FB: Empire 8

[not so rowdy bomber]

thank you redbirds for making NSRB very exited.  another pleasant surprise to uncover later Saterday night.  Hope the bombers are learning from their mistakes last weekend during their bye and not just spending their free time in the library.

hartwick.  thank you thank you. 
Hey pep.  hows the band, and the Bandwagon... any more updates?  with all these home games coming up,  not going to be putting many miles on the 'ol bird.  Whats the latest mile tally at?


in other good news... Syracuse didnt lose today







yeah, so what, so they didnt play today either

[AUPepBand]

thank you redbirds for making NSRB very exited.  another pleasant surprise to uncover later Saterday night.  Hope the bombers are learning from their mistakes last weekend during their bye and not just spending their free time in the library.

hartwick.  thank you thank you. 
Hey pep.  hows the band, and the Bandwagon... any more updates?  with all these home games coming up,  not going to be putting many miles on the 'ol bird.  Whats the latest mile tally at?


in other good news... Syracuse didnt lose today



yeah, so what, so they didnt play today either

Bandwagon at 303,200 and counting...
....will need an oil change before the trip to Oneonta!

On Saxon Warriors!

[msarge7]

I'm heading to Hartwick next weekend with Coach Fee's dad.  Looking forward to hearing the band and hopefully seeing AU play well enough to win.  On a side note, a few years back when my son was still playing, I was able to produce my college (SUNY OSWEGO) ID and was given a student rate at Jrecks.  The student working said "I'd like to see that".  That and an AU win made the day fun.  Looking forward to having a good time Saturday too.

[saxondeuce]

Dont you mean anti-labor attorney? 

Booooo!

Thats ok Jose.  Get some experience on the dark side and then come over to the light!

I suppose that is a fair point JU.  You a union man?

Shocked about SJF.  Well, I suppose it is about par for the course in the E8 in recent years.

Is this the year for AU?  If it is, does that make 2 into AU's version of Don Mattingly?

Oh thats dirty...but I would more than love being the E8's Don Mattingly because we all know what that would mean for AU.  It is what it is.

[AUPepBand]

I'm heading to Hartwick next weekend with Coach Fee's dad.  Looking forward to hearing the band and hopefully seeing AU play well enough to win.  On a side note, a few years back when my son was still playing, I was able to produce my college (SUNY OSWEGO) ID and was given a student rate at Jrecks.  The student working said "I'd like to see that".  That and an AU win made the day fun.  Looking forward to having a good time Saturday too.

That must have been the same day that the band arrived just as a Hartwick coed began singing the National Anthem, for which the band, caged in the single-file entry way to the stadium, paused there, removed hats and faced the flag. Said singing co-ed then got the giggles, the mic was turned off, and after a brief awkward moment of silence, a recording of the National Anthem was played.

Later, during the game, Pep's little four-man band was playing the fight song once again. A Hartwick fan, sick of hearing the AU fight song and seated behind Sarge's other son, made a sarcastic (but probably accurate) comment about the quality of the AU Pep Band, to which Sarge's other son aptly replied, "Did you happen to catch the National Anthem?"



On Saxon Warriors!!

[AUPepBand]

Hey Deuce....congrats on the 6 TD pass performance. If you're not the Don Mattingly of AU, then perhaps you are the Brett Favre of Denmark?

[saxondeuce]

Ha...right...your up pretty early today Pep.

[AUPepBand]

Pep couldn't sleep....awoke at 4:30 a.m. and started re-playing yesterday's game...re-playing the fight song, already getting pumped for the "Cage Match" on the hill. Pep has no expectations, but optimism is rising as AU has found a ground game.

On Saxon Warriors!!

[Bombers798891]

I just cannot get a handle on this conference. It seems like no-one's in the mood to win it. Haha. Right now, I suppose the Saxons are in the drivers seat, although they've yet to play the beasts of the conference, they do get Fisher and IC at home.

