THE BASICS
No. 22/24 Rhode Island (0-0, 0-0 CAA Football) at Stony Brook (0-0, 0-0 CAA Football)
Kickoff: Thursday, Sept. 1, 7 p.m. EST
Live Stats | Audio: Varsity Network | Video: FloFootball.com | Game Notes

RHODE ISLAND VS. STONY BROOK - SERIES NOTES

• The season opener will be the ninth meeting all time with Stony Brook.
• Rhode Island beat the Seawolves for the first time in 2021, winning 27-20, in overtime.
• The winning points came on Kasim Hill's 27-yard pass to Caleb Warren on the first play of OT.
• The Rams are 0-3 all time on the road against Stony Brook.
• Stony Brook assistant coaches Diamond Weaver (cornerbacks) and Omar King (running backs) both spent time on Rhode Island head coach Jim Fleming's staff. Weaver was with the Rams from 2013-15, while King was on staff in 2013.
• Rhode Island Chief of Staff Vince Sinagra was Stony Brook's defensive coordinator from 2004-05.

FLOFOOTBALL.COM, VARSITY NETWORK TO CARRY BROADCASTS

• The video stream of Thursday's game will be on FloFootball.com.
• The audio stream will be on the Varsity Network app. Stone Freeman will handle the play-by-play and Terry Lynch will be the color analyst.
• Steve MacDonald will handle play-by-play for the game at Bryant on Sept. 10, as well as all home games.
• Freeman will call radio play-by-play for all road games. He will handle play-by-play for the FloFootball.com streams for home games.

FLEMING HAS FOURTH LONGEST TENURE IN RHODE ISLAND HISTORY

• Entering his ninth season at the helm for Rhode Island, head coach Jim Fleming is the fourth longest tenured coach in URI history.
• Only Frank Keaney (21 seasons, 1920-40), Bob Griffin (17 seasons, 1976-1992) and Marshall Tyler (10 seasons, 1898-1901, 1903-1908) have more seasons as head coach on the Rhody sideline.
• Keaney (187 games), Griffin (169) and Tim Stowers (90 games from 2000-07) are the only head coaches with more games at URI than Fleming.
• Fleming (82 games) is set to pass Stowers on that list this season.

RHODE ISLAND RANKED IN TOP 25 FOR SEVERAL PRESEASON POLLS

• Rhode Island was ranked No. 14 in the Athlon Preseason FCS Top 25.
• The Rams are one of five CAA Football teams to be ranked in Athlon's poll. Villanova is the highest ranked CAA school, opening the year at No. 8 after going 10-3 and reaching the FCS quarterfinals last fall.
• The Rams also open the season ranked No. 22 in the Stats Perform FCS Top 25 and No. 24 in the AFCA Coaches Preseason Top 25.
• In 2021, URI spent six weeks in the STATS Perform Top 25, reaching as high as No. 12 last Oct. 11.
• It was URI's highest national ranking in 20 years, since the team was ranked No. 9 in the Sports Network Top 25 on Oct. 30, 2001.
• In the AFCA poll, Rhode Island peaked at No. 14 last season. Rhody spent five weeks total in the AFCA poll in 2021.
• The highest URI has ever been ranked was No. 3 in the season-ending NCAA Division I-AA Football Committee Poll of 1984.