The CAA is an expansive conference nowadays, but when the league is set for a Top 25 matchup like No. 16 Rhode Island at No. 24 New Hampshire on Saturday, it’s a conference back to its roots.
New Hampshire, long one of the CAA programs that is annually in position to be ranked and considered for the playoffs, hosts a New England rival in Rhode Island that has spent years climbing to be among the regular CAA contenders alongside UNH. The Rams have assembled four straight winning records without an FCS playoffs appearance to show for it.
URI (5-1, 2-0 CAA) looks to be in good shape to find a fifth consecutive season at .500 or better, but the expectations are greater for Rhody. Those standards come into focus in this game opposing the Wildcats, who have won seven of the last 10 meetings against Rhode Island.
The series has heated up as the Rams have put it together in Kingston, however. Four of the last five URI-UNH games dating back to 2018 have been decided by one possession. Rhody has taken the split at 2-2 in the one-score finals.
This season, the Rams have had a knack for pulling out the close win, doing so in victorious margins of 10 or fewer vs. Holy Cross, LIU, Hampton (in double overtime), and Brown.
New Hampshire has a common opponent having also faced the Crusaders, with UNH getting it done in a 21-20 win.
The Wildcats (4-2, 2-0 CAA) are coming off a pair of road games that finished around a touchdown spread. New Hampshire began October by losing 28-23 at Harvard and recovering in a 17-10 win at Elon.
In examining Rhode Island and New Hampshire’s remaining schedules following Saturday, it seems the victor this week will likely be playoff-bound – at a minimum, it will obviously have a pivotal head-to-head win over a fellow at-large candidate, if not an auto-bid finalist.
Rhody’s most difficult tests after its UNH game are Nov. 2 and 9 against Monmouth and Delaware, respectively. If the Rams pick up a sixth overall win by beating the Wildcats, they have room to drop games to both MU and UD and still finish 9-3 with wins elsewhere over Maine, UAlbany, and Bryant.
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New Hampshire has its aforementioned FCS loss to Harvard out of conference, but the ’Cats are also in fine condition for the postseason with a win on Saturday. UNH’s biggest challenges following its URI game are Oct. 26 at Villanova and Nov. 9 vs. Monmouth. If New Hampshire beats Rhode Island, the Wildcats can lose to VU and MU and still conclude at 8-4, which could be enough on the bubble.
New Hampshire and Rhody stack up similarly in the CAA stat leaderboards. The Wildcats average 24.5 points per game on offense to the Rams’ 24.3. That puts both in the middle of the CAA, which is where Rhode Island sits in PPG allowed (26.7). UNH is a field goal better in scoring defense.
New Hampshire is back to moving the ball in multiple ways on offense while being predicated on the pass, as the Wildcats have the CAA’s No. 4 QB in passing yards per game – Seth Morgan averages 223.3 yards per contest. They also can turn to Isaac Seide, who’s 11th in the league with 389 yards on the ground this season.
Rhode Island’s Malik Grant is averaging 74.8 rushing yards per game, good for sixth in the CAA.
The Rams are last in the conference in time of possession per game (25 minutes, 5 seconds), for what that’s worth in perhaps trying to play some keep-away from UNH’s offense, which is also in the CAA’s bottom quarter in TOP.
When these New England adversaries trade blows on Saturday, Rhode Island will find out how it measures up after all this time of improvement, New Hampshire will look to take back series control, and both squads have a playoff path to chart with helpful resume insurance on the line.
