FB: Empire 8

[Div3Fan]

I saw one preseason ranking that had both Fisher and Cortland in top 25 but don't know enough yet about who's coming back to really know if that makes sense or not. Cortland did have a good run last year and kind of surprised me how well they handled Salusbury in the playoffs last year.

I could see Alfred breaking thru as they seem to have been building well the last cpl of seasons.

The Cortland - SU game was much closer than the score indicated. Salisbury's inability to hold onto the football was baffling. They might of had 5 turnovers/fumbles, or some equally shocking number,

[fisheralum91]

Wow- Im not feeling the Fisher love boys.
Geez.
Yes there are questions at some key positions- but doesnt that happen every year?
I am very interested in seeing how the new D coordinator does in his rookie season.
There are always question marks- but isnt that what makes it exciting?

[Bombers798891]

I saw one preseason ranking that had both Fisher and Cortland in top 25 but don't know enough yet about who's coming back to really know if that makes sense or not. Cortland did have a good run last year and kind of surprised me how well they handled Salusbury in the playoffs last year.

I could see Alfred breaking thru as they seem to have been building well the last cpl of seasons.

The Cortland - SU game was much closer than the score indicated. Salisbury's inability to hold onto the football was baffling. They might of had 5 turnovers/fumbles, or some equally shocking number,

Two things about fumbles

1. Defenses can cause them by making good plays. Whether that happened in this game or not I don't know, but they aren't always random. Cortland's defense may deserve some credit.

2. The impact of Salisbury's specific fumbles seems overstated.

Salisbury's first fumble came after a player got tackled for a 4-yard loss on 2nd-and-11 from their own 25. Even if there's no fumble, the Gulls are looking at a 3rd-and-15. Not great odds at getting points in that situation*

*If you want to respond, "But that puts the defense in a tough spot," see my final point.

Likewise, the second fumble came when a player got tackled on a 5-yard loss on a 3rd and 2 from the Cortland 22. So your options are trying to pick up a 4th-and-7 or hitting a 44-yard FG

The third one was a killer, based on it coming at the Cortland 4 yard line, but they were still down 17.

The 4th fumble came on a one-yard gain on 2nd and 13 in the 4th quarter with Cortland up 17. The game was over for all intents.

Salisbury allowed 568 yards of offense, forced one meaningless turnover in the 4th quarter down by 24, and Cortland's QB went 23-of-29 for 447 yards.

[Bombers798891]

Not sure I would have Fisher anywhere near the top of the league at this point. They really just were not that good last year, and lost a lot of talent (Andrews, Campese, Nigolian, etc.). I have no idea who will be the QB, but both were pretty average last year. They do bring back some talent at RB, and O-line, but I don't see the defense holding up either. Just not a team I expect too much out of at this point.

You might be right, but to this bolded point, here are your recent E8 champs:

2015: Two loss Cortland, who won one game on a pseudo hail mary and two others in overtime.
2014: Three-loss Ithaca
2013: Two-loss Ithaca that won 4 games by a combined 13 points.

I mean, yes, Cortland and '13 Ithaca won playoff games, but these were not great, or even very good, teams. (Those IC teams especially). You don't need to be that good to win the E8 as it's currently constituted. You kind of just need to get the breaks throughout the season.

You might be right about Fisher, but seriously, in 2013, Ithaca barely averaged 20 points a game. This is not the 06/07/08 E8 that had a lot of really good teams

[amh63]

Since the Nescac posts are few, I thought to stick my nose here to get some info...especially wrt to QBs.
On the Trinity College Roster for last season, 2015, there is a soph QB transfer from Cortland State....Joe McDermott from Yonkers NY.   Hope I got the name correct.  He did not get in last year since the starter, another soph, got most of the playing time.  The other QB that got in was a senior.  Trinity is always a power in the Nescac and prefer to generate most of their offense on the ground.  However, a QB that can pass effectively is always welcome.  I expect the Cortland State transfer to get meaningful time this season.  Does anyone here provide any info on Joe M.?
The Nescac has a history of talented QBs that transferred in and become all conference starters...Middlebury's Foote from Brown.  Williams Sr. starter last season was a transfer from BC...and Amherst's soph starter is a transfer from UCal at San Diego.

