FB: Liberty League

[Senor RedTackle]

Let's all take a step back and put the world into perspective for a moment. Today's football action may have been big news...but this is BIGGER news.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/11/04/doogie.ap/index.html

[dea]

great win for the U....DEA and GODDESS  FLEW OUT FOR THE GAME OF THE SEASON IN THE LL.  dea got to meet the rev at halftime and we had a nice chat...Union played best game of the season on all sides of the ball.  Looked like TA didn't play in 4th Q because of  an ankle sprain but he appeared to be moving fine on the sidelines.  I think Unio n D held Hobart to around 60 yds rushing.  Number 2 for Union did a GREAT JOB RUNNING THE BALL IN 4TH q.  DEA AND GODDESS WILL BE AT SHOES GAME AND ncaa PLAYOFFS.  go union

[Naked Nott Run]

Gotta disagree...Union's O at full strength first time this season....Union 31  Hobart 17

The Rev must respectfully disagree with dea (even if a couple days late on the response).

Even with Union's O at full steam, The Rev thinks dea over-estimates Union's prowess.  Union is a good team, but not two TDs better.  The Rev thinks the game will be closer.

If The Rev proves to be wrong, he will gladly eat crow.

I do believe someone needs to get this man some crow...

Your were partially right rev. Union wasn't 2 td's better... but 2 td's and a field goal... but seriously I was out all day at the USF Pitt game... how was the game?

[Naked Nott Run]

DEA who is your son on the team bud?

Rev... No offense meant with last post. Totally messin... I hope Hobart wins out and we both can make some noise in the playoffs again.

How was the game... blow out or fight?

[Saxon73]

Saxon73 congratulates Union on their victory!

[Upstate NY FAN]

Rev.

You need to move back NY.  AZ is way to warm for an avid Div 3 person.   Come back to the tundra of central NY.   My Hip Hobart let's beat U of R!!!

DG

[zachattack22]

Rev; ZA is sorry he missed you....ZA left home without his cell phone, but was able to retrieve your phone number by the third quarter from ZA's parents after about 1/2 hour of on the phone computer instruction....IF you see a 518 area code call around the third quarter of the game, that was ZA using his son's cell phone, trying to get in touch with the Rev!

Respectfully, ZA doesn't see the game as Hobart being lethargic.  Union was much more physical on the line of scrimmage. The difference really was Hobart's weapon being reduced to passing only and Union's being both the pass AND the run....

Without a QB like Mizro, that could have been very ugly...He is a very tough QB who can break tackles and find an open receiver.  Hobart hasn't lost a game at home in a long, long time and that is not by accident.  Hobart has a great football program and is a very good team.  They still showed the potential to get back into the game right up to the last four minutes.  ZA never felt it was wrapped up until then, which means Hobart did not quit.  Without that goal line stand by Union, things could have been a lot closer near the end!

Several big 15 yard penalties by Union kept drives alive that were about to die and Union cannot do that next weekend.  Union is mature enough of a team to not underestimate RPI.  Should be a great game upcoming.

[theoriginalupstate]

ZA, actually its been almost exactly 3 years since Hobart lost at home....

SJF beat Bart 20-12 in 03....

[zachattack22]

ZA, actually its been almost exactly 3 years since Hobart lost at home....

SJF beat Bart 20-12 in 03....

That is evidence of a very tough football team.

[Frank Rossi]

After hitting the Waterloo Outlets (nice outfit from the Calvin Klein store will come in useful for the new "business casual" job) and driving to my parents' home in Saratoga County for three hours, I thought I'd give ten observations from today's Union/Hobart game:

1) First, my own crow I need to eat.  I know there were webcast issues.  I received a text from a fraternity brother who tried the webcast at 10:30am for me and found out that things looked bad.  SID Eric McDowell helped get us a quick backup plan when I got to Boswell, and Amanda at WABY, who wasn't scheduled to be at the station, ran over to put the backup plan into motion.  Thus, that is how we ended up on Teamline (www.teamline.cc).  I heard various stories that the webcast worked on saratogamoon.com, so I'd love some ideas as to whether anyone was able to listen using either Union feed (Saratogamoon.com or Teamline).  Drop me a private if you can.  However, we will keep the redundancy plan in motion for the remainder of the games -- meaning we will have two online presences.  Again, I apologize to the listeners and to the team for this unacceptable last-minute issue on the broadcasters' part.

