March 31, 2011
There are some unknowns heading into the Monarchs first season of CAA play in the fall of 2011 - new conference, new opposition, new rivalries, new territory. However for one Monarch, the untested waters of the CAA is something he has already navigated.
Ronnie Cameron's story is already pretty well known. Following his sophomore season, Hofstra University disbanded its football program and Cameron made his way to Norfolk to help the up-and-coming Football Monarchs to rise and join the ranks of the CAA.
"Myself and Deron (Mayo) came in together trying to get used to the program," said Cameron. "The coaches made us comfortable and so did the players. I got really comfortable as spring ball went on and then going into the season with camp. I feel like I really had a role where I could start to push guys and give leadership on the defensive side of the ball."
Before long, Cameron wasn't just any other player...he was emerging as a leader. Made evident by the fact that without having taken the field for one game in the Monarch uniform, his teammates voted him as one of four captains in 2010.
"As a young guy at Hofstra, I always had leadership qualities and always tried to help guys along," noted Cameron.
Cameron was humbled by his teammates bestowing him the honor. He was a newcomer, from New York, not even the Hampton Roads area where many of his teammates grew up and even competed against each other on the gridiron. He joked that he even talked differently than some of his southern teammates.
"The fact guys respected me enough to elect me captain...," trailed Cameron as he looked back. "It wasn't just because `he's older' or `been there', it was for the things `he did in the off-season'. I wanted to earn guys' respect. I didn't come in barking orders. I came in trying to befriend a lot of guys because this is my team and this is my family now."
"I started asserting myself as a leader," he said. "I think I definitely helped the team along during tough parts of the season. I know before the guys didn't have a lot of older guys on the team to help them out in tough situations or just help them with things they didn't understand, not just in football, but also life in general. That's part of the reason I came here, to help this program and be a big part of things."
Now its time for Cameron to lead his team into some of the toughest competition the FCS has to offer.
"I told the guys, even before this season, the CAA is a different deal," said Cameron on his talks with his teammates about joining the CAA . "Its competitive week in and week out and anyone can beat anybody and anyone can lose to anybody. That's the way it is from top to bottom. You have to understand that everything is a grind. Every game is going to be a fourth quarter war. It means the world to every team because every game in the CAA matters."
Last season alone the CAA put four teams into the playoffs with Delaware reaching the championship game. In two of the last three last seasons, the national championship has gone to a member of the CAA including Villanova in 2009 and Richmond in 2008.
Some other facts about the CAA to ponder:
Three CAA Football teams occupied the No. 1 spot in The Sports Network/Fathead.com Top 25 in 2010 and for nine weeks the league had seven squads ranked. No league other than the CAA has had more than six teams ranked in either poll on a single week dating back to 2007. The league has had at least three teams ranked every week since The Sports Network's poll began and two teams among the poll's Top 10 in 83-straight weeks. CAA Football teams finished 22-6 against non-conference FCS opponents and over the past five seasons the league has posted 10 wins against BCS/FBS foes, including topping three ACC teams in the last two seasons. In all, CAA Football logged a total of 48 All-America accolades last season, including two Consensus First Teamers. Six CAA student-athletes were nominees for the Buck Buchanan Award, honoring the FCS National Defensive Player of the Year, and five CAA student-athletes were among the Walter Payton Award nominees honoring the top FCS National Player of the Year.
"Even if you are a seven, eight-win team in the CAA, you can still make it to the playoffs," noted Cameron. "Ultimately, if you are a CAA member, you are thinking national championship, that's just what a CAA team is about. You think you are going to make the playoffs and you think you are going to make a run for the national championship. That's how every team treats it."
"Back at Hofstra, we played pretty much every team in the CAA," Cameron continued on his CAA experience "It goes back and forth. You can't ever count a team out."
Cameron was quick to note some of the craziness that happened last season. Rhode Island shocked #8 New Hampshire, 28-25, to open up its CAA slate and then surprised folks again with a 17-14 victory over #3 Villanova towards the end of the season, upsetting the defending national champion Wildcats.
"That's just how the CAA is," Cameron explained. "No game is ever going to be a cake walk. Even if you are up by 21 points in the first quarter, it's not over. Everyone is fighting for something. Every player in the CAA treats its like it's an I-A conference. Every player wants to potentially be all-conference, be an all-american, has dreams of playing in the NFL. It's just what the CAA is made up in terms of players."
"I told our guys that's the same mentality we need to have," Cameron instructed his teammates. "We need to always have the highest amount of goals we can, as an individual player and a team, because you want to be able to compete player to player, position to position every Saturday."
While a lot has been noted of what the CAA is made up of, Cameron is quick to note that the CAA can expect from the Monarchs.
"I think we're going to be a competitive team," said Cameron, "just in terms of what we have personnel wise and who our team is made up of, coach's game plan, and things we do. I think we are going to do well."
"I have a lot of belief in this team," continued Cameron. "I was on a few good Hofstra teams and I feel like this team talent wise is going to be able to match-up with anyone in the CAA."
The preparation for that jump to the CAA is already well underway and continues during the Monarchs' 15 spring practices.
"Individually I want to work on all the little things I wasn't able to accomplish last year," said Cameron, who was second on the ODU defense with 72 tackles and recording a team-leading 19 tackles for loss. "I want to be able to be perfect, that's always my goal. I know its impossible to always reach perfection, but there's nothing wrong with trying to reach it. I want to be a staple of our defense and our team. No matter what, they can always look to me, and I'll be able to handle it."
"As a defense, we want to improve our run defense and have better team cohesiveness, having everyone on the same page," Cameron continued on the goals of the spring. "As a team, we want to be tougher. I know people have said we've had `weak' schedules in the past and this and that. It doesn't matter who we step on the field with, we're going to be who we are. We are going to be a tough team, we are going to be a fast team, we're going to be a physical team, and that's who we are going to be no matter the opponent."