FB: Empire 8

[realistic]

HScoach...Thanks for the insighful post.  It's getting a little grating listening to toph.

I can give a little amateur scouting for IC...others can probably do much better.

On Defense IC has a stud nose guard (Byers) who can be dominent but has had a knee injury and missed some of saterdays game when he hurt the other knee.  Also LB Scalice has been very good for the bomber this season.  Secondary has been improving every week with a solid game saturday with a big int on the 1.

Offense is really coming into it's own with an experienced QB who is finally looking like what we thought he could be out of hight school.  Very good arm with multiple deep threat WR's.  However, he was an option QB in HS and shows some great running from time to time....a couple huge runs saterday.

Special teams has hovered between bad and dreadful this year.  Last week was in the dreadful category.  Missed PATs, Short kicks, horrible punts.  Definately one glaring weakness that has to be fixed this week.

[union89]

Sorry to interupt the argument of my Dad can beat up your Dad, but does anyone really want to talk football?  Assuming, yes, I thought I'd give some "what to watch for" game tips to the Ithaca faithful that are making trip to Alliance.

MUC's defense is a little undersized, but very athletic and runs a 4-2-5 as their base D.  Basically, they're in the "nickel" all the time, even in short yardage situations.  They'll attack the line of scrimmage if challenged and do so from all angles.  If MUC is sitting a base zone and only rushing the 4 D-linemen, then the opponent hasn't challenged them enough and they're comfortable in stopping you without taking any chances.  If MUC stops Ithaca early in the game without needing to blitz, it's not a good sign for the Ithaca O. 

The strong side DE plays is a more traditional D-lineman and goes 6'-3", 250 lbs.  Where as the weak side DE is a little guy (6'-1", 210 lbs) who comes off the edge very quickly.  The 2 DT's are a little undersized at 5'-11", 260 lbs but both are athletic.  In fact, the teams leading tackler is the right DT with 15 more stops than either all-conference LB.  I can't remember ever seeing a team led by a DT in tackles.

The 2 LB's are drastically different player types.  One's a physical beast at 6'-2", 235 lbs.  The other one is more like a safety at 5'-10", 205 lbs but very quick.

The play-maker in MUC secondary is their strong safety (#9) who fills an OLB role in short yardage situations.  The rest of the secondary are good athletes, but nobody really stands out as head and shoulders above the rest.  Wouldn't classify the CB's as true "shut down corners", but overall the secondary is solid and deep.

Offensively, it's hard to predict what their base "style" really is because it depends on the opponent and what's working.  There have been games (like last week) where they threw the ball deep a ton and had over 400 yds passing and Kmic only had 39 yards rushing on 11 carries.  There are games where they've never thrown a pass over 10 yards deep.  And there are games (like the SJF semi-final from 2006) where Kmic ran the ball 40+ times and they hardly threw at all. 

Formation wise, they're typically 3 WR's and 2 RB's.  Though the RB's will sometimes split out to give a 4 or 5 WR look.  Very rarely are they truly in a standard 2 RB, 2 WR and a TE set.  And when they do, the TE is really a WR lined up there.

The strength of the MUC offense is its versatility and diversity.   


Anyone care to share what we might expect from the Bombers?

+1...great analysis

[JQV]

Anyone care to share what we might expect from the Bombers?

Outstanding summary hscoach.  +k I have only seen IC on TV this season but here are my two cents:

IC Offense:  It makes sense to start with the offense because, despite the improved play of the defense, the offense has been incredibly hot during the 6-game win streak.  Like your description of MUC, IC's offense has been pretty balanced this year, which is a change (IC has been really pass happy the last 5-7 years).  The O-Line has really gelled and is opening huge holes for Jamie Donovan, who will hang them up at the end of the season as the best back in IC history (at least on paper).  Donovan (#46) is a big downhill runner that makes his best plays with his shoulders parallel to the goalline.  IC also uses a nice change-of-pace back (#30 Alex Baez) but we have seen less and less of him down the stretch because Donovan has been so good.

The real improvement on offense has been the play of second-year QB Dan Juvan.  Juvan struggled against good teams last year because he was unsure in the pocket and had happy feet.  We haven't seen that problem over the last 6 games and his confidence has allowed him to make splash plays with his big arm.  His receivers aren't super fast or big but all are really sure-handed.  Juvan has also shown his ability to scramble as of late, which has been a welcome addition to the offense.

Defense:  IC switched to the 3-4 last fall and looks to have finally mastered its intricacies (despite playing for two different coordinators over the last two years).  Everything is keyed on Phil Byers, IC's big nose tackle (98) who is incredibly athletic for a player of his stature (he was an all-state wrestler in high school).  Both DEs have also had a lot of success rushing the passer, especially early in the season when the defense as a whole was struggling.  

The LB play has been exceptional during the win streak and really limited some good run offenses.  (the best example would have to be SC's monotonous triple option attack that produced last year's POY).

The secondary was IC's achilles heel the last few seasons but seems to have really improved this month.  I would echo your sentiments about MUC's corners in describing IC.  Neither are true shutdown cornders but both appear to be solid in coverage and sure tacklers.  The real playmaker in the secondary is 5th year senior Charlie Stephens who is a good athlete and a big hitter.

