Coaches in every sport say that they always want their players to have the heart of a lion.

That may not be a problem for the latest player to pick up an offer from Robert Morris. The Colonials have offered Lion King Conaway, a 6-foot-4, 225-pound defensive end out of Southfield High School in Southfield, Michigan. All indications are that the unique name is Conaway's birth name and not a nickname.

You can check out his highlights here.

Conaway originally was listed as a 2015 prospect, but he ended up in the Class of 2014. He's caught the eye of a handful of people around the Rivals network, and beyond, for his unusual name. He's been credited with having a good frame and athleticism. Conaway had five sacks this season, but the rest of his stats are incomplete.

There's a buzz going around that Robert Morris may be unveiling new uniforms for the 2014 football season.

Head coach John Banaszak told ColonialsCorner that he would explore changing things up if he could strike a deal with an apparel company, and word is that the football staff met with members of Under Armour, Adidas and Nike recently to discuss potential deals.

Robert Morris recently got updated basketball uniforms from Nike. The hoops program has been part of the Nike brand the last three or four seasons. Previously, the basketball team wore uniforms by a local company named CRONS while getting auxiliary support from Nike.

The current Robert Morris football uniform situation is a bit of a mix. The team wears Wilson uniforms on game day, but uses a variety of practice gear, including some practice jerseys made by Adidas.

Locally, Duquesne wears Adidas uniforms while Pitt wears Nike. Apparel deals can be lucrative for some schools, as it can also mean a new push in merchandise for fans to wear. We'll see what happens with RMU, which hasn't updated its uniforms since switching to the new logo scheme several years ago.

Wayne Capers from Arizona [Chartiers Valley High School]
Armstead Williams from Purdue [Gateway]

http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/high-school-football/2014/01/17/Area-stars-transfer-join-Dukes/stories/201401170019

Robert Morris is going back to Florida.

The state has been good to RMU through the years, and no doubt the Colonials are hopeful that it will continue to supply a few quality prospects. The latest offer is out to a familiar school in Florida, West Boca Raton. Home of current running backs coach Myles Russ and linebacker Jimmy Masson, Robert Morris has now offered West Boca linebacker Gerald Ferguson.

Ferguson is a 6-foot-3, 215-pound middle linebacker who has also played some defensive end for West Boca. The Palm Beach Post reports that he had an offer from Marshall prior to the season, as well as interest from Middle Tennessee State.

I can't find current highlights for him. I'll see what I can dig up.

Junior guard Desjuan Newton was not with the team for Thursday's game against St. Francis, though he was at the game. Head coach Andrew Toole said Newton's status is unclear, and Newton tweeted to ColonialsCorner that he's sorting a few things out right now, but hasn't left the team or the school.

Newton began the season as a high-energy guy off the bench, and had fans excited with his athleticism. He played 10 or more minutes in the first nine games of the season, but his minutes dropped off from there. He hasn't appeared in a game since playing four minutes against Oakland on December 22.

The Seattle native transferred to Robert Morris after two seasons at Central Arizona College.

Cornelius Coleman, who was originally hired as defensive line coach at Robert Morris way back before Christmas, was formally announced as being part of the staff today.

The hire should officially set John Banaszak's coaching staff for 2014.

Scott Farison will be the defensive coordinator and probably be Banaszak's right-hand man. Darrin Hicks will be the offensive coordinator and likely work a lot with the quarterbacks.

Andrew Richardson returns as the offensive line coach, and for the last few years he's also been the assistant recruiting coordinator under Farison.

Bill Hurley returns as the secondary coach, with Paul Mulbah back helping him out.

Pat Shepard is back as the tight ends coach, but he'll now also coach the receivers. Bob Morris is not returning, which enabled RMU to hire Coleman. Shepard is also the team's video coordinator.

Myles Russ will complete his graduate assistant tenure in May, but he'll stay as running backs coach.

Jeff Sinclair will return as quarterbacks coach, likely working as an assistant under Hicks.

Alex DiMichele is back as a graduate assistant coach. He worked a lot with the defensive line and will likely work all over the defense this year.

Nice interview here with Karvel on the NEC Google Hangout.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCa3EDNBTe0&feature=youtu.be

Some items as the dead period comes to an end and visits start to come together in the push to Signing Day.

Robert Morris has offered Saint Clair Shores (Michigan) South Lake High School linebacker Raylan Hill. He's an interesting case, because apparently he keeps growing. He was a running back for Warren Collegiate as a sophomore and is now a linebacker and defensive end for South Lake.

You can view his highlights here. Hill is now listed at 6-foot-1, 240 pounds. That's the extent of the information I have on him now, but I'll try to get more.

