FB: Liberty League

[Bartman]

That's alright when we're both in since Susquehanna rise has come with a Hobart trainer HC!

Pumkin,
      Susquehanna's coach is a Canisius grad, Shenandoah has our Hobart alum.

[Machiavelli]

That's alright when we're both in since Susquehanna rise has come with a Hobart trainer HC!

Pumkin,
      Susquehanna's coach is a Canisius grad, Shenandoah has our Hobart alum.

That's a tough one since they are spelled the same just pronounced differently.

[Bartman]

I was also wondering why the Morrisville( a legit E8 contender IMO) win by Hobart was considered a bad win by the D3 Top 25 posters, having slipped in points this week. I guess the logic is Mville is a mediocre team, and Brockport's win over Fram St. was unimpressive, so the Hobart wins are not worthy of the Top 25.

There are other games that also happened this week. For example, a lot of people felt like they had to make room for Susquehanna on their ballot, but very few people eliminated Johns Hopkins from theirs. I'm guessing Susquehanna is above Hobart on a lot of ballots, resulting in Hobart losing points.

Susquehanna deserves the leap...however Hobart dropped about 20 voter points in the ORV category , behind DelVal and RPI, who are both 1-1 now, as well as behind Alfred. Again, I have no idea if Hobart is worthy of a top 25 yet, but there was some discounting of the Mville and Brockport wins. We will see how the Statesmen do against the NJAC the next 2 weeks with Rowan and MSU coming up to the Boz, and how these teams fair against Wesley and Salisbury. At least Hobart has scheduled some decent OOC games this year to help make some conference comparisons.   

[pumkinattack]

Actually was thinking of Nate Milne who's at #8 muhlenburg.  I know who Scott Yoder is, former teammate.  Spend plenty of time in western VA as well.  Milne was at susquehanna. Also have bubna at MIT and now martinivich at the train wreck that is UofR.

[Oline89]

So how does the LL board feel about 3 teams from the CC in the top 25 this week?  Seems excessive to me....

[Oline89]

Ignoring the back-and-forth over the past page to focus on the football.

Thoughts on the LL after two weeks:

Union: Wins are wins, but there are wins that tell us something and wins that tell us nothing. A win over Anna Maria tells us nothing. Union might be ready to take the LL, they might be in a second-tier in the conference, but we won't know until they play someone that can challenge them.

Buff State: They're clearly more competitive that they were last year, but they're still a step or two below the Hobart/IC/RPI/Union quartet.

St. Lawrence: Last year they lost by 3 to Utica and beat Norwich by 33 en route to a 2-8 season. This year, Utica beat them by 26, and Norwich beat them. I'm abandoning my typical "I don't like to judge teams before they get a home game" approach. St. Lawrence is maybe a bit above Rochester, but who knows.

Hobart: They topped a decent Morrisville team on the road, and the offense did a great job cashing in on great field position for the second week in a row (four of their five TD drives started in Morrisville territory.) That's how you win tough games down the line, by not squandering chances like that. Not the best defensive performance (allowed 6.0 YPP and four long scoring drives of 75 yards plus). But that's still a solid win, and evidence that Hobart is going to be in the mix for a LL title.

RPI: Every year, it seems like RPI just has a game where they just lay an egg on offense. Sometimes (like against IC last year) they win those games anyway. This year, it didn't go so well. I'm still not a believer in Utica (two home wins over teams that are not good does not get my engine revving), but they might be a good test to see if this week was RPI's annual offensive no show, or something to worry about.

IC: No new information. They're going to score if they're healthy, so everything is going to hinge on the young secondary coming together and stabilizing the back end for the Bombers' D.

Rochester: Still not good.

Union: I agree. we really don't have any idea how good they are yet. Is Springfield a test? Dunno

Buff State: They are big and Athletic on defense, coaching meh. If they improve on offense they won't be an easy out.

St. Law: I think they will win some games, Norwich is better this year

Hobart: They have been opportunistic and have capitalized on them. May take to week 4 to get a good gauge.

RPI: I dont know how well Utica will travel to RPI, but I expect a dog fight.

