HARRSIONBURG — Maine’s Earnest Edwards demands some attention.

Well, at least from his opponents.

“He’s an electric player. He’s an electric personality,” Maine coach Nick Charlton said of Edwards earlier this week during the Colonial Athletic Association coaches teleconference.

The speedster Edwards had a 100-yard kick return for a touchdown, a 95-yard kick return for a touchdown and a 40-yard scoring catch during the Black Bears’ 35-21 win at Colgate this past Saturday.

He was named CAA Special Teams Player of the Week for his efforts, and he leads the FCS in kickoff return yards (40.6 yards per return) and is 19th nationally for receiving yards (333) entering this Saturday’s conference contest between No. 12 Maine and No. 8 Villanova.

“Earnest Edwards is an explosive athlete and he does a lot of positive things for them,” Villanova coach Mark Ferrante said, “and the return game is definitely one of them.

“We’re putting our plan together. We need to do a good job of covering the kicks. I’m hoping [Villanova kicker] Nate Fondacaro can kick ‘em all out of the end zone, so we don’t have to worry about defending Earnest on the return. But then we’ve got to worry about him as a receiver and worry about all the things he does with the offense as well.”

Edwards has recorded a catch of 40 yards or more in each of his first four games this season.

“When the ball is in his hands, he can be very special,” Charlton said. “He has very good vision and he has elite speed. But then the other thing I’ll say about Earn is, and it doesn’t show up in the stat sheet, but there’s a lot of other things he’s been doing in the run game and on plays he’s a diversion. He’s been doing those at an elite level as well and that’s the sign of a guy that’s a real team guy, and not everyone knows that about Earn.”

Richmond coach Russ Huesman said the off week came at a good time for his program following a Week 3 home loss to Elon.

The Spiders are 1-2, with their lone win coming over non-scholarship Pioneer League member Jacksonville.

“It’s been hard because the first game we were better than them,” Huesman said. “And in the second game [at FBS Boston College], they were better than us. Then third game we didn’t play well and Elon played well, so it’s still up in the air with what our team is all about. But I think we’ve got good players and great kids and we just got to put it together and play like we’re capable of playing.”

Richmond is likely to start Beau English, an Air Force transfer, at quarterback this Saturday at Fordham since starter Joe Mancuso is “a little banged up,” Huesman said.

New Hampshire’s season has new life after Jason Hughes’ game-winning field goal gave the Wildcats a 27-24 CAA win over Rhode Island this past Saturday.

The victory helped UNH avoid a 0-3 start while sending URI to 0-3.

“It means a lot,” New Hampshire interim coach Ricky Santos said. “It’s always tough to get the first one to start a season. It’s always tough to win in this conference, but I thought we played extremely well in all three phases for the first time all year. It was a complete game.”

New Hampshire hosts Duquesne in its final non-conference game this Saturday.