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The Florida pipeline has been relatively quiet so far, but the action tends to pick up in the final few weeks leading to Signing Day as visits are planned. One name to keep an eye on is St. Petersburg Catholic corner Chris White. He doesn't have an offer from Robert Morris right now, but the Colonials are under consideration along with Akron, Florida Atlantic, Jacksonville and Mercer. White is also planning on visiting Georgia Southern.

The 5-foot-11, 185-pound corner played some offense for St. Petersburg Catholic, but should be considered as a defensive prospect. Here are his highlights.

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Finally, news of official visits is starting to trickle in. As we mentioned earlier this month, Kings (Ohio) wide receiver his highlights. Williams is also expected to visit Sacred Heart later this month.

After nearly a month the Colonials have a home game at the Chuck Thursday evening. The team deserves to have a great crowd after logging so many miles on the road and in between games being on campus practicing while most of the RMU student body was off on break. It's always a fun game against long-time rival St. Francis. You can count on a good number of SFU fans being at the game. Every Conference game is important, it's great that the team picked up two NEC wins on the road, and it's necessary to win the home games to compete for the Conference crown. Let's see if super hot Karvel Anderson can keep it rolling in front of the home crowd. Pack the Chuck! Go Colonials!

Transfers are a fact of life in college sports, and teams like Robert Morris have benefited in the past.

But the Colonials have also lost some players over the years, and the latest departure might sting a little bit. Promising freshman receiver Alex Caratelli has decided not to return to the team. There is no word yet on his potential destination, but Caratelli apparently decided that Robert Morris no longer was a fit for him and notified the staff of his intentions.

Caratelli played in four games and caught six passes for 94 yards as a true freshman last year. He made a splash in the first game of the season by catching his first career pass for a touchdown. But he was in and out of the lineup as Joe Walton tried to find the right mix at receiver and eventually leaned on more experienced players to help an inconsistent offense.

With Donte Jeter graduating and three experienced tight ends gone, Caratelli was looking like a potential candidate as a starter opposite of Duane Mitchell to bolster Robert Morris' passing attack under new offensive coordinator Darrin Hicks. Instead, that competition will now likely boil down to Sean Gavin, Chad Dawgiello, D.J. Hayes, Chaq Nettles, and potentially any incoming freshmen.

Caratelli's departure does help explain why the Colonials have continued to hunt for bigger possession receivers even after securing the commitment of Kyle Buss. At 6-foot-3, 195-pounds, Caratelli was the tallest receiver on the roster last year.

Freshman punter Zach Sampson, who faced another year of waiting behind the excellent Tony LaMancusa, will also apparently not be coming back. The departures mean Robert Morris can now add 17 players to the current roster to hit the maximum training camp size of 90.

Back to back 30 point games for Karvel, what more can you say about the kid! Stud.

Nice start, going 2-0 on one of the tougher road trips, and getting league play off on the right foot.

I don't know what are team is going to do with themselves with 5 of the next 6 at home, and the road game being a shot trip down to Mount.

Home games, what are these!!!

In all seriousness, not too much time to celebrate. I'm not worried about SFPA, we own them, but at mount, (sacred heart game should be easy) Wagner, Bryant is a big stretch. I'd like to see wins in four of the five.

One other note, gotta get Mike McFadden back healthy and hope he go back to being a force on the block, it's the one missing aspect from the RMU offense.

Great win! Go Colonials.

It's great to see Coron Williams having success at Wake Forest. He represented RMU well during his four years, both on and off the court. Moving onto Wake is a great opportunity for him to get to use his final year of eligibility playing in the ACC, and also to pursue a graduate degree at a top tier academic university.

As it turns out, his leaving may actually be a benefit to RMU. It is allowing Karvel to play the minutes he deserves to play rather than sharing minutes with Coron. Obviously Karvel is responding well to the extra playing time.

Also, if Coron had stayed, RMU would be losing both he and Karvel in the same season. With the early departure, RMU brought in Chuck Oliver who is also an outstanding shooter. While Chuck is able to be a very capable backup to Karvel this season, he should be well prepared for the starting role next season.

Sometimes things work out for the best for everyone involved.

Go Colonials!

TIME TO GET GOING...

Seriously though, they really count now. Gotta find a little D and the Colonials will be fine.

The road to the NCAA tournament starts tonight!

GO COLONIALS!

From http://www.footballscoop.com/the-scoop

"Westminster (D-III - PA): Back on Wednesday we told you about a handful of coaches that are among the finalists for the head coaching job, and we're also hearing that former Emory and Henry (D-III - VA) head coach Don Montgomery is a strong candidate as well. Some of the other names that we've heard (previously reported) are Dan Knause (OLBs at Carnegie Mellon), Jason Makrinos (DBs at Slippery Rock), Jay Foster (HC at Clarion), Jon Latina (OL/Assistant HC at Duke), Mike Pinchotti (DC at Geneva College) and Scott Benzel (DC at St. Francis)."