YJ: oh dear lord

If SLU is going to find a few wins on the schedule this year, the next two weeks are a good place to start. Morrisville and Hartwick both heading up to Canton, should put both in the Saints "wheel-house" for winnable games. (Hartwick much more so than Morrisville). After that the month of October might not go so well for the Saints, but they close out the year with U of R and Buff State so they could finish on a high note I suppose.

Funny how when you replace Brockport and Thomas More on the 2018 schedule with Hartwick and Buff State this year; things have a way of looking a lot more optimistic...even after losing to a Norwich team that SLU hadn't lost to since 2014.

Don't look to far past M'Ville.  That is a talented team, especially their receivers and QB.  The O line is big, but fatigued quickly.  My bet is they go 6-4 easily, possible 7-3

[Jonny Utah]

So how does the LL board feel about 3 teams from the CC in the top 25 this week?  Seems excessive to me....

1.  It should work itself out.

2.  Except for Hobart, the LL non conference games are lacking out of region this year and that throws a wrench into ranking teams in the top 25, especially this early.  I have a feeling the CC teams will do what the LL teams did last year, and all knock each other out at various points.  I doubt you see an undefeated and 1 loss CC team at the end of the year. 

[Oline89]

So how does the LL board feel about 3 teams from the CC in the top 25 this week?  Seems excessive to me....

1.  It should work itself out.

2.  Except for Hobart, the LL non conference games are lacking out of region this year and that throws a wrench into ranking teams in the top 25, especially this early.  I have a feeling the CC teams will do what the LL teams did last year, and all knock each other out at various points.  I doubt you see an undefeated and 1 loss CC team at the end of the year.

Due to "historical" reasons, JHU will stay in the top 25.  Is it justified?  one loss and one squeaker win against a better than average opponent.....

[Bombers798891]

and Brockport's win over Fram St. was unimpressive, so the Hobart wins are not worthy of the Top 25.

Port looks like a hit mess offensively. At the most charitable, you could ascribe last week's game to a fluky IC in 2018-like inability to score in the RZ. But still, 7 quarters with out an offensive TD is not going to look good

[Bartman]

and Brockport's win over Fram St. was unimpressive, so the Hobart wins are not worthy of the Top 25.

Port looks like a hit mess offensively. At the most charitable, you could ascribe last week's game to a fluky IC in 2018-like inability to score in the RZ. But still, 7 quarters with out an offensive TD is not going to look good

Brockport has to figure out how to get the ball to Hubbard and Ortiz, as they are incredible athletes. Even a friggin reverse once and a while and these guys will find the end zone. From the stats last week it looks like the rushing game improved with Morrison and June finding success.Their issue is an inexperienced Oline that had seven sacks against Hobart and Hellwig , who found his receivers as a backup to JG last year, but was under siege with 7 sacks, 5 INTs  and 4 QB hurries. I don't know if he was hurt last week, but June played most of the game against Fram St. and he is more of a wildcat type QB. They had no sacks against their Oline last week, and could run the ball against Fram St.. If their Oline matures , protects Hellwig and he is healthy , they will win the E8 again,since the defense looks beasty again, but there were quite a few holes to fill from last year's departures. To be honest, I am not sure that Joe G would have made a difference against Hobart this year since the Bport Oline was pretty shaky and he was used to getting time to throw last year( RPI showed what happens to Joe G when he doesn't get solid protection).

[Ice Bear]

I don't think we can definitively classify 'what' RPI is just yet either because we have no idea what WPI is. I know it's hard to look at WPI in a real strong light just because they are historically meh, but maybe just maybe they have something decent over there. Probably not, but maybe. Worcester St appears to be god awful so that WPI win doesn't mean anything except they did blow the doors off. If it were like 24-0, maybe i'd feel differently.

But as mentioned above somewhere, RPI's offense was terrible. The big wideout Nick Smith(# 13) looks like a man amongst boys though and they really need to feed that guy.

Ice Bear was pretty impressed with WPI. Ice Bear feels that each year they seem to have more "athletes" on the field. Ice Bear remembers so many years of seeing WPI in person and looking at like 5-10 athletic kids and the rest all seemed borderline (and that's a lot of players). That certainly has not been the case recently. Rivalry games are tough and Ice Bear feels that this week will tell us much more about RPI than last. Ice Bear still included the Engineers in his ER top ten even with the head to head loss to WPI. Ice Bear still feels they are the better team.

