FB: Liberty League

[Oline89]

An injury ravaged SLU team takes Hobart down to the wire on the road.  Certainly not upset with that effort.

Great effort by the Saints.  But for their gnarly hit to the head on Grochot in the first drive Bart would have been toast.

Gnarly hit?  It's football in 2020, 2 refs staring at the play, with quick triggers to throw flags.  Toast?  Come on, if you have noticed, the Hobart D (particulrly the secondary) shuts down the passing game.  SLU changed it up in the second half, went to straght running game,their 300 #'rs up front owned the line of scrimmage.  Hobart needs to develop some semblance of a passing game to make next week interesting, but I wouldn't worrry about their defense.

[Machiavelli]

An injury ravaged SLU team takes Hobart down to the wire on the road.  Certainly not upset with that effort.

Great effort by the Saints.  But for their gnarly hit to the head on Grochot in the first drive Bart would have been toast.

Gnarly hit?  It's football in 2020, 2 refs staring at the play, with quick triggers to throw flags.  Toast?  Come on, if you have noticed, the Hobart D (particulrly the secondary) shuts down the passing game.  SLU changed we it up in the second half, went to straght running game,their 300 #'rs up front owned the line of scrimmage.  Hobart needs to develop some semblance of a passing game to make next week interesting, but I wouldn't worrry about their defense.

Unioners see 'gnarly hits' weekly in youth flag football. It's a culture that some may call 'soft'. 🤣

[unionpalooza]

An injury ravaged SLU team takes Hobart down to the wire on the road.  Certainly not upset with that effort.

Great effort by the Saints.  But for their gnarly hit to the head on Grochot in the first drive Bart would have been toast.

Gnarly hit?  It's football in 2020, 2 refs staring at the play, with quick triggers to throw flags.  Toast?  Come on, if you have noticed, the Hobart D (particulrly the secondary) shuts down the passing game.  SLU changed we it up in the second half, went to straght running game,their 300 #'rs up front owned the line of scrimmage.  Hobart needs to develop some semblance of a passing game to make next week interesting, but I wouldn't worrry about their defense.

Unioners see 'gnarly hits' weekly in youth flag football. It's a culture that some may call 'soft'. 🤣

Good lord.  I didn't call it a dirty play; Grochot was a runner so anything goes.   But it was straight helmet to helmet at speed, and it knocked the kid unconscious.  Hardly soft. 

And yeah, if Grochot plays the whole game, no way Hobart wins.  They needed a last minute TD drive to win.  I think a senior QB who's thrown for 5,000 yards might have slightly more successful than a freshman. 

[Oline89]

An injury ravaged SLU team takes Hobart down to the wire on the road.  Certainly not upset with that effort.

Great effort by the Saints.  But for their gnarly hit to the head on Grochot in the first drive Bart would have been toast.

Gnarly hit?  It's football in 2020, 2 refs staring at the play, with quick triggers to throw flags.  Toast?  Come on, if you have noticed, the Hobart D (particulrly the secondary) shuts down the passing game.  SLU changed we it up in the second half, went to straght running game,their 300 #'rs up front owned the line of scrimmage.  Hobart needs to develop some semblance of a passing game to make next week interesting, but I wouldn't worrry about their defense.

Unioners see 'gnarly hits' weekly in youth flag football. It's a culture that some may call 'soft'. 🤣

Good lord.  I didn't call it a dirty play; Grochot was a runner so anything goes.   But it was straight helmet to helmet at speed, and it knocked the kid unconscious.  Hardly soft. 

And yeah, if Grochot plays the whole game, no way Hobart wins.  They needed a last minute TD drive to win.  I think a senior QB who's thrown for 5,000 yards might have slightly more successful than a freshman.

So you sitting at home watching on your iphone had a better look at the play than 4 referees on the field? Come on.  And, again, the Saints figured out that Hobart D is vulnerable to a ground and pound game. Keeps the score low and the clock moving.  If Union depends on a pass first offense next week, it may be a closer game.  If Ibor gets rolling early, it will get ugly fast.

[Machiavelli]

To the soft crowd... I was just busting chops. Everybody just relax. There are seriously gnarly hits in youth flag football. Fact.

