Quote from: JT on August 22, 2007, 09:28:28 AM

Quote from: Tlm on August 22, 2007, 09:01:17 AM
I appreciate that fact that evaluating and ranking 238 - D3 football teams is a daunting task.  After reading through this year's "Kickoff" coverage from D3.com, with a particular focus on the LL, I point out a couple of glaring inconsistencies:

-  Kickoff ranks RPI 38th, UofR 40th, Bart 45th and Union 48th which is certainly plausible given who is returning and who has graduated at each of the respective schools.

-  In the breakdown of overall and in-league records, Kickoff predicts the following for each team:  RPI - 8-1 (6-1), Bart - 8-2 (6-1), Union - 7-2 (5-2), UofR - 6-4 (4-3).  These records are also plausible given the talent and history of the respective schools.

However, the prediction of the individual school records for 2007 does not square with the national ranking and implies that the two were done independently of one another.

One other point on the LL.  StL is shown with a league record of 3-3, and I am certain that like everyone else in the LL, the Larries have 7 league games.

I respectfully submit the following suggestion.....When you charge $8.95 for an online publication, or any price for that matter, you should do everything you can to check the final product for consistency prior to publication.

This is probably due to the fact that writers are doing the individual capsules and D3 editors are doing the rankings.  I thought the rankings were pretty good.  I think the product improves each year.  Obviously they'll be a few "errors" in compliation this big.

I realize that a lot of work goes into Kickoff, but here is my point, if you were to submit a report at work, the last thing you should do is proof read it one more time and then hit spell check.  It can be the difference between the report being taken seriously or being summarily dismissed.

I just looked closely at the LL and found several discrepancies.  I don't know if there are other discrepancies for other teams and conferences, but I suspect that there may be more than a few.

I appreciate that fact that evaluating and ranking 238 - D3 football teams is a daunting task.  After reading through this year's "Kickoff" coverage from D3.com, with a particular focus on the LL, I point out a couple of glaring inconsistencies:

-  Kickoff ranks RPI 38th, UofR 40th, Bart 45th and Union 48th which is certainly plausible given who is returning and who has graduated at each of the respective schools.

-  In the breakdown of overall and in-league records, Kickoff predicts the following for each team:  RPI - 8-1 (6-1), Bart - 8-2 (6-1), Union - 7-2 (5-2), UofR - 6-4 (4-3).  These records are also plausible given the talent and history of the respective schools.

However, the prediction of the individual school records for 2007 does not square with the national ranking and implies that the two were done independently of one another.

One other point on the LL.  StL is shown with a league record of 3-3, and I am certain that like everyone else in the LL, the Larries have 7 league games.

I respectfully submit the following suggestion.....When you charge $8.95 for an online publication, or any price for that matter, you should do everything you can to check the final product for consistency prior to publication.

Took a look at the All-East team.  While I am sure that there will be a number of folks that believe some players should have made the team that were left off, I generally think the SID's did a reasonable job at selecting the three teams.

The one question I have is the selection of Mark Robinson as the East's Offensive Player of the Year.  Don't get me wrong.  Robinson is a great football player, but I am not quite sure how you can select Robinson over a guy that turns around Springfield's program this year and leads the nation in rushing and scoring by wide margins.

Without Robinson, SJF is a very good football team that still may be heading to Mt Union this weekend.  Without Chris Sharpe, Springfield is an average team and doesn't even make the playoffs.

Quote from: Frank Rossi on December 06, 2006, 04:42:43 PM

Quote from: Tlm on December 06, 2006, 03:46:20 PM

Quote from: Frank Rossi on December 06, 2006, 12:13:31 PM

Quote from: Pat Coleman on December 05, 2006, 07:58:05 PM
I've never seen vote totals released, not even to me off the record, since we started tracking in 1999.

And Union hasn't had a candidate during that time. 

Frank,

I am surprised at you.  Josh Stinehour, Union's All-American DE was one of the 10 Gagliardi Trophy finalists in 2001.

Can I smite myself?

I don't think "self-smiting" is permitted.  On the other hand, I am surprised that PC didn't jump all over you for overlooking Stinehour as he is usually on top of these obscure DIII facts.

Quote from: Frank Rossi on December 06, 2006, 12:13:31 PM

Quote from: Pat Coleman on December 05, 2006, 07:58:05 PM
I've never seen vote totals released, not even to me off the record, since we started tracking in 1999.

And Union hasn't had a candidate during that time. 

