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Game Day!!!! 3:31pm tip here on the West Coast.. Old Man Stevens been busting my chops for those reports and I’m like hey Boss I gotta basketball game chat scheduled today with Matt, 2012, 2024, the TU Alum and likely TSU88, Blounge etc that I can’t miss. Going for 10 conference wins up in Long Island. He’s like.. “You still planning to take some days off the week of March 17th???? cause you know that is our busy time” I’m like this is literally like 34 years in the making and may never ever happen again.

I’m mostly bummed because TU leadership has been largely reactionary, passive and unimaginative in the modern collegiate sports landscape. Rather than taking the bull by the horns and actively shop our program around for a better opportunity our President, AD, admin, etc. seemingly sit on their hands and wait for things to happen around them. While making a move to SoCon might not be the sexiest play to make, it might be the only play left to make and I happen to think it would be a significantly better group of (football) schools to be associated with than the patchwork remnants of the CAA. Who knows if that’s even an option but if I were Steve I’d be on a plane to wherever their league offices are and be groveling for entry into SoCon.

Tough crowd. I don't think celebrating getting our two best players back means we aren't skeptical of Pat and what looms in the CAAT. I believe we have all made our collective stance on that clear. Just remember that multiple things can be true at once! You can be happy with the squad we have and displeased with the coach. Pumped that we will have a strong regular season, but worried about March, etc. If none of it matters anyway, just check out and we'll see you in 10 months or so to gather the pitchforks. I'll continue to ride the turbulent wave that is Towson basketball and just enjoy the ride for what it is.

Mid Majors were feeders for big programs even before NIL but now it’s just ridiculous. I’m not necessarily anti NIL, but gone are the days of a VCU, George Mason and Butler making tournament runs. I don’t blame the players for cashing in now since most of them will never sniff the NBA but I do miss old school college basketball when players would play all 4 years at the same school.

I think I wrote a similar headline last season and I believe, I'm tired of it. But I try to think about what can we do better instead of the obvious because that's not happening. So, I still I think I recap the season at some point after people calm down, but I might point out some things that may been bought up about what's missing and others that may have not been. 1)Guard play. and passing Those who watched UNCW/Delaware and the other games not with Towoson involved saw this. We see it over and over. We finally got a really good lead guard in Dylan Williamson (6-1, 180), but even he has flaws due to his lack of size. But let's look at some of the top lead guards in the CAA. *Jean Anguren, Hofstra (6-3, 190), *Cruz Davis, Hofstra (6-3, 170) *CJ Fulton, Charleston (6-3, 190) leads league in assists with 6.4/Derrin Boyd (6-3, 215) *Izaiah Pasha, Delaware (6-4, 190), 3.9 apg. Who was fantastic on Tuesday night against UNCW *Donovan Newby, UNVW (6-1, 185) (3.5apg) Newby looks like he's 200. Built like a tank. *Isiaah Mbeng, W&M, (6-2, 170), 3.4apg *Rashad King, NE (6-6, 204) 3.3 apg *Madison Durr, Monmouth (6-5, 190), 3.2 apg You get the point. All these guards were not only bigger than DWill aside from Mbeng, but also dished out more assists. Was that DWill's fault? Not necessarily. Sometimes he threw perfect passes and guys either missed bunnies or wide open shots. The fact that he was a 2nd-team All-Conference player and was used often in the two-man game with a big man who was not a threat to score, is pretty amazing. If he returns next season, how good would DWill be if he had a big lead guard like Izaiah Pasha next to him? He was brilliant against UNCW with 21 points, eight rebounds and seven assists. Nothing against CMay or Tarke, but there's a reason why this team is near the bottom of the CAA every year in assists. Some of that is poor perimeter shooting. This year, we were last with 10.64 per game and it showed in both games when we went iso and one-on-one in way too many situations. 2)I said this on the chat throughout the season and in the rare losses and some close wins. This team was flawed and not just at the 5 spot (I'll get to that later) In a lot of ways, PS did his best coaching job before the tournament. I don't care if they played an easy schedule after the first two games, they still won 16 of 18 games and beat the best team in the league UNCW (beat Delaware twice, talented and underachieving Drexel 2x, etc.). 3)Going16-2 in the regular season was great, but we had to come back in too many games. It didn't feel like your typical top seed. Going on a 30-1 run against W&M was incredible, but we were way down in that one to win by 15. We had to come back to beat Hampton at the end of the season. We played pretty well against Campbell on the road and I thought that was one of the better performances of the year, considering it was in that bandbox after a tough loss at Elon. This was not a dominant team by any means and I think the Timberlake/Cam teams along with the Benimon teams were better. They had dominant rebounders and better defensive squads. But the results were all the same. But this team also didn;t have a JB or a CT in the middle to control the paint. 4)I've been about full-court pressure since the 80s of Georgetown and the 90s of Maryland. Not saying we had the perfect team to press but my favorite game of the season was watching us beat NE 75-65 on Jan. 27 on the road. Got them out of their comfort zone. We forced 17 turnovers and had 10 steals led by five from Tarke, who was used to playing in that manner at Coppin State. Not sure why we stopped doing that especially in the CAAT. Lowery and Tarke are made for pressing, trapping and uptempo basketball. 5)Centers. I said it in preseason. Who is our five? Can Embeya get better? Can MJ's body hold up? Can Samb be serviceable? I can't blame Messiah for trying. Dude was maybe 6-5 and 235, with a bad shoulder, knees, Diabetes, ertc. He's not even a 25-minute player. Embeya got better defensively, but he was afraid to shoot. Samb was well Samb. He didn't really hurt them much late in the season. Going small was the right thing against Delaware but they probably should have started Lowery at the 5. Or Sulaiman. Not wait until late in the game. Act don't react. Delaware was not the same Delaware we played in the regular season. Maybe our guys never realized it. Then again, we loved to get behind in games and come back all year, At some point, it was going to bite us in the ass and it did. I'm not every going to jump off the bandwagon. I never did when Jazz, Hunt and PK ran the show (into the ground) and I won't know. Frustrated as shit, no doubt, but I like talk about resolutions and not just grievances. Believe me, if they won, we'd have more people here, more people donating and half the team would have left and we would still be freakin' happy. Instead of doing a depth chart, I'll just assume that TT will leave and hope that DWill stays. But with Barton, Womack, and Holmes coming in and Ndefo, Coleman and Cole back from redshirts (I assume), here's what we need (assume that Tarke, Hicks, Sulaiman and Jones are all gone). PG DWill, Barton SG Cole SF May/Lowery PF/Wing Womack, Ndefo C Embeya, Coleman, Samb, Holmes (rs) This leaves two players and while I'd love to have another big man, we're desperate for two quality guards, hopefully with some size though Barton (6-3, 210?) is pretty big. Not sure if he'll be ready yet to play in the rotation. He was basically a 4 in high school because they had small guards but was All-WCAC. Womack will be a stud at some point. Might just play the 5 but it's always tough as a freshman. But he'll 100% play right away. Just don't know how long a guy like that will be around so better take advantage and get the cash ready. The center position will still be a question mark unless they can play Womack at 6-7, 230 ready to play, but too many questions. Still desperately need better passers and shooters assuming Tejada is gone. They are the definition of "fine" right now. Need two impact guys at lead guard and wing. Need more than fine, but at least expectations will be mid at best if DWill returns. If not, they'll have 3 spots and they better spend 75% of that NIL/SAR money on transfers. Delaware was a bit of fluke but they showed the formula on offense. Shooters everywhere. Big lead guard. Didn't need 10 players. UNCW a dominant rebounding team with two quality big, neither being great, but you don't need great in this league at the 5. Just good. A threat. Charleston was Charleston but they had the guards, the bigs, etc. Coaching wasn't quite as good and maybe chemistry was off after so many losses. I'd still love to have a down season like Charleston. We know they'll be back because they have Lazar Djokovic. A Xavier transfer who may not be Ante' but he's a force. Jealous of UNCW for winning and Delaware for getting there. I know that having a strong regular season is not enough. Some changes HAVE to be made. Personnel-wise, schematically to fit the talent on both ends of the floor. I'm not saying 40 minutes of hell next season like Arkansas in the 90s is necessary, but Ndefo, Embeya, May, Womack and Lowery are all athletic and their talents should be used in some sort of trap and pressure. It worked against NE and at the end of the Delaware game. Changes are not about helping us go 16-2 in the regular season again and who cares? That probably won't happen next season or ever again. It's about getting a top 4 seed (unless your' Del/Sbrook) and playing your best. Doing whatever it f-ing takes to cut down the nets in March, not February. Take chances.

