By Tiffany Williams –
The CAA enters the 2026 football season with a defending champion carrying the target, several programs convinced they are only a few plays away from breaking through, new head coaches stepping into significant expectations and a league where the difference between the middle of the standings and championship contention may be smaller than the records suggest.
Across the conference, the same themes continue to surface.
Finish games.
Develop players.
Handle adversity.
Build chemistry.
And when the fourth quarter arrives, find a way to win.
Rhode Island enters the season at the center of the championship conversation after winning the outright CAA title in 2025 and earning the unanimous No. 1 spot in the 2026 preseason poll. But head coach Jim Fleming has been around long enough to understand that being picked first carries about as much weight once the football is kicked off as being picked last.
“We’ve gone the full gamut here at URI since I’ve been here,” Fleming said. “Obviously to start off in years where you say that you’re ranked last and you say, that’s not gonna matter. That’s the same thing with being ranked first.”
For Fleming, the ranking represents recognition of what Rhode Island has built.
It does not guarantee what happens next.
“This team is a different team and we’ve got a lot to earn,” Fleming said. “And so we’ll take the rank and we’ll try to hold on to it. But we’ve got to go out and play really good football, put a team together.”
The Rams will have to replace significant production from last season, including standout linebacker AJ Pena and a 1,400-yard rusher.
Fleming acknowledged there may not be one player capable of replacing everything Pena brought to the defense. Instead, Rhode Island expects to rely on a combination of returning players, developed younger talent and transfers.
The structure of the defense will remain similar.
The people filling those roles will change.
“I think that would be a high expectation of anybody,” Fleming said of asking one player to replace Pena. He added that Rhode Island has a group capable of collectively creating pressure and maintaining the defensive standard.
One major piece remains in place offensively.
Wide receiver Marquise Buchanan returned after an All-American season, choosing continuity over starting somewhere else.
“Just the family atmosphere here and Coach Fleming established, treated me since I got here on campus,” Buchanan said. “I’m just a loyal guy, I love being at home and what we’ve built here has been special and I just want to continue to build that going into this season.”
Buchanan believes his versatility separates him from other receivers. He sees himself as someone capable of playing inside or outside and turning short, intermediate or deep throws into explosive plays.
“Some guys are just deep threats or they’re just quick game,” Buchanan said. “I feel like I can play in all facets of the game.”
The larger question surrounding Rhode Island is whether the Rams can reproduce the mentality that carried them through championship seasons.
Fleming believes their ability to survive difficult moments has become one of the program’s defining characteristics.
“You’re gonna run into some hard times,” Fleming said.
That becomes even more important when everyone on the schedule recognizes the defending champion.
“It is incredibly difficult to do when you walk into a season with a target on your back like we have,” Fleming said.
Rhode Island has won by staying in games long enough to give itself a chance.
“That’s been our secret sauce,” Fleming said. “We’ve been able to stay in the games and play longer and harder and find ways to win at the end.”
That ability to win late is exactly what several teams beneath Rhode Island believe separates them from the top.
Towson finished 6-6 overall and 4-4 in the CAA last season but closed by winning three of its final four games.
Head coach Pete Shinnick wants the Tigers to carry that finish into 2026, but he also understands why Towson has not yet made a larger jump.
Consistency.
“We have been in most games. We have had tight games,” Shinnick said. “We got to be better in the fourth quarter. And we’ve got to be more disciplined in areas that I felt like, you know, we had opportunities to be, but we just weren’t.”
Towson has spent the offseason emphasizing what Shinnick describes as living up to one’s fullest potential.
“How can we excel in the moment?” Shinnick said. “How can we execute to exhaustion?”
One significant difference for Towson is stability at quarterback.
Andrew Indorf returns after throwing for more than 2,000 yards and 16 touchdowns as a freshman, and Shinnick believes the young quarterback has the ability to become one of the best in the country.
Indorf’s first season also gave him lessons that statistics cannot measure.
He experienced success.
He experienced adversity.
He was benched against Stony Brook.
And he learned the difference between trying to produce numbers and trying to win football games.
“We’re not gonna go in there throw for 500 yards or five touchdowns,” Indorf said. “We’re just gonna do our job, execute every play.”
His mentality entering year two is considerably different because he is no longer trying to prove he belongs in the position.
Towson knows who its quarterback is.
Now the Tigers have to build around him.
The defense presents a different challenge after losing a majority of its starters. Returning players have been asked to become teachers as much as teammates, helping younger players understand the speed and physicality of college football.
Towson has also been deliberate about what kind of players it brings into the program.
Shinnick said the Tigers ask three fundamental questions about potential additions.
Are they hard workers?
Are they positive?
Are they great teammates?
Those questions fit into what Towson wants to become: a program based around smart football, hard work, positive energy and unity.
Stony Brook also enters 2026 believing its breakthrough could be close.
The Seawolves went 6-6 overall and 4-4 in conference play last season, with three defeats coming by seven points or fewer.
