FB: Empire 8

[fisheralum91]

ok- then is he hurt?
havent seen him play in3 games now

[AUKaz00]

It was fun at AU this weekend watching a dominant performance.  But all Saxon fans must keep in mind that Norwich has not been difficult for us in the past.  But, neither has Hartwick.  We usually beat them.  I know every year is different, but are they that much better than they were last year?  Are we that much worse?  I think our chances are pretty good.  I wish I could be there but the stroke I suffered in March will render all the hills on Hartwick's campus a little much for me.

Go Saxons!

Without having seen Wick play, I would say that this year's version of the Hawks is very comparable with last year's while the Saxons are not of the same caliber as last year.  I have a hard time seeing the 2008 Saxons develop into a team as good as the 2007 version mostly because we're missing a number of talented and dependable pieces to graduation or injury (Miller, Keeley, Reynolds, Riley, Penkin, Hendrix, Pieri - just to name a few).  Obviously some of the new faces have stepped up and are doing a great job, but it's not a stretch to say that the Saxons have taken a step backward from last year.

Now consider last year's game: Alfred won by 10 at home.  However, that included two missed field goals and a missed extra point (which the pep band claimed as their 7 point contribution).  Eliminate those mistakes, change the venue and replace a number of key players on the Saxons and it's easy to see our fortunes reversed.

With that said, I have full faith in Pep as he takes the band to the Cage (and to a lesser extent the coaches and players) to deliver an upset victory.

On Saxon Warriors!

[gobombers15]

ok- then is he hurt?
havent seen him play in3 games now

Yes, this fellow Websterian can tell you he is injured. My cousin went to high school with him and remains good friends with him. She told me he was injured in the Buff State game. I told her to get an update on when he'd be back. She said she'd get right on that. I picked up on the sarcasm.

[fisheralum91]

thanks gb- i knew that he was nicked up but didnt know to what extent

[AUPepBand]

ok- then is he hurt?
havent seen him play in3 games now

Yes, this fellow Websterian can tell you he is injured. My cousin went to high school with him and remains good friends with him. She told me he was injured in the Buff State game. I told her to get an update on when he'd be back. She said she'd get right on that. I picked up on the sarcasm.

Hmmm... the Alfred Sun Sports Columnist, who was down for the Homecoming game Saterday, resides in Webster. Realize it's a big town, but seems of late Pep has many acquaintances there.

[Jonny Utah]

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?

JU I think you have a point about the way the spread is often played but not about the spread in general.  The beauty of the spread is it maximizes the use of certain skills while de-emphasizing other weaknesses.  For Florida, they struggled under Zook trying to run straight ahead and drop back from center despite having undersized O-Linemen.  That has been a problem for UF (for some reason, big OL go to FSU, don't know why) for about 15 years but Spurrier got around it by running that Fun-n-Gun.  The genius of the spread was the way it used the smaller OL's athleticism and moved the pocket.

Then Tebow happened to Meyer and all his creativity went out the window.  The spread is very beatable when you go with the four plays that appear to work (as you implied with that awesome Tecmo Bowl reference).  For example, against Ole Miss, Tebow and Percy Harvin accounted for 401 of UF's 413 yards.  How the F is that possible?  It's not like they are the only weapons.  Between Emmanuel Moody, Chris Rainey, and Jeff Demps UF has three of the fastest RBs in the country, yet they COMBINED for 6 touches against Ole Miss.  

I didn't see the Hartwick game but I would bet the same thing happened to SJF.  It is easy to fall in love with one set out of the spread and forget that, for it to work, you have to make all eligible guys touch the ball regularly.

We can debate the union stuff later since this post is already too long.  +k.

Yea I guess my main point is that you can outscheme the spread offense by certain blitzes and coverages on defense.  Its harder to outscheme a team that is simply bigger, stronger, faster and better than you.  I think that is the reason teams like Florida loses games they might win 9/10 times.