Good Luck Coach Benzel.

Any rumors of football players transferring in for the spring semester?

As mentioned in a story earlier over the holiday break, Robert Morris will begin hosting football recruits beginning the weekend of the 18th.

One of those visitors in that three week span of visits will be Jamison Williams, a 6-foot-4, 195 pound wide receiver from Kings High School in Deerfield, Ohio near Cincinnati.

Williams has offers from Robert Morris, Sacred Heart, Butler and the College of Charleston. He's the latest in a line of bigger wide receivers that have caught Robert Morris' eye, and it's likely RMU is going to take at least one larger receiver if not two.

Robert Morris WR Donte Jeter had an extra year of eligibility after redshirting as a freshman, but he will not be back in 2014.

Jeter was mulling the decision after injuring his hand prior to the end of the season, and he walked on Senior Day with his fellow classmates. But he told ColonialsCorner at the time that he was undecided, as he had the chance to graduate in May as well as potentially play in a senior bowl game.

Jeter took that opportunity a couple weeks ago by playing in the FCS Senior Scout Bowl in South Carolina. Jeter was one of four NEC players who participated, including St. Francis DL Joe Laukitis, Wagner K Joe Lopez, and CCSU DB Antwoine Reese.

By participating in the scout game, Jeter is no longer able to use his final year of eligibility.

Jeter finished his career with 73 receptions for 1,081 yards and seven touchdowns.

Could someone explain to me why so many coaches, including Andy Toole, despise zone defense? It seems as though many coaches believe that man-to-man is the only proper way to play the game. To Coach Toole's credit, he has shown his flexibility by switching to zone the past few games, although apparently out of frustration or desperation, since his usual defensive system was not working this year either because his current players were not executing properly, or the rule changes have made it more difficult, or a combination of both. Even though, I believe Toole made a comment that having his team play zone makes his stomach very uncomfortable. It seems to me that often when I see teams playing zone, it's often quite effective. What's so bad abut zone defense?

Robert Morris left tackle A.J. Dalton, who wrapped up his senior season this past year with a Sports Network All-American nomination, has signed with Calvary Sports Management and Kinetic Prototype Sports Performance in an attempt to make a push towards landing an NFL contract.

NFL teams checked in on Dalton throughout the season, though he hasn't been invited to any bowl games or combines yet. Signing with the agency and training center is the first step towards raising his profile. Calvary is a small agency with a handful of FCS prospects on its roster as clients. KPS is a performance training center near Atlanta that has worked with a number of regional athletes.

Dalton could be considered Robert Morris' best NFL prospect since former right tackle Corey Konycki graduated in 2010. Dalton played both guard and left tackle in college, and he also worked at center during training camp. That's a far cry from being a center in a game environment, but getting the feel of snapping the football can always help that transition if necessary. The versatility is also extremely valuable for teams looking to add camp bodies. A lineman who has even the slightest bit of experience at a position instantly becomes more valuable and might stick around longer, giving him a bigger chance to make an impression.

At 6-foot-3, Dalton is unlikely to be a left tackle in the pros, so a move inside would be logical. He is, however, an inch taller than former RMU lineman Hank Fraley was and Fraley added some extra muscle to survive as a center in the NFL. It's possible that Dalton would fit in well as a guard or center, and that seems to be the position where most draftniks are projecting him.
This post was edited on 12/29 4:52 PM by Andrew_Chiappazzi

Robert Morris is focusing on mostly skill position players in this recruiting cycle, and while they haven't placed a high priority on quarterbacks with five on the active roster, they've pulled the trigger and offered Cincinnati Moeller High quarterback Gus Ragland.

If RMU wasn't sold prior to this weekend, Ragland's performance in the Ohio state title game against Mentor was probably what led the Colonials to go ahead with the offer. Ragland was 12-of-13 for 273 yards and threw three touchdowns, and he ran 26 times for 210 yards and five more scores.

Simple math tells us that's a QB piling up 483 total yards and eight touchdowns, all in a state title game. Not bad.

The 6-foot-2, 210 pound Ragland is an all-around athlete, and that's where this could get interesting. Prior to this year, Ragland was a wide receiver. He grew up as a quarterback, but Moeller needed him at receiver last year and he caught over 30 passes on a championship team.

But he had an outstanding statistical performance as a QB this year, throwing for over 2,000 yards and rushing for over 1,500 while accounting for nearly 50 total touchdowns.

Here's his highlight film.

Robert Morris has received a commitment from 3-star Milford Academy wide receiver Kyle Buss.

Buss made his official visit at the beginning of the month. He had interest from Syracuse, Connecticut, Penn State and Temple, as well as scholarship offers from Coastal Carolina and Wagner.

