Roger Brown
nhfootballreport.com

He's a four-year starter who has passed for more than 10,000 yards during his collegiate career. His name is Sean Schaefer, and he's one of the reasons Towson could give the University of New Hampshire some trouble this weekend.

"I think it starts with their quarterback," UNH coach Sean McDonnell said. "Sean Schaefer can make every throw that has to be made at this level. They have three really good receivers who can not only catch, they can run after the catch. They spread you out in a lot of different ways.

"They're a team that, offensively, spreads the field to find out where your weaknesses are and gets the ball to those spots. It's a little bit like what we do. When they have a kid that can pull the trigger like they do with Sean Schaefer, now it adds to the anxiety for a defensive coordinator, a defensive team."

UNH and Towson will meet at UNH's Cowell Stadium on Saturday at noon.

Towson, which is coming off a bye week, is 3-4 overall, 1-2 in the Colonial Athletic Association. UNH improved to 5-1 overall and 2-1 in the CAA with Saturday's 33-21 victory at Northeastern.

In Towson's last game, a 37-32 victory over Rhode Island, Schaefer completed 25 of 34 passes for 373 yards. He became the 20th Football Championship Subdivsion quarterback to pass for at least 10,000 yards in that contest.

Schaefer will enter Saturday's game having passed for 10,211 yards and 64 touchdowns since arriving at Towson.

"The thing that always strikes me with Sean is his accuracy, and secondly, his poise," Towson coach Gordy Combs said. "The thing that has surprised me the most is his ability to run with the football. Not that we design things for him to run the football, but how he can sense it and then when he has it he'll go and run with the football. Every time he's under center or in the shotgun he gives us an opportunity to win."

Towson is averaging 264.7 yards passing per game, which ranks first among CAA teams.

"We need to put some pressure on the quarterback out of our four-man rush, because the people who blitz them have some problems because they're so talented at the wide receiver position," McDonnell said. "One of the things that we need to improve upon is coverage in space, and this will be a major test for us."

Noteworthy

Towson wide receiver  Marcus Lee, a senior, has caught at least one pass in each of his 40 career games. Lee has 28 receptions for "He's very dependable," Combs said. "He's not the guy who's going to break the long touchdown run, but Sean is always gonna know where Marcus is. He very seldom drops a ball. He's just a winner. He approaches the game in a professional way." ...  Saturday's game can be seen on Comcast SportsNet New England. Gary Tanguay (play by play) and Andy Gresh (color commentary) will call the action ... UNH is 4-0 in the all-time series against Towson, including 2-0 in conference games. UNH beat Towson 62-24 in 2004, and 62-21 in 2005. .. Cooms said defensive lineman Richard Lee will not play Saturday. ... UNH ranks first among CAA teams in total offense (437.8 yards per game) and second in scoring offense (36.7 points per game).