[AUKaz00]

ok- then is he hurt?
havent seen him play in3 games now

Yes, this fellow Websterian can tell you he is injured. My cousin went to high school with him and remains good friends with him. She told me he was injured in the Buff State game. I told her to get an update on when he'd be back. She said she'd get right on that. I picked up on the sarcasm.

Hmmm... the Alfred Sun Sports Columnist, who was down for the Homecoming game Saterday, resides in Webster. Realize it's a big town, but seems of late Pep has many acquaintances there.

Noah Webster taught in my home town of Goshen from 1782-1783.  Does that count, Pep?

[saxontad]

Commish,
I agree with your points about AU this year vis-a-vis last year.  But we seem to be improving every week.  I think anybody who takes us for granted will be surprised.

Go Saxons!

[fisheralum91]

A former faculty member of mine resides in webster now--does that count?

[Timz81]

ok- then is he hurt?
havent seen him play in3 games now

Yes, this fellow Websterian can tell you he is injured. My cousin went to high school with him and remains good friends with him. She told me he was injured in the Buff State game. I told her to get an update on when he'd be back. She said she'd get right on that. I picked up on the sarcasm.

Hmmm... the Alfred Sun Sports Columnist, who was down for the Homecoming game Saterday, resides in Webster. Realize it's a big town, but seems of late Pep has many acquaintances there.

Noah Webster taught in my home town of Goshen from 1782-1783.  Does that count, Pep?

hey commish i grew up in goshen too. where did you live?

[AUKaz00]

ok- then is he hurt?
havent seen him play in3 games now

Yes, this fellow Websterian can tell you he is injured. My cousin went to high school with him and remains good friends with him. She told me he was injured in the Buff State game. I told her to get an update on when he'd be back. She said she'd get right on that. I picked up on the sarcasm.

Hmmm... the Alfred Sun Sports Columnist, who was down for the Homecoming game Saterday, resides in Webster. Realize it's a big town, but seems of late Pep has many acquaintances there.

Noah Webster taught in my home town of Goshen from 1782-1783.  Does that count, Pep?

hey commish i grew up in goshen too. where did you live?

Hambletonian Park.  You?

[Timz81]

ok- then is he hurt?
havent seen him play in3 games now

Yes, this fellow Websterian can tell you he is injured. My cousin went to high school with him and remains good friends with him. She told me he was injured in the Buff State game. I told her to get an update on when he'd be back. She said she'd get right on that. I picked up on the sarcasm.

Hmmm... the Alfred Sun Sports Columnist, who was down for the Homecoming game Saterday, resides in Webster. Realize it's a big town, but seems of late Pep has many acquaintances there.

Noah Webster taught in my home town of Goshen from 1782-1783.  Does that count, Pep?

hey commish i grew up in goshen too. where did you live?

Hambletonian Park.  You?

oh i know i bunch of people that lived there. i grew up on wickham avenue. did you play at goshen?

[AUKaz00]

ok- then is he hurt?
havent seen him play in3 games now

Yes, this fellow Websterian can tell you he is injured. My cousin went to high school with him and remains good friends with him. She told me he was injured in the Buff State game. I told her to get an update on when he'd be back. She said she'd get right on that. I picked up on the sarcasm.

Hmmm... the Alfred Sun Sports Columnist, who was down for the Homecoming game Saterday, resides in Webster. Realize it's a big town, but seems of late Pep has many acquaintances there.

Noah Webster taught in my home town of Goshen from 1782-1783.  Does that count, Pep?

hey commish i grew up in goshen too. where did you live?

Hambletonian Park.  You?

oh i know i bunch of people that lived there. i grew up on wickham avenue. did you play at goshen?

Nice.  I took swimming lessons on Golden.

I played the other footie at GHS and then was the Gladiator for the football team my junior and senior year.  Good times...

[theoriginalupstate]

A buddy of mine played at Goshen, Andershak....

[pg04]

A former faculty member of mine resides in webster now--does that count?

I watched Webster on TV...