FB: Liberty League

[Bartman]

Hobart sneeks into the 25th spot in the poll this week. Expect to see SLU move up soon. Ithaca under the lights at the Boz on Saturday. GO BART.

[ITH radio]

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ith/2016/09/12/in-the-huddlle--liberty-league-football-talk-show

We talk about Utica win, Fisher vs Cortland in the East Region Review segment also.

[Bartman]

Picks for Week #3:

          Hobart      28       Ithaca      17
          Mut Mar    21       Maritime   20
          RPI           21      MIT           17
          Rochester  28      Alf St.         7
          SLU          35      Endicott     21
          Springfield 28     Mt. Ida       10
          Union        14      WNE          17( Sorry Dutchmen)
          WPI           35      Norwich     24

LL is 9-5 so far, these picks would make LL 16-6

[dlippiel]

Picks for Week #3:

          Hobart      28       Ithaca      17
          Mut Mar    21       Maritime   20
          RPI           21      MIT           17
          Rochester  28      Alf St.         7
          SLU          35      Endicott     21
          Springfield 28     Mt. Ida       10
          Union        14      WNE          17( Sorry Dutchmen)
          WPI           35      Norwich     24

LL is 9-5 so far, these picks would make LL 16-6

Bartman no worries pal. You are always so positive about dlip's beloved Dutchmen and he truly appreciates that!

WNE is a very good football team (at least from what he saw against Springfield). To dlip their offense appeared to be in mid-season form in week ****ing #1! There is no question that this will be a super challenging game for the U and that WNE is the clear favorite. dlip will actually pick against his Dutchmen here as well (he is honestly expecting a larger margin of victory by the Golden Bears).

dlip will certainly say this though. If U's D can stand up to WNE the way they did to Ithaca and West Conn dlip will be a complete believer (and he thinks others will as well).

Good luck to the Pumpkinheads this weekend. dlip always likes the Bombers especially now that they will be joining the LL. However they are not in yet and for that reason (and the continued LL love that Bartman shows) he hopes Bart goes ****ing bananas on the Bombers and monkey stomps them only to have the Bombers get it back together the following week.

[Bartman]

Dlip,
    Thanks for the encouragement, but I am not sure the Statesman have ever monkey stomped the Bombers....just happy for a touchdown margin win......it is Family Weekend which is usually the biggest crowd but there is rain in the forecast which I think will keep it close.......The U defense looks pretty strong which is why I think they can hang with the Golden Bears.....if you find an offense ...who knows?? At least the Dutchman go into a game with a win streak in mind

[UfanBill]

To quote DLIP on the E8 board..."Last week, although surrendering a decent amount of yards we were blown away with the aggressiveness and execution of the D. Sacks and timely INT's for points have been unheard of in Garnet land for ****ing ever."...True, I among many have been bemoaning the lack of aggressiveness by the Union D for years. The previous staff played a 3-4 which positioned the linebackers ~5 yds. behind the line of scrimmage. The idea, in theory, is this should free up the linebackers to drop into pass coverage, but it was taking away from their availability to fill the hole. The big problem was even though positioned deep the lbs DID NOT properly cover the under routes and many opponents had success throwing underneath. This season, while they are still playing a 3-4, the linebackers are locating receivers and making a play for the football as evidenced by TWO pick-6s  by lbs Jake Lombardo and Jack Reilly last week. Reilly also attacked the qb, he had 2 sacks, and with the opponents O-line having to account for blitzing linebackers, the D-line had 4 additional sacks. Maybe it was just a bad day by W. Conn. or a very good day by Reilly but I'm seeing a better defensive scheme with improved technique and the critical aggressiveness. Keep it up Dutchmen this week against WNE.

[Frank Rossi]

Picks for Week #3:

          Hobart      28       Ithaca      17
          Mut Mar    21       Maritime   20
          RPI           21      MIT           17
          Rochester  28      Alf St.         7
          SLU          35      Endicott     21
          Springfield 28     Mt. Ida       10
          Union        14      WNE          17( Sorry Dutchmen)
          WPI           35      Norwich     24

LL is 9-5 so far, these picks would make LL 16-6

Don't underestimate the importance of two things pointed out above.  First, we have the opportunity to have four undefeated teams in OOC play for the LL this season -- a true rarity.  If St. Lawrence, WPI, USMMA, and Hobart all win, we have four legitimate teams vying for Pool C consideration should they lose a game against the ultimate conference champion and no other team.  Despite the shrinking number of Pool C berths over the years, the fact is that there has been a huge paucity of quality one-loss teams in that mix of late nationally.  In fact, last year, we projected that RPI at 8-2 was on the "Board" as the best remaining East Region team for some duration of the selection process.

