Image courtesy of URI Athletics

For the past several years, URI has been that team hovering around or inside the Top 25 at times, but they haven’t been able to turn it into a playoff berth.

This season, the Rams are ranked 18th in the Athlon Sports preseason poll, so national pundits believe a playoff berth for the first time in 38 years is a real possibility.

Check out what head coach Jim Fleming, quarterback Kasim Hill and linebacker Evan Stewart had to say during CAA Media Day on Tuesday…

FLEMING ON LAST YEAR AND IF THIS MIGHT BE THE YEAR FOR URI TO MAKE THE PLAYOFFS

“Might as well. We’re going to get a chance to play everybody and get them ready to go over the course of training camp with every expectation that we’ll be in the conversation at the end of the year. I always tell these guys, the games you remember are played in November, so let’s make sure we’re still alive at that point in time. In this conference, that’s a testimony to a very good football team if you’re still in the conversation late, you’ve got a shot.”

FLEMING ON DEVELOPING A REPUTATION AS A TOUGH PROGRAM TO BEAT AND NO LONGER SNEAKING UP ON OPPONENTS

“That’s an easy one. Yeah. I think we’ve earned some respect through the performances of the teams in the past. I think people recognize it’s a good, quality football team that’s well-coached and physical. I don’t know about sneaking up on anyone in this game. If you’re sneaking up on somebody, then shame on the opponent for taking you lightly. We all look at this game the same way, which is the requirement of preparation to be prepared to play at your highest level every Saturday. With 11 guaranteed, I think everybody’s going to be ready. We don’t sneak up on anyone and I don’t think we ever did. I do think people are aware and we’ve grown this thing to a point where people recognize Rhode Island football is someone that can contend.”

FLEMING ON WHO CAN REPLACE LOSSES ON OFFENSE

“I don’t know if you ever look to replace just one. (Receiver) Eddie Lee just had a great year and he was a go-to for Kasim. We’ve got some other significant players. Kahtero Summers, Darius Savage, guys you’re familiar with. John Erby’s coming back off a couple years being injured. We brought in a transfer, Amari Walker who’s got some speed we can add in. Looking at depth this morning, we’ve got a lot of kids who are going to be able to jump in and fill those gaps. At the receiver position, you’re always looking tomato sure you  catch the ones you can get your hands on and if you can do that we’ll be fine because we have a QB that can get them the ball. Defensively, we lost some guys and that was a little bit of an issue for us, but we’ve filled in nicely going out and recruiting well and trying to get some transfers in here that are about the right stuff and can help us take that step towards a championship. It’s been a challenging offseason. With success, people come up and snatch your players and snatch your coaches. It’s the nature of the game. We’re a little bit different, but we’ll have the same mentality and focus coming in.”

HILL ON HOW EXCITED HE IS TO SHOW HOW GOOD HE IS DESPITE LOSSES ON OFFENSE

“I think the scale (1-10) would be broke on that one. Behind 10, but I’m not really worried about that. The team that we have, there’s full faith in every single guy. Around me, offense, defense, special teams, and the coaching staff. if we go out and execute, we feel like nobody can stop us. As long as we’re doing that and preparing the right way, it’s going to be all good.”

HILL ON ED LEE WORKING OUT FOR THE PATS AND HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH LEE

“I’m super excited for him. We go back to high school, I’ve actually known him since about 7th grade. Just happy for his journey. Everything he’s had to overcome with injuries, just earning spots and stuff like that. I talked to him the other night. He’s doing well up there and I just hope it keeps going well for him.”

FLEMING ON THE PLAYOFF SNUB MOTIVATING THIS YEAR’S TEAM

“I mean, if I say it’s not going to motivate them, it’s a lie. But, also, if I say it’s going to motivate us unbelievably, I’d be a liar as well because I always say what you do in a specific year is a new page in the book. How does it motivate us? We have goals. We have goals just like every team in the conference. We’ve got good players. One of our goals is to win the conference championship. That’s what we go out for every year. I’ve got a group led by these two guys here and Sebastian Delasoudas and a handful of other seniors that have been through the wars. I’ve got guys that have turned down opportunities to go elsewhere to stay here and be able to finish this because it’s important to them to put Rhode Island back into the championship picture. It’s been since 1985. It’s going to motivate us I think. But, at the same time, I’ve told them and they’ll echo…Kasim just said it…this is about process. It’s about being prepared. It’s about utilizing the people we have and getting the most out of them. As long as I’ve got a group in the locker room like I think I have that can battle through the tough times and handle the adversity that’s inevitable in the game of college football, then I think we’ve got an opportunity to be successful. We were a couple plays away from getting it done last year…it’s a tough conference. We’ve got to be ready every day and we’ve got to prepare the right way.”

STEWART ON GOING AGAINST ALL-AMERICAN NICK CORREIA IN PRACTICE

“Nick’s one of my best friends, my roommate. He definitely makes you better as a linebacker. Makes going against some other guys we play on a daily basis a bit easier. I couldn’t be more blessed to go against someone like him, he makes me better every day.”

STEWART ON COACHING CHANGES ON DEFENSE

“Coach Lorenti and Coach Coop if nobody knew, they played together in college, so they have a similar philosophy. They’re really good friends, so once Coach Coop told us he was leaving, that (replacement hire) was what everyone on the defensive side wanted. We thought that was going to be the guy. Smoothest transition that could’ve been possible for us. We couldn’t be happier with Coach Lorenti and obviously, the scheme’s going to be similar, but he’s going to have his own twist on it. We haven’t found out yet, but we’re excited for it and couldn’t be happier with who we got.”

STEWART ON HENRY YIANKOPOLOS HAVING HIS IMPRINT ON THE DEFENSE

“Him and Jake Fire are two of my best friends. I couldn’t be more excited to have them around. Just from an off the field perspective, and then their experience helping the guys, guys who re filling in roles they had recently will be super beneficial.”

HILL ON RETURNING TO URI

“Year seven. I think this was back in December, just talking with Coach Flem and Coach Murph, just really breaking everything down. I think the biggest thing for me is the relationships that I’ve formed at URI. A lot of my closest friends are here. I love the coaching staff. I love the community and I just feel like it wouldn’t be right if we didn’t finish the job. So, definitely want to kick down the door of the playoffs. I definitely want to come back and win a ring, so those are two main focuses and I’ll be striving for that every single day.”

HILL ON WHAT HE’S WORKED ON TO ELEVATE HIS GAME FURTHER THIS OFFSEASON

“I feel like I say it every single year, I’ve cut more weight down. Body’s feeling good. I think that’ll be the physical thing everyone can see right away. Mentally, just trying to be more decisive. It’s my fourth season including the Covid year playing in the offense and me and Coach Murph know each other like the back of our hands. Just being in-tune with the offense and knowing everybody and what everybody’s capable of doing, what they do well, what they don’t do well. Just trying to be decisive with everything and I’m looking forward to this season.”

FLEMING ON NEWER PLAYERS ON DEFENSE THAT WILL STEP INTO BIGGER ROLES

“We’ve got a lot of familiar faces up front. Burby, Neal, I think you guys are familiar with those guys. I think AJ Pena has a chance at the outside backer spot to really make an impact. I just keep looking…we brought in some good kids through transfers. We’ve got guys we know about in the program that we’ve recruited. I feel…I could go through a number of different names, but until we get out on the practice field and see how the depth starts to formulate, it’s hard to say which ones are going to be the impact guys. I certainly feel very good. We’ve done a good job filling in some needs at cornerback. We’ve got two monster safeties and brought a nice linebacker crew in. I feel good about where we’re at and we’ve got to go find out which ones can make it happen for us.”