FB: Liberty League

[pumkinattack]

A lot of people have talked about Union's relatively tough scheduling and it's decent, but as the season shakes out, I'm starting to think that Hobart's win over CMU is as good or better than the Union win over IC.  In no way am I touting Hobart's season, but CMU is 5-3 with losses to Bart, Alleghany and Wittenburg (ranked), the Alleghany team has a pretty good record (I think) and Witt was only 2td's.  Plus Bart pretty much had that win in hand the entire second half.  Del Val's got better wins in Kean and JHU (maybe JHU, but I'm not sure they're better than CMU).  I think CMU ends up 6-4 (losing to Case and beating Chicago)  Thoughts?  (I'm looking for some silver linings for the season here, but I think this is a legit point)

[redswarm81]

many think the ranking system flawed

A few people who are fans of unranked teams don't like the poll, I get that. Nothing new there. That really, really is not equivalent to what you claim.

I think something else that needs to be remembered is that there are twice as many Division III teams as there are D-I FBS teams, so it's twice as hard for a team to make our poll as it is for one to make the AP or USA Today D-I poll. People's expectations needs to be different.

Fair enough than the way the Brackets and/or regions are set up needs to be different and consistent, like consisting of teams in the ****ing regions.

They're just brackets.

They're just brackets, selected and seeded using just Selection and Seeding criteria, which just happen to be 99% Regional.

I'm reminded of my dad's schoolboy friend Guillermo, who was the son of poor Mexican-American farmworkers.  Guillermo was sad every day at lunchtime.  My dad asked him why, and he explained that his breakfast and lunch was the same thing every day: beans and tortillas for breakfast (regions), beans and tortillas for lunch (regions).  When my dad asked what he had for dinner, Guillermo brightened, and said happily, "dinner is always different--for dinner we have tortillas and beans!" (brackets)

[Doid23]

Good article about the passing of Robert "Bubba" Koonce, who passed away on Sunday. Bub's was a starter on the 1983 Union Stagg Bowl team, an Albany boy, just a good dude, not a mean bone in his body.

http://www.michigandaily.com/content/loved-business-advisor-passes-away

[labart96]

Bad article about a Halloween costume choice gone wrong at Hobart:

What were they thinking?

[Doid23]

Thoughts?  (I'm looking for some silver linings for the season here, but I think this is a legit point)

Umm, OK. Not sure Union's win over Ithaca means much anymore, nor does HC's win over CMU.

[Doid23]

Regarding DelVal and is Doid aware the school is in PA......I went to school with Doid.  I'm not sure Doid knows where Delaware is.

Again, Doid can hit the heck out of a whiffle ball.

Actually, did know that Del Val was in PA (somewhere), just spaced. No matter, I've now established a Doid Region, so I'm a big winner. I am just sincerely sorry that I dared to question anyone associated with the poll.

[redswarm81]

Bad article about a Halloween costume choice gone wrong at Hobart:

What were they thinking?

They were probably thinking that it was funny, what with a black coxswain "driving" a team of all white rowers, who were working their butts off to win their races.

If that's what they were thinking, they were right.

[sarcasm]But we can't have such freedom of expression on a college campus, of all places.  Shut that stuff down. [/sarcasm]

[maxpower]

They're free to express all they want. They were also free not to apologize.

[JT]

Bad article about a Halloween costume choice gone wrong at Hobart:

What were they thinking?

They were probably thinking that it was funny, what with a black coxswain "driving" a team of all white rowers, who were working their butts off to win their races.

If that's what they were thinking, they were right.

[sarcasm]But we can't have such freedom of expression on a college campus, of all places.  Shut that stuff down. [/sarcasm]

What if it was Dave Chappelle skit?

[labart96]

And now for something completely different.....

An Actual LL game PREVIEW!!!!

The Hobart Statesmen (4-3, 3-2) host the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Engineers (4-3, 2-3) in the "final regular season" game at the "original" Boswell Field.  With preparations underway to upgrade the "Boz" to field turf, as well as new stands, lights and additions to the Bristol Field House in time for the 2010 season; Hobart will clash with RPI on the gridiron (aka quagmire) that is the Boz one last time.  The Engineers will be looking to return the favor of the Statesmen's playing spoiler to their final regular season game on '86 Field last season.  The Statesmen prevailed 20-17 kicking a 37 yard field goal as time expired knocking off a then #20 RPI.

