FB: Empire 8

[AUPepBand]

As far as Pep is concerned, he's elated when AU can fill out its non-conference schedule. Period. Be they cupcakes, boston cream pies or devils food cake with dark chocolate frosting...Pep is happy to get 10 games on the schedule. Not too many teams like the friendly confines of Mayberry's Merrill Field. 

On Saxon Warriors....undefeated and unscored upon going into Week 2!!

[AlfredSaxon8]

As far as Pep is concerned, he's elated when AU can fill out its non-conference schedule. Period. Be they cupcakes, boston cream pies or devils food cake with dark chocolate frosting...Pep is happy to get 10 games on the schedule. Not too many teams like the friendly confines of Mayberry's Merrill Field. 

On Saxon Warriors....undefeated and unscored upon going into Week 2!!

When I was a junior/senior, there was talk of AU putting in a field house. It was a huge thing because the 7 year winless womens lax team was complaining about title 9. The field house was supposed to equal it out so they could get pumped up in a new locker room before their big defeats. Anything ever happen with that, Pep? Or is Davis still there?

[boobyhasgameyo]

Nice jump for the Cardinals in the rankings this week!
Another tester against a very hungry W&J team that looks to avenge a tough loss to Fisher at home last year.
Much will depend defensively on the "targeting" call that took place Sat. in Ohio.
Here is hoping that there is some appeal process as it seemed to be a bad call.

W&J will be totally different test for Fisher this week. The team likes to air it out, and will test that young secondary. Otterbein seemed content to stick with the run game, even though they got nothing from it. The D-line will need to put some pressure on the QB this week to assist that secondary with a very different test.

For the Fisher Offense we will need to see some steady improvement. I didn't think the Otterbein D was all that bad, and Fisher moved the ball fairly well. Coaching out some of the penalties may make life easier for Fisher this week.

For the SJF folks...

I watched the entire W&J scrimmage at UMU and I was impressed with both their QB (Bliss) and RB (Wiegand).  Statistically neither was great last season, but Wiegand hits the hole quickly and runs hard.  He had 136 yds against Wooster so not a bad start (even if Woo is down).  He seemed to always gain a couple extra yards after being wrapped up.  Bliss threw the ball fairly well and it looked like he had a really nice game at Wooster (27/33, 312 yds).  The accuracy makes some sense as they seemed to stick largely with short, quick passes and runs in the scrimmage.  Also, Bliss is pretty athletic and ran for some decent yardage against Mount including a TD from a decent distance out.  If anything happens to him their backups looked like a large drop off though.  Defensively I would expect at best something similar to Otterbein.  Mount beat them deep numerous times and in general passed on them pretty easily.  Wooster ran on them pretty effectively last week for what that's worth too.

Thanks for the breakdown Dr. Acula.  Also as somebody else previously mentioned - thanks for the Scrubs reference as well.  +k Karma dap for you. 

[boobyhasgameyo]

As far as Pep is concerned, he's elated when AU can fill out its non-conference schedule. Period. Be they cupcakes, boston cream pies or devils food cake with dark chocolate frosting...Pep is happy to get 10 games on the schedule. Not too many teams like the friendly confines of Mayberry's Merrill Field. 

On Saxon Warriors....undefeated and unscored upon going into Week 2!!

How about that.  So is Fisher! 

[D3MAFAN]

Dlip also sees both sides. He feels that scheduling should depend upon your program's realistic direction and/ or goals. Do you want to compete for a national championship? Do you feel with your resources that you can, at some point, compete for a national championship? Can you recruit the players necessary to accomplish this? If you think so dlip would feel it important to schedule the best teams you can to not only attract recruits but to gain respect and notoriety. Plus if you want to be the best you've got to beat the best.

On the other hand is it not realistic to compete with the UMU'S and U Dub's of D3. Is your goal the NCAA'S? First round, second tops...realistically speaking. Then maybe it is smart to just win your conference and not take any chances with tough OOC teams. Who knows? If dlip was at the helm of a program he would go after the best period. However with that choice he would have to accept the fact that his team may not even make the tourney for many years.

Do recruits really know/care who you play. If you win 10 games every year and go deep in the playoffs does that hurt recruiting?

I think winning your conference is a big thing to recruits, especially when they are choosing between teams within the same conferences. Also, if a recruit knows that you make the playoffs every year and has a chance to play for a national championship, that is a big plus. On the other hand, if a player is being recruited by teams that go deep in the playoffs and a team that gets knock out every year in the first round by a decent margin, I am sure when these recruits go on official/unofficial, the teams inquire about what other teams are recruiting them and I am sure they give them a good breakdown on what the difference as to a team that wins a conference championship and a team that competes nationally.

