Football | 7/26/2022 2:29:00 PM

TROY, N.Y. - Coming off a season in which it tied the school record for wins in a season and advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Playoffs, the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) football team is listed 20th in the D3football.com Preseason Top 25 Poll. RPI received 130 votes, which is 26 behind No. 19 University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and nine ahead of No. 21 Randolph-Macon College. The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, the defending national champion, is first with 619 points.

The Engineers, who are led by 10th-year head coach Ralph Isernia, was 11-2 in 2021, including a Liberty League mark of 5-1. They earned an automatic berth into the national playoffs and won two games on the road before seeing their season end in the national quarterfinals. It was the second time in three seasons RPI advanced into the third round and its seventh straight post-season appearance. D3football.com listed Rensselaer at No. 13 in the final poll, while the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) put it at No. 14.

The 2022 squad is expected to return 14 starters, including seven on offense and seven on defense. All five starting offensive linemen return as do a pair of All-Americans on defense. Cornerback C.J. Lyons (Rocky Mount, NC / St. Stephens-St. Agnes) was on the D3football.com Third Team and lineman Josh Cohen (Wellesley, MA / Wellesley) earned Fourth Team recognition.

RPI's first game is Saturday, September 3 against Dickinson College at East Campus Stadium (1pm), followed by home games against Carnegie Mellon University on September 10 (1pm) and WPI in the Transit Trophy Game on September 17 (5pm). The Engineers have a total of six games in Troy and four others on the road.