Saturday afternoon’s battle between Stony Brook (0-1, 0-0 CAA) and Rhode Island (1-0, 1-0 CAA) in New York will be the conference opener for the Seawolves and what an opener it will be. While URI has already taken down a CAA foe in Campbell, the story is quite different for a Stony Brook unit that comes in after getting beat down by FBS San Diego State last week. While Billy Cosh’s team did not look good at all last weekend against the Aztecs, they still have playoff aspirations this season after winning
eight games in his first go as head coach last year. A win on Saturday over the Rams, the team that won the league last fall, would get them off on the right foot in realizing that goal.
The challenge will be a stout one as Stony Brook will need to contend with an experienced quarterback in Devin Farrell as well as one of the top defensive players in the country in linebacker A.J. Pena. Pena comes into this fall as a Buck Buchanan Award contender after putting up stellar numbers last season. The senior was terrific in 2024, registering an impressive 22.5 tackles for loss and 12.5 sacks. Those were just some of the 82 total stops he delivered. The Seawolves, who gave up three sacks last week, will need to improve up front or it will be a long day for whoever they send out at QB.
Last Saturday both grad seniors Casey Case and Chris Zellous got time as the Seawolves are looking to find a successor to Tyler Knoop but neither were able to get anything going against San Diego State. With Pena bearing down from the defense, Case and/or Zellous has to head their head on a swivel and will need more help from their receivers as well and that has to start with Jayce Freeman. Freeman led Stony Brook with 506 yards and six TDs last year but versus the Aztecs he was quiet, catching just two balls for eight yards.
Rhode Island, however, won’t just present problems for the Seawolves offense. Farrell and company look to make life difficult on the defense as well. A redshirt junior, Farrell brings a lot of experience with him into this season. Last year he started nine games and helped lead the Rams into the second round of the playoffs and this time out, although it’s only one game in, Farrell seems to be even better. Against the Camels last week he threw for 275 yards and a pair of touchdowns but, even more significantly, helped orchestrate a big comeback to help the Rams avoid a season-opening upset. He’s poised and athletic making him dangerous for that Stony Brook defense.
It isn’t just #7 that can make it happen, though. Farrell has one of the FCS’s top receivers at his disposal, too, in Marquis Buchanan. Buchanan was terrific a season ago, catching 82 passes for over 1,100 yards and eight touchdowns. Stony Brook needs to make him their top priority on defense or the game could get out of hand in a hurry.
Cosh will lean on his defensive playmakers to slow down Farrell and Buchanan and that task is made all the more difficult by the fact that star DB Rudy Silvera is now gone as is Deshawn Jones Jr. Someone else will need to step up for the secondary. Fortunately for Stony Brook, it seems that sophomore DB Myles McGoy might already be slipping into that role on the back end. He was one of the few bright spots last week, logging three pass breakups and three tackles. Covering Buchanan will be a different sort of beast but there is promise for the young cornerback.
The Seawolves will also need a big game from running back Roland Dempster who was a big part of their rise last fall. Dempster ran for 1,332 yards and 18 touchdowns last fall as a senior. Instead of opting to hit the portal for his last year of eligibility, Dempster chose to stay with Stony Brook and they need him to be exactly what he was in 2024. The Aztecs did a good job bottling him up last week and finding chances against Pena and the URI defense might not be a whole lot easier.
It seems as though this is one of those contests that will be decided by the standout talent on either side. With Stony Brook still trying to figure things out in the passing game, Dempster’s role becomes even more important. Meanwhile the Rams don’t come by their #9 national ranking by fluke as they have big names on both sides that can change a game quickly. Farrell and Buchanan have led the way for this team for a while now and if they can do it again on Saturday, they’ll go up 2-0 in the CAA chase early.
If Stony Brook wants to make the playoffs this year and have a shot of hoisting the conference crown for the first time since joining the conference back in 2013, they’ll need to ride their homefield advantage out to an upset on Saturday. Playing catch-up in that conference is no easy task and the playoff bubble… as they know… is not a kind place to be either at the end of the year.
The Rams did struggle early on against Campbell last week, so it’s not at all a longshot to think the Seawolves could keep pace. Rhody, though, is the favorite. It’ll all go down on Saturday evening at 6:00 PM (ET) and can be streamed on FloSports.