Annual thank you to Mat for the continued coverage of this team that helps me stay engaged. Same to all of the regular posters, whose words I regularly read and silently praise or argue with. Even when I disagree, I'm glad that people are talking Towson. With that in mind, I am wary of the cancelling of season tickets, not attending games, etc. I understand and have pointed out myself that the time for change is well overdue and that it's hard to support a team when we all know what's waiting in March. However, I do think it's important to try and build off of the fan support and momentum from the end of the regular season, especially for the current students. According to the numbers from the CAA, we were 4th in home attendance. Say what you will about the schools drawing less than us, but getting 2,600 people out to games, on average, is a far cry from the days when I was in school. While we all agree that March and getting to the Dance (maybe just a Conference Final?) are the true bars for success for a mid-major, we can care about more than one thing at a time. Part of success as a program to me is people actually giving a shit about Towson. I care so deeply about students supporting these teams and carrying that into life beyond college. I want my fellow alumni to follow our teams and have some passion. So many of the people I went to school with could not care less about anything Towson related. Didn't when we were students, don't now. Having a team that consistently wins, independent of the staff or the potentially meaningless nature of regular season games or lack of March success or whatever else, can help build a culture. Seeing the arena mostly full and loud for those last few games made me genuinely happy. To have that consistently at Towson would be incredible. Please do not think this is me saying I want things to stay the same or watch more Skerryball - I do not. I am not one of these mysterious, fervent Skerry supports lurking in the shadows that 2012 always brings up. Far from it. But I do want to support the student athletes and to have our home court be a great place to watch a game. More people who care means more voices, more pressure for the AD/school to actually make meaningful decisions. Will it work? Probably not, and I get that. However, abandoning the team, especially when we know Skerry likely isn't going anywhere for two more years, is just going to set the program back to the darkest of days. I completely understand why this might be an unpopular take and the perspective that basketball as it currently exists doesn't demand time, money, or attention. I just wanted to share some thoughts. Appreciate you all, Hail Towson.

Instead of everyone making posts, why don't we cut and paste from last year. Would be a real time saver

My prediction a lot of agita and chewed fingernails starting Sunday, ending with a heart pounding victory on Tuesday night over our nemesis C o C!

We ought to just table all this for a week, and see how the conference tournament plays out. I mean we’re all too painfully aware of the record in the conference tournament under Skerry, and naturally that gives rise to anxiety about next week. But until a week from today, at high noon, let’s reflect on a historically successful regular season in conference play and hope it continues in the District. If it does, great. If it doesn’t, they’ll be plenty of time to discuss the fallout

I’m going to write something now that’ll be blasphemous to some, and even to me to some extent…given the talent level on this team, I think a legitimate argument can be made that Skerry is doing his best coaching job this year. He also deserves some credit for landing recruits like Tejada, DWill and Lowery, to a lesser extent. And he’s got a kid coming in next year named Womack who could be an impact player. No one is more aware of his deficiencies, not the least of which is his dismal record in conference tournament play, but in fairness he should get credit where credit is due.

We play who they put on our schedule. If we had lost, the board (all 10 or so of us) would implode. After years of frustration with this program, I am generally a glass half empty guy when it comes to TU MBB. But after 12 W’s in a row, I believe we are tied with Akron for the longest current winning streak in ALL of D1 basketball (350+ teams). We are also 1 of only I believe 15 teams in all of D1 who has 1 or fewer conference losses. None of this Does this guarantee success in DC in a couple weeks? Of course not, but let’s enjoy this historic (for us) ride while it lasts, rather then putting qualifiers on it

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There's a very fine line between a win and a loss some nights and Dylan Williamson showed that to us tonight. 2nd to last possession, they're slow getting into whatever offense they wanted to run with the shot clock running out, he loses the ball and JMU gets a basket to cut it to 2. Then we play clockball again, which we should, but run a nothing set and Dylan is forced to chuck it and it happens to go in. 9 1/2 times out of 10, that doesn't go our way and we're facepalming after another terrible loss. It went our way tonight. Then Dylan has the icing on the cake -- pun intended -- with the two free throws to close it out. This was a pretty gritty win against a team that looked very similar to us in how they played at both ends of the floor. This game also showed that Hicks is all the way back from his concussion issues from last year and a contribution like that is going to go a long way for the rest of the offense. If we can transition to a situation where Williamson is more of the alpha shooter while Hicks runs the point, I think the offense gets more efficient. But...we really need May and Tejada to find their games and have Sulaiman and Messiah do their best to contribute on the inside. We need to put one of those electric fence collars on Tarke whenever he thinks about shooting from the outside. Drive all you want and distribute and set up others but goodness, no more of the outside stuff. Twice in that game, he hoisted up 3's immediately after coming down the floor and they led to run-out buckets at the other end. You're supposed to be a senior. Think like one. One other thing that struck me was how big this win could and should be for future attendance the rest of the semester. That place looked hyped and a win like that in a good atmosphere is the best advertisement for getting people to come out to the next one and build that atmosphere even more.

My prediction of a 41-24 Towson win drew some skepticism from some of my fellow Tigers here. I wasn’t too far off. Just felt like the Towson squad we saw against UC was not a fluke but a truer indication of what this team is capable of offensively. Granted, that team was led by Davis. However, after what I saw from Brown against Villanova, I’m all in on that dude. I feel like he has better instincts and composure. There are still some challenging games left but none of them are “improbable” wins. I still wouldn’t be shocked if we ran the table the rest of the way.