Frank,

I am surprised at you.  Josh Stinehour, Union's All-American DE was one of the 10 Gagliardi Trophy finalists in 2001.

Quote from: Upstate on December 05, 2006, 06:15:52 PM

Quote from: Tlm on December 05, 2006, 06:02:10 PM

Same could be said about mark robinson, as a sophmore he had over 2000yds and 25 tds.  His junior year was cut short due to a shoulder seperation (still had 600yds in his first 4 games) and this year he has to split carries but still has 1400yds and 20plus tds...

Its hard for any RB to carry the ball 200+ times in a season without getting banged up, worn out and possibly injured.  I think SJF is a better football team this year for having a couple of backs to carry the load rather than featuring only one back. 

Congratulations to TA for being named the East Region Finalist for the Gagliardi Trophy.  He had a great season and an outstanding career at Union College. 

It would be nice to see him win the award itself, but all of the regional finalists are very deserving.  In TA's case, while he had a great senior season and often carried the offense early in the year when the WR's were hurting, you almost wish he could switch his junior and senior seasons.  His total stats were better as a junior and the team ended up with a better record at 11-1.  As a senior, playing banged up for the last few games limited his overall production for the season.

I once paid $30 on Ebay for a 1930's Union College game program.  As for the shoes, I'll go along with the asking price set by bigdvs.

What is that you want? Compare resumes? Played for 12 years. two year capt. all-american hon mention.  Now coaching my sons pop warner team.  Is that good enough for you.
[/quote]

rowanlb92,

I would normally complement anyone who puts in the time and effort to coach pop warner, little league, etc.  When coaching your son's pop warner team, I sure hope that you are teaching him and his teammates a little something about good sportsmanship, although I wonder given your prior comments here.  In fact, given your prior comments, I wouldn't be surprised if you are a frustrated football dad whose son will probably end up hating the game.

But maybe I'm wrong in reading too much into your callous comments and lack of perspective.

For the benefit of all of the SJF posters that now seem to call LLPP their home, the story on TA is as follows:

-  He caught a badly sprained ankle early in the 3rd qtr of Union's win at Hobart for the LL championship.  Up to that point in the game he had rushed for over 100 yards and was having a big game.

-  The following week vs RPI, TA was clearly less then 100% but still went over 100 yards with a TD while playing on a terrible field.  RPI played TA and Union very tough and clearly TA was banged up even more after the RPI game.

-  He suited up at SJF because he is a tough kid and a great competitor, but he was not even close to 100%.  Throw in the fact that Union had 3 other starters out for the SJF game and it was a very difficult task for Union to beat a very good SJF team on the road.

That is the way it goes with football.   Injuries are part of the game.  That is to take nothing away from SJF who took it to Union and then contained Springfield's potent offense a week later.

Rowan will win or lose based on the play of their defense which is outstanding and capable of playing with anyone in the country.  

On the other hand, their offense is average at best.  Most Rowan fans hoped that the return from season-ending injuries last year of QB Mike Orihel and RB Ulysses Encarnacion would take them to the next level.  Unfortunately, Encarnacion was not able to return from a very bad injury and Orihel has not been the same without WR's Silva and Wright who both signed pro contracts at the end of last season.

On the other hand, Rowan is well coached and they never panic in tight games.  SJF can certainly beat them this year, but it will take their best effort.

Quote from: The Great Pumpkin on November 12, 2006, 10:25:40 AM
TGP has no idea where these discussions of Hobart being the odd man out are coming from?!?

Sure TGP is a LL homer, but this season all the teams in our league really stepped up.  Even teams that struggled a bit (RPI, Rocho, SLU) could beat almost anybody in the east any given Saturday.  Bart's wins over Dickinson and Alfred were solid Out of Conference victories that should give them some cred with the selection committee.

Speaking of RPI - any chance they can get in an ECAC bowl?  TGP hopes they get one more game based on yesterday's win over Union.

TGP just can imagine any scenario where Bart - who is still a top ranked and 1 loss team - gets left out of the playoff picture.

TGP,

AS a LL supporter I truly hope that Bart gets a bid to the NCAA's, but here is the deal.  There are 5 AQ's in the East (MAC/Wilkes, NEFC/Curry, NJAC/Rowan, E8/Springfield and LL/Union).  All indications are that one out-of-region team (Dickinson/CC?) will be put into the East.  That leaves the following 3 teams looking for 2 Pool C bids:

-  Hobart - 1 loss to Union
-  SJF - 1 loss to Springfield
-  Cortland - 1 loss to Rowan.