Those losses remain fresh.
“Obviously, those losses hurt, but you remember them,” head coach Billy Cosh said. “We’ve done a lot of good things, but you’ve got to go from good to great.”
Cosh called that jump a difficult chapter.
Part of the challenge is rebuilding an offense that lost significant production.
Stony Brook must replace leading rusher Roland Dempster and multiple productive receivers. That creates competition at running back and receiver, with several players fighting to become the lead option.
“We’ve got capable bodies, but you’ve got to find the one,” Cosh said.
Quarterback Quinn Boyd could give Stony Brook some stability.
Boyd started the final five games last season and is entering the next phase of his development by studying more than his own offense.
He wants to understand defenses.
“There is a little bit of tape out there,” Boyd said. “I think the next thing was kind of not just understanding the offense. It’s kind of understanding how the defense plays and kind of seeing like the shell and seeing where there’s like voids in the defense.”
Boyd believes that knowledge can allow him to stay ahead of opponents who now have film on him.
Cosh has built the Seawolves around competitiveness and toughness.
Neither is negotiable.
“You got to create a competitive standard that that’s got to last,” Cosh said.
Then comes toughness.
Physical toughness.
Mental toughness.
The kind required when a game is decided by one possession.
“That’s kind of our next step,” Cosh said, “having mental toughness in critical moments and tough games, tight games.”
North Carolina A&T enters 2026 looking for more than improvement.
The Aggies want to restore an identity.
Head coach Shawn Gibbs believes the first step is changing the way his program views itself.
“I think for too long, we’ve been trying to prove that we belong and that we can play in this conference,” Gibbs said.
He no longer wants that mentality anywhere near the program.
“Our approach isn’t to prove anything to anybody,” Gibbs said. “Our approach is to honor and glorify who we’ve always been. And we’re a championship football program, and we’re going to start carrying ourselves and conducting ourselves like that.”
A&T has increased its overall talent level and enters camp with five quarterbacks who have played college football.
Nobody has been promised anything.
“We’re going to compete every day and nobody’s going to feel safe about their job,” Gibbs said. “You’ve got to go out and earn it each and every day.”
One area in particular has demanded attention.
The running game.
A&T went an entire season without producing a 100-yard rusher, something Gibbs considers unacceptable for a program that takes pride in the running backs it has produced.
“We call ourselves RBU,” Gibbs said.
He pointed to players such as Tarik Cohen, Jah-Maine Martin and others who established that reputation.
“So we got to get back to that where we’re able to run the football on people and it starts on the offensive line,” Gibbs said.
His description of the rebuilt unit was simple.
“We’re a lot bigger and a lot stronger and we’re going to be a lot meaner than we were last year.”
New Hampshire faces a different type of transition.
The Wildcats are not trying to discover what their standard should be.
They already know.
Sean Goldrich returned to lead his alma mater and quickly realized that many of the characteristics he remembered as a player were still present.
“Not a lot has changed,” Goldrich said. “Same type of guys in the locker room, same type of work ethic, same type of passion for this game.”
The players, he said, are relentless.
They ask for more film.
More weight-room work.
More opportunities to improve.
“There’s a lot of guys on this team that do love it,” Goldrich said of football.
Goldrich’s challenge is blending what he learned from an older era of New Hampshire football with what players need today.
The old-school portion remains.
Work hard.
Play physical.
Compete through the whistle.
Those principles are not changing.
“There’s some old-school things that I can’t shake that I know that this place has been built off of,” Goldrich said.
The modern component involves being smarter about recovery, nutrition, sleep, workload and keeping players healthy enough to survive a long season.
Goldrich wants a physical football team.
He also wants his best players available when the games matter most.
The destination remains familiar.
“What is our end game for what people are going to say about the New Hampshire Wildcats in 2026?” Goldrich said. “The goals have not changed. They never have in this program.”
Maine is another team attempting to turn progress into something larger.
The Black Bears finished 6-6 overall and 5-3 in conference play last season, their most CAA victories since 2018.
The season did not begin the way Maine wanted.
The response is what head coach Jordan Stevens remembers.
His players stayed together.
They concentrated on what they could control.
They made a run.
But they still did not finish where they wanted.
Stevens said Maine has focused on competitive stamina and maintaining the necessary urgency throughout an entire season.
That urgency will be tested quickly.
Maine opens with a conference game and plays four of its first five games on the road, including two against FBS opponents.
The roster itself continues to reflect Maine’s developmental approach.
Stevens is not always interested in what position a player had beside his name in high school.
He wants athletes.
Length.
Size.
Speed.
Players who can be developed.
“Football is a game played in space,” Stevens said.
Seventeen players from the state of Maine are on the roster in significant roles, reinforcing the program’s attempt to identify local athletes who can be developed into CAA players.
Elon finished 6-6 and 4-4 last season but ended the year with consecutive victories.
Head coach Tony Trisciani believes that finish created momentum, even as his program absorbed significant losses through the transfer portal.