[UfanBill]

CONGRATULATIONS fellow Liberty League posters. As mentioned on the E8 board last week the LL has once again forged ahead of the E8 in total number of posts. We trai! only the mighty MIAC and the OAC nationally. ...

[Oline89]

I don't think we can definitively classify 'what' RPI is just yet either because we have no idea what WPI is. I know it's hard to look at WPI in a real strong light just because they are historically meh, but maybe just maybe they have something decent over there. Probably not, but maybe. Worcester St appears to be god awful so that WPI win doesn't mean anything except they did blow the doors off. If it were like 24-0, maybe i'd feel differently.

But as mentioned above somewhere, RPI's offense was terrible. The big wideout Nick Smith(# 13) looks like a man amongst boys though and they really need to feed that guy.

Ice Bear was pretty impressed with WPI. Ice Bear feels that each year they seem to have more "athletes" on the field. Ice Bear remembers so many years of seeing WPI in person and looking at like 5-10 athletic kids and the rest all seemed borderline (and that's a lot of players). That certainly has not been the case recently. Rivalry games are tough and Ice Bear feels that this week will tell us much more about RPI than last. Ice Bear still included the Engineers in his ER top ten even with the head to head loss to WPI. Ice Bear still feels they are the better team.

IB, sorry, not sure how you can justify putting RPI ahead of WPI in a ranking after 2 games and a head to head loss.  Feeling that a team is better?  Come on, they lost.  If RPI goes to 5-1 and WPI to 2-4, then maybe......

[Ice Bear]

I don't think we can definitively classify 'what' RPI is just yet either because we have no idea what WPI is. I know it's hard to look at WPI in a real strong light just because they are historically meh, but maybe just maybe they have something decent over there. Probably not, but maybe. Worcester St appears to be god awful so that WPI win doesn't mean anything except they did blow the doors off. If it were like 24-0, maybe i'd feel differently.

But as mentioned above somewhere, RPI's offense was terrible. The big wideout Nick Smith(# 13) looks like a man amongst boys though and they really need to feed that guy.

Ice Bear was pretty impressed with WPI. Ice Bear feels that each year they seem to have more "athletes" on the field. Ice Bear remembers so many years of seeing WPI in person and looking at like 5-10 athletic kids and the rest all seemed borderline (and that's a lot of players). That certainly has not been the case recently. Rivalry games are tough and Ice Bear feels that this week will tell us much more about RPI than last. Ice Bear still included the Engineers in his ER top ten even with the head to head loss to WPI. Ice Bear still feels they are the better team.

IB, sorry, not sure how you can justify putting RPI ahead of WPI in a ranking after 2 games and a head to head loss.  Feeling that a team is better?  Come on, they lost.  If RPI goes to 5-1 and WPI to 2-4, then maybe......

Ice Bear says fair enough and certainly a valid point O. Ice Bear watched almost all of the game and it really looked like WPI was playing it's best football and RPI was just not there offensively. Ice Bear says they were completely out of sync. Could that have been the total result of WPI's much improved D? Sure. Ice Bear may prove to regret this but still feels that at this point, with some of the players RPI has from last season and what they accomplished last season, he can rank them ahead of WPI. No question a very debatable/controversial move. Ice Bear has no problem getting **** for this. Like he said, let's see how RPI plays against Utica (whom Ice Bear is reluctantly high on).

[Pat Coleman]

So how does the LL board feel about 3 teams from the CC in the top 25 this week?  Seems excessive to me....

1.  It should work itself out.

2.  Except for Hobart, the LL non conference games are lacking out of region this year and that throws a wrench into ranking teams in the top 25, especially this early.  I have a feeling the CC teams will do what the LL teams did last year, and all knock each other out at various points.  I doubt you see an undefeated and 1 loss CC team at the end of the year.

Due to "historical" reasons, JHU will stay in the top 25.  Is it justified?  one loss and one squeaker win against a better than average opponent.....

Exactly the same way Johns Hopkins started the 2018 season and it didn't stop them from reaching the national semifinals and giving Mount Union a game in Alliance. No guarantee they do so again, but there is precedence for it, at least.