When most of us think of NDSU, we think of losing 35-7 in Frisco. I’m old enough to remember playing them in Fargo in the 1983 D-II playoffs. We had a phenomenal team that year, went 10-1, including our first ever win over Delaware. But our offense was pass-oriented and the weather in Fargo was bitterly cold (no Fargodome back then). The Bison were run heavy and controlled the time of possession, winning 24-17, then went on to win the first of their many championships. What still irks me is that we were higher ranked at season’s end and should have hosted that game. Temps here that day were in the 50s, which would have greatly benefited our passing offense. I’m convinced we would have won had the game been played at Minnegan Stadium and TSU would have been national champs.

It’s no wonder there’s like 10 people who post here. Aside from general apathy, it’s gets depressing reading the same negative comments ad nauseum. No question the results on the court and the gridiron have left much to be desired. I get it. But I’m growing weary of getting poked in the eye with these ceaseless depressing posts. You don’t have to be a cheerleader, and the board shouldn’t be a propaganda tool for struggling teams and coaches, but when it’s constant negativity I just assume you have some personal agenda/axe to grind

Who or what has been the cause of the beef between us and Loyola? The Hounds released their schedule and they've got Lancaster Bible on there as their 2nd game of the season. I get that there wouldn't be a home-and-home series in season with them but doing a constant home-and-home with them would at least check one home game box for each side every other year. It's also kind of absurd that two schools that close in proximity don't play each other anymore.

I appreciate you sharing the receipts of your suggestions. Seriously, one of my least favorite things is complaints with no tangible suggestions/solutions. I love that you through this ideas out there a while ago. Of those three, the SoCon was and is probably the most realistic option. - I think we either need to swing for the fences with a targeted FBS plan, which would probably require money we don't have and might be a major financial risk. This seems unrealistic. - Get together with Stony Brook, Monmouth, Albany and Bryant (Elon would be good too, but I don't know if it it fits regionally as much as the others), and see if as a group we have enough influence to can convince 3-4 other similar schools of decent quality to join up. It is pretty slim pickings, but maybe one or two FCS schools looking to move geographically and/or 1-2 good D-2 schools with the itch to move up. I know that is not exciting, but those seem like the schools that have the most in common with us when it comes to quality, potential (which we all have), and financial resources (I don't know for sure, but none of us are FBS schools, but we can do well at this level). - Try to go to the Patriot League (they probably won't have us, because it was never a great fit when we were there). - Try to go to the SoCon. It is where a lot of the CAA travel are going anyways with new members, so travel wouldn't be much more of an issue. Especially if we brought one or two of the schools above with us. - Stay in the CAA, try to recruit new members and hope for the best. - Drop the program and focus on basketball and lacrosse, and other sports. I would say go to D-2 or D-3, but I wasn't sure if that means the rest our programs would have to go there too. That would not be acceptable. The ground is shifting below is and we will have to pick a track at some point in the next 3-5 years to map out a real future. Otherwise, we could be back to treading water like we were in the mid-90s, only with more financial sharks circling around us to create bigger problems. -

And the nightmare continues. Skerry does juuuust enough during the regular season to get some otherwise reasonable & rational people thinking that he’s some kind of coaching gem. Twelve-game in-conference winning streak….Historic number of conference wins in a season….COTY winner…..it’s all meaningless. However, it makes it very difficult for an AD to can a coach after that type of season. So, the saga will continue again in the 2025-2026 season. Can’t wait to see the preseason prognosticators discuss the new talent coming in via freshmen, transfers, second year guys, etc. Debates about who should be starting, who should be the 6th-man, yada, yada. None of it matters. Auburn’s starting 5 could transfer to Towson tomorrow and Pat Skerry wouldn’t have a clue what to do with them. It makes ZERO DIFFERENCE who suits up for Towson as long as Skerry is the coach, we will NEVER make it to the NCAA Tournament. Wanna hang a banner in the arena for 20 win seasons? Pat’s your guy. Wanna beat Arcadia University and Penn State-Wilkes Barre by 49 points? Pat’s got that covered. Want to get to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 30+ years? How DARE YOU have that unreasonable expectation of Pat Skerry in his 14th season!! This program is in desperate need of a complete reboot. I don’t care if we have to endure a few 10 win seasons under new leadership, I just want to see a new face on the sidelines. Ten wins or 20 wins, if you don’t make it to the Big Dance it’s the all the same in a conference like CAA. Don’t know if anyone else stayed tuned in to the CBS Sports postgame show but Jon Rothstein gave an absolutely spot-on summary of Towson’s historic failures in the CAA Tourney, going as far back as 2014….stopped just short of calling them “chokers”. Winter will soon turn to spring, spring to summer, summer to fall and before long many Towson fans will start convincing themselves that year 15 of the Pat Skerry era will be the year he gets it done. It won’t be. It will be more of the same post-season ineptitude and heartbreak.

Woke up this morning absolutely craving a big, heaping plate of crow served up by non other than Pat Skerry. Prove me wrong, Patrick! Please prove that, in YEAR FOURTEEN, you have what it takes as a coach to get us to the big dance. It starts today.

Heck of an atmosphere. 4500+ loud and engaged is something we don’t see often (or ever). impressed how loud it got. Can those greek tools come out to every game? First half was bad. This team finds a way to win. That hoop facing the band no one can seem to shoot well at .. May good defense Suliman the energy fun game Glad we didn’t rest players or not try like some suggested. great regular season team with a lot to prove when it matters

Got to give them credit for winning these games. As you said, in the past we would find ways to lose these. Not sure this style will be conducive to winning 3 in 3. They are such a statistical anomaly. score and give up 66.8 PPG. One of the worst assist teams in the country. Play at one of the slowest tempos. Rank top 20 in "luck" (Has Towson athletics ever been considered LUCKY?!) One of the worst shooting teams (from the line and at 2') in the country. Average #'s in defense. One of the worst teams in the country at getting fouled. Very good at not turning the ball over (but playing slow and ISO ball aids that). Most interesting number is we allow 33 points in the second half of games, which is 13th in the COUNTRY. They also score 3.5 points more in the second half to first half, which shows adjustments are being made. Just a very odd team statistically wise.

The last three years we have had one nonsense loss in conference play. Last year, it was losing at Hampton to give them their first first conference win at 1-13, two years ago it was to William & Mary team who entered the day 4-9 in conference play, and the previous year it was given Northeastern its first conference win in 12 games. Let's see if we can avoid the banana peel completely this year. This game is definitely in that same category. We need to show up ready to play and not mess around.