[Bengalsrule]

                                                                 Casey Kacz E8 Week 1 Offensive Player of the Week

          Senior Casey Kacz accounted for 344 yards of total offense in Buffalo State's 41-28 victory over defending NJAC Champion and 2012 NCAA tournament representative Cortland State. Kacz rushed for 118 yards on 17 attempts and three scores (1, 5, and 13 yds) and completed 19-of-29 passes for 226 yards and two touchdowns (3 and 37 yds). It marked the second straight and 11th win overall in program history over Cortland in 30 games.

           Just in case you missed it!

[Bengalsrule]

Bengalsrule,
I didn't listen to the game yesterday. Can you confirm that it was actually a close game at the end? , Was Cortland at the 7 going in with 2 min to go for a tying score? Congrats on a big win!

XRED...Sorry just seeing this.

Yes it was that close! This sums it up...

  After Buffalo State was held to a 3-and-out, Cortland converted a third-and-20 and a third-and-12 on a potential game-tying drive, but Chris Hall (Pasadena, CA/St. Francis) came up with a critical interception in the end zone with just 2:29 remaining to thwart the Cortland scoring threat.

Add another BENGALS score, that was on the last play of the game, and there you have the final 41-28. Quite frankly, the game could have gone either way with less than 3 minutes left. Had Cortland score and tied the game up....who knows what would have happened?

  Thanks for the congrats!! And good luck this weekend vs. William Patterson!

[D3MAFAN]

Bengalsrule,
I didn't listen to the game yesterday. Can you confirm that it was actually a close game at the end? , Was Cortland at the 7 going in with 2 min to go for a tying score? Congrats on a big win!

XRED...Sorry just seeing this.

Yes it was that close! This sums it up...

  After Buffalo State was held to a 3-and-out, Cortland converted a third-and-20 and a third-and-12 on a potential game-tying drive, but Chris Hall (Pasadena, CA/St. Francis) came up with a critical interception in the end zone with just 2:29 remaining to thwart the Cortland scoring threat.

Add another BENGALS score, that was on the last play of the game, and there you have the final 41-28. Quite frankly, the game could have gone either way with less than 3 minutes left. Had Cortland score and tied the game up....who knows what would have happened?

  Thanks for the congrats!! And good luck this weekend vs. William Patterson!

Maybe another hook and lateral with an option twist!

[Bombers798891]

I'm very interested to see how Buff State's season goes. I think they've got a shot to be really good this year. Most of the offense is back, and that puts them in every game. I'd be a bit concerned about giving up three 50+ yard plays in one week, though to be fair, John Babin's going to torch everyone, and Cortland didn;t do much after the opening run of the game.

Buff State will need to get more from its running backs though, as 57 yards on 27 carries leaves something to be desired. I can't imagine Buff State wants Kacz combining for 46 runs and passes each week.

[d3fan142511]

Predictions for Week 2

Buff State 31
Brockport 28

Morrisville 27
Hartwick 24

RPI 17
Alfred 21

Wesley 35
Salisbury 24

Union 24
Utica 17

Frostburg 17
Waynesburg 42

Some big game in the E8...Will Salisbury datr 0-2? How will Alfred open the season? Is Union as good as the LL advertises and the big matchup of which team is poised fotr a big year Buff St or Brockport State?

[D3viewer]

RE : Buff state vs Brockport. Offensively it could be a wash. But, Brockport seems to have better balance in their off. They have a homerun hitter in Tyrone NIchols at RB (listed at 6'1" 221 lbs) ..(60 yard TD run vs Lyco) he's usually good for 100 + yards per game rushing behind a big athletic OL that boasts 3 3 year starters. Buff St has Kacz at QB..a duel threat but appears to be a one man band in terms of the run game. Brockports Stoldt is new, but had 270 passing yards and 72 rushing yards vs Lyco (on top of Nichols 130 yards).
Brockport has a new DC and their defense won an award for a "D3 defense of the week" surprisingly.
http://www.gobrockport.com/news/2013/9/10/FB_0910135628.aspx
Looks like it will come down to the defenses. I don't have much faith in Buff st D since Cortland had 475 yards of offense (400 yards passing against it..yikes). Brockport has a very good no huddle passing attack that can shred bad pass defense. They have 2 top receivers, Mrosek and Spalik. One works the middle..one works the sideline.1st all NJAC and All American respectively.
Cortland had 6.1 yards a play vs buff st and Brockport had over 500 yards of offense last year vs them and averaged 7.1 yards per play. Brockport's D seems a little better.
MY prediction...Brockport 35 Buff State 19.