The 3 teams all lost to the eventual conference  champion so it comes down to which conference is stronger in the voters eyes.  I think Bart's case would have been much easier if either Cortland St had lost to Ithaca or SJF didn' hammer Alfred yesterday.

As I said, I am rooting for Bart, but there is no guarantee.

.........OH MY GOD!  I AM STARTING TO SOUND LIKE FRANK ROSSI!

Congrats to RPI for a great win yesterday.  They outplayed Union and deserved it.

Some comments on the game/season/playoffs:

-  I don't know how RPI lost 3 games this season?  They are a much better team then 6-3.

-  The field was the worst I have ever seen and affected both teams ability to execute their offenses.  RPI did the better job of dealing with the conditions.

-  I know that a lot of Union folks were hoping that the game would have been switched to the turf field but I can sympathize with RPI's dilemma.  This was not the UofR game from last year.  They expected a lot more fans and from my memory the turf field has very limited seating.  Also, they had to make a call for TV3 to set up to bradcast the game in advance so they went with 86 Field and hoped for the best.

-  A couple of questionable coaching decisions on both sides of the field.  Union stops RPI's offense around their own 20 yd line with 2:47 left in the half and then throws th ball downfiled 3 times all incomplete passes, rather than grinding out a few first downs and managing the clock.  Union punts and RPI gets the ball on Unions 40 yard line and procedes to score a TD before half that takes the score to 17-9 rather than 10-9.  On the other side, up two scores, with Union out of timeouts and 5 minutes left, RPI passes the ball on 2nd down rather then running the clock and its intercepted.  Union comes down and scores and gives themselves a chance to pull out the game.  It reminds me of the same decision two years ago when Union did end up pulling out the game.

-  Finally, if Hobart ends up being the odd team out of the NCAA tournament (3 one loss runner up teams = Cortland St, SJF & Hobart looking for a Pool C), they will look back at RPI's season and wonder about the losses to Stl & UofR.  If RPI wins those games, and Hobart wins vs RPI as they did, Hobart ends up with the AQ on strength of schedule and a top seed.

All in all a great game although I sure would have preferred a different outcome.

APB issued on Keith McMillan. 

Surely Mr. McMillan must have been kidnapped by someone on the E8 board and forced to ignore the Union-RPI rivalry in his column (Around the Nation) as mentioned by yours truly yesterday and expounded upon by various posters on this board.

Keith, if you escape, please feel free to post your "Mia Culpa" on this board.  The LL posters will, I am sure, accept your apology with the dignity and the understated maturity that has come to symbolize LLPP.

I just read Keith McMillan's "Around the Nation", several times in fact because I thought I might have overlooked something, but alas here is Mr. McMillan's list of the big rivalry games on Saturday

Bowdoin (1-6) at Colby (2-5): Someone has to reign in Maine, and it won't be Bates (0-7) this year.
Coe (6-3) at Cornell (2-7): Eight points from being conference champs, the Kohawks meet the Rams, who have lost seven straight, in meeting No. 116, which is at the end of the season for first time since the Midwest Conference days.
Cortland State (8-1) at Ithaca (7-2): Going since 1959, it isn't the oldest, but it might be the most fierce. And it's got a team, maybe two, with a playoff shot.
DePauw (6-3) at Wabash (7-2): There's nothing these Indiana rivals like about each other, but they both want the Monon Bell in their 113th meeting.
Hanover (4-5) at Franklin (8-1): With eight victories so far, the Grizzlies now want the Victory Bell and a playoff shot.
Muhlenberg (4-5) at Moravian (4-5): These teams become Centennial Conference rivals next year, but they've been at each other's throats for a long time already.
Randolph-Macon (2-7) at Hampden-Sydney (3-6): Teams have come into most recent matchups with divergent fortunes. They're both bad heading into Game 112.
Trinity (Conn.) (6-1) at Wesleyan (3-4): No "best team not to make playoffs" title on line for Bantams, no win streak. Just a chance to win the 106th meeting with its Connecticut rival.
Williams (7-0) at Amherst (5-2): Our granddaddy of them all, with no playoffs ahead, the Ephs take an undefeated record to Amherst for the umpteenth time in the 121 meetings.
Wilkes (9-0) at King's (6-3): Crosstown scuffle should feature a lot of defense.

I guess the 104th game in the battle for the Shoes just doesn't cut it.  Consider how far RPI vs Union has fallen.  Last year the guru comes to town to see the game and this year it's chopped liver.