FB: Empire 8

[Jonny Utah]

Fine...Then answer me this...

Which conference will have a better season next year from top to bottom - The E8 or the LL?  For that matter, in retrospect, which conference had a better season this year, top to bottom?  Please explain your answers in the well-thought out method we've all grown to enjoy the past few weeks.

Tough question to ask as the majority of teams are probably about even, but Id rather rank them like this in tiers.....

tier 1

SJF----Ill leave them by themselves and give them the benefit of the doubt due to them being clearly the best team last year.

tier 2 (In no particular order, but Id put Springfield slightly above all the teams and Alfred slightly below all the teams)

Springfield
Union
RPI
Hobart
Ithaca
Alfred

tier 3
Rochester (could put them next to Alfred actually

tier 4
SLU

tier 5
Norwich
Hartwick
Utica
Merchant Marine

So what's the prognosis you come with after the Tiering?

Dont know

E8 is a little top heavy, while the LL is a little bottom heavy.  But let me really rank them from top to bottom in my opinion.....

1-SJF
2-SC
3-Union
4-Hobart
5-Ithaca
6-RPI
7-Aflred
8-Rochester
9-SLU
10-Hartwick
11-Merchant Marine
12-Norwich
13-Utica

(you could argue Ithaca v RPI, and Norwich v Utica)

Lets say you gave each team a point based on their ranking. (RPI=6, Utica=13)

Add them up and divide by the number of teams in their conference and the lowest number is the better conference.

E8-7.14
LL-6.83

So according to the JU formula for ranking conferences, the LL will be stronger.

[tecmobowler]

A couple of comments on Johnny's list.

tier 1

SJF----Ill leave them by themselves and give them the benefit of the doubt due to them being clearly the best team last year.

No complaint here, they've earned it.  That being said, losing Robinson and Lang are going to be absolutely huge.  Their WRs are flat out below average.  Will recruiting get a big boost from their great showing this year?  Could very well!

tier 2 (In no particular order, but Id put Springfield slightly above all the teams and Alfred slightly below all the teams)

Springfield



Union

What a weird team.  Loads of talent, and underacheived in a huge way this year.  Not a team I'd bet for or against.  Were their problems character based this year?  Coaching? Beats me. Defense has a long way to come.
RPI
Hobart
Ithaca

Return of Baez, and Stephens is huge.  Whole LB core returns, as does the all-conference NT.  Defense should continue to improve.  at QB?
Alfred

tier 3
Rochester (could put them next to Alfred actually

tier 4
SLU

tier 5
Norwich
Hartwick

QB transfer questions have been brought up.  Will he "bolt"?  Where there is smoke.... and that team is going to be terrible if (when)  they lose him

Utica
Merchant Marine

[Jonny Utah]

Can someone fill me in on the IC qb situation as it stands now?  It seems that people are not too keen on Juvan being the #1 guy next year.

[tecmobowler]

The positives on Juvan..... Danny has a cannon for an arm.  He has really good height which should aid in him seeing the field better.  He has good speed.

On the other hand he was very prone to locking into a receiver and forcing throws in critical 3rd down situations, when Ithaca trailed.  He did not see the field.  He picked a guy, and did everything he could to get it to him, despite the coverage. Everytime the team was trailing, he struggled very badly.  He did not make great decisions. 

Grastorf is the great unknown.  He is from a big school, and the son of an athletic director.  He has had injury problems in high school. People at the school seemed surprised they brought in a seemingly legit QB with Juvan just a sophomore.  During training camp, many seemed to understand why he was brought in.

From what I have seen, he has very good touch, and composure in the pocket.  In these ways he is similar to Felicetti.  He does not have the arm strength of Juvan.

I have friends on area JV teams that raved about him, though, keep in mind this is against JV competition.  Some have asserted he didn't pick up the offense quite as fast as some expected.

Is it one of those grass is greener situations?  Time will tell.

[er1948]

Tecmo- How would you rate SJF's recievers compared to IC's- just looking at the stats doesn't seem to make SJF's look so bad???

[boobyhasgameyo]

A couple of comments on Johnny's list.

tier 1

SJF----Ill leave them by themselves and give them the benefit of the doubt due to them being clearly the best team last year.

No complaint here, they've earned it.  That being said, losing Robinson and Lang are going to be absolutely huge.  Their WRs are flat out below average.  Will recruiting get a big boost from their great showing this year?  Could very well!

tier 2 (In no particular order, but Id put Springfield slightly above all the teams and Alfred slightly below all the teams)

Springfield



Union

What a weird team.  Loads of talent, and underacheived in a huge way this year.  Not a team I'd bet for or against.  Were their problems character based this year?  Coaching? Beats me. Defense has a long way to come.
RPI
Hobart
Ithaca

Return of Baez, and Stephens is huge.  Whole LB core returns, as does the all-conference NT.  Defense should continue to improve.  at QB?
Alfred

tier 3
Rochester (could put them next to Alfred actually

tier 4
SLU

tier 5
Norwich
Hartwick

QB transfer questions have been brought up.  Will he "bolt"?  Where there is smoke.... and that team is going to be terrible if (when)  they lose him

Utica
Merchant Marine

I don't know about calling their WR's flat out below average.  Grant it at the beginning of the year I was singing the same tune and wishing we still had Noah, but they really clicked the second half of the season.  Nowicki is a good WR and Smith is underrated in my opinion.  There may not be a standout all star one like Noah but as a unit they will be very effective in my opinion.

Oh yes props to the TE Harmon as well, he adds another element to the passing game.

[boobyhasgameyo]

That's funny these boards are pretty dead yet ER and I type the thing about Fisher's receivers at the same time....Small world

[fisheralum91]

I will tell ya this -
Im not getting in on the WR argument, but Utah had the top to bottom pretty spot on.


Hey ER- hows life without a Sat. game?

[er1948]

Booby- I agree 100% on your assessment of the SJF recievers, I think the IC boys are starting a little early in their next year we'll get ya thing-seeing our recievers are way below avg.

[er1948]

FA91- things are pretty slow now, maybe I'll be able to get the old gout taken care of now I don't have to party so much on the weekends-do miss the action though!!!

[tecmobowler]

I saw a bunch of drops from Fisher guys on three separate occasions this year.  Not saying they're bad, but they're certainly not a force.

Next year may be tougher since many teams put 8 or 9 in the box to contain Robinson.  Fisher's WR's were out on an island with a CB more often than not.  Teams will be able to play more conventional defenses with his departure.

Gordon and Heenehan had great hands, but weren't utilized terribly well this year by the playcalling.  Juvan's struggles didn't help their case.

[er1948]

Tecmo- things won't change that much next year with Reile, like Booby said, the wr's had a better second half of the season, and with Kramer back, I think the whole unit will be very solid

[superman57]

have we got conformation the James is using his 5th year....that's a lot of money to play football

[er1948]

Super- not sure about James, he could take some grad classes maybe??  Is it just me, or do you other SJF guys see next years team better than this 2006 bunch???

[superman57]

depends I think they could be just because of experiance but it depends how they replace at rb and MLB