[D3viewer]

Since the Nescac posts are few, I thought to stick my nose here to get some info...especially wrt to QBs.
On the Trinity College Roster for last season, 2015, there is a soph QB transfer from Cortland State....Joe McDermott from Yonkers NY.   Hope I got the name correct.  He did not get in last year since the starter, another soph, got most of the playing time.  The other QB that got in was a senior.  Trinity is always a power in the Nescac and prefer to generate most of their offense on the ground.  However, a QB that can pass effectively is always welcome.  I expect the Cortland State transfer to get meaningful time this season.  Does anyone here provide any info on Joe M.?
The Nescac has a history of talented QBs that transferred in and become all conference starters...Middlebury's Foote from Brown.  Williams Sr. starter last season was a transfer from BC...and Amherst's soph starter is a transfer from UCal at San Diego.

From the jokes dept. "So...did he get smarter AND richer in the offseason ? " That's all I know about him.

[Upstate]

Wow- Im not feeling the Fisher love boys.
Geez.
Yes there are questions at some key positions- but doesnt that happen every year?
I am very interested in seeing how the new D coordinator does in his rookie season.
There are always question marks- but isnt that what makes it exciting?

Yes there's questions at key positions however if you have a brand new starting QB, with zero passes attempted in last years system during a live game it's a cause for extreme concern.

They're stacked at RB (Chambers/Fusco), they have a great WR in Collichio coming back and some really good lineman coming back in Demos and Coleman. Offensively I think they'll be OK if they can get solid play out of the QB. Last year was streaky to say the least and really made me appreciate how good Fenti really was in that offense.

Defensively they have some studs coming back in Mortillaro at CB, Aaron Jones on the DL and Carrol at LBer. Chris Smith switched from RB to LB (great move btw by the coaches) halfway through the season and racked up 7 sacks in his last 6 games. Hopefully they can get Guarino-Hyde coming back on a Grad Student basis after playing in just two games last year. So there's some pretty good talent there and I think we'll see them stay with the 4 man front they finished the season with as opposed to the 3 man front they started the season with and were getting gashed while running it.

[Bombers798891]

Wow- Im not feeling the Fisher love boys.
Geez.
Yes there are questions at some key positions- but doesnt that happen every year?
I am very interested in seeing how the new D coordinator does in his rookie season.
There are always question marks- but isnt that what makes it exciting?

Yes there's questions at key positions however if you have a brand new starting QB, with zero passes attempted in last years system during a live game it's a cause for extreme concern.

They're stacked at RB (Chambers/Fusco), they have a great WR in Collichio coming back and some really good lineman coming back in Demos and Coleman. Offensively I think they'll be OK if they can get solid play out of the QB. Last year was streaky to say the least and really made me appreciate how good Fenti really was in that offense.

Defensively they have some studs coming back in Mortillaro at CB, Aaron Jones on the DL and Carrol at LBer. Chris Smith switched from RB to LB (great move btw by the coaches) halfway through the season and racked up 7 sacks in his last 6 games. Hopefully they can get Guarino-Hyde coming back on a Grad Student basis after playing in just two games last year. So there's some pretty good talent there and I think we'll see them stay with the 4 man front they finished the season with as opposed to the 3 man front they started the season with and were getting gashed while running it.

Serious question.

2014
Fusco: 195 carries, 1,172 yards, 6.0 YPC
Chambers: 80 carries, 554 yards, 6.9 YPC

2015
Fusco: 132 carries, 557 yards, 4.2 YPC
Chambers: 120 carries, 606 yards, 5.1 YPC

Don't get me wrong, still very good backs. But both of them lost nearly 2 YPC from 2014. Were they banged up? Line issues? Teams not as threatened by the pass with Naton so they stacked the box?

[Upstate]

Wow- Im not feeling the Fisher love boys.
Geez.
Yes there are questions at some key positions- but doesnt that happen every year?
I am very interested in seeing how the new D coordinator does in his rookie season.
There are always question marks- but isnt that what makes it exciting?

Yes there's questions at key positions however if you have a brand new starting QB, with zero passes attempted in last years system during a live game it's a cause for extreme concern.

They're stacked at RB (Chambers/Fusco), they have a great WR in Collichio coming back and some really good lineman coming back in Demos and Coleman. Offensively I think they'll be OK if they can get solid play out of the QB. Last year was streaky to say the least and really made me appreciate how good Fenti really was in that offense.