A highlight clip of that game can be found here:

2008 Bart-RPI game

Kick-off for this season's match-up is slated for noon ET and conditions look pretty good for an early November football game in Upstate New York (i.e., 40s and cloudy).

Rensselaer leads the series 26-25-1 all-time, but the Statesmen have won four of the last five games against the Engineers.  Although Hobart has had some recent success against RPI, all of these games have all been battles.

Check out these scores from the past four seasons:

2008   Hobart 20 – RPI 17 (Statesmen kick the winning FG as time expired)
2007   RPI 35 – Hobart 31 (Engineers score the winning TD with nine seconds left)
2006   Hobart 24 – RPI 17 (Engineers score 14 pts in the 4th quarter but fall short)
2005   Hobart 56 – RPI 48 (3OT game – enough said)   

That's only a 5.5 point average differential between these two rivals over four games!

So are these teams even again this season?  Well, both are 4-3 overall with Hobart holding a one game edge in the LL standings.  The statistics point to another close game between the Statesmen and the Engineers. 

Just how similar (statistically speaking) are these squads? 

Check out these stats:

Scoring offense (average points per game scored): Hobart 22.9 PPG vs. RPI 21.7 PPG
Scoring defense (average points allowed): Hobart 17.6 PPG vs. RPI 17.9 PPG

Recently; however Hobart seems to be clicking on offense having averaged 30 PPG in their last 3 games.  RPI has averaged 18.33 PPG during the same time period.

Total offense (average yards per game gained):  Hobart 345.1 YPG vs. RPI 345.4 YPG
Total defense (average yards per game allowed):  Hobart 308.3 YPG vs. RPI 329.3 YPG

#1 Hobart vs. #2 RPI in 3rd down conversions

Turnover margin – both are +1

Time of possession average has Hobart with a 30:51 to 28:19 edge (or 2:41) over RPI.

So will Boswell Field bring Hobart a major home field advantage?  

Hobart is 3-0 at home this season and is 8-1 at the Boz since 2008.  The Statesmen have averaged 29 PPG (offense) vs. only giving up 8 PPG at Boswell this season.  However; RPI has averaged 29 PPG on offense in road games and did win their most recent appearance (2007) at Boswell (but with a very different offense given the graduations of former RPI QB Jimmy Robertson and WR Eren Savasli).

Although capable of putting up a lot of points, the RPI offense has struggled in the red zone this year.  The Engineers are currently last in the LL in red zone offense only converting 16-26 trips (61.5%) but Hobart is ranked 7th in red zone defense allowing 11-14 attempts for scores (78.6%), so this may be a moot point.

The Engineers are lead by FY QB Michael Hermann who is a threat to run and pass racking up 323 yards rushing, 6 touchdowns while also passing for 1147 yards and 8 touchdowns (163.9 avg).  Hermann is fairly accurate earning a 120.2 pass efficiency rating, which is good for #2 in LL this season.

Leading the Engineer rushing attack is SR RB Nick Costa.  The SR has tallied 572 yards rushing and four touchdowns on the season.  Hermann's main target in the receiving corp is SR Patrick McCarthy.  McCarthy leads the LL with 518 yards receiving and has hauled in four receiving touchdowns this season.

One area where RPI has a clear edge over the Statesmen is in the kicking game.  JR PK Peter Nilson is six for nine in field goals (long of 38 yards) and has made all his PAT (18-18) attempts.  Hobart has only converted three of seven field goals between SO PK Conor Callahan and SR WR/PK Paul Overdorf.

On defense RPI is lead by SR DB Joe Albano and SR LB Tim Acker who both have 60 total tackles; respectively.  JR DL Darryl Brown leads the Engineers defense with 5 sacks.

Here are TGP's "Keys to the game":

1. Freshman orientation – Although at 6' 6" 220 lbs Mike Hermann is a big kid and an exceptional talent that may win his share of games against Hobart in the future; he has never stepped foot on the Boz nor played Hobart to date.  Look for the Statesmen defense to exploit this inexperience on Saturday with a mix of blitz schemes and disguised pass coverage.  Hermann, like most running QBs, will likely be slowed down given the wet turf (it is supposed to rain all day Friday).  The FY has thrown six interceptions (almost a one per game average) so look for the Statesmen to be opportunistic and convert an errant throw into a take-away.

