FB: Empire 8

[fisheralum91]

Great to see you on again 82!
Trying to pick a date to bring my kids out to a game this year- We already have the UC game out here on the calendar.
BYE week means film room and lets hope that o line gets their stuff straight!

[Bombers798891]

My E8 Ranking after one week. Since everyone is 1-0, and almost no one played a good team, this is still influenced by last year:

1. Fisher: I firmly believe this team can go 10-0. This is their year to take down Salisbury.

2. Ithaca: Questions abound, but if Union's as improved as the LL coaches say, that was a decent win in Week 1. Can they hang around the Top 25 long enough to give Fisher a marquee win?

3. Salisbury: Probably the best win of the bunch, but they did finish 4th last season, so I'm not jumping them past IC yet

4. Alfred: Answered some questions, but they let an ECFC team hang around a little too long for my liking, especially at
home

5. Hartwick: Who else is excited for Team Boltus v2.0? It's like he never left

6. Frostburg: Last year, they trailed Geneva 47-3 with six minutes to go in the third quarter. This year, Geneva didn't score on offense until there was less than three minutes left

7. Buffalo State: Anytime you make Cortland look bad, you're a winner, but they should have lost that game.

8. Utica: I know Misericordia was competitive in many of their MAC games last season, has some good players, and is better than their 1-20 all-time record shows. And yes, Utica's gone after some LL teams, including Hobart, recently.

But frankly, Utica playing games like this annoys me to no end. Back in the very early days of the program, they complained about IC running up the score on them in a game in which Ithaca had four different running backs score eight touchdowns and attempted something like 14 passes. They proceed to spend a few years hanging 50+ points on Castleton St. and Becker, and now they're playing a third-year program? Utica should have put games like this fully in their rearview mirror

[fisheralum91]

Very well thought out Bombers,especially the UC win.

What gets me the most is that each year is "the" year that UC will break out.

Keep playing 2nd and 3rd tier teams to get confidence and that breakout wont happen.

Frustrating to watch especially because I respect Blaise and think that he has a good program.

[D3viewer]

Brockport is also in the Empire 8 this year. The E8 has 9 teams.

[drt]

Blaise made a very deliberate move away from playing the Castletons and Beckers, scheduling LL teams as non-conference opponents the past three years, including Hobart. 
St. Lawrence subsequently backed out of their arrangement with UC, leaving them to scramble for a game with Lewis and Clark last year.
Sometimes you have to schedule whoever you can get a game with.
I don't see anyone knocking Brockport for playing Oberlin or Fisher for playing Alfred State.

[Saxon73]

Brockport is also in the Empire 8 this year. The E8 has 9 teams.

The Empire 9 is quite a tough conference. 

[boobyhasgameyo]

Blaise made a very deliberate move away from playing the Castletons and Beckers, scheduling LL teams as non-conference opponents the past three years, including Hobart. 
St. Lawrence subsequently backed out of their arrangement with UC, leaving them to scramble for a game with Lewis and Clark last year.
Sometimes you have to schedule whoever you can get a game with.
I don't see anyone knocking Brockport for playing Oberlin or Fisher for playing Alfred State.

Yes, tell me more about Utica's out of conference scheduling over the years compared to Fisher. 

[boobyhasgameyo]

One of those teams continually schedules layup after layup for out of conference opponents every year.  The other team does the opposite.  That is why nobody is giving Fisher grief the one year they schedule Alfred State. 

[sjfcards]

Fisher is 9-0 in the courage bowl...

They shore up the O-Line and it's easily 10-0...

That's my biggest concern right now with them. 5 sacks is way too many and they didn't establish a real run game last week...

Don't want to call people out but Demos needs to play, he has the quicker feet for pass pro and they need to keep Fenti upright all year...

Could not agree more about Demos getting on the field. I felt that the offense was so much better once he was on the field. All in all I didn't think the running game was that bad. They spread it around, but combined the backs had 145 yards.

Giving Fenti some time to throw is the biggest take away from week 1 IMHO. Hopefully the bye week will allow Fisher to get that right. Brockport scares me a bit, but a solid performance from the O line would make me think Fisher has the edge next weekend.

[AUPepBand]

My E8 Ranking after one week. Since everyone is 1-0, and almost no one played a good team, this is still influenced by last year:

1. Fisher: I firmly believe this team can go 10-0. This is their year to take down Salisbury.

2. Ithaca: Questions abound, but if Union's as improved as the LL coaches say, that was a decent win in Week 1. Can they hang around the Top 25 long enough to give Fisher a marquee win?

