Fortune is supposed to favor the bold, and University of Richmond coach Mike London made a bold decision late in yesterday’s game against Villanova that should have won the game for the Spiders. Spiders quarterback Eric Ward is supposed to be the coolest of the cool when the game is on the line, and he was exactly that yesterday. So, how do you explain Richmond’s 21-20 loss at UR Stadium?

Top-ranked UR surges to romp of Towson Underdog Towson took the lead in the third quarter. That seemed to be the needle in the rear to the University of Richmond during its 42-14 win yesterday before 4,396 at Johnny Unitas Stadium. The Spiders, top-ranked in the FCS, scored 22 points in 2:33, turning a 14-13 deficit into a 35-14 lead.

The University of Richmond faced former Huguenot High cornerback Sean Smalls when the Spiders played at Massachusetts last season. UR will deal with another ex-Falcon Saturday when the Minutemen visit Richmond. Ke’Mon Bailey, a redshirt junior, is in his first season as a Massachusetts starter. He succeeds Smalls, a three-year starter and 2007 All-Colonial Athletic Association choice. Both players were convinced to attend UMass by Guido Falbo, a Massachusetts assistant.

Scotty McGee was responsible for what was likely the most exciting CAA highlight of last season—the punt return that capped JMU’s 38-31 victory over Richmond, the last time the national champions lost.

Mike London can’t hide, even if that is his preference. Coaches of successful programs are subjects of discussions regarding other jobs. The University of Richmond is 17-3 with a national championship and a No. 1 ranking in the Football Championship Subdivision poll with London, in his second season as coach of his alma mater. London, who will turn 49 next Friday, can’t get much hotter as a potential candidate at an FCS school.

Family: wife, Regina; children, Michael, Brandon, Kristen, Ticynn, Korbin, Jaicyn, Madicyn
  Education: graduated from Bethel High School, Hampton; University of Richmond (sociology major, Class of 1983); received degree in law enforcement from the Richmond Police Academy.
  Playing career: Spiders’ defensive back 1979-82; signed as a free agent by the Dallas Cowboys.

The University of Richmond and VMI each have 40 wins in their football rivalry that resumes Saturday at UR Stadium. The current teams have this in common: Each head coach played in college for Dal Shealy. Shealy directed UR’s program from 1980-88. One of the Spiders’ captains in 1982 was defensive back Mike London, now in his second season as Richmond’s coach. VMI is led for the second year by Sparky Woods, who played quarterback and defensive back at Carson-Newman while Shealy was head coach there (1970-73). Both coaches continue to communicate with Shealy.

How do you stay No. 1 in the country when every opponent wants to beat the top-ranked team? How do you stay No.1 when it’s human nature to become full of yourself, to believe all the accolades and think you can turn on a winning effort the way you turn on a faucet? You hope you have a team full of players such as Kevin Grayson.

Same league. Different philosophies. When the University of Richmond visits Delaware on Saturday in a Colonial Athletic Association game, one roster will have zero transfers from the Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A). The other will include 10. Richmond has no FBS transfers, and that’s pretty typical for the Spiders. Their staffs over the years have consistently stated that Richmond’s academic structure limits options.

Acquaintances reunite tonight in Durham, N.C. Four seasons ago, University of Richmond quarterback Eric Ward made his first collegiate start at quarterback. Duke defensive tackle Vince Oghobaase also made his first collegiate start. The two met early. “He caught me one good time up under the chin after I let go of a screen pass,“ Ward said. “That was really my first college football hit. After that one, I kind of settled in and was like, ‘Let’s go.‘“

The University of Richmond’s football schedule seems to set up the Spiders for a successful start. Four of the first six games are on the road. The past two years, UR went 12-3 as visitors against Football Championship Subdivision opposition. The Spiders open Saturday night at Duke, then visit Colonial Athletic Association rival Delaware.

The stadiums are big, the crowds will be large and the odds long that Richmond, William and Mary or James Madison will pull off upsets in their season-opening football games. But the odds are not as long as they once were that on Saturday, Richmond will defeat Duke or William and Mary will beat Virginia. And JMU should not be counted as an automatic “W” for Maryland on Sept. 12.

University of Richmond football coach Mike London Tuesday called an expert witness to address sustained excellence. Willie Lanier spoke to the Spiders. The Pro Football Hall of Famer and 1963 graduate of Maggie Walker High School told the Spiders the performance level that led to the program’s 2008 Football Championship Subdivision title should be the baseline from which they operate this season.

Fifty feet in the air was a worker, welding while straddling a steel beam. Another worker at the same height was riveting. There were cranes. There was smoke, the sound of motors, and every two or three minutes, the “beep-beep-beep” that comes when one of the trucks or other vehicles shifted into reverse. The University of Richmond’s First Market Stadium may be the nation’s most distraction-laden football practice facility, though some players don’t seem to notice. Safety Michael Ireland yesterday looked around the construction site caused by First Market Stadium’s transformation to a facility for home football games starting next season and shook his head.

Maybe he will be a college quarterback. Maybe he will play some other position. But Collegiate’s Jake McGee will be doing it at the University of Richmond. The 6-5 210-pounder, a Times-Dispatch second-team All-Metro pick in 2008 as a quarterback, committed orally to the Spiders yesterday. McGee is the third area player from the Class of 2010 who has orally committed to Richmond, which won the 2008 Football Championship Subdivision title.