I have to tell you, it would seem like Fisher did what they have been doing this season, which is letting teams they should beat easily hang around. Heck, even that Ithaca game was 16-6 late in the 3rd quarter. Eventually, you miss some oppurtunities and someone's going to come back on you. Fisher squandered some oppurtunities, although I would say that hitting a Hail Mary kind of wipes one of those out.

Now, I could be getting ahead of myself here, and if I'm wrong on these tiebreaks, please fill me in. But in the event of a 3 way tie for the conference, if this thing gets to a SOS argument, the OOC records for the 4 likely suspects are:

IC: 9-7
SJF: 9-8
Alf: 5-12
HC: 4-10

Ithaca and Fisher's are likely to rise thanks to the presence of teams like MUC and Cortland State. If this thing turns into a 3-way tie at 6-1 with HC, IC and SJF, it could be very, very close between those two. Of course, that's just one scenario of many. I think, however, that Alfred will split the SJF/IC gauntlet, and beat Hartwick, which means--I think--the team that beats Alfred would get it. Of course, if Alfred sweeps it, they're going to get it, and if they lose both, it looks like it'll be SJF.

I know it's possible for Alfred to sweep it, especially with both games at home, but

1) They haven't pulled a sweep off yet in four tries
2) As an Ithaca fan who watched in vain as the Bombers tried to beat both Buff State and Cortland State, I can tell you that backloading a schedule can be a pain in the neck.

3:1 says it's Fisher, 7:1 says it's Alfred, 8:1 says it's Ithaca, and 15:1 says it's the Wick. Just one man's call

[gobombers15]

Just looked at the E8 Website and learned an interesting fact: Fisher has never won the conference outright. In 2004, Fisher split with Ithaca. In 2006, Fisher split with Springfield. In 2007, Fisher split with Hartwick. I'm not saying this means anything, just that I was surprised to learn that Fisher had never won a conference outright. I never would have guessed that.

[Jonny Utah]

Dont you mean anti-labor attorney? 

Booooo!

Thats ok Jose.  Get some experience on the dark side and then come over to the light!

I suppose that is a fair point JU.  You a union man?

Shocked about SJF.  Well, I suppose it is about par for the course in the E8 in recent years.

Is this the year for AU?  If it is, does that make 2 into AU's version of Don Mattingly?

Yea JU is a union man.  Actually just settled on a contract so I feel good about both sides right now.  But there are other bad things going around with unions in MA right now that is making me very uneasy.

Here is something I just thought of last night while watching the Ohio St/Wisconsin game...

The spread offense (SJF, Florida, Hartwick, RPI) is an offense that is starting to look to me like the triple option like Springfield runs.  Although the spread does a lot more conventional things (running and passing 50/50), it is a gimmick that some teams (Hartwick, Mississippi) that might not be as good as the teams they beat (SJF/Florida) find a way to really shut them down. 

Its almost like the original tecmo bowl where the offense has 4 plays to pick, and the defense has 4 plays to pick.  The defense has a 25% chance of totally destroying the offensive play by guessing what the offesnse will do (except for the bears that had Waddle on that slant but thats another story for another time).  So once or twice in a season, stats will show that some teams will be able to gamble and beat that team that might be better than them?

Does this make any sense?

[redswarm81]

I just cannot get a handle on this conference. It seems like no-one's in the mood to win it. Haha. Right now, I suppose the Saxons are in the drivers seat, although they've yet to play the beasts of the conference, they do get Fisher and IC at home. . . .

I think, however, that Alfred will split the SJF/IC gauntlet, and beat Hartwick, which means--I think--the team that beats Alfred would get it. Of course, if Alfred sweeps it, they're going to get it, and if they lose both, it looks like it'll be SJF.

I know it's possible for Alfred to sweep it, especially with both games at home, but

1) They haven't pulled a sweep off yet in four tries
2) As an Ithaca fan who watched in vain as the Bombers tried to beat both Buff State and Cortland State, I can tell you that backloading a schedule can be a pain in the neck.