[Bengalsrule]

Bengalsrule,
I didn't listen to the game yesterday. Can you confirm that it was actually a close game at the end? , Was Cortland at the 7 going in with 2 min to go for a tying score? Congrats on a big win!

XRED...Sorry just seeing this.

Yes it was that close! This sums it up...

  After Buffalo State was held to a 3-and-out, Cortland converted a third-and-20 and a third-and-12 on a potential game-tying drive, but Chris Hall (Pasadena, CA/St. Francis) came up with a critical interception in the end zone with just 2:29 remaining to thwart the Cortland scoring threat.

Add another BENGALS score, that was on the last play of the game, and there you have the final 41-28. Quite frankly, the game could have gone either way with less than 3 minutes left. Had Cortland score and tied the game up....who knows what would have happened?

  Thanks for the congrats!! And good luck this weekend vs. William Patterson!

Maybe another hook and lateral with an option twist!

Ill tell Coach Boyes. Maybe he'll put that 1 in the BENGALS arsenal!

[dlippiel]

Union vs. Utica pre game write up ready on dlip's blog.

      www.dlipthedutchman.blogspot.com

[Bengalsrule]

   d3 fan and D3 viewer...I sure hope that my beloved BENGALS prove you wrong. From what I've seen, and heard, this week our pass defense needs to improve. CSU averaged 17.4 per completion and that ain't gonna get it done vs. Brockport. Brockport avg about half of that vs. Lycoming last week (9.1 per completion) so hopefully we will work on fixing what was wrong from week 1. Our run defense will be challenged by Brockport. They avg nearly 5 per carry (4.7) and that can't happen this weekend. I believe that our run defense will be up to the task!

   CSU's Peebles had the 1 long run for the dragons (67 yards), but after that he was held to 3.1 per carry on 13 carries. In fact BENGALS avg. per carry was 3.8 vs CSU 3.0. I am sure our run defense will be ready for Nichols (23 carries 5.5 yds per carry) and Stoldt (11 carries 5.2 yds. per carry). If they aren't then...its gonna hurt!

   Offensively I gotta believe folks like Ryan Carney (Honorable mention E8 last year), who only had 2 rec. vs CSU, will be more involved this weekend. Ditto for RB Ishmael Brooks. This senior has a 3 yr avg. of 4.4 per carry (193 attempts 853 yds). I gotta believe that his 2.4 yds per carry last week (17 carries 55 yds) was not what we should expect from him this weekend. And I know Coach Boyes aint expecting him to avg 2.4 per carry again this week either.

  Prediction?? I'll let the experts do that, but I don't expect a high scoring game. These two schools are 58 miles apart and nearly half of their players come from Western New York area and have been playing against, and with, each other since Pop Warner league. So I expect a lower scoring game than what we've seen from both teams the first week (71 pts total).

   I'm just hoping that at the end, my beloved BENGALS have 1 more pt than their rivals, the Golden Eagles!!  This 1 should be special. Hopefully we won't be thinking about Wisconsin - Whitewaters visit next week, until after this game is over!

  Go BENGALS!!!!

[AlfredSaxon8]

General question:

How do you guys feel about the targeting/ejection rule? Fisher had one which may hurt them and I have seen quite a few FBS schools with players penalized as well. I have watched a lot of football the last two weekends and have seen quite a few players pulling up short so they are not penalized. I think the idea is well enough but I am very afraid that the penalty is mostly discretionary and could ultimately undermine the game. It might be a stretch comparison but it almost reminds me of the umpires in the MLB. They toss players and coaches for the littlest thing and it is ruining the game. Im not saying the NCAA refs will just start tossing kids but a 15 yard penalty should be sufficient. Make it like hockey and have a 10 minute misconduct. But to eject and then suspend depending on when the hit occurred puts a lot of power in the hands of the ref.

Also, the whole "half" game suspension is incredibly ambiguous. What if a player receives a targeting penalty on the last play of the first half? He sits the rest of the game, ultimately serving a 2 quarter suspension. Well what if that same hit happens the first eligible play of the second half? The same penalty is given but since it occurs in the second half, said player sits the remainder of the game AND the first half of the following game, equal to 4 quarters of football for the same exact penalty. Seems a little ambiguous to me.

I get it is a safety concern but the NCAA just threw this one together to be progressive it seems, at least that is what I think. And I do not agree that refs should be able to toss players based on a split second occurrence and how the refs may view the hit. Leave it up to a panel like the NFL and make a determination based on that.

I apologize in advance for any spelling errors. My iphone sucks.