CAA FB Teleconference (8/29)

Today marked the first CAA Football Teleconference of the year.  The 11 coaches of the toughest conference in the FCS take their questions in 10-minute segments and most of them had some good information to share, including our on K.C. Keeler.

Here are my thoughts on today's teleconference and VIDEO of Coach Keeler's segment:

• CAA's offices lost power during the storms, so this was being run out of someone's home in a quick setup.  I give them tons of credit for not pushing it off a day and getting it in.  Not easy to scramble 
• Nothing really on Maine or New Hampshire.  Both teams just looking to start off on the right foot.  UNH is taking on Toledo and Coach Sean McDonnell praised their skill position players, but otherwise there's no big news out of the far north schools.
• This is UMass' last season as CAA members before moving on to the FBS.  Coach Kevin Morris claims his team is focused on going out on top this year and not the lure of the MAC.  The Minutemen are very young and their starting QB will have ZERO experience.  Unless you're a senior this year, you can't help but think of the future during the season, and my guess is there will be some lapses in the first few and last few games of the year before the playoffs for them.
• Just as one team is ready to leave, Old Dominion joins the CAA in just their 3rd year of existence.  We all know Newark was in the path of Hurricane Irene, but so was Norfolk being right along the coast, and Coach Bobby Wilder had to evacuate with players to Raleigh, NC while others went to Washington D.C. or with other families that left the area ("get as far away as Richmond").  This has lead to the team not practicing since Thursday and they just restored power to their facilities.  He mentioned that there was no real damage to their stadium or facilities, but this isn't going to help them get off to a great start.  I see ODU as the feel good story that will get some gritty wins this year, but may not contend with the top 4-5 for another year or so.
• Head Coach Andy Talley of Villanova says that the Wildcats are in a "rebuilding phase." If this was the pros, I'd say great news for the Hens.  But when it comes to college, that just means it's an unknown instead of experienced and well, known.  Clearly these young players are good recruits, but you could tell in Coach Talley's voice that he's honestly concerned about how his team will perform this season.  I want to believe him and say that 'Nova will just be a fighter and not a contender, but this is 'Nova, and until they go out and lose a few, I'm not turning my back on them just yet.  Downside for Delaware here is that with the Wildcats being the last game of the year, this team will get some experience in and might be just seasoned enough to upset beat the Hens.
• William & Mary also had to scatter due to the storms.  Their school is still closed for another day and Coach Laycock is just trying to get enough players back to campus to hold a practice tonight.  This weekend is the biggest game on their schedule as they'll head down to Charlottesville to take on UVA.  They pulled off the upset two years ago, but Coach Laycock says he's not brought it up or shown any video of the game to his players.  You know that Virginia is showing it to their guys as motivation to not let it happen again.  It will be tough for W&M but as the #3 FCS team in the country, I expect them to compete in this Earthquake vs. Hurricane game.  Hopefully neither team is overly affected by their wrath of nature.
• Lucky for Delaware, Hurricane Irene did not affect their team according to Coach Keeler.  They planned everything well enough with no practices over the weekend, and with UD moving the start of classes to Thursday, the Hens will get earlier practices in this week.  Coach Keeler agrees with the setiment of Coach Laycock that there's no surprise element in playing FBS teams anymore.  The bigger news here is that he said that the D-2 game (West Chester) is coming off the schedule in a year, and they will only play FBS games in seasons with 12 game slots.  Years with 11 game slots, they will stick to an all FBS schedule.  He also reiterated that the goal of the team is not to win FBS games, but to win National Championships.  As for the quarterback battle, Coach Keeler won't be making that decision until the hours before the Navy game.  Personally I think it's a smart move to keep it quiet, but trying to claim there's no winner or loser in this competition is a bit much.  Someone needs to win this position ASAP.
• JMU's Mickey Matthews had the line of the conference, claiming that he tried to get Boise State to schedule UNC the Monday before JMU plays them but to no avail (BSU beat VaTech the Monday before JMU last year). Their new expansions to their stadium should be a highlight for them, but the team is young so who knows if it will turn into a good luck charm for them on the field.
• Coach Wayne Lineburg of Richmond has only taken over the team recently as their last coach resigned from the position less than a week ago after a DWI arrest.  Due to the sudden nature of the change, Coach Lineburg is going to have to try and keep things as they are instead of implementing his own big changes right away.  With a matchup with Duke this weekend, there's little time to make anything more than a tweak to the system in place.
• Coach Ambrose at Towson is really pumping up his young players who have that year of experience under them, stating that they will "turn out to be really good and experienced old players."  They've had a rough go of it the past few years so it will be good to have them back in the mix, but I still view them as a work in progress.
• Last, we have Coach Joe Trainer of Rhode Island.  Sounds optimistic, but URI always seems to fall short as the year progresses.  Nothing important to report here.

Hopefully this becomes a weekly feature here on AH2D, and I'll make sure to update with a link to the full teleconference once it goes up. And don't forget to share your thoughts on it!

UPDATE: To get to the other segments of the teleconference, click on the following link and scroll down to the team you want to listen to and the date of the teleconference.
CAA Football Pressbox 2011