3:1 says it's Fisher, 7:1 says it's Alfred, 8:1 says it's Ithaca, and 15:1 says it's the Wick. Just one man's call

I did some thinking along the same lines, and posted this on the 2008 Year-in-Review board:

As mentioned on the front page, Hartwick's 31 - 28 win at St. John Fisher raises the possibility of a three-way tie in the Empire 8, between Hartwick, St. John Fisher, and Ithaca.  Thus, yesterday was a potential 2008 Year-in-Review moment.

Potential.  Although the H/SJF/I 3-way tie is a real possibility, there are a gazillion scenarios that could derail the blessed event.  First off, there are two undefeated teams in E8 conference play:

• Utica (1-0 E8) wins out, uncontested E8 Champion.  Seems unlikely though, with Utica's 1-3 overall record.
• Alfred (2-0 E8) wins out, uncontested E8 Champion.  Hardly impossible, as Alfred's playing well.

Were one of the above to happen, we'd be left muttering "never mind," a la Emily Litella.

The fun starts if either Alfred or Utica beats 1 or 2 of Hartwick, St. John Fisher, and Ithaca.  If Utica loses to all three and Alfred beats only 1 of H/SJF/I, then there's a tie between the remaining 2, but one that would be broken by head to head competition.  For example, if Alfred beats Hartwick but loses to Ithaca and SJF, then SJF has a head-to-head win against Ithaca, so SJF is champion (as long as head-to-head is a tiebreaker).

Thus, if this scenario happens, three more potential 2008 Year-in-Review moments loom: the moment that Alfred breaks the potential H/SJF/I 3-way tie in the E8.

At the same time, it shows Alfred (and Utica) how it does them no good at all to beat only one of Hartwick, Ithaca, and St. John Fisher.  So, what happens if Alfred beats two of the three, and Utica again loses out?  In that case, the team that beat Alfred head-to-head wins the 2 team tie that includes Alfred.

So beating two of Hartwick, Ithaca, and St. John Fisher also does Alfred (and Utica) no good.  In order to break the H/SJF/I 3-way tie AND win the conference, Alfred (or Utica) has to run the gauntlet and win all three games.  That's a heck of a gauntlet to run.

There are other potential 2008 Year-in-Review moments if both Alfred and Utica beat one or two of Hartwick, St. John Fisher, and Ithaca, but I'm going to need to get in a good pre-analysis brain stretch before I start playing that what-if game.

[AUPepBand]

All this talk about Alfred is premature. Pep and KaZ00 some time ago declared 2008, with Deuce's size 15 shoes to fill along with depletion of the offensive line, a  "rebuilding season" and suggested that a 6-4 finish would be a solid foundation from which to build in '09 and '10. Sure, the Saxons are 2-0 in conference play, but arguably against the weaker '08 teams. So please, regarding Alfred's E8 title prospects, as an old school librarian would say, with index finger planted firmly against one's lips, "Shhhhhhhhhhh!!"

[AUKaz00]

All this talk about Alfred is premature. Pep and KaZ00 some time ago declared 2008, with Deuce's size 15 shoes to fill along with depletion of the offensive line, a  "rebuilding season" and suggested that a 6-4 finish would be a solid foundation from which to build in '09 and '10. Sure, the Saxons are 2-0 in conference play, but arguably against the weaker '08 teams. So please, regarding Alfred's E8 title prospects, as an old school librarian would say, with index finger planted firmly against one's lips, "Shhhhhhhhhhh!!"

I still firmly believe that the Saxons will finish at 6-4 with a win over Utica and one other game (not sure which).  I am, however, willing to be pleasantly surprised with the Don Mattingly scenario...

[redswarm81]

All this talk about Alfred is premature. . . . So please, regarding Alfred's E8 title prospects, as an old school librarian would say, with index finger planted firmly against one's lips, "Shhhhhhhhhhh!!"

I hope no one is interpreting my words "hardly impossible" to mean anything close to "likely."  But I suspect it might be on the order of a 50-50 shot that Alfred beats one of the Big Three.

A point that bears noting is the fact that Hartwick has played a mere 3 games.  They've racked up some impressive point totals in that time, though--136 points scored (45.3/game), 134 points allowed (44.7/game).