Several experienced Elon players transferred to Power Four programs.
For a developmental program, that means younger players must be ready sooner.
“We recruited some real talented high school players,” Trisciani said. “They are ready to step up and compete and win.”
Elon supplemented that development with transfers designed to fill specific holes.
The Phoenix still have experienced CAA players in key positions and believe stronger player leadership has created greater accountability inside the locker room.
“We’ve got a lot of juice and energy in our building,” Trisciani said.
The goals are not modest.
“The next step for us, it’s winning the CAA championship and it’s returning to the FCS playoffs,” Trisciani said.
He believes the roster is capable of doing it.
But like nearly every team in the conference, the Phoenix know capability means nothing without consistency.
Campbell may understand that reality better than anyone.
The Fighting Camels lost six games by seven points or fewer last season, including their final four.
For head coach Braxton Harris, those results were not something to bury during the offseason.
They became the offseason.
“We’ve trained in a way that we hate to lose, not to like to win,” Harris said.
The distinction is important to him.
Lots of people enjoy winning.
Harris wants players who are uncomfortable with losing.
Campbell turned competition into a daily requirement.
Wrestling.
Plate pushes.
Pushups.
Even rock-paper-scissors.
There was going to be a winner.
There was going to be a loser.
The scoreboard existed even when no football game was being played.
“We believe the premise that winners win and losers lose,” Harris said.
Players could walk into Campbell’s facility and see their offseason win-loss records.
Going 2-2 was not good enough.
The objective was to train the mind for the fourth quarter before the fourth quarter ever arrived.
“We think that’s the difference in the fourth quarter,” Harris said. “It’s not third and long. It’s not third and one. It’s not red zone defense. Man, it’s our mentality.”
Quarterback Camden Sixkiller enters another season as the starter with a growing understanding of what leadership means.
The responsibility has changed because teammates now look at him differently.
“I got to come in every day and I got to be what they think I am, not what I think I am that day,” Sixkiller said.
“If I don’t do it, no one else is going to do it.”
Hampton enters the season under new leadership with Van Malone taking over the Pirates.
Malone was drawn to the program because of what he described as alignment between the university administration, athletic department and football program.
He believes Hampton has assembled an energetic coaching staff and a group of players capable of building something meaningful together.
For Malone, Hampton also represents something larger.
As an HBCU competing in the CAA, Hampton has an opportunity to carry its culture into environments that may not regularly experience it.
“I believe that at an HBCU, there’s a certain culture that you don’t get to experience anywhere else,” Malone said.
He wants opposing campuses to experience Hampton football, its traditions and its identity.
Malone also sees the CAA path as an opportunity to pursue something nationally.
The FCS playoffs.
“When we have a team from our HBCU ranks to make it to the playoffs, that gives us an opportunity to seek the national championship,” Malone said.
“To say we are the best in the land.”
That goal is personal for Malone.
“That’s something that I have not been able to do in my career,” he said. “And so that’s what my quest is.”
Bryant is approaching its own crossroads.
The Bulldogs believe they understand the level of football required in the conference better than they did when they first arrived.
They have invested in facilities.
They have expanded recruiting opportunities.
They have played high-profile opponents.
And now they believe the time has arrived for those investments to produce something tangible.
“I think it’s time for us if we’re going to put up or shut up, for however you want to phrase it,” Bryant’s coach said.
More than 100 players were on campus every day for six weeks during the summer.
The result, according to players, was a roster that became closer away from football as much as during workouts.
“We’ve never spent this much time together off the field,” one player said. “We’ve never been this close as a group.”
Bryant was picked ninth in the preseason poll.
The Bulldogs are not interested in allowing that number to define them.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re picked at the top or picked at the bottom,” Bryant’s coach said. “It doesn’t change anything.”
That philosophy could apply throughout the CAA.
Rhode Island deserves the target after what it accomplished.
But behind the Rams is a conference crowded with teams that believe the gap can be closed.
Towson wants consistency and better fourth quarters.
Stony Brook wants to go from good to great.
North Carolina A&T wants to stop proving it belongs and start acting like the championship program it believes it is.
New Hampshire wants to preserve a winning standard under a head coach who lived it himself.
Maine wants urgency from the beginning instead of waiting until later in the season.
Elon believes development can replace the experience lost through the portal.
Campbell has spent an entire offseason teaching players to hate losing.
Hampton wants to build a program that can carry its HBCU identity onto the national playoff stage.
Bryant believes the time has arrived for investment and experience to become victories.
And Rhode Island wants to show that reaching the top was not the end of the story.
That sets up a 2026 CAA season in which preseason rankings may matter far less than what happens when one possession separates winning from losing.
Because eventually there will be a fourth quarter.
There will be a third down.
There will be a turnover, a missed tackle, a goal-line stand or one final possession.
And for all the talk about culture, development, recruiting, chemistry and expectations, the CAA championship may ultimately come down to something much simpler.
Who finishes.