What Rhody Football Needs to Do to Gain Some Respect in Kingston, RI
I am writing this on April 7, 2017 and Dan Hurley still has no contract extension. After the tremendous season that Rhode Island MBB had in the 2016-2017 season, everyone is waiting for that contract extension. As many of us Rhode Island basketball fans know, a bunch of the money that could go towards that future contract is currently being spent on Rhode Island football. If the football team at URI even had a single winning record in recent seasons, I would not bat an eye at this thought. Unfortunately, the URI football team is absolutely horrific.
No matter what way you cut it, facts are facts. I am a part of the group that believes that Rhode Island football needs to no longer exist. Instead, the university should invest all of that money into their clearly superior sports programs and into improving educational programs. Based on these facts, this article is not for the faint of heart and certainly not for die-hard Rhody football supporters. Even if you hate everything that I am saying, there is no denying that the remaining fans of Rhode Island football cannot disagree with the facts and statistics that I will be mentioning.
We have all heard about how Jim Fleming was supposed to be this program's savior. Is that right? What kind of savior of a head coach goes 4-30 in three seasons? Need I remind you, this team plays Division 1 FCS football. 4-30 in the past three seasons of Division 1 FCS football ... let's end this single paragraph right here.
Take a read at this football program's overall records since 2002, as listed here: 3-9, 4-8, 4-7, 4-7, 4-7, 3-8, 3-9, 1-10, 5-6, 3-8, 0-11, 3-9, 1-11, 1-10, and 2-9.
I just listed the football team's records for the past 15 seasons. All of their wins in those 15 seasons comes to a combined total of 41. 41 wins in 15 seasons of college football! Yeah, we both read that correctly. For the sake of trying to somehow be positive, I will not mention what their total losses in the past 15 seasons equals. I would love to have someone try to somehow justify investing money into Rhode Island football over giving that money to Dan Hurley for a well-deserved contract extension.
If you think I am trashing Rhode Island's football program, take it however you want. When a team performs this terribly, I have no sympathy. The Bad News Bears had more success than this team has ever had. At least when the Detroit Lions went 0-16 in the 2008 NFL season, they were losing to professional football teams. On top of all this, my criticism is NOTHING compared to the statements that I have heard and read by the student community. if I put a single quote that I have heard from a URI student bashing the football team, I would have to strongly consider shutting this website down (to give everyone a little context).
The bottom line is that this team needs to turn it around by next season or Thorr Bjorn needs to seriously reconsider supporting this team and funding loads of money into this failing program. Overall, the solution should be clear for this team of football players - win some damn games.
