FB: Empire 8

[maninorangehat]

Mr. N are u still out there?  Any word from the ROC area on kids coming to Ithaca?

[takemetomanos]

Wonder how little Tasker's visit went.  An interesting decision to be between Notre Dame and Ithaca.

[Longtooth]

Tasker, what's the word?

[Jonny Utah]

I cant remember.....

Is Ithaca gonna have spring practice this year?  If so whats the word on that?

Also, any word on the new O-coordinator?

[Caz Bombers]

Quick Bomber recruiting update:

Kevin Jarmak, the linebacker from Utica I mentioned in an earlier post as being between Sacred Heart and IC, has made his choice....Sacred Heart.  Ah well.

[Jonny Utah]

Why would you ever want to go to that school?

[AUPepBand]

Wonder how little Tasker's visit went.  An interesting decision to be between Notre Dame and Ithaca.

Tough choice....to play at a top notch D3 school or fulfill a "Rudy" Dream of playing for Notre Dame? Stirs up some fond memories of Coach Alex Yunevich and a certain trip I took just prior to 9/11. Pardon the length of this post, but I guess there isn't much going on here anyway.

Alex grew up in Bicknell, IN and was a 16-letter athlete in high school who drew the attention of one Knute Rockne, then coach at Notre Dame. "I was big and fast in high school. I used to just run over people. I was the best player in the county," Alex would say with a chuckle, "Of course, we were the only school in the county."

As Alex told it: "At one time I had every intention of going to Notre Dame. One day two fellows showed up in a big car and asked if I was Alex Yunevich and said get in. Next thing I knew I was enrolled at Purdue."

After a stellar career at Purdue and a few years as an assistant coach, then head coach at Central Michigan, he took the job at Alfred because he didn't care for big-time college football. He wasn't having fun. So he came to Alfred in 1937 and had some fun. So much fun he stayed until retiring in 1976....with 177 wins, 85 second place finishes, and 12 ties.

Back in those days, AU played its football games on grass. Merrill Field was arguably the nicest turf in the Northeast if not the country. (My grandfather was superintendent of buildings and grounds at AU) Why they replaced it with that dreadful omniturf, I'll never know. Truth be told, Merrill Field was no longer sacred ground as it was during Alex's day....when it was used for four home games, commencement and ROTC drills.

While in college at Morrisville, I persuaded my roommate to take a weekend trip to Alfred for a football game. Excited to show him the field, we arrived Friday afternoon and I drove down the hill to the stadium entrance. It was open so I took him right out onto the field at the 50 yard line, admiring the turf. At that time, the field house was at the north end of the field. Out the door comes the bulldog-faced Yuni, who barked, "Get the hell off the field!"

For some reason, my roommate never cared for ol' Alex. Anyway, I always enjoyed watching him on the sidelines of the games....usually wearing a fedora and an overcoat, usually bent over watching the play on the field....you never saw headphones on Alex. Anyway, we nominated him for induction in the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, IN, a place I'd never been.

So when the car I'd been searching for was found on the internet and was located in Iowa, I thought that would make a nice trip. So about 4 a.m. on the last Friday of August 2001, I headed to Syracuse to catch a flight to DesMoines, where I arrived at about 12 noon, met the owners and my car, and immediately headed east, getting to South Bend at about midnight. I spent the night at a Bates Motel on old US 20 where I caught the replay of the evening's high school football game on a TV that sat atop a rusty refrigerator in my room.

Next morning, I was off to a diner for breakfast, then to the College Football Hall of Fame where I spent several hours roaming around, trying to take it all in. Of course I looked up IC legend Jim Butterfield, a member of the Hall. Seeing the Hall and talking up Alex's credentials with a few staff people (not that they had any pull) was well worth the trip. Finally, I pull myself away and head for the interstate.

Passing right by the campus of Notre Dame University, I thought it'd be a shame if I didn't stop and at least try to get a peek at Notre Dame Stadium. I well remember watching Notre Dame highlights early Sunday mornings back in the days before Cable and our antenna was turned just right. I found a place to park and walked to the stadium, which was locked up tight. At the south end I was about to give up when a car pulled up and two gals got out, seeming to be in a hurry.

"Excuse me, do you know if they give stadum tours?" I asked the strangers. One replied, "I don't know but we're getting an unofficial tour..." "Cool, may I join you?" I inquired...."Sure, but we need to hurry." We began to jog to the north end of the stadium where we joined nearly a dozen folks at the lockerroom entrance. A janitor was asking who everyone was.

"This is my daughter and my wife," a man said, pointing to the gals i'd been jogging with. "And I'm just a friend," I added.