[Ice Bear]

Ice Bear sees both Union and Ithaca taking some impressive spots in the poll coming in at #'s 12 and 15 respectively. Ice sees Cortland, who may very well be better than both Union and Ithaca, lurking at 16. Ice thinks the poll looks good in regards to region 2's order of teams. Ice will have to try and watch the Red Dragons to get a better idea of how good they may be. Their smoking of a decent (albeit, not great) and athletic Utica team raises Ice's unibrow a bit.

Ice asks if any of you mother****ers have noticed former LL member MMA running the ball down every opponents throat that they face. This may be the best MMA team in some time. Next weeks match up against the Pride may give us a clue as to how good MMA is in relation to other higher end region 2 teams.

[UfanBill]

Ice Bear sees both Union and Ithaca taking some impressive spots in the poll coming in at #'s 12 and 15 respectively. Ice sees Cortland, who may very well be better than both Union and Ithaca, lurking at 16. Ice thinks the poll looks good in regards to region 2's order of teams. Ice will have to try and watch the Red Dragons to get a better idea of how good they may be. Their smoking of a decent (albeit, not great) and athletic Utica team raises Ice's unibrow a bit.

Ice asks if any of you mother****ers have noticed former LL member MMA running the ball down every opponents throat that they face. This may be the best MMA team in some time. Next weeks match up against the Pride may give us a clue as to how good MMA is in relation to other higher end region 2 teams.

Cortland has been impressive. Certainly the class of an otherwise mediocre E8. The Cortaca at Yankee Stadium will be epic and a 2nd round playoff matchup with the LL champ seems destined. (See what I did there) FTC

Yeah Ice Bear, I noticed...I also see that Springfield has their option attack, led by a healthy QB David Wells, equally tuned up. The Pride have crushed their last 3 opponents, rushing for 434, 438 and 547 yards. It should be a D3 game to watch.

[Bartman]

An injury ravaged SLU team takes Hobart down to the wire on the road.  Certainly not upset with that effort.

Great effort by the Saints.  But for their gnarly hit to the head on Grochot in the first drive Bart would have been toast.

Gnarly hit?  It's football in 2020, 2 refs staring at the play, with quick triggers to throw flags.  Toast?  Come on, if you have noticed, the Hobart D (particulrly the secondary) shuts down the passing game.  SLU changed it up in the second half, went to straght running game,their 300 #'rs up front owned the line of scrimmage.  Hobart needs to develop some semblance of a passing game to make next week interesting, but I wouldn't worrry about their defense.

Two more Gnarly hits on the last play of the Saints-Statesmen game(28th second). The Hobart Gnarlys take the field on Saturday at Bailey trying to avoid becoming toast against the Dutchmen......the anticipation of the sound of Ford's(22) and Aquilar's(26) cleats may be in Bellamy's ears before the smell of pumpkin toast fills the air. Hobart is just plain lucky to have an opportunity to be on the same field as the #12 ranked team in the nation

https://twitter.com/HWSAthletics/status/1452026832421785602?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1452026832421785602|twgr^|twcon^s1_c10&ref_url=https://hwsathletics.com/news/2021/10/23/hobart-football-hobart-rallies-late-for-17-13-win-over-st-lawrence.aspx

[Oline89]

Well, the week we have been waiting for in LL has finally arrived.  Lots of great story lines.  RPI has everything in their favor, extra week to prepare, getting IC away from Butterfield, should be a great game.  Hobart goes into this week with a lot to work on.  The D line must be banged up after getting pushed around by a big, strong, experienced SLU O line.  THe Hobart O has to be more than a one dimensional/Boswell off tackle offense.  That being said, Hobart is battle tested (RPI, IC) while Union has had the easiest schedule to date of the LL big 4.  I am hoping for a competetive game, but ready for a blowout. Union has to run quite the guantlet to the next 3 weeks....

[unionpalooza]

An injury ravaged SLU team takes Hobart down to the wire on the road.  Certainly not upset with that effort.

Great effort by the Saints.  But for their gnarly hit to the head on Grochot in the first drive Bart would have been toast.