2) Now that that part is out of the way, WOW!  This year, Union games seem to follow a disconcerting pattern -- mediocre or mediocre-to-strong first half, followed by a quick second-half pop and then a disintegration.  The Muhlenburg and St. Lawrence games were the only two games where this didn't seem to happen -- until today.  This was, for me, the best 60 minutes of football Union has played all season.  You waited for the shoe to drop after Union successes, and it just never seemed to happen.  Hobart has Union to thank for a couple boneheaded 15-yard penalties that kept the Statesmen with opportunities.  I really didn't expect that strong of a Union performance on both sides of the ball.  Kudos to the U.

3) It seems like over the last two years, since Hobart has come to more prominence, Coach Cragg has become much more conservative in his play calls.  It's almost like in 2004 and before, Cragg and his staff had this belief that "we got nothin' to lose and nobody but ourselves to impress" -- but now there is much more stress and weight on the shoulders of the staff and players with the spotlight squarely on them.  We saw only one trick play from Hobart, and their lack of blitzing in the first half confounded a lot of people.  Not to mention, there were some interesting field goal choices in the game.  I'm not saying Hobart coaching cost them the game -- but it didn't do anything to really help the team.  You could kind of feel the tension from the Hobart sideline all the way up in the press box.  This may also explain the abundance of close calls that Hobart experienced this season.

4) Union's coaching is doing much better in terms of just plain strategy during game situations than they did earlier in the season.  I saw this at two different points.  First, when Union had fourth and goal from the one-yard line, Union's coaches fought the temptation to ram the ball down Hobart's throat, and instead chose to take a three-possession lead with about a quarter of play with a 19-yard field goal.  That was a huge and correct decision.  Also, Union's use of the 25-second clock after changes of possession was MUCH more effective today than, let's say, against MMA and RCH.  So, it wasn't just play-calling today, but strategizing that got Union a big win.

5) There seemed to be a somewhat smaller-than-expected crowd rooting on Hobart today.  I think the multitude of events may have sort of backfired on the Statesmen in terms of promoting the crowd to show up to the football field.  It's not to say that the crowd wasn't large on the home side of the field, but it just didn't seem to be up to potential.

6) I had the pleasure of interviewing the new President of Union College, who made the three-hour trip to Geneva today.  I have to say President Ainlay is very well-spoken and has the right ideas about Union (especially that its strength is in its Liberal Arts roots whereby engineers leave with skills well outside engineering, etc.).  That should make many alumni comfortable that there will not be huge changes under the new administration that would shake the underpinnings of the school.  He also seems to be very down-to-Earth.  We will hopefully see him at next week's Union tailgate at RPI.  Special thanks again to President Ainlay for his time.

7) It's a tough call as to if and when to play Tom Arcidiacono for Union in next week's RPI game.  A loss for Union would play the Dutchmen on the road in the first round of the NCAA Playoffs, and a win virtually guarantees a home game in at least the first round.  So, the game means a fair amount...not to mention the obvious rivalry meaning and the "Shoes."  However, what appeared to be a high ankle sprain may not be enough to sideline Arcidiacono.  As I said in the postgame, telling the senior not to play would be like telling the wall to lay down -- it's just not something that would happen without a lot of force.  His recovery will likely dictate this one.

8) The referees in today's game did an EXCELLENT job, since we barely mentioned them today.  The ECAC may have taken great care in avoiding the debacles on both sides of the ball from the 2004 visit to Boswell by naming very adept officials.  My hat's off to them.