The older man took us into the lockerroom. To my left was a wall of championship trophies behind glass. To my right was the lockerroom itself, but we were told not to go in there. Straight ahead of me was a "Win one for the gipper" plaque. Soon the janitor said he'd take us out onto the field where the players enter. As we went down the stairs, I saw the sign "Play Like A Champion Today" so I slapped that sign as we went down to the tunnel. As I ran out the tunnel onto the field, my imagination went wild. I could hear the crowd chanting "SNY---DER, SNY---DER, SNY---DER" The Rudy Dream was rudely interrupted by a replayed voice from the past, "Get the hell off the field!"

Ah yes....to go play at IC or chance a Rudy Experience, that is the Tasker at hand. While it was a thrill to be in Notre Dame Stadium, it was no greater than to be at Merrill Field when AU beat Susquehanna, 18-16 in 1964, or to be at old Boswell Field for the "Miracle at Geneva" in 1971. Yes, as for me, I will stay in the stands, beat on my ol' bass drum and sing the Saxon fight song, On Saxon Warriors!

[dewcrew88]

That was a hell of a story, AUpepband. I enjoying reading all of it.

[AUPepBand]

Thanks, budcrew...there's more where that came from.  Would love to hear from AU grads who played for Alex....they must have some great stories! He was a real character. Funny guy. His recruiting budget one year was $15.32 or some odd amount. His recruiting came in the form of speaking engagements at high school athletic banquets. He was a stand-up comic. Kids loved him.

Ironically, the reference librarian at AU was a Notre Dame graduate. When I told him about my tour of the lockerroom and stadium, he grumbled at me, "I was there four years and I never saw the ND Stadium lockerroom."

[Longtooth]

Who is the new IC OC?

[JQV]

Who is the new IC OC?

Based on what I have heard, the new OC is the Head Coach.  They are not going to add another full time assistant to replace Angelicho.  Anyone heard any different?

[lumpy]

They are advertising the OC job on the front page here

[AUPepBand]

No one has posted on the Empire 8 page in several days. With spring practice underway (now that's different for D3!) I'm wondering whether anyone has any predictions on the 2006 season.

How was the Tasker visit at Ithaca? How's the recruiting going around the E8? On a return trip from Saratoga Springs last weekend, I stopped at a McDonalds near Sidney off I-88 and, stretching my legs, went inside to order. Stood behind a huge kid (didn't catch his name, probably about 6-7 and 280) with a Sidney sports jacket that read, "NYS Class C Football Champions." I asked him if he was a senior. "Yes." "And are you going to play football in college?" (I put in a good word for the AU program whenever I can) "Yes, I'm going to play at Cornell." After checking the All-State Teams, the kid was probably Jordan Tuttel. Anyway, I asked him if any of his teammates were going to Alfred. He said a running back was coming to Alfred. "Alfred University or Alfred State?" I asked. "Alfred University," he said.

At any rate, perhaps to get some post patterns going here, I offer my predictions for the Empire 8 in 2006, based entirely on the Dunkel Index ratings. In front of the team is the Dunkel rank given, followed by the strength rating:

28. Alfred 49.1
39. Fisher 46.8
51. Ithaca 43.7
63. Springfield 40.2
156. Utica 22.5
187. Hartwick 16.8
191. Norwich 14.1

Dunkel has the Liberty League as follows:
22. Union 51.2
32. RPI 48.4
48. Hobart 44.6
78. Rochester 36.3
101. Worcester Tech 32.0
125. Kings Point 28.1
139. St. Lawrence 25.5

Happy Easter! He is risen!

[Jonny Utah]

Aupepband, when you find out who this Dunkel guy is, let me know where he lives so I can go over there and punch him in the face.

[AUPepBand]

Well, jonny, I believe Dunkel is already six feet under so you'd have to dig him up to punch him in the face. I got the following link by googling Dunkel:

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/comment/jzcol21.htm

The Dunkel Index has been around since 1929, created by Madison Avenue businessman Dick Dunkel Sr. Since there was no Associated Press poll until 1935, Dunkel wanted to know which college football team was the best. His ratings, like Matthews', were done with - oh horror of horrors - pencil and paper.

John Duck, a data programmer at the News-Journal in Daytona Beach, Fla., oversees the index now. He believes the Dunkel Index is one of, if not the, best computer rating in existence.

"The reason I can say that is that I can point to the accuracy of our ratings because the higher rated team beats the lower rated team on a weekly basis," Duck said. "The success rate is between 72 and 77% per week. The margin or error is low because we've been doing it for 70 years."

Like Massey, Duck is a college football fan, a Florida Gators fan to be more precise.

"I'm a Gator. I'll die a Gator. I bleed orange and blue. But the computer doesn't care," Duck said.

So jonny, it's Duck you're after, and apparently, he lives in Daytona Beach. I offer this warning to the current Dunkel Index overseer......"DUCK!"