Defensively they have some studs coming back in Mortillaro at CB, Aaron Jones on the DL and Carrol at LBer. Chris Smith switched from RB to LB (great move btw by the coaches) halfway through the season and racked up 7 sacks in his last 6 games. Hopefully they can get Guarino-Hyde coming back on a Grad Student basis after playing in just two games last year. So there's some pretty good talent there and I think we'll see them stay with the 4 man front they finished the season with as opposed to the 3 man front they started the season with and were getting gashed while running it.

Serious question.

2014
Fusco: 195 carries, 1,172 yards, 6.0 YPC
Chambers: 80 carries, 554 yards, 6.9 YPC

2015
Fusco: 132 carries, 557 yards, 4.2 YPC
Chambers: 120 carries, 606 yards, 5.1 YPC

Don't get me wrong, still very good backs. But both of them lost nearly 2 YPC from 2014. Were they banged up? Line issues? Teams not as threatened by the pass with Naton so they stacked the box?

Honestly a really bad combination of all of the above.

Fusco was beat up throughout the year and was limited in some games and missed 2 other games.

That and teams were just stacking the box and were not afraid of getting beat over the top by Natan or Catan.

Fisher switched out a guard the week of the Morrisville game and that really opened up the inside zone reads for the run game but Fusco was banged up after that game and never really was healthy the rest of the year. That's also when Chambers started getting the bulk of the carries.

[Bombers798891]

Fusco was beat up throughout the year and was limited in some games and missed 2 other games...but Fusco was banged up after that game and never really was healthy the rest of the year.

That's too bad. You know, that's sort of what happened to Jamie Donovan:

Week 6, 2004: 37 carries, 218 yards
Week 7, 2004: 20 carries, 170 yards
Week 8, 2004: 22 carries, 140 yards
Week 9, 2004: 11 carries, 36 yards
Week 10, 2004: 34 carries, 203 yards
Week 11, 2004: 29 carries, 165 yards
Week 1, 2005: 13 carries, 83 yards
Week 2, 2005: 24 carries, 189 yards

Over that 8 game stretch, he produced 1,204 yards.

He ran for less than 500 yards the last nine games of 2005, 779 in 10 games in 2006, and rebounded a bit with 1,105 yards in 11 games in 2007. He was a great back for Ithaca (NCAA idiocy or no, you don't get to be Ithaca's all-time leading rusher by accident). But he was never the back he was for those eight weeks in '04/'05. And because he didn't actually *miss* games, I think he got some undue criticism from fans at the time. But I've heard from more than one person who would know these things that he was pretty constantly banged up and it affected him.

My point is, I hope that's not the case with Fusco. We don't get to see these guys for very long. When someone comes in as a freshmen and does as well as he did, it's fun to watch those guys for 4 years and see what they can do. I hope he's healthy and dominant in 2016

[fisheralum91]

Preseason poll out.
Cortland no. 17
Fisher and Alfred receiving votes.

Fisher on the outside looking in at 31 with 29 votes, AU only got  2 votes.

Interesting.
Hell at least we are talking football in July!

[Bombers798891]

Preseason poll out.
Cortland no. 17
Fisher and Alfred receiving votes.

Fisher on the outside looking in at 31 with 29 votes, AU only got  2 votes.

Interesting.
Hell at least we are talking football in July!

Seems solid, given that they had 3 and 4 losses.

Cortland's a little high for my tastes, considering they were a two-loss regular season team that won a bunch of games by the skin of their teeth before losing in the 2nd round of the playoffs. The 2013 Bombers essentially did the same thing and started 2014 23rd*

*Yes, I know every poll is different, and it's as much about the teams around you as the team itself. But still, I think high-mid 20s is more appropriate than the teens for a team like that.

Lest I get branded a hater, Cortland is probably still the favorite in the E8

[fisheralum91]

Until someone beats them I say that they are E8 champs

[ITH radio]

For some reason I have a weird feeling SUNY Mo may have a heck of a season.

[fisheralum91]

Last year was in another posters words (pep i think it was you but if not, sorry) a demolition derby.
I have absolutely no reason to think that this years E8 race will be any different.