Second, one of the biggest things that affects whether or not a team is a "quality" one-loss team is strength of schedule ("SOS"), which is greatly affected by the teams' conference's OOC performance.  A 16-6 record would be a great SOS- and resume-booster for the LL teams.  It's been 9 years since two LL teams have made it to the same playoff bracket (2007 -- RPI & Hobart), and it's been caused by a combination of poor overall OOC play by the entire conference and a lack of quality one-loss runner-up teams in the LL during those years.  This weekend will really do a lot to make or break the LL -- and if two or more teams remain undefeated, we'll have to watch to see if they can beat the teams that sustained losses in OOC play instead of creating internal carnage.

So, first things first -- root hard as a LL fan for Hobart, St. Lawrence, USMMA, and WPI this weekend, and hope for wins from the other four teams to help the overall SOS appearance of the teams that make it to conference play undefeated.  This could be very interesting to watch.

[dlippiel]

Picks for Week #3:

          Hobart      28       Ithaca      17
          Mut Mar    21       Maritime   20
          RPI           21      MIT           17
          Rochester  28      Alf St.         7
          SLU          35      Endicott     21
          Springfield 28     Mt. Ida       10
          Union        14      WNE          17( Sorry Dutchmen)
          WPI           35      Norwich     24

LL is 9-5 so far, these picks would make LL 16-6

Don't underestimate the importance of two things pointed out above.  First, we have the opportunity to have four undefeated teams in OOC play for the LL this season -- a true rarity.  If St. Lawrence, WPI, USMMA, and Hobart all win, we have four legitimate teams vying for Pool C consideration should they lose a game against the ultimate conference champion and no other team.  Despite the shrinking number of Pool C berths over the years, the fact is that there has been a huge paucity of quality one-loss teams in that mix of late nationally.  In fact, last year, we projected that RPI at 8-2 was on the "Board" as the best remaining East Region team for some duration of the selection process.

Second, one of the biggest things that affects whether or not a team is a "quality" one-loss team is strength of schedule ("SOS"), which is greatly affected by the teams' conference's OOC performance.  A 16-6 record would be a great SOS- and resume-booster for the LL teams.  It's been 9 years since two LL teams have made it to the same playoff bracket (2007 -- RPI & Hobart), and it's been caused by a combination of poor overall OOC play by the entire conference and a lack of quality one-loss runner-up teams in the LL during those years.  This weekend will really do a lot to make or break the LL -- and if two or more teams remain undefeated, we'll have to watch to see if they can beat the teams that sustained losses in OOC play instead of creating internal carnage.

So, first things first -- root hard as a LL fan for Hobart, St. Lawrence, USMMA, and WPI this weekend, and hope for wins from the other four teams to help the overall SOS appearance of the teams that make it to conference play undefeated.  This could be very interesting to watch.

dlip has always been tough on WPI but since last year there seems to be a buzz around this program that is sending some small but powerful ripples through New England. dlip would love to see WPI 3-0 again to start the season.

Frank is the one who taught dlip about the "love" for the entire conference and not just his Dutchmen. dlip has certainly gained respect for all the programs in the LL and is their biggest fan when they face off against OOC competition. Let's all hope for the best!

+k for the informational post Frank!

[D3pc]

Really good points about OOC play.

You like to root for parity but that doesn't get you votes in d3.

As much as I admired Coach Raymond at SLU, he was not one to run up the score. Last year against Norwich they were up about 35-0 and they back ups came in halfway through the third quarter. The final score ended up being 42-28 and Norwich's coach was saying how competitive his team was.

Coach Puck seems to be having a different attitude by keeping the foot on the pedal. God for the long run? Maybe not. But it sure is a hell of a lot better for rankings.

[Bartman]

Picks for Week #3:

          Hobart      28       Ithaca      17
          Mut Mar    21       Maritime   20
          RPI           21      MIT           17
          Rochester  28      Alf St.         7
          SLU          35      Endicott     21
          Springfield 28     Mt. Ida       10
          Union        14      WNE          17( Sorry Dutchmen)
          WPI           35      Norwich     24

LL is 9-5 so far, these picks would make LL 16-6

Don't underestimate the importance of two things pointed out above.  First, we have the opportunity to have four undefeated teams in OOC play for the LL this season -- a true rarity.  If St. Lawrence, WPI, USMMA, and Hobart all win, we have four legitimate teams vying for Pool C consideration should they lose a game against the ultimate conference champion and no other team.  Despite the shrinking number of Pool C berths over the years, the fact is that there has been a huge paucity of quality one-loss teams in that mix of late nationally.  In fact, last year, we projected that RPI at 8-2 was on the "Board" as the best remaining East Region team for some duration of the selection process.

