Oct. 7, 2011

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Following their game at Brown on Oct. 1, Rhode Island head coach Joe Trainer and starting quarterback Steve Probst told a room full of reporters that the week leading up to Rhody's game against the Bears was perhaps the best week of practice the Rams had had all season.

Trainer and Probst stressed their collective confidence in the team's game plan and were convinced that they were well prepared for their matchup against in-state rival Brown.

Unfortunately for Rhode Island, teams are judged and rewarded in college football based upon their performances on Saturday, not Monday through Friday. A week which apparently saw great practice after great practice in Kingston proved to be irrelevant following a 35-21 loss at the hands of the Brown Bears in Providence.

Beginning this Saturday, however, Rhode Island will no longer be allowed to escape its problems worry free. The Rams will host Old Dominion in the first of seven straight conference games to finish off the year. Not to undermine the significance of its first four games, but this seven-game stretch will prove to be critical to Rhody's success or failure.

"This is a group that practices hard, that watches a ton of film, that prepares hard, we're just not performing well enough right now," Trainer said. "Whatever we're doing, we've got to change it because we're not doing enough. We're just not getting the results that we need."

Fortunately for the Rams, of their three losses to this point, only one has come against a CAA Football, a 36-27 loss at UMass. They've been able to dodge the proverbial bullet early on, as their struggles through the first four games have yet to really cost them big time in the conference.

"If you were to tell me, `Steve, you're going to be 1-3 in your senior year through your first four games,' I would have said you're crazy," Probst added. "If I knew why we were underachieving I'd let you know. Maybe it's a lack of focus."

In Rhode Island's favor will be its success at home of late. The Rams are 5-1 in their last six home games. The lone loss came against Maine, a game which tight end Joe Migliarese's apparent game-winning touchdown was overturned.

Despite having the home-field advantage, however, Rhode Island knows it has to drastically improve upon last week's seven turnover, nine penalty game against Brown if it's to have a chance at picking up its first conference win of the season this Saturday.

"We're not good enough, even though we think we've got some players, we're not good enough to overcome the mistakes we made," Trainer said. "We're just not good enough to overcome that many turnovers."

This Saturday, Rhode Island will get a chance to prove just how good it really is. It will have a chance to get back on track and, in a sense, clean its slate when it takes the field against Old Dominion with an opportunity to earn its first CAA win of the year.

To do so, the Rams will have to continue to improve upon their overall production while avoiding the unforced turnovers and yellow flags that set them back against Brown. If the Rams are able to compete at the level that Trainer, Probst and all of the Rams expect, the good weeks of practice should relate to good results in the standings.