I believe this is the second straight year, Williamson has caught fire in the second half in Newark to take us home to victory. Last night, he had 18 points on 7-12 FG and 4-5 3pt FG shooting in the second half. If I am getting this right, he had 2 pts on 1-2 FG in the first half last year before erupting for 21 points on 6-8 FG and 1-2 3pt FG in the second half. That is 39 pts (19.5 ppg) on 15-20 FG and 5-7 3pt FG in his last two second halfs at the Bob. Messiah Jones only played 16 minutes, but played some great defense with a team-high four steals. He also had six rebounds, and had a great pass out of a double-team right under the basket to find an open Williamson. I believe that was the three that gave us the lead for good. We had 11 steals, and have 21 in the last two games. Towson has had 10 steals of more five times, and two came against PSU-Wilkes Barre and a full game of garbage time against South Carolina. The other came against UC Irvine. Also nice to see a fairly strong game at the charity stripe. We only shot above 70% from the free throw line once in the first 10 games. Since that point, we have now shot over 70% in seven of the last 12 games. It is still not a great part of what this team does well, but it has been markedly better. Tejada, Tarke and Williams had 56 points last night. If they can get to 45-50 points, I feel like it gives us a good chance to win games. If you take away Samb and Lowery going 4-5, everyone else was 2-14 from the field. However, it seemed like everyone found little ways to contribute. My only worry is our offense at this point is really heavily reliant on Tarke, Tejada and Williams (occasionally May does something notable). It would be great if we could get May to do more, but right now the combination is working. As others have said, I think Skerry has done a good job with this team in conference play. I still think it is pretty talented and deep CAA team, and it has been nice to win games in a different way. I think this win signaled we are a conference contender, but I think it also means we have to raise the standard on this team. It feels like we should be favored in every game this rest of the way, and that at Elon, at Campbell and maybe at Monmouth are the only even close to excusable losses. Obviously you can only take each game one at a time. I also realize that just because we are on this winning streak doesn't mean all of our flaws have gone away. There is still a lot to fix as go here to try to end the long NCAA Tournament drought.

So we are all clear.. dinner invites will only be issued to fans on this board.. no late arrivals or gravy trainers hoping on the bandwagon will be able to attend our fan message board gathering in March. City TBD of course. First place in the CAA right now. What a run we are on.

Once Dylan got his shot back after that slump through late November and December, it's elevated not only his game but everyone else's. That defense in the final 4 minutes was outstanding again and is what put us over the top. I'm sure there's a lot of brow furrowing over allowing so many offensive rebounds and putbacks but hopefully that gets ironed out. This team has shown a ton of resiliency during this winning streak and it's something I really didn't expect to see after those first 10 games of the season. It's great to see and they really have a good roll going. So...first place all alone in the conference and the next home game is on big TV at a pretty advantageous social time. Marketing has a big challenge ahead over the next 36 hours but there's really no reason that there shouldn't be 3500-4000 fans in attendance on Saturday evening. Go hit the $1 beers for your early buzz before heading uptown. There's a winner on campus and it's time to make that arena loud.

Towson basketball tickets are the only thing that haven’t gotten hit hard by inflation the last 30 years! Still $10 a ticket! That was expensive back then! Was the $8 discount for being a student?

Seen this rodeo before but will take it like usual..lol

This is what we’re reduced to. The coach complementing a player who finally made 1 shot from the field. Good grief. When does this purgatory end? It’s a tiresome exercise, pointing out how pitiful this team is, game after game. It’s probably better just to divert my eyes from this dreck and pray that the Athletic Director and/or the University President aren’t delusional enough to give this coach an extension. I never bought into the no-nothing nitwits who picked us to win the conference, and until recently I thought we could win 8 or so conference games. Even if the conference is as bad as some suggest, I’m starting to think maybe 5-6 conference wins is our ceiling. Is there a more hapless, slow, dull, poor shooting, inept offense in all of D1? This coach is getting a half a million dollars a year. Think about that for a minute. This is the bang we’re getting for those kind of bucks? This is completely unacceptable

It’s no secret that I’d very much like to see a change in leadership for our MBB team. It’s long overdue. Having said that, Pat Skerry is a very likeable guy. I just wish his postseason and non-conference success were greater because he’s easy to root for and I like to see good things happen to good people. He’s a good person.

Runyon is going to the Hula Bowl All-Star game https://x.com/hula_bowl/status/1864795715618148545?s=46&t=nScacl1TWT-KyOwj5stBaw

Towson: 27 Spiders: 24

Granted, it was only an exhibition game, and perhaps St. John’s is a very good team, but the stats from this game are discouraging-28% from the floor, including just barely over 20% from 3; a whopping 25 turnovers; and Tejada & May were a combined 7-25; Lowery and Suliman a combined 0-10. But, here’s a shocker…we out rebounded them 😆. I’d say we’re in mid season form 😆. On to St. Mary’s

Made the roundtrip there and back from the Twin Cities today (about 3:15 each way), so I really appreciated the fight in the second half to make the game interesting. This team has definitely shown some fight in the first four games, but I still feel like we don't know much about them. The NDSU offense is pretty good this year, but that is a somewhat subpar NDSU defense for that program. We didn't put enough pressure on them early when we could have made this a tighter game. Our first drive was pretty solid, but Davis missed an opportunity to get a TD on the third down play when he couldn't quite get enough air on his pass to get it to an open receiver. It was a difficult roll-out play, but one that could have been made. On our next two drives, we got decent yardage on first and second down but couldn't executive on 3rd and 3 and 3rd and 4 due to a combination of breakdowns. It felt like one at least one of those third down plays, Davis could have run for the first down. He made that adjustment very well in the second half, but it was probably too late at that point. I only listened on the radio last week, but was wondering what others think about the comp with Brown's throwing arm compared to Davis. It felt like there were 3-4 above average throws that Davis missed today that could have been big plays. He also had the jitters early on, and it seemed like his accuracy was off a little bit. Meanwhile four of NDSU's five 3rd down conversions in the game came on 3rd and 9 or longer. With the game tied at 3-3, we had them at 3rd and 10 from their own 30, and they came up with a 49-yard pass play to keep a drive that ended up as a TD alive. Late in the second quarter at 17-3, NDSU seemed content to run the clock out and was at 3rd and 11 from their own. Once they completed a 16 yard pass play, they quickly drove down the field and made it 24-3. They converted a 3rd and 15 from their own 39 in their first drive on the second half on pass interference, but thankfully missed a 44-yard field goal. They also had a 3rd and 9 from our 22-yard line and converted on a pass interference play, and pushed the score to 31-10 later in the third quarter. I know I am being picky pulling up each of those plays, but between the two punt play letdowns, the two PIs on 3rd and long, and the two other 3rd and long spots we gave up, we just had too many letdowns to make this as tight of a game as it could have been. That was little disappointing. I know some of the big plays we made against NDSU and Cincy show off some of the talent on this team, but finding yourself down 21-3 in the first quarter in Cincy and 24-3 at halftime against NDSU helps loosen the intensity of those defenses too. Our best offense has come try to claw our way back from huge deficits, and I hope we don't see many more of those this year. I also don't think NDSU is a top five team and that Villanova is a top 10 squad. They are still good teams, but both are a tad overrated from what I can tell. Still, credit the players for fighting hard the whole game and for making some adjustments in the second half. Davis did a good job of using his legs when things broke down offensively in the second half, and the Tyrell Greene Jr. TD run was a thing of beauty. We actually almost came close to replicating it with Devin Matthews when it was 34-24, but NDSU's safety made a solid one-on-one tackle to keep it from being a big gain and the drive broke down because of penalties. Overall, I was a little disappointed with some of the mistakes that let us fall behind by so much in the first half. Those mistakes won't just hurt us against NDSU and Cincinnati, we will pay for themi in conference play if we don't clean them up. The talent level and the fact that our total yardage has been 438, 346, 394, 366 in the first four games (even if we piled up a lot of it against NDSU and Cincy when we trailed big) are both promising. We have also run for 5.2 (194) total, 5.1 (137 total), 5.2 (161 total) and 8.5 (205 total) yards per carry in our first four games. We just need to clean up special teams and some of the mistakes we have made on both sides of the ball. They made the Morgan State game closer than it should have been, they cost us the Villanova game, and they blew a chance for this to be a really tight and competitive game against NDSU the whole way.

