FB: Liberty League

[Caz Bombers]

I'm conjecturing that Swanstrom is positioning himself to become the Penn head coach when current coach Ray Priore becomes the next HC at Priore's alma mater UAlbany. Current Albany coach Greg Gattuso is on the hot seat and barely survived a very poor showing the last two seasons for the Great Danes. Look for Priore to sooner rather than later get the Albany job, opening up Swanstrom to become head man at Penn.

UAlbany actually extended Gattuso after the season. I mean, when a guy goes 2-9 in like his 8th year, you gotta lock that dude down.

[Jonny Utah]

Yea this news kind of stinks as I think Swanstrom was doing a great job and seemed to be leading the program in the right direction.  But by picking him as the HC there was always that chance of him leaving to work his way up the ranks.  I wish him luck and can't blame him for this move at all. 

Where do they go now?  Not a lot of guys on the current staff with upstate NY ties and it seemed like Swanstrom picked a lot of his staff from places across the country rather than upstate/northeast guys. 

Does anyone from the Williams Staff come back?  3-4 Ithaca guys there.  Does Raymond want to move his family again and try for bigger things on the national stage?  Blumenauer and McDonough could be in the mix although McDonough didn't get it the last time he put in.

The St. Lawrence staff also has a mix of Ithaca guys. 

[Oline89]

I'm conjecturing that Swanstrom is positioning himself to become the Penn head coach when current coach Ray Priore becomes the next HC at Priore's alma mater UAlbany. Current Albany coach Greg Gattuso is on the hot seat and barely survived a very poor showing the last two seasons for the Great Danes. Look for Priore to sooner rather than later get the Albany job, opening up Swanstrom to become head man at Penn.

Pretty rare for head coaches in the Ivies to leave. Endowments are huge, assistant coach salaries are generous.  Tough places to leave.  Not to say that coaches aren't fired...

[UfanBill]

I'm conjecturing that Swanstrom is positioning himself to become the Penn head coach when current coach Ray Priore becomes the next HC at Priore's alma mater UAlbany. Current Albany coach Greg Gattuso is on the hot seat and barely survived a very poor showing the last two seasons for the Great Danes. Look for Priore to sooner rather than later get the Albany job, opening up Swanstrom to become head man at Penn.

Pretty rare for head coaches in the Ivies to leave. Endowments are huge, assistant coach salaries are generous.  Tough places to leave.  Not to say that coaches aren't fired...

I need to add why I think Ray Priore would leave Penn for the Albany job besides that he's an Albany grad...UAlbany's biggest rival in their league the Colonial Athletic Association, is fellow SUNY school Stony Brook coached by Chuck Priore...yes, Ray's brother.

[Bartman]

Good luck to coach Swanstrom with the Quakers. He's been a very productive coach for the Bombers . I'd be surprised if the Quakers current HC Priore leaves for Albany as an Ivy HC job is a nice gig, especially when you delivered 2 Championships in your first 2 years. A nice job for the Bomber's successor with the Jug exposure. 

[Ice Bear]

I'm conjecturing that Swanstrom is positioning himself to become the Penn head coach when current coach Ray Priore becomes the next HC at Priore's alma mater UAlbany. Current Albany coach Greg Gattuso is on the hot seat and barely survived a very poor showing the last two seasons for the Great Danes. Look for Priore to sooner rather than later get the Albany job, opening up Swanstrom to become head man at Penn.

Pretty rare for head coaches in the Ivies to leave. Endowments are huge, assistant coach salaries are generous.  Tough places to leave.  Not to say that coaches aren't fired...

I need to add why I think Ray Priore would leave Penn for the Albany job besides that he's an Albany grad...UAlbany's biggest rival in their league the Colonial Athletic Association, is fellow SUNY school Stony Brook coached by Chuck Priore...yes, Ray's brother.

Ice Bear ****ing loves himself some Chuck Priore!

[Ice Bear]

Ice Bear says Gattuso has turned Albany into a dumpster fire. Ice would like to see that change...ASAP.

[Jonny Utah]

I'm conjecturing that Swanstrom is positioning himself to become the Penn head coach when current coach Ray Priore becomes the next HC at Priore's alma mater UAlbany. Current Albany coach Greg Gattuso is on the hot seat and barely survived a very poor showing the last two seasons for the Great Danes. Look for Priore to sooner rather than later get the Albany job, opening up Swanstrom to become head man at Penn.

Pretty rare for head coaches in the Ivies to leave. Endowments are huge, assistant coach salaries are generous.  Tough places to leave.  Not to say that coaches aren't fired...

I need to add why I think Ray Priore would leave Penn for the Albany job besides that he's an Albany grad...UAlbany's biggest rival in their league the Colonial Athletic Association, is fellow SUNY school Stony Brook coached by Chuck Priore...yes, Ray's brother.

Ice Bear ****ing loves himself some Chuck Priore!

During the late 1900s one of the most well known coaches at the university was football coach Bob Ford.

Just looked up UAlbany football on Wikipedia and found this.  Made me feel old for some reason.  Late 1900s??!!  WTF is that?

Albany seems to like to ignore their d3 history.  Probably why they are a cursed program....