Second, one of the biggest things that affects whether or not a team is a "quality" one-loss team is strength of schedule ("SOS"), which is greatly affected by the teams' conference's OOC performance.  A 16-6 record would be a great SOS- and resume-booster for the LL teams.  It's been 9 years since two LL teams have made it to the same playoff bracket (2007 -- RPI & Hobart), and it's been caused by a combination of poor overall OOC play by the entire conference and a lack of quality one-loss runner-up teams in the LL during those years.  This weekend will really do a lot to make or break the LL -- and if two or more teams remain undefeated, we'll have to watch to see if they can beat the teams that sustained losses in OOC play instead of creating internal carnage.

So, first things first -- root hard as a LL fan for Hobart, St. Lawrence, USMMA, and WPI this weekend, and hope for wins from the other four teams to help the overall SOS appearance of the teams that make it to conference play undefeated.  This could be very interesting to watch.

Frank....thanks for the great analysis....for this I have changed my pick to Union 21-WNE 17....A few sustained drives with some timely pass completions and about 4 forced turnovers from the revived Dutchmen Defense should shock the Golden Bears......this will help the top LL teams move up in the Top 25 polls and help the LL conference ranking next year.......off course a bad LL weekend will leave me looking like the biggest homer ever and reduce my post frequency , for sure

[Jonny Utah]

Picks for Week #3:

          Hobart      28       Ithaca      17
          Mut Mar    21       Maritime   20
          RPI           21      MIT           17
          Rochester  28      Alf St.         7
          SLU          35      Endicott     21
          Springfield 28     Mt. Ida       10
          Union        14      WNE          17( Sorry Dutchmen)
          WPI           35      Norwich     24

LL is 9-5 so far, these picks would make LL 16-6

Don't underestimate the importance of two things pointed out above.  First, we have the opportunity to have four undefeated teams in OOC play for the LL this season -- a true rarity.  If St. Lawrence, WPI, USMMA, and Hobart all win, we have four legitimate teams vying for Pool C consideration should they lose a game against the ultimate conference champion and no other team.  Despite the shrinking number of Pool C berths over the years, the fact is that there has been a huge paucity of quality one-loss teams in that mix of late nationally.  In fact, last year, we projected that RPI at 8-2 was on the "Board" as the best remaining East Region team for some duration of the selection process.

Second, one of the biggest things that affects whether or not a team is a "quality" one-loss team is strength of schedule ("SOS"), which is greatly affected by the teams' conference's OOC performance.  A 16-6 record would be a great SOS- and resume-booster for the LL teams.  It's been 9 years since two LL teams have made it to the same playoff bracket (2007 -- RPI & Hobart), and it's been caused by a combination of poor overall OOC play by the entire conference and a lack of quality one-loss runner-up teams in the LL during those years.  This weekend will really do a lot to make or break the LL -- and if two or more teams remain undefeated, we'll have to watch to see if they can beat the teams that sustained losses in OOC play instead of creating internal carnage.

So, first things first -- root hard as a LL fan for Hobart, St. Lawrence, USMMA, and WPI this weekend, and hope for wins from the other four teams to help the overall SOS appearance of the teams that make it to conference play undefeated.  This could be very interesting to watch.

St. Lawrence and Hobart are probably the only LL teams who have a chance at a pool C, and they will need to keep up big wins in order to ever make that happen.  I think RPI's first two game results probably eliminate them from any pool C, But if St. Lawrence and Hobart can continue to blow people out, and possibly end up 9-1 with a loss to the other team, a pool C shot is possible. 

And although the OOC matters, Brockport, Ithaca and Morrisville's records are really going to be the only ones that matter to the LL's pool C chances.  And there is a good chance that all of those teams end up with records around .500.

[Ralph Turner]

http://www.maxpreps.com/news/N8moENxix0G3tlQCjJuVvg/at-7-foot-1-and-400-pounds,-high-school-football-player-brave-williams-is-larger-than-life.htm

Thinking outside the box, might he not qualify for an academic scholarship at someplace like RPI or WPI?

[Saxon73]

http://www.maxpreps.com/news/N8moENxix0G3tlQCjJuVvg/at-7-foot-1-and-400-pounds,-high-school-football-player-brave-williams-is-larger-than-life.htm

Thinking outside the box, might he not qualify for an academic scholarship at someplace like RPI or WPI?

Or Alfred's world renowned Ceramic Engineering program. 

[Div3Fan]

I was surprised by the amount of points Alfred State put up on Rochester. 30!? 

[D3pc]

What makes the shutout streak for SLU more impressive is that Endicott had drives start at the play 37 and plus 17 in the game. There was a missed FG, but very very impressive nonetheless. Endicott looked very overmatched.

Need a big Hobart win tonight for the sake of the LL. I see you guys are expecting rain which would have to favor Ithaca as it could neutralize the deadly bart passing game.

Obviously is wasn't a win, but Union is definitely looking like they are making strides in the right direction. They had the lead at half time and WNEU will probably go undefeated again.