I started following UC’s football program on Instagram about a month ago to get a feel for how their summer camp was going. They definitely have some beasts. Granted, 20 second instagram stories can be made to look impressive but in all reality this team has some stud athletes as you would expect from a Big 12 program. As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, I’m most concerned about our smaller/shorter d-line against their experienced and huge OL. Would not be surprised if they rush for 250+ on us. However, I also wouldn’t be surprised if they sleep on us early and we break off a few big chunk plays and maybe make it interesting in the first half. Regardless of what happens, I can’t wait for the season to begin. Got myself some new Towson swag to wear….I’m making the trip and will be in attendance this Saturday at Nippert. Go Tigers!!

Not exactly Towson athletics department specific but related. I just signed up for Towson night @ the Dodgers on 6/21 vs the Nats. I wish the alumni association would do a better job of promoting events around sports. Sports are an easy way to bring folks together and could/should be an easier tie to athletics fundraising as well. The only way I even noticed it is that they randomly sent me a automated text. Seems like there are a number of baseball events coming up as well if folks are interested. SoCal - Nats @ Dodgers - 6/21 NYC - O's @ Yankees - 6/20 Eastern Shore - Shorebirds - 6/26 Should be a slam dunk to do these events at all minor league games in the area. Frederick Waldorf Hagerstown Bowie Aberdeen Also, are they not doing anything with the O's or Nat's at home this year? Denver I know has a good alumni base; I'm sure other MLB cities are primed for a Towson night.

Love that it’s before thanksgiving. That’s also a very good mid-major bracket we’re in. Should be a good barometer of what kind of team we have, and will hopefully make us a bit more battle tested once we hit conference play

Tremendous defensive effort holding Fairfield scoreless for 33 minutes while we went to work on them offensively. Also, the bronze bust of Coach Runk looks great and the athletic department put together a nice video of the ceremony.