Though your preview of the Mount didn't mention Special Teams, this is the area where IC is the weakest.  We haven't had a consistent kicking game in a number of years (missed two PATs in the Jug game) and our kickoffs are always short.  It won't help our cause to give MUC good field position.

[not so rowdy bomber]

hscoach,

Rowdy supposes that came off abit too amateur.  With the overwhelming responses that state MUC is unstoppable, Rowdy figured he would conceal as much as he could throwing the MUC coaches who read the boards into a tizzy not knowing what Welch would be throwing at them come saterday.  But since your response was so indepth, Rowdy's glad Jose took care of the Bomber report for you.

sure hope theres a blinding snowstorm on saterday so the bombers can be more camouflaged in their whites... or hope for a blistering hot sunny day where the black uniforms of the raiders would be very detrimental-

thanks for the insight though-

[ICBomber]

It's amazing how eveyone keeps saying how Ithaca can't handle the D-Line and we won't be able to throw or run the ball.  It seems like many Mount fans act like every All-American comes from the OAC.  What about all the All-American D-lineman, D-backs, and linebackers Ithaca and other E8/Upstate teams face every year.  Lang, Haas, Shafiro, Truman, Colon, Stepnick, and many other outstanding defensive players.  I guess the committees just give the east all-americans out of pity to meet their quotas.  I hope My. Union shows up with the same amount of cockiness that their fans possess.

[tecmobowler]

Before the year started, I mentioned that outside linebacker would probably be the weakness of the defense.  While no one wanted to make that switch, the move to Tyler Baker has helped the defense.  I really like our cornerbacks, but question the decision to have them play well off the line from time to time.  My fear is that Mount will nickle and dime us to death for big gains with our CB's ten yards off.

The defensive line is finally a plus after years of just being gap fillers.  The two ends are sophomores who will play a huge role in the years to come.  

Scalice is an animal, and is starting to play like one.

[HScoach]

JQV:  The MUC return teams are very good.  The FG kicking is OK, but not real consistent over 35 yds.  The punting has been inconsistent.   The one special teams weakness that I've seen this year is in KO coverage.  Way too many returns past the 35 yard line for my liking.

[tecmobowler]

As for the offense, the offensive line seems to be figuring it out.  They worked real, real hard last Saturday.  At the beginning of the year it seemed like they were a lot better in pass blocking schemes, but the run blocking is coming along.

Perhaps we'll see some more Alex Baez on Saturday.  

Lots of credit to Juvan who is starting to put it together.  He's starting to get out of the habit of locking in on a receiver, and checked down to his second and third options quite a bit against Cortland.

[gobombers]

hscoach - thanks for the analysis, good stuff.  

A few questions for you:

What kind of offenses does MUC normally play against in the OAC?  It doesn't appear that many of them are putting together a whole lot of points.  Only 2 average over 25 points per game.  And even if you took out the MUC games, they still wouldn't have a good average over 9 games.

Have MUCs opponents been more run oriented?  Pass oriented?  With IC being very balanced, just wondering how the Bombers match up vs MUC's opponents this year.

Running a 4-2-5, you'd THINK that they play a lot of passing teams, but I guess a lot of teams don't really have time to run the ball when they are down 42-0 at the half.

[tecmobowler]

Ithaca has always been strong returning kicks and punts, and is again this year.  

The kicking game is pathetic.  The crowd got excited when our kicker got it to the twenty in the air.  We might as well squib every time, to at least keep teams starting short of the 40.

[tecmobowler]

Is a 4-2-5 defense legal?

[ICBomber]

Does anyone know Mount's Defense without getting an answer like: "Only the best Defense ever!"  Over, Under, Okie, 3-3 stack?

[KH910]

Hartwick at Curry

Very interesting game.  Hartwick seemingly played its best football mid-season and lately has looked very vulnerable against mediocre competition.  Could Hartwick defeat Ithaca or Fisher at this point of the season on a neutral field?  I doubt it.  On the other side of the field is a hungry Curry squad which has a lot more playoff experience than does Hartwick.  That same Curry team is probably sick and tired of hearing that they are an automatic out in the NCAA's.  WNEC over Hartwick may be a huge upset in retrospect, but it tells us how vulnerable the Hawks' defense is.  The NEFC streak ends.  Curry by 3 points.

And what about Hartwick vs. Curry. Much discussion has been on how surprised everyone has been that Hartwick won. I think Hartwick coud beat Ithaca or Fisher again on a neutral field. Though Hartwick's defense maybe alittle vulnerable, their offense can be unpredictable, relentless and make up for it.

What does everyone predict will happen between Curry and Hartwick? I think Hartwick has a chance, and will win. After they beat Curry, then the real discussion woud be whether or not they will be able to defeat St.John Fisher again, assuming they win or Hobart.

[Knightstalker]

IC Bomber, KS has not seen MUC play in person but everyone KS knows who has, all say the players come out prepared and not cocky at all, just very confident and extremely well coached.

[ICBomber]

If hartwick plays the same way they did against Ithaca and Fisher, they will hanle Curry quite easily.  They play second rate football in the NEFC.  The players party during the week and basically run through their schedule because they are the least terrible in the conference.  But they are undefeated and that says something.  the game could be a war but I Doubt it.

Hartwick 38
Curry 17