[unionpalooza]

Interesting shift to permitting an AQ for six-team conferences.  Makes me wonder the LL will cut Buff St. loose - they're a weird for for a bunch of reasons, and it's hard to imagine any reason they're in the league other than the need for an AQ. 

[Caz Bombers]

Interesting shift to permitting an AQ for six-team conferences.  Makes me wonder the LL will cut Buff St. loose - they're a weird for for a bunch of reasons, and it's hard to imagine any reason they're in the league other than the need for an AQ.

No point to doing that. Scheduling is hard enough already. The 7 and 7 thing we have with the E8 is mutually beneficial.

[Jonny Utah]

Interesting shift to permitting an AQ for six-team conferences.  Makes me wonder the LL will cut Buff St. loose - they're a weird for for a bunch of reasons, and it's hard to imagine any reason they're in the league other than the need for an AQ.

No point to doing that. Scheduling is hard enough already. The 7 and 7 thing we have with the E8 is mutually beneficial.

I've always been one to believe there is a human element in the selection process for picking d3 playoff teams, before and after there was a Pool system.  Back when Ithaca was an independent (before AQs) there was talk on here how Ithaca playing d2 schools didn't help them because it wasn't part of the "primary criteria".  I always though that was BS.  If Ithaca was beating 4 D2 teams a year and those D2 teams were solid, the selection committee would take a look at that (and they did).  Even the "criteria" never ranked the order of importance of factors considered for playoff selections whether it be SOS, wins in region, wins vs top 25 or whatever other random things they looked at.  A good team on paper is a good team on paper most of the time.  I know you have to have some stats and math in there to take that bias out of it, but you still gotta look at the wins and losses.

So I gotta think "cutting" Buff State loose would be a bad omen for the LL.  I gotta believe having more teams in a league helps your chances for pool C slots if there is any.

[stlawus]

Another Liberty League football alum (UCAA if we're being pedantic) has reached the NFL head coaching ranks.  Let's hope for our sake (and mine personally being a Giants fan) this one works out better than the most recent one.

[Oline89]

Interesting shift to permitting an AQ for six-team conferences.  Makes me wonder the LL will cut Buff St. loose - they're a weird for for a bunch of reasons, and it's hard to imagine any reason they're in the league other than the need for an AQ.

No point to doing that. Scheduling is hard enough already. The 7 and 7 thing we have with the E8 is mutually beneficial.

I've always been one to believe there is a human element in the selection process for picking d3 playoff teams, before and after there was a Pool system.  Back when Ithaca was an independent (before AQs) there was talk on here how Ithaca playing d2 schools didn't help them because it wasn't part of the "primary criteria".  I always though that was BS.  If Ithaca was beating 4 D2 teams a year and those D2 teams were solid, the selection committee would take a look at that (and they did).  Even the "criteria" never ranked the order of importance of factors considered for playoff selections whether it be SOS, wins in region, wins vs top 25 or whatever other random things they looked at.  A good team on paper is a good team on paper most of the time.  I know you have to have some stats and math in there to take that bias out of it, but you still gotta look at the wins and losses.

So I gotta think "cutting" Buff State loose would be a bad omen for the LL.  I gotta believe having more teams in a league helps your chances for pool C slots if there is any.

Agree with you JU.  Also, if the LL dropped to 6, chance for a two team bid year (like this year) drops to zero.  I imagine their will have to be some contraction of leagues, hosw is the NJAC going to survive in its current form?  Keystone would have beeen a nice addittion to the LL

[IC798891]

Back when Ithaca was an independent (before AQs) there was talk on here how Ithaca playing d2 schools didn't help them because it wasn't part of the "primary criteria".  I always though that was BS.  If Ithaca was beating 4 D2 teams a year and those D2 teams were solid, the selection committee would take a look at that (and they did).  Even the "criteria" never ranked the order of importance of factors considered for playoff selections whether it be SOS, wins in region, wins vs top 25 or whatever other random things they looked at. 

I know this wasn't the point of your post, but to me, the issue with IC's scheduling of the D2 teams was that losses are still losses (as well as missed opportunities for wins)

The 1991 Bombers barely made the playoffs. They lost to D2 Springfield and needed a pretty miraculous comeback (possibly aided by a blown call) to beat D2 AIC. A 7-2 IC team doesn't get in, most likely. Plenty of other, really successful IC teams struggled against D2 schools — the 94 semifinalists lost twice to D2 schools. The 1985 semifinalists lost to AIC 41-8. The 1979 title team lost twice, once to AIC.

To the larger point: what's the benefit to cutting Buff State loose? There's no real SOS benefit for the LL teams, at-large wise, to find someone better. No 2-loss team will get in after what we saw with IC this past year. If you're in Pool C contention in the LL, you've already got a loss to someone that isn't Buff State. You've got to go 9-1. For now, having them on the schedule makes that easier.

[Jonny Utah]

Globe had a few MA commits this week out.  Two to LL teams.

Pat Gill, BC High (Ithaca)
Brennan Malone, BC High (RPI)

Malone is a QB, Gill is a TE/DE

It was a small list and I think many HS and Colleges were missing.  BC High had about half of the athletes mentioned for various sports.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/02/02/sports/don-brown-umass-football-load-up-speed-new-coachs-first-recruiting-class/