Another season is in the books and Towson men’s basketball finished the 2024-25 season with a record of 22-11, 16-2 in the conference, 12-1 at home, 9-5 on the road and 1-5 in neutral site games. The Tigers opened the season at Saint Mary’s on Nov. 4, but before that, had two fairly competitive scrimmages against Rutgers (closed) and St. John’s (for charity). They went into the season hoping that they’d have 14 players, but Ryan Conway wasn’t allowed back on the team after missing last season and team decided to redshirt freshman Chike Ndefo, senior forward Tyler Coleman and sophomore guard Jaiden Cole. You could certainly say they missed them at points during the season, especially when injuries and the flu bug hit or when they went cold from long distance. The Tigers dropped the first game at Saint Mary’s 76-69 as Tyler Tejada scored 18 points and Dylan Williamson added 15 points and three assists. Towson shot just 4-of-13 from long distance and 11 of 19 from the line. IUPUI transfer Abdou Samb, the team’s only transfer, got the start and went scoreless in 12 minutes. Freshman Caleb Embeya struggled with the size of the Gaels, but did scored 5 points and grabbed four rebounds in 13 minutes. Towson was outrebounded by 11 and allowed 46.3% shooting from the field (4-16 3pt). After the Saint Mary’s game and the 89-34 non-D1 win over Penn State Wilkes-Barre, the Tigers flew to South Carolina on Nov. 12 and played what probably was their worst game of the season. The Gamecocks, who wound up winning just two games in the super-tough SEC, crushed the Tigers 80-54. Towson turned the ball over 14 times, shot 5 of 25 from three point range. They shot 29.6% from the field and the Gamecocks shot 50% (3-13 3pt). Towson went from their worst non-conference performance to a three-game winning streak as they edged James Madison 67-63 at home on Nov. 16 before 3,036 at TU Arena. Williamson led the way with 22 points and was the only player in double figures as Tejada did not play due to a sprained ankle. The Tigers went back on the road on Nov. 20 and hit Louisiana to face Nicholls. They defeated them 70-64 with Williamson going for 26 points and Nendah Tarke added 19 points. Mekhi Lowery added 14 rebounds off the bench. Tejada missed his second straight game and Towson shot just 36.4% from the field with Tarke, Radhir Hicks, Abdou Samb, and Tomiwa Sulaiman joining Williamson in the lineup. They did outrebound Nicholls by nine and held them to 4 of 18 from long range. On Nov. 24, the Tigers met local rival Morgan State and edged them 64-60 in one of the ugliest wins of the season. Williamson had his worst game of the season, going 0-for-12 from the field Both teams shot well under 40% from the field and the difference was on the boards, where Towson was +16. The three-game winning streak was over when Towson visited Western Canada near Alberta and fell in all three games to Kent State (65-54), Kennesaw State (67-63ot) and UC Irvine (67-60) on Nov. 28-30. Christian May (head) was injured in the first game against Kent State and Tejada missed all three games. The Tigers played a solid game against UC Irvine in the last game, but got outrebounded by 12, shot just 2 of 10 from three-point range and 41.3% overall. The Anteaters shot 52.2% from the field a 6 of 12 from three-point range. Towson went from three-game winning streak to six-game losing streak with a home loss to UMBC (84-71), a neutral site loss at Akron to Duquesne (65-47) and a 68-67 defeat at Robert Morris on Dec. 17. The loss at UMBC was a low point in the season due to the fact that the Tigers had won eight straight in the series. Tejada returned and came off the bench to score 18 points, while Williamson led with 21. But the defense was a no-show as the Retrievers shot 51.6% from the field and 40% (10-25) from long range. Towson shot just 38.5% from the field and 7 of 26 from long range. May, Tarke, and Sulaiman combined for 5 of 25 from the field. The Tigers’ offense was a no-show against Duquesne as they shot just 17% in the first half and never recovered. Tejada shot just 2 of 11 and Lowery got the start and went 1 for 6. Tejada, Lowery, Messiah Johnes, Williamson and Samb started in a lineup change, but that didn’t make an impact. On Dec. 17, the Tigers met Robert Morris led at halftime 40-24. Then, the team collapsed in the second half. Tejada had a career-high 30 points, but no other Towson player scored in double figures. After shooting a scoring 60.9% in the first half, they shot 48% in the second half and took just 11 three-pointers (made 5). They also tuned the ball over 17 times, which was a rarity. Williamson was held scoreless and took just three shots in 27 minutes. Towson finished their non-conference slate with a 70-65 win over Bryant before 1,500 at TU Areana on Dec. 22. Tejada led four players in double figures with 18 points, but the Tigers struggled from the 3-point line (5-24). Tarke also continued to struggle, going 0-for-5 from the field in just 15 minutes. After a shaky non-conference slate, the Tigers took to the road for CAA play, facing UNCW and Charleston in early January. The Tigers shocked the Seahawks 65-61 in overtime in a defensive battle and despite getting dominated at times in the paint by Niagara transfer Harlan Obioha (18pts, 13 rebs), Towson outrebounded UNCW by 12. Tejada led with 21 points and May added 10 points and eight boards. Williamson continued his struggles with 6 points on 2-of-17 shooting. Tejada added 22 points in their 77-69 loss at Charleston on Jan. 4 and Sulaiman added 15 points off the bench. They shot 42% from the field and 35% from long range, but just 3 of 9 from the line. The Cougars shot 46% from the field and 39% from from long range. Ante Brzovic did his thing with 16 points, 11 rebounds and five assists. After that loss, Towson went on a historical run, winning 12 straight games for the longest in Division I history. I’m not going to go over every game, but it wasn’t a dominant streak as seven games were by single digits and one game by 11 (Drexel) that went overtime. They beat Delaware, Drexel, Northeastern and Monmouth. They also benched Tarke and started Sulaiman, Jones, Williamson, Tejada and May, which they went with most of conference play. Tarke's play was certainly key to the streak as he shot 47.7% from the field and 42.6% from three-point range in conference play. However, the streak ended at Elon 69-63 on Feb. 20. Tarke came off the bench and struggled with a point on 0-of-3 shooting. Tejada led with 20 but also shot just 1 of 8 from 3-point range. The Simpkins twins combined for 47 points and 7-4 Matthew Van Komen had 3 blocks with 8 rebounds. Towson bounced back with a road win over Campbell on Feb. 22 and would eventually clinch the top seed in the tournament. They clinched the regular-season title on Feb. 27 at home against William & Mary (88-73), but needed a 30-1 run to come back from 15 points behind before a record crowd of over 4,700. They had another 4,700 crowd for Hampton on March 1 and needed to come back in that one, winning 75-72 with little to play but tying the mark for best record in CAA history (of 18 games played). The Tigers had decent momentum going into the CAA Tournament and faced Drexel in the quarterfinals. The Tigers did not play well defensively down the stretch and this was another example that carried over. They led comfortably by double digits in the second half, but the Dragons shot 63% in the second half, thanks mainly to their guards, especially Shane Blakeney (24pts) and Yame Butler (14pts) scoring in the paint. But this was a DWill game. He wound up with a career-high 32 points on 7-of-10 from the three-point line and helped carry Towson to an 82-76 quarterfinals win. Could Towson's offense continue to shine in the dreaded semifinals against rival Delaware? Nope. The offense has to play catch up most of the game because the No. 12 Blue Hens, playing their fourth game in four days, remained hot. They wound up with six players in double figures in an 82-72 win. Williamson poured in another 23 points, but Tejada had just nine points on 3-of-11 shooting. Towson shot 40.3% from the field and 7 of 23 from beyond the arc, but it was the defense that struggled once again. Delaware shot 55.1% from the field and 45% (9-of-20) from long range. That ended a season where they went 22-11 overall but once again, couldn't get the job done in preseason. Let's take a look a why. Rebounding: Towson was fine there, ranking 62nd in the nation in total rebounding percentage. They were 18th in offensive rebounds per game. Turnovers: Towson ranked 9th in turnovers per game with 9.4. BUT, they ranked 195th in assist-to-turnover ratio and 349th (last in CAA) in assists per game with 10.4. In terms of the CAA rankings? (these include conference and non-conference games. Towson numbers in conference were better obviously). They were 11th in points per game with 70 Second in points per game allowed at 66.7ppg. Fifth in margin of victory at 3.3. Eleventh in FG% (42.1%) Sixth in FG% defense (43.7%) Ninth in three-point defense (33.7%) Eighth in three-point shooting (33.7%) Last in FT shooting (68.2%) Fourth in rebounding margin (+3.6) Third in turnover margin (2.15) Tejada led the Tiger with 16.7 points and added 3.9 rebounds on 43.1% shooting and 33.1% from long range. Williamson added 14.6 points and 2.7 assists on 40.4% shooting and 43.1% from long range. Tarke added 11.3 points and 4.6 assists, while shooting 37.9% from the field and 29.5% from long range. May contributed 7.6 points and 4.3 rebounds, while shooting 35.7% from the field and 31% from long range. Towson lacked a dominant or even solid post player this season. Sulaimain averaged 7 points and 4.2 rebounds, while Lower led the team with 5.2 rebounds. Embeya added 3.9 rebounds in 16.1 minutes per game. He was very limited offensively as he put up 3.4 points and took just 83 shots, making 51.8%. The lack of a post presence on defense and offense is baffling because it's something that has been fairly consistent over the last 15+ seasons even going back to Denard Abraham and Braxton Dupree (1 year), Alex Thomas, Dennis Tunstall, Nakye Sanders, Charles Thompson, Bilal Dixon, etc. All were flawed but most could give you a double-double on any given night, Tunstall and Thompson, could protect the rim. Dixon, Thomas, Abraham and Dupree took up space and knew how to use their size in the paint and on screens. Messiah Jones (6-5, 235) did his best but wasn't giving up 5-6 inches of height every night and Embeya was giving up a lot of strength. That's something that will need to be rectified. The lack of an experienced and true center was Towson's biggest issue but that wasn't the main reason they lost to Delaware who didn't really use a center. It probably would have been a major issue had they faced Obioha (7-0, 280) again if they had beaten the Hens and met UNCW. Embeya (6-9, 220) and Samb (6-8, 220) are expected to return, but that's not enough. Freshman Brandon Holmes (6-9, 240) is expected to redshirt next season so they can really use another big body even if Embeya puts on about 10 pounds. Tyler Coleman (6-6, 225) and freshman Jaquan Womack (6-7, 230) will see time at both center and power forward. Womack is a 3* recruit from Paul VI, who will play a lot but everything depends on the return of Tejada and Williamson. Hicks, Jones, Sulaiman and Tarke are now gone. In the NIL era, it would be shocking if both return, especially the CAA Player of the Year in Tejada, who still has room to improve his defense, rebounding and shot selection, especially if he moves up a level. Williamson could use a little more muscle to help him on the defensive side of the ball, but if he returns, he's going to be the main guy. You'd like to see the assist numbers go up for him and it would help if he was surrounded with more shooters. May was much better in conference play, but he's become a situational defender along with Lowery, who needs another summer of shooting jumpers. I'm also not convinced that Mekhi is a backup point guard. Maybe a point forward and a 3rd string point. One player to consider is Ndefo (6-7, 215), who could have played this season and might have made a difference off the bench. A year off can't hurt him work on his defense and perimeter offensive skills (he's not a bad 3-point shooter). He doesn't need to put on much muscle. Jon Barton (6-4, 210) comes in as a powerful lefty who will remind some of Tarke in terms of build and the fact he's a southpaw. But they can't rely on just him and Jaiden Cole (6-4, 185), who has to contribute next season at shooting guard or point guard. If not, Barton or a potential transfer guard (it's a must) will take his place. If Tejada and Williamson are back: PG DWill, Barton SG May, Cole, transfer SF Lowery, Ndefo PF Tejada, Womack C Embeya, Coleman, Samb, Holmes If Williamson is back and Tejada gone PG DWill, Barton SG May, Cole, transfer PF Womack, transfer C Embeya, Coleman, Samb, Holmes If both are gone PG transfer, Barton, Cole, Lowery SG May, Cole, Barton, transfer SF Lowery, Ndefo PF Womack, transfer C Embeya, Coleman, Samb, Holmes If Tejada returns and DWill is gone PG transfer, Barton, SG May, Colege, transfer SF Lowery, Ndefo PF Tejada, Womack C Embeya, Coleman, Samb, Holmes, Womack