3. Salisbury: Probably the best win of the bunch, but they did finish 4th last season, so I'm not jumping them past IC yet
3.5 Brockport State: Coming off an expected win over Oberlin, but we'll see where to put the Eagles after Saterday's skirmish with some angry Red Dragons.
4. Alfred: Answered some questions, but they let an ECFC team hang around a little too long for my liking, especially at
home

5. Hartwick: Who else is excited for Team Boltus v2.0? It's like he never left

6. Frostburg: Last year, they trailed Geneva 47-3 with six minutes to go in the third quarter. This year, Geneva didn't score on offense until there was less than three minutes left

7. Buffalo State: Anytime you make Cortland look bad, you're a winner, but they should have lost that game.

8. Utica: I know Misericordia was competitive in many of their MAC games last season, has some good players, and is better than their 1-20 all-time record shows. And yes, Utica's gone after some LL teams, including Hobart, recently.

But frankly, Utica playing games like this annoys me to no end. Back in the very early days of the program, they complained about IC running up the score on them in a game in which Ithaca had four different running backs score eight touchdowns and attempted something like 14 passes. They proceed to spend a few years hanging 50+ points on Castleton St. and Becker, and now they're playing a third-year program? Utica should have put games like this fully in their rearview mirror

How's that? Does that work for the Empire 9?

Stay tuned....

[drt]

Look, I'm not trying to knock anyone's program or scheduling here.
Fisher always plays quality OOC opponents.  That's called competing
successfully on a higher level.
By lay-ups, do you mean Union, RPI or Hobart?  Aside from St. Lawrence (defending conference champ when they first played them in 2011,) Misericordia and Lewis & Clark, (both of whom were scheduled out of necessity when St. Lawrence backed out,) that's who UC has played the last three years.
I'm curious who else you think they should schedule.  Four games against teams ranked in the 2013 Pre- and/or Post-Season Top 25 wasn't enough?

[D3viewer]

Pep..that's a smart move, giving some team every week a ".5" rating. That keeps the integrity of the E8 name.

[AUPepBand]

Look, I'm not trying to knock anyone's program or scheduling here.
Fisher always plays quality OOC opponents.  That's called competing
successfully on a higher level.
By lay-ups, do you mean Union, RPI or Hobart?  Aside from St. Lawrence (defending conference champ when they first played them in 2011,) Misericordia and Lewis & Clark, (both of whom were scheduled out of necessity when St. Lawrence backed out,) that's who UC has played the last three years.
I'm curious who else you think they should schedule.  Four games against teams ranked in the 2013 Pre- and/or Post-Season Top 25 wasn't enough?

Heck, scheduling ain't easy. Empire 8 teams this year have two out-of-conference opportunities, what with eight conference games. It is what it is. You play whom you can schedule. Fisher picked up Alfred State. Utica picked up Misericordia. Alfred picked up Husson. Ithaca was in a nice series with Union and has Cortaca. Brockport State got Oberlin.

Pep would much rather have seen the Saxons open with Rochester (9 games on schedule for 2014 with open date in Week 1) at home last Saterday but the Yellowjackets don't want to play AU.  Imagine UR traveling to Mayberry for Week One to face the Saxons, then traveling to Mayberry for Week Two to face the Pioneers. Then if the traffic light came up missing, Pep would highly suspect them Yellowjackets!

There was a time when (pre-Bills Camp) Fisher scheduled the Mt. Idas (Cloris Leachman) and (Blaise's early years) Utica scheduled Becker (Ted Danson) but Pep is thinking those days are over.

On Saxon Warriors!

[Saxon73]

Look, I'm not trying to knock anyone's program or scheduling here.
Fisher always plays quality OOC opponents.  That's called competing
successfully on a higher level.
By lay-ups, do you mean Union, RPI or Hobart?  Aside from St. Lawrence (defending conference champ when they first played them in 2011,) Misericordia and Lewis & Clark, (both of whom were scheduled out of necessity when St. Lawrence backed out,) that's who UC has played the last three years.
I'm curious who else you think they should schedule.  Four games against teams ranked in the 2013 Pre- and/or Post-Season Top 25 wasn't enough?

Hmmmmm...    Union, RPI, Hobart, St Lawrence... sounds familiar to this 8.5er, or 9er, or future 10er...

[fisheralum91]

Drt-
I am certainly not blasting Blaise or the program
Quite the opposite.
Knowing him, knowing many people at UC its hard not to get caught up in the excitement.
Scheduling is tough....very...
I tell Blaise every time I see him that I wish him luck ( except for one game) every year.
I am just not seeing the program taking that next step that has been looming for quite a few years.
I thought the win over IC was going to be the spring board....