Talley One Of Two At URI

Former Dartmouth assistant Rob Talley is one of two candidates left standing for the Rhode Island head coaching job. From all appearances, though, it looks as if he's going to be left at the altar. From today's Providence Journal:

(Darren) Rizzi, 37, would appear to have the edge because he is an alum, has head-coaching experience and was part of the Rutgers turnaround. Talley, an all-conference linebacker at Boston University and opponent of Rizzi’s on the field, guided Stonehill to a 5-5 record in his first head-coaching job. He was a longtime assistant at Dartmouth and spent three years with the San Francisco 49ers.

Talley declined comment yesterday, and Rizzi could not be reached.

After a year of study the Patriot League will be making changes regarding the conference's Academic Index. (Press release) There's not much in the way of details available yet.

Several things to keep in mind:

• From what I heard, Patriot football coaches were pretty optimistic during the season that when changes were made, they would be for the good. (One said privately he expected some movement on the scholarship issue.)
  
• Given the challenges that the ongoing restructuring of Ivy League financial aid packages is sure to bring about, don't for a second think the Patriot League is going to do anything to further compromise its competitive posture.
• And finally, the rise of schools like Albany and Central Connecticut in football and the addition of scholarships in the Northeast Conference means that the Patriot is being squeezed on one side by the Ivies and on the other side by another subset of schools. That being the case, the Patriot League probably does need to make changes of some sort to remain competitive.