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It is great to have games where we can get two players cooking like Tejada and Williamson were last night. Between Tejada, Williamson, and Tarke they were 21-34 with 62 points on the night (9-11 from 3, which will not be duplicated again). Very similar to the Drexel game where those three combined to score 67 points on 25-42 (7-10 3pt FG between Williamson and Tarke). Who would have guessed that we would have had two big road games where the offense overwhelmed a solid home team to get the victory. I feel like 2021-22 was the only time we saw any of these type of victories, and I don't know if I remember hot shooting like this. I was also impressed with some of the defensive pressure as others have mentioned. We had six steals in the first half (felt like they call came early in the half), and Tarke finished with five on the night. We didn't even need our customary offensive rebounds, because we made so many shots. We have gone back and forth on if all of the guys coming back were quality experience or quantity experience. Some of these games where Williamson and Tejada have shot well have definitely shown quantity. I think I am repeating this, but since going to the bench Tarke is averaging 15.7 ppg on 52.6% shooting in an average of 26.8 minutes per game. I know some of this is just for appearances, but Skerry seems to have a good read on the players since they all returned and has made some good adjustments in conference play. To me the next game tells a big story. I want to see this team show some consistency and back up what they did last night with a similar effort against Delaware, a program that we have had our moments against recently but has also made us look bad at times.

Looks like this team has found their January/February run. Hopefully it carries beyond that.

2024 Towson Football Review https://towsontigers.com/sports/football/schedule In Pete Shinnick’s second season, the Tigers were picked ninth in the CAA. Talk about no respect as the Tigers finished tied for sixth with a 4-4 record in 2023. This season, they finished 5-3 in the CAA, which once again tied them for sixth place with Elon and Stony Brook. Let’s take a look back on a 7-5 campaign that featured a lot of ups and downs. This was going to be the season where the Tigers needed to win at a minimum, eight games overall and six games in the conference, due to a very tough schedule early on, that was guaranteed to give them two losses. The first game was one of those guaranteed Ls at Cincinnati. Towson lost that game 38-20 as they fell behind 21-3 and 28-10. Early in the third quarter, they were down 28-20, but never scored again. Carlos Davis completed 21 of 37 for 244 yards with two TDs, while Devin Matthew ran for 70 yards. Defensively, it was a struggle with two true freshmen (S Jasin Shiggs and CB Emiril Gant) getting most of the time in the secondary due to injuries. They allowed 383 yards passing and 275 yards rushing. Towson won the second game at home over Morgan State 14-9. One of the few bright spots of that game was that there were 8,394 people at Unitas Stadium to witness the game. Davis completed 21 of 28 for 209 yards with a TD and a pick. Matthews ran for 95 yards on 11 carries, but the Tigers also fumbled the ball three times (lost one). Davis was injured late in the Morgan State game and was replaced by Liberty transfer Sean Brown, who rarely played in 2023. When looking back at the game that the Tigers needed to win and blew their opportunity, this was the one against the No. 4 team (at the time) in the nation. Brown did an admirable job, completing 20 of 36 for 233 yards with a TD and Matthews ran for 135 yards on 14 carries. But Keegan Vaughan missed two kicks in the final 1:13 and missed a 31-yard kick earlier that was blocked (but was kicked low). Lukkas Londono also dropped a pass in the corner of the end zone on a drive that ended with a short field goal. Towson recovered a second Villanova fumble to have that last opportunity, but fell 14-13. That loss hurt tremendously as the Tigers headed to No. 2 North Dakota State and fell 41-24 with Davis back at quarterback. Davis really struggled in the first half and fell behind 31-10 late in the third quarter, but made it a game late thanks to a Davis 15-yard TD run and a Tyrell Greene Jr. 72-yard score up the middle with 10:05 left in the game to cut the lead to 31-24. Towson couldn’t hold the lead and allowed two late scores including one with 1:04 left. Davis threw for just 136 yards and a pick. He was replaced late in the game by Brown, who threw for 26 yards. Brown was back at quarterback against No. 10 William & Mary at Unitas Stadium after a bye week. For the second straight season, the Tigers physically handled the Tribe in front of 6,165 people. The Tigers led 34-14 heading into the third quarter and allowed two touchdowns, including one with 2:05 left to make the final score of 34-27 misleading. Brown had a pick, but completed 17 of 24 for 185 yards with two TDs. Greene Jr. had another strong game with 133 yards and a TD, while John Dunmore caught two TD passes. In the following week, the Tigers faced Norfolk State and played down to the competition, winning 28-23. Brown was very “Jameis-like” completing 25 of 43 for 306 yards with three TDs and also had three picks. Defensively, the Tigers gave up a 58-yard TD run and a 43-yard pass. Dunmore and Fresno State transfer Jaceon Doss both had touchdown receptions. Sam Reynolds caught two passes for 68 yards as his comeback story from a cardiac event the previous year was coming to light. The ragged play against Norfolk State carried on to their (1pm) Homecoming Game against Stony Brook. If Villanova was the reason Towson didn’t make the playoffs, this game helped shut the door. The Tigers jumped out 17-14 lead, but Stony Brook scored two TDs in the final 4:24 to take a 28-17 lead. One of the odd things about this team was the way they handled situations late in the half. They were not getting the ball back in the second half but with 40 seconds left to go in the first half, with the ball at their 25, you’d expect to use time-outs (they had 2) and an attempt to get the ball into field goal range. After a 13-yard pass to Greene Jr. on first down, Towson had a 1st and 10 at their own 38. Brown hit Doss for a 2-yard pass to the 40 and they let the clock run out. The Seawolves scored on their first possession of the second half to make it 35-14 and rolled to a 52-24 win in front of a little over 3,000 fans. This was the worst performance of the season and while Brown struggled with 158 yards and a pick, the ground game was outstanding (247 yards, 3 TDs). But the pass defense was dreadful as little-used Tyler Knoop started for the Seawolves and completed 34 of 40 for 387 yards and six TDs. Wide receivers were open shot and intermediate routes all day and Knoop was basically playing 7-on-7. North Dakota State and Cincinnati didn’t have this kind of success (they had a lot) against this defense. The best thing about this team was that they could bounce back. They had just one losing streak and it was a two-gamer. They bounced back from the Stony Brook loss and beat Monmouth on the road 26-14. The defense showed up for this one even if they allowed 305 yards passing, but that was on 47 attempts and just 28 completions. Brown threw for 243 yards and two TDs, while Matthews ran for 75 yards. The Hawks held Towson to just 114 rushing yards, but the Tigers were efficient. TE Carter Runyon led the way with two TD receptions. After the Monmouth win, there was really just one game that mattered and that was No. 12 Richmond. If they couldn’t beat Hampton, NC A&T and Campbell, then it was not worth discussing the FCS playoffs. And after losing to the Spiders 35-24, the discussion was over. Brown threw for 275 yards and a TD with a pick, but there were just too many mistakes in this game, including a Christopher Watkins fumble with 29 seconds left at the Towson 11. The Tigers were down 16-10 at the time, but were getting the ball back in the second half. The Spiders were held to a field goal, but went up 19-10. To the Tigers’ credit, they scored on the first drive in the second half to cut the lead to 19-17, but a Richmond field goal and a 90-yard interception return from Jabril Hayes early in the fourth quarter sealed this game. Towson could not run the football (108 yds, 3.3ypc), lost three fumbles and their defense was often put in bad field position due to the four turnovers. They held the Spiders to six field goals as the Richmond offense scored just two touchdowns. Since this was recent and expected, I’m not going to dwell on the last three games. To their credit, Towson took care of business in all three, beating Hampton (27-10) and NC A&T (31-13) at home, while beating up on the Campbell Camels 45-23 on the road to end the season.

