Moon Township, Pa. – According to a poll of Big South head coaches and a media panel, the RMU football team has been picked to tie for fourth in the conference for the 2021 spring season. The Big South's 2021 spring schedule features five teams playing a four-game schedule to determine the league's automatic qualifier to the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) Playoffs.
Selected as the preseason favorite is defending champion Monmouth, which earned six first-place votes and 44 points. Kennesaw State, which earned a trio of first-place tallies and 43 points, was picked to finish second, while Charleston Southern was tabbed third. The Buccaneers earned 31 points and one first-place vote. Predicted to tie for fourth with the Colonials is Gardner-Webb. Both teams compiled 16 points.
Kennesaw State teammates Isaac Foster and Bryson Armstrong were voted Big South Preseason Players of the Year, with Foster earning the offensive selection and Armstrong the defensive selection.
RMU is led by third-year head coach
Bernard Clark, Jr., who led the Colonials to a record of 7-5 (.583) in 2019, including a mark of 6-1 (.857) in the Northeast Conference (NEC). For his efforts, Clark was selected as the 2019 NEC Co-Coach of the Year and was a finalist for the 2019 Eddie Robinson Award.
At a press conference at the UPMC Events Center June 15, 2020, RMU announced it was joining the Big South as an associate member. The Big South has five core members with football, including Campbell, Charleston Southern, Gardner-Webb, Hampton and North Carolina A&T. The Big South also features associate football-only members Monmouth, Kennesaw State, North Alabama and RMU.
The Colonials return 42 letterwinners and 12 starters from 2019, including running back
Alijah Jackson and linebacker
Aniello Buzzacco.
Jackson finished second in the NEC in rushing (88.3 yards per game) and third in all-purpose (103.5 ypg) in earning 2019 All-NEC First Team accolades. He registered five 100-yard rushing efforts and became the fourth student-athlete in program history to eclipse 100 yards on the ground in four consecutive games.
Buzzacco was named to the 2019 All-NEC Second Team after leading the league and ranking fifth in NCAA FCS in tackles with 131, an average of 10.9 per game. He established an RMU single-season record for takedowns, recording at least 13 tackles in a game on seven occasions. Included in those tallies were a career-high 18 stops in a 24-20 win over Bryant.
RMU also returns four of its five starters on the offensive line in the spring of 2021, including redshirt senior center
Eric McAllister II, seniors
Trevor Hicks and
Dylan Young and redshirt junior
Bussy Remaley. The quartet help protect redshirt junior quarterback
George Martin, who completed 52 percent (102-for-196) of his passes in 2019 for 1,348 yards and 11 touchdowns.
In the spring of 2021, more than 90 of 114 FCS playoff-eligible programs are planning to participate, culminating with a 16-team NCAA Division Football Championship. The first round begins the weekend of April 23-25, with the title game in Frisco, Texas, scheduled for Sunday, May 16.
The Colonials open their 2021 spring campaign Saturday, Feb. 27, by traveling James Madison for a Noon kickoff.
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