2. Continue the forward progress – Hobart has been on a roll both offensively and defensively coming off their bye two weeks ago.  The Statesmen need to maintain this momentum and continue their home streak of scoring first (Hobart has scored 14, 13 and 7 points, respectively in the first quarter of all of their three home games this season).  The defense has been equally impressive at home only allowing one touchdown in the first half in three games. 

3. Keep the streak alive – This Hobart SR class has never missed the post-season.  Although the string of five consecutive NCAA play-off berths was effectively broken with the losses to Dickinson, Susquehanna and Union; the Statesmen would qualify to either host or participate in an ECAC "Regional Bowl Game" if they end the year at 6-3.  A 5-4 or 4-5 finish would eliminate them from any post-season consideration.  The last time Hobart participated in the ECACs was 2003 when they hosted and subsequently defeated the Norwich University Cadets 34-18 in the "North Atlantic Bowl".  However, as of this posting the Statesmen have not submitted for consideration for an ECAC berth.

Assuming Hobart DOES file an ECAC bid, as Frank Rossi stated earlier, this game with RPI is in effect an "ECAC elimination" game for both teams.  RPI is undefeated in their ECAC bowls to date, but losing to Hobart (and falling to 4-4, 2-4) would eliminate them from consideration.

All of these factors considered, TGP predicts Hobart over RPI in another close one, 21-17.

[union89]

Good article about the passing of Robert "Bubba" Koonce, who passed away on Sunday. Bub's was a starter on the 1983 Union Stagg Bowl team, an Albany boy, just a good dude, not a mean bone in his body.

http://www.michigandaily.com/content/loved-business-advisor-passes-away

God Bless Bubba....he truly was one of a kind.

UnionAthletics.com has a small write up on Bubs as well.

[redswarm81]

They're free to express all they want. They were also free not to apologize.

You don't actually believe that, do you?  If they hadn't apologized, they'd have been kicked off campus by Veteran's Day.

[Jonny Utah]

A lot of people have talked about Union's relatively tough scheduling and it's decent, but as the season shakes out, I'm starting to think that Hobart's win over CMU is as good or better than the Union win over IC.  In no way am I touting Hobart's season, but CMU is 5-3 with losses to Bart, Alleghany and Wittenburg (ranked), the Alleghany team has a pretty good record (I think) and Witt was only 2td's.  Plus Bart pretty much had that win in hand the entire second half.  Del Val's got better wins in Kean and JHU (maybe JHU, but I'm not sure they're better than CMU).  I think CMU ends up 6-4 (losing to Case and beating Chicago)  Thoughts?  (I'm looking for some silver linings for the season here, but I think this is a legit point)

I think you might be able to say CMU is better than Ithaca, but after that Union has the edge because of the following.

-They actually scheduled 10 games and werent looking for cupcakes like some teams do (not Hobart).

-They played Salisbury (a state school)

-It appears that Union is actively trying to play better non-league teams, including state schools to fill their schedule.  I simply don't buy the idea that schools like Hobart or Alfred can't afford the 10th game.  Im just not buying it.

[pumkinattack]

Just talking about OOC wins, that's all.  Union beat us H to H and has had a better season thus far, so I wasn't going there at all.  As far as I'm concerned, Union is the best team in the LL this year and suspected that coming into the season, although I had much higher expectations for Hobart also (really was hoping for a 2005 like season except different results in that game).  All Hobart can do now is win out, maybe play an ECAC game, but otherwise improve on a 4 game winning streak to end the season. 

We played a state school in 2005 (Cortland,playoffs - is Willy P a state school?  We played them a couple of years ago)

Looks like Alfred tried to carry a tenth game, but couldn't get one, so I don't blame them. 

Having been involved with the school for a while up until the last year or two, I believe there are title IX implications to having that 10th game for Hobart.  Since Bart's gone DI in lax they've dropped at least two men's sports (Baseball and Swimming, not huge, but not minor like squash, sailing or crew) and haven't added any.  The lax program eats up huge amounts of capital with 14-15 games and a 40ish man roster. 

Like I said, this has been a tough year for the league, so I'm looking for some linings.  Union's win over IC may still be better than Bart's win over CMU, but that's two decent OOC wins.  Hell, somone over on the E8 boards was suggesting that their best OOC win was over Norwich, but SLU beat Norwich.  There's some good underclassman playing. 

[pumkinattack]

BTW, Is JT out pulling an all nighter after his big win in Dirty Jersey last night?