When you look at the strengths of the 2024 Towson Football team, you start with the running game. Devin Matthews ran for 896 yards with five TDs and a 6.8 yards per carry average to finish over 2,000 career yards rushing. Greene Jr. who is also graduating but has a shot to return, had 752 rushing yards with nine TDs. Towson averaged 5.0 yards per carry and 164.9 rushing yards per game (6th in CAA). They allowed 3.8 yards per carry and 146.1 yards per game. Matthews and Watkins have no eligibility left. The rushing offense and defense (6th) made big strides this season, but the passing offense and defense…. Towson ranked 11th in pass efficiency, 6th in total offense (379.3ypg), 11th in pass yards/completion (7.2) and 10th in passing yards per game (214.5). Defensively, they ranked 12th in pass defense with 229.8 yards per game allowed and 12th in pass defense efficiency (140.97). Brown completed 62.9% of his passes for 1,974 yards with 12 TDs and eight picks. He returns for his final season. Davis completed 61.3% of his passes for 600 yards with three TDs and two picks. Neither QB was a major threat on the ground. Davis, Scott Smith and Nathan Kent will graduate. The good news at wide receiver is that their top five receivers return not counting TE Runyon (45 catches for 502 yards, 5 TDs). Dunmore had a solid season with 42 catches for 619 yards and five TDs. Doss also had some big plays early, but wound up with just 29 catches for 450 yards and three TDs. Reynolds, who was a fantastic comeback story, added 16 catches for 222 yards and a TD. Next season, assuming both are back, the Tigers will need more from Londono (12 for 148 yds) and Zay Perkins (14 for 143 yds). All-conference center Ralph Paige Jr. is gone, but right tackle KL Brooks returns from injury, along with backup T/G Jaelin Montgomery, who started at left tackle when Dan Volpe was injured and took over at right tackle when Brooks was out. Everyone is back except Paige. The defense did improve against the run, but was a mess at times in the secondary. They also did not have a consistent pass rusher other than Nchabanu Fortaboh, who had 6.5 sacks in 11 games with 9 TFL. He was on the 31 senior list at the end of the season but has a shot of returning. Grad LB Will Middleton led the Tigers with 87 tackles, adding 6 QBH and 2.5 sacks with one forced fumble. Safety Xavier Terry added 82 tackles, two FB, two FF and five PBU. He is expected to return. John Gioia, another grad student, added 68 tackles, two sacks, 3 QBH in nine games as he was injured in preseason camp. Rodney Roane Jr. (58 tackles, 4 sacks, 5 QBH) is likely to start at one of the LB spots in 2025. Up front, Ernie Smith (32 tackles, 2 sacks) and Jurnee Dunbar (30 tackles, 2.5 sacks) are both gone. Dunbar had a strong year at nose guard and was named to the All-CAA third team. Towson played a ton of true and redshirt freshmen led by Rion Roseborough, who had 9 tackles and also 3 blocked kicks. C.J. McClendon (46 tackles, 1 FF), Evan Rutkowski (32 tackles, 2 FF) and Daniel Raymond (56 tackles, 3 sacks, 6 QBH) are linebackers who played their last game against Campbell. Other than true freshman Alfred Thomas (21 tackles), the Tigers need some experience in 2025 so they are in desperate need for a bunch of LB transfers The secondary, especially at corner, was not great after losing Robert Javier. Myles Brodie (44 tackles, 9 PBU, 2 INTs) improved as the season went on and he is not expected to return though things could change. Shafeek Smith (40 tackles, 5 PBU) was adequate at times and then struggled later in the season. Gant (16 tackles, 1 PBU) and Shiggs (31 tackles, 1 INT) played a ton as true freshmen and it showed. Kam Snell (58 tackles, 1 INT) is gone at one of the safety spots as is Kaden White (21 tackles) so Shiggs could start next season but a veteran is certainly needed at safety and cornerback. The special teams was led by punter Bryce LaFallette, who averaged 42.9 yards per punt with 18 placed inside the 20. Vaughn made 15 of 19 field goals with a long of 49. He made the third team all-CAA and will graduate so that’s another spot to fill. Dunmore averaged 9.4 yards per punt return and just 13.6 on kick returns. He replaced Doss, who struggled on when to bring the ball out and when not to from the end zone.

Towson: 35 SB: 24

Am I the only one here who thinks the special edition helmet logos for this weekend’s game are a little lame? Cartoon Doc decals? Really?

ARETE!!!! Game Week! Don't get injured, don't end up on ESPN's not top 10, & make sure that check clears!