Gnarly hit?  It's football in 2020, 2 refs staring at the play, with quick triggers to throw flags.  Toast?  Come on, if you have noticed, the Hobart D (particulrly the secondary) shuts down the passing game.  SLU changed it up in the second half, went to straght running game,their 300 #'rs up front owned the line of scrimmage.  Hobart needs to develop some semblance of a passing game to make next week interesting, but I wouldn't worrry about their defense.

Two more Gnarly hits on the last play of the Saints-Statesmen game(28th second). The Hobart Gnarlys take the field on Saturday at Bailey trying to avoid becoming toast against the Dutchmen......the anticipation of the sound of Ford's(22) and Aquilar's(26) cleats may be in Bellamy's ears before the smell of pumpkin toast fills the air. Hobart is just plain lucky to have an opportunity to be on the same field as the #11 ranked team in the nation

https://twitter.com/HWSAthletics/status/1452026832421785602?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1452026832421785602|twgr^|twcon^s1_c10&ref_url=https://hwsathletics.com/news/2021/10/23/hobart-football-hobart-rallies-late-for-17-13-win-over-st-lawrence.aspx

Ha! Aguilar again? That kid might want to check out some footage from Ali's later years and use his head differently. 

[Bartman]

Palooza, If you're implying that Aquilar used his helmet improperly on that play, I can tell you he hit the blocker's left shoulder pad high and knocked him back with great force from a 20 foot sprint, I was there and it was a clean shot, in an attempt to get at the SLU QB, which Ford took care of.

[Jonny Utah]

Palooza, If you're implying that Aquilar used his helmet improperly on that play, I can tell you he hit the blocker's left shoulder pad high and knocked him back with great force from a 20 foot sprint, I was there and it was a clean shot, in an attempt to get at the SLU QB, which Ford took care of.

Holy wow that was a hit.  Can't tell if it was head to head from there but I noticed after the game he was down the entire time the teams were shaking hands.  wow

[Jonny Utah]

TOP DISCUSSION WARNING
So this past Saturday Wake Forest beat Army 70-56.  WF had 638 total yards in offense compared to Army's 595 (Army had 416 on the ground, WF had 458 in the air)

The TOP on the other hand?

Wake: 17:17
Army: 42:43

Army rushes the ball 70 times for 416 yards.  Back in 2019 when Ithaca beat Cortland at MetLife, Ithaca won the TOP battle 44:26 to 15:34, while also running the ball 51 times for 196 yards.

Ok, so do running teams effect the TOP?  Is that what we are looking at?

Well let's go to Merchant Marine/Catholic last week, where MM ran the ball 61 times for 418 times but only squeaked by in TOP 34-25.  Hell, when MM beat Kean 56-7 earlier in the year they only squeaked by in TOP 31-28 (MM also threw the ball a lot that game for some reason).

Now we are all confused, so I dug a little deeper.  I'm coming to the conclusion that big plays, especially scoring plays and defensive/special teams scores are what influences TOP the most. 

Here are WF scoring plays last Sat:
-3 yard run TD
-41 yard pass TD
-54 yard pass TD
-13 yard run TD
-75 yard pass TD
-83 yard INT TD
-75 yard pass TD
-2 yard pass TD
-8 yard run TD
-41 yard run TD

Now, the unofficial record for NCAA TOP is a 2017 Michigan State/Rutgers game where MSU won 47:50-12:10.  The key in that game is that Rutgers went three and out (or less) on pretty much all of their possessions.  This is probably the biggest TOP factor, especially when the other team runs the ball a lot, which MSU did 58 times.

Anyway, this is still a project under construction.  And FYI, last weeks Liberty League TOP winners:

Buff State
Union
Hobart

[Bartman]

Jonny U,
     While the TOP discussion is interesting(+k), I'm kinda worried about you.

[Machiavelli]

Jonny U,
     While the TOP discussion is interesting(+k), I'm kinda worried about you.

Don't be. Brother Utah is an electrical genius. He won the science fair in 8th grade turning his mom's vibrator into a TOP calculator using some chicken wire and sh!t. Brother Utah is like MacGyver. No, Brother Utah is BETTER than MacGyver!