Milford Academy teammate Nelson Lee Lucas-Murphy is also committed to Robert Morris, and Lucas-Murphy had been working on Buss to try to commit. Buss also has a connection with sophomore quarterback Marcus Prather. The two knew each other through mental conditioning expert Maggie Ferrari and trained together in the offseason.

"Ever since I found out that he told me was transferring from Akron and
going to Robert Morris, he's been telling me about the coaches and
telling me about the program, the campus life, and the academics," Buss told ColonialsCorner back in November . "I've been informed about everything in Robert Morris by Marcus as
much as he could."


We'll try to get more from Buss later in the day.

Hearing from multiple sources that Darrin Hicks, currently the QB coach at D2 St. Augustine College, will be the new offensive coordinator at Robert Morris.

Hicks has been an OC in the past, and he's run what I guess could be called a balanced spread. Emphasized the run as much as the pass, multiple formations from 5 wide to Pistol with a tight end and fullback to Wildcat.

Hicks was also on John Banaszak's staff at Washington & Jefferson.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

A.J. was named 2nd Team All American at OL
Eddie was named 3rd Team All American at Punt Returner

http://www.sportsnetwork.com/merge/tsnform.aspx?c=sportsnetwork&page=cfoot2/stat/IAA-2013-team.htm

Andy Toole is still looking for two more pieces to fit into the Class of 2014 after signing point guard Jafar Kinsey and center Andre Frederick, and the latest offer went to a former Kent State guard.

Earvin Morris, a 6-foot-4, 185-pound wing originally from Memphis, Tennessee, picked up an offer from RMU on Sunday. Morris was a former 3-star prospect back in 2012 out of Memphis East High School. He was originally projected to go to prep school, but Kent State snagged him at the last minute. Golden Flashes head coach Rob Senderoff was pretty excited for Morris to join the school, telling the official site prior to last season: "He is a better shooter than I expected him to be and he is a better ball-handler than I expected him to be. At his high school he played like a wing forward. Here, eventually, he will be a combo guard. He'll be able to play the point for us. He'll be able to come off ball screens. He has to get stronger, butI think at some point he will be an all-conference player. I love him. I absolutely love him. I love his energy, his passion, his work ethic. Those are at a high level right now. I know we are only a couple weeks into school, but high level."

Morris ended up playing in 17 games, starting in one of them, but averaging just 5.2 minutes per game. He and Kent State decided to amicably part ways after the season, and he landed at Tallahassee Community College in Florida.

Since then, Morris has worked on being more of a guard and the early results are intriguing. He's averaging 14 points per game and 4.7 rebounds per game through 10 contests. His shooting numbers are the most interesting, though, as he's hit 20-of-35 3-pointers, good for 57.1 percent. He's hit on 57.8 percent of his overall shots and scored in double digits in every single game he's played.

Considering Toole is on the record as saying a scorer will be a target since RMU is losing Karvel Anderson to graduation, we'll keep an eye on Morris throughout the winter and update any news.

This post was edited on 12/16 3:24 AM by Andrew_Chiappazzi

Robert Morris is exploring all of its options when it comes to adding a running back to the Class of 2014, and the search is taking the Colonials both near and far.

Two backs who have been on Robert Morris' radar at various points throughout the season are back in focus for RMU, if they ever really fell out of focus. One is a local product, and the other is from a more far flung local.

Let's begin with the long distance networking, which takes us to Valdosta, Georgia. Two-star running back Malcolm Joseph committed to Georgia State back in the summer, decommitted a month later when interest started to pick up from other schools, and then recommitted prior to the season starting.

But with some changes at Georgia State, Joseph decomitted again a few weeks ago, and now he's open to looking around once again. Robert Morris reaffirmed its scholarship offer to him, but the Colonials might have some work to do, as South Alabama appears to be the favorite.

A little closer to home, West Mifflin running back Jimmy Wheeler recently stopped by Robert Morris and the WPIAL's leading rusher could be an option for the Colonials. Wheeler is prolific. He led the WPIAL with 2,616 rushing yards this year after finishing third with 2,226 yards last season. He's scored 56 touchdowns the last two seasons and has proven he's both durable and fast (he's an excellent sprinter in track).

Wheeler doesn't have an offer from a Division I school yet, and the concerns are two-fold. He's not big, listed generously at 5-foot-9, 170, and he's struggled against tough competition. Against Thomas Jefferson this year, West Mifflin's toughest opponent, Wheeler had 14 yards on 11 carries. In the WPIAL final in 2012, Wheeler also struggled against West Allegheny. Then again, when you're the team's only source of offense, teams will gear up to stop you.

Wheeler also has some academic questions. All of that said, he'd potentially bring a serious upgrade in speed to the position, and he's shown he's durable. Wheeler's an interesting case study of what makes a great high school running back compared to who is Division I capable. It'll be interesting to see what happens with his recruiting over the next month or so.