Robert Morris Puts Together Complete Performance in Season Opening Win Over Wagner

There were a lot of questions surrounding the Robert Morris football program heading into the 2026 season after Bernard Clark Jr.’s team went just 3-9 a season ago, including a 2-5 record inside of the Northeast Conference. Not many of those questions were easily answered throughout the course of the offseason due to many reasons, but they were in Saturday’s season opener.

Clark and the Colonials struggled to find much success last season, especially on the offensive side of the ball. Those struggled mainly stemmed by rough quarterback play and lack of playmakers. As a result, Clark brought in a load of inexperienced transfers and hoped for growth from his young guys that returned for another season.

After the beatdown that Robert Morris gave Wagner to start the season and NEC schedule on Saturday, some of Clark’s offseason gambles have already started to pay off as the Colonials put together an all-around performance to defeat the Seahawks, 28-7.

The biggest question mark for the Colonials entering Saturday’s season opener was at the quarterback position. Clark brought in a pair of transfer quarterbacks to battle for the job but the one that came out on top was Abilene Christian transfer Carson Haggard.

Haggard looked decent out of the gate on Saturday as he threw a crisp six-yard back shoulder touchdown to last year’s leading receiver Jaqai Carter which gave the Colonials a 14-0 first quarter lead.

After starting the second half with a crushing pick-six that cut the Colonials’ lead in half at 14-7, Haggard settled into the flow of the game as he threw for 136 of his 206 passing yards and two more touchdowns over the final two quarters. Haggard finished the game having completed 59% of his passes for three touchdowns and two interceptions.

The pair of second half touchdowns both came the way of sophomore wide receiver Galen Combs, the first being a 64-yard touchdown and the second coming from 15 yards out which iced the game with just 5:35 left in the fourth quarter.

Those were not the only two scores of the day for Combs though. He helped start the scoring in the first quarter when he got in front of a Seahawks’ punt and blocked it before picking it up and running it into the end zone for a touchdown. Combs led the Colonials with 104 yards on four catches and three total touchdowns.

As evident by the final score and Haggard’s pick-six, Clark’s defense pitched a shutout and was undoubtedly the strongest of the three units in the win. Not only did the defense not allow any points, the Seahawks mustered up just 97 yards of total offense and just six first downs.

In total, six different Colonial defenders recorded at least half of a sack with defensive lineman David Johnson and linebacker Khalil Hunter leading the way with a sack-and-a-half each. The defense also recorded a fumble recover which led to points.

While it is still early, if what Clark’s squad displayed against an NEC foe, one of which that was ranked higher than the Colonials in the preseason poll, the Colonials could turn into a dark horse inside of the conference. The Colonials will open up its home and non-conference schedule next Saturday at Joe Walton Stadium when they welcome in West Virginia State for a 6:30 kickoff.