9) The field was in impeccable shape -- well-groomed and not saturated.  Hat's off to the Hobart groundkeepers for this.

10) With Union winning and Alfred upsetting Ithaca, there is a real potential mess forthcoming in Upstate New York football.  Consider the following next week:  Ithaca beats Cortland; Rochester beats Hobart; Alfred beats SJF.  If this happened, we would have Rochester, Ithaca, SJF, Alfred, Hobart and Cortland all with two losses.  In the East, Rowan (NJAC), Union (LL), Springfield (E8), Curry/Coast Guard (NEFC), Wilkes (MAC) would be in. Is it possible that NONE of the six two-loss teams would make the playoffs?  Yes.  Is it probable?  No.  But it will take an interesting decision by the NCAA Committee as to which one, two or three teams to choose.  Yet, I would guarantee that a team or two teams will ship from the North to the East bracket if this doomsday scenario occurred.

Have a good night all.

[John McGraw]

Everyone that lives in upstate New York has to make it to the Waterloo outlet mall at least once. It's definitely worth the trip. Just don't let the girlfriend take you into Old Navy for an hour LOL.

[theoriginalupstate]

Everyone that lives in upstate New York has to make it to the Waterloo outlet mall at least once. It's definitely worth the trip. Just don't let the girlfriend take you into Old Navy for an hour LOL.

Made the mistake of going with the wife and two of her friends from college....

Needless to say me and my daughter were dragged around for 6 hours and thanks to my wifes friends my 20 month old daughter discovered how much she loved shoes and money.....

[BobbyBoucher]

Congrats to Union - May this be the statement game that most alum knew the U was capable of.  Big game next week. 

To say that next week is RPI's season would be an understatement!!  RPI has nothing to loose and Union has a home game at stake.  It will be a battle.

Bobby may make it to the north lot for shooesaplooza II, but can not guarantee it.  Too much going on right now, but would love to make it.

[labart96]

Frank -

TGP is not sure how the RPI faithful will like the idea of mixing liberal arts with engineering, but otherwise, TGP enjoyed the analysis.

TGP's main takeaway of this game - and maybe of the 2006 Bart season - is that for some reason, even though Bart returned a veteran o-line, they just never seemed to work well together and dominate the way you'd expect.

Even early on in this game, there were mental mistakes and play that would make you think it was a group of FY OL out there and not a group that had went on the road and was seconds away from beating last year's Del Val squad in the 2nd rd of NCAA playoffs. 

TGP is not surprised the U was able to put up pts on Bart's D, this was pretty much a given; but the fact that Bart's rushing game was completely shut out is pretty much the reason why this will go down as one of those "woulda, coulda, shoulda" seasons.

This year's Bart squad had the potential to be great offensively, but they never lived up to it.

Our line - save for games vs. St Larries and the Merchant Marine, just never really showed up all season - and TGP thinks this more than anything was why Bart was really just scraping by up until this point.  Better o-line play and we would have put games away early and not allowed squads like WPI, WPU, etc to stick around up until the final ticks.

Don't get TGP wrong - this team still has a shot at making the playoffs and potentially making some noise should a few breaks fall their way.  However, based on the prior season, it's not a stretch to say this Bart team has greatly underachieved on offense.  The defense has certainly overachieved - at least until today.

TGP just wonders what went wrong - and whether or not there's time left to fix it?

[Regulator]

Frank -

TGP is not sure how the RPI faithful will like the idea of mixing liberal arts with engineering, but otherwise, TGP enjoyed the analysis.

TGP- RPI faithful aren't worried about the idea of mixing liberal arts w/ engineering.  That would be the equivalent of going to a steakhouse in Kansas City and ordering a fish fry.  You go somewhere and get one of the worst things on the item.

Secondly, who wants a well rounded engineer running around...I mean seriously, don't you guys work with engineers?.........just work guys....and don't come out of your cube or room until you figure it out. (no offense engineers reading this)