Rhode Island football jumps to No. 14 in FCS rankings; Brown kicker honored

The University of Rhode Island football team continues to climb in the FCS national polls, and the end of a losing streak earned Brown an Ivy League honor.

The Rams moved up to No. 14 in the rankings after their sixth straight win and Christopher Maron was named special teams player of the week after his heroics with the Bears.

URI is off to its best start since 2001 and is threatening to set some new program standards this November. The Rams (7-1, 4-0) have never opened 5-0 in Coastal Athletic Association play – they came into the league from the Atlantic 10 in 2007. URI’s only winning record in the current conference comes in 2022, a 5-3 result that marked the FCS’s first playoff berth in nearly four decades.

“I think it means a lot to our state,” URI coach Jim Fleming said in a conference call Monday morning. “This will give us a wave of pride and support that we need to continue to grow the program in the right way.”

The Rams battled to a 24-14 win over Maine, erasing an early 7-0 deficit in front of a sold-out crowd in four home games at Meade Stadium this season. Malik Grant’s touchdown run early in the fourth quarter tied the game at 14-14, and Ty Groff’s field goal added security. URI won its first seven games of that 2001 season – still the Rams’ longest winning streak since eight games, dating back to the FCS playoffs in 1985.

“We made it through September,” Fleming said. “We made it through October. And now the games you remember will be played in November. These are the ones we can put in our pockets.”

URI is one of five CAA teams in this week’s survey. No. 13 Villanova, No. 16 Richmond, No. 20 Stony Brook and No. 24 William & Mary were also in the mix after joining the Rams last week and posting a combined 4-1 record. The Seawolves beat the Tribe 35-13 while celebrating homecoming.

Another full house is expected for URI’s 1 p.m. kickoff Saturday with Monmouth (4-4, 2-2). The Hawks have one of the most potent offenses in the country, but suffered a 26-14 loss to Towson last week. Monmouth has scored at least 27 points in each of its other seven games, has a 2,500-yard passer in Derek Robertson and counts four receivers with at least 25 catches this season.

URI football coach Jim Fleming talks about Rhody’s seventh win of the season

Rhode Island beat Maine 24-14 to improve to 7-1 on the season and 4-0 in the CAA as the Rams continue to advance.

Brown hosts Penn

Brown plays its own important home game this weekend against Penn after snapping a three-game losing streak. Maron’s 29-yard field goal as time expired gave the Bears a 23-21 victory over Cornell at Brown Stadium, the last of 20 unanswered points to close the contest.

Brown (3-3, 2-1) faced a 21-3 deficit going into the third quarter. Jake Willcox hit Solomon Miller for a 38-yard touchdown pass and Qwentin Brown capped a 98-yard scoring drive with a smash in from the 1. Maron’s 35-yard field goal with 5:24 left in the fourth Quarter brought the Bears closer, and his game-winning goal was Brown’s first walk-off kick since October 2015.

No. 22 Dartmouth (6-0, 3-0) leads the three-team league by one game. The Bears, Columbia and Harvard are all 2-1, and Brown is counting on an opening win over the Crimson for the tiebreaker. The Quakers are visiting on Saturday for the 12 p.m. kickoff.

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Brown hosts Penn

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