all-time series to 6-3 in games played in Durham, N.H.
-- The loss pushed New Hampshire's win streak at home in the all-time series to two games.
-- The loss dropped Clawson's career mark to 0-1 against the Wildcats.
-- The loss snapped the Spiders' 11-game regular season win streak; one win shy of equalling their longest regular-season streak of 12.
-- The loss gave Richmond an all-time record of 453-590-53.
-- The Spider defense allowed it first field goal of the season with 10:52 left in the first quarter.
-- Richmond's defense broke the New Hampshire streak of 21-straight touchdowns on trips inside the redzone by limiting the Wildcats to a field goal with 10:52 left in the first quarter. The Spiders later showed UNH its first unsuccessful trip inside the redzone when Manning missed a 37-yard field goal attempt in the first quarter.
-- UNH's fumble return for a touchdown with 1:56 left in the third quarter marked the first fumble recovery returned by an opponent this season and was the first fumble returned for a touchdown by a Spider opponent since Isai Bradshaw of James Madison returned a fumble 12 yards for a touchdown, Oct. 11, 2003.
-- Junior Tim Hightower's caught a career-high seven passes for a career-best 65 yards.
-- Redshirt Freshman Eric Ward attempted a career-high 28 passes and had career-highs in completions (18) as well as yards passing (218).
-- Senior Pete Parziale ended the game with 1.5 sacks; the first of his career.
-- The Spiders' four turnovers were the most in a single-game thus far in 2006.
