THE BASICS
No. 18/17 Rhode Island (5-2, 3-1 CAA Football) at No. 10/12 William & Mary (6-1, 3-1 CAA Football)
Kickoff: Saturday, Oct. 29, 1:00 p.m. EST
Live Stats | Audio: Varsity Network | Video/TV: FloFootball.com | Game Notes
 

RHODE ISLAND VS. WILLIAM & MARY - SERIES NOTES

• Saturday's matchup will be the 19th between Rhode Island and William & Mary all time, with the Tribe holding a 14-4 advantage in the series.
• The teams have not met since 2019, when William & Mary scored a 55-19 victory.
• Rhode Island has never won at William & Mary, going 0-8 when visiting Williamsburg.
• URI's last win in the series came in 2018, a 21-10 victory at Meade Stadium in Kingston.
• Both teams enter the weekend riding three-game winning streaks.
• The Rams most recently won at Monmouth 48-46 in seven overtimes, the longest game in both FCS and CAA Football history.
• William & Mary won at Towson last weekend, 44-24.
• William & Mary is 2-1 at home this season, while Rhode Island is 3-1 as the road team.

Rhody-William & Mary one of Several Top 25 matchups this weekend

• Rhode Island continued its climb in both national Top 25 polls, moving up four spots to No. 18 in the Stats Perform poll and two spots to No. 17 in the AFCA Coaches poll.
• Rhody's latest move comes on the heels of a historic seven-overtime, 48-46 victory at Monmouth. The game was tied 35-35 at the end of regulation and then again at 42-42 following the first two overtimes. From there, URI was successful on three of five attempts, finally ending the game when quarterback Kasim Hill hit Ed Lee in the end zone for the winning points.
• In the Stats Perform poll, the Rams earned 330 points, up from 246 the week before, when URI was No. 22 in the poll. Rhody experienced a similar jump in the AFCA Coaches poll, getting 216 points while moving up two slots from No. 19. In last week's poll, the Rams had 170 points.
• William & Mary landed at No. 10 in the Stats Perform poll and No. 12 in the AFCA Coaches poll.
• Saturday's game is one of five between ranked squads this weekend. The others are No. 2/3 Sacramento State against No. 14/23 Idaho; No. 5/7 Weber State vs. No. 11/10 Montana; No. 5/8 Holy Cross vs. No. 22/15 Fordham; and No. 17/20 Richmond vs. No. 19/25 New Hampshire.

CLASS OF 2017 SHOWS HOW TO WALK THIS WAY

• Rhode Island has three sixth-year seniors who initially made the team as walk-ons in 2017 starting for the defense now.
• Linebacker Jake Fire and safeties Henry Yianakopolos and Malik Gavek are all starters.
• On the offensive side of the ball, wide receiver Ed Lee joined the program in 2017 as a partial scholarship player and is now the team's leading receiver.
• Fire leads the Rams in both total tackles (62) and tackles for loss (7.0).
• Yianakopolos has the longest active starting streak on the defense with 21 in a row.
• This year he has 29 tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks.
• Gavek has 25 tackles, including three on special teams.
• Lee leads Rhode Island with 29 catches, 464 receiving yards and three touchdown catches.
• He also averages 10.9 yards per punt return.
• Lee ranks second in CAA Football and 11th in the nation in punt return average.
